I’m a list maker. I love nothing more than sitting down with a fresh legal pad and starting in on a list. I make lists for the grocery store, of yard work to be done, things to buy, movies to see, books to read… if any topic contains more than two items, a list is drawn up.

The thing about compulsive list-making is that you quickly abandon perfectly good lists for the thrill of new lists. There is something reassuring about starting a fresh list – today, I am going to get all this stuff finished – which means that old lists linger around and pile up. I have to clean off my desk every other week and dispose of all the old lists – on pieces of paper, on Post-Its, in notebooks, stopping to read them along the way. What happens is that I rediscover old list items and add them to new lists… I compare my list cycle to the water cycle or the life cycle. Lists are formed, grow up, have their time, break down, return to the ether as they decompose only to return again in renewed form.

It’s both maddening and comforting.

Here then, is a sampling of some lists. In order to save you from the mundane  of my “To Do” lists, I culled some from journal entries.

A Short List of Names For Dachshunds
Porgy
Bess
Clyde
Blue Bell
Kitty Hawk
The Baron
Biscuit
Weejuns
Cecil
Myrna
Jules

Madonna’s Gal Pals
Sandra Bernhard (since discarded)
Rosie O’Donnell (ongoing)
Gwyneth Paltrow (since discarded)
Sheryl Crow (status unknown)
Gina Gershon (since discarded)
Ingrid Casares (status unknown)

Phrases & Words Need To Use More Often
Cipher
“Tennis, anyone?”
“Let me give you my card.” – present old-timey calling card
Nightcap, as in “Would you like to come up for a nightcap?”; used generously on Love Boat
Kerchief

Summer 2011 Reading List
“The Classics”
1. Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton
2. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
4. Out of Africa – Isak Dinesen, a pen name used by the Danish author Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke
5. Sons & Lovers – D.H. Lawrence
6. Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman
7. Walden – Thoreau
8. The Old Testament – a lot of guys a long time ago

“The Contemporary Fare”
1. Bossypants – Tina Fey
2. Desperate Characters – Paula Fox
3. Barney’s Version – Mordecai Richler
4. Reading My Father – Alexandra Styron
5. A Visit From the Good Squad – Jennifer Egan
6. Just Kids – Patti Smith
7. A People’s History Of The United States – Howard Zinn

Dancey Songs From the 1990s I’m Considering Buying From iTunes
My Boo – Ghost Town DJs
Freedom – George Michael
Boom Boom Boom – Out Here Brothers
100% Pure Love – Crystal Waters
Touch Me – Cathy Dennis [can you imagine anyone making it in music today with the name Cathy Dennis?]
Groove Is In The Heart – Deee Lite

And now the usual weekly round-up:

Reading: When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead by Jerry Weintraub [most useful nugget so far: life is too short to hang out with morons]

Watching: About to get to episode #2 of the documentary New York. Also anticipating watching The Philadelphia Story tonight!

Doing: ramping up the running and looking for a race to train for… need to run off some winter poundage

Anticipating: Art-A-Whirl this weekend in Northeast Minneapolis!! Love it!