I love making lists. I love crossing items off them. I love the illusion of productivity in a world where there will never be enough time to read all the books, see all the sights, meet all the people, etc.
This morning, as a sort of obligation-free freewrite and creative warm-up (for which lists outside the planner are most brilliant), I thought I would draft a list of
Things I Always Mean To Do, But Somehow Never (Or Only After Great Delay) Get To And Really Ought To Do, in no particular order
- The sewing
- Go through closet and donate the things I never wear
- Read miscellaneous items (JFK’s “Strategy for Peace” speech, reread The Gettsyburg Address, the faux children’s book Go the F**k to Sleep) that have been on my to-read list forEVer
- Learn everything that comes after the introduction of “Stairway to Heaven” on guitar
- Practice the solo of “Santeria” until I can do it at something faster than slug-versus-treadmill
- Write letters
- Submit short stories and poems to magazines
- SKYPE PEOPLE
GardenLearn to garden- LEARN THE PAST TENSE IN FRENCH (irregular verbs included)
- Find a French pen pal, or at least somebody practicing/wanting to learn so I have a reason to form sentences and look up words
- A whole assortment of writing-related and personal goals including, but not limited to, joining a critique group, traveling Europe, overcoming certain fears, and, eh, securing medical insurance before I turn twenty-six.
How about you? What are you always meaning to do, or have meant to do forever, but never get to?
Julie Israel 
What’s the word?