So I've been thinking the last few days about my hopes and plans and goals for this summer. I have a couple things I want to do, and a couple things I need to do in order to continue on the path I've set for myself.

I don't know if I'd call all of these goals or grand plans, necessarily, but the fact of the matter is I've been sitting on my rump doing nothing the last couple months, feeling depressed. And now that I'm feeling better (touch wood!) I'm also feeling a bit more motivated to get out and do something. The inside of my apartment is starting to look pretty dull.

So, here without further ado are the fun things and the other things that need to get done over the next three months:

Fun Stuff:

• Throw a (very low-key, low-stress) 1-year-late housewarming party. I had planned to throw a housewarming after I moved last year but as I was still really dragging from the MS relapse it was all I could do to keep up with the usual stuff. So instead I think I'm going to invite friends and family to join in some merrymaking at my place one evening in August! After all, I now have a lovely piano to show off and a bit more furniture that can be sat upon!

  Just what form this party is going to take I don't yet know. I've had it on my brain for a while and I still haven't come up with a "theme," so unless I can come up with something suitable it's going to be the "Here are the chips, come eat" party that involves people showing up and standing around dully looking at each other while stuffing their faces. Perhaps I need a DJ...

• I'm walking the "Pints to Pasta" race on September 9. If you are going to be in Portland on September 9 and want to join me, I'd love to have peeps to walk with! I have a plan in place for training and am going to start tracking what I eat again. I'm not sure why I fell off that wagon but I'm getting back on it, darn it! Thankfully, I've gained back only 1 pound of the 6 that I lost back in April and May, so that's good... but it will start sneaking back if I'm not careful and two months is long enough to let myself back-slide.
  
• I will be taking Miss Rennie to a competitive obedience class at Pup-a-Razzi this summer. There's a Saturday morning drop-in class out there that I'm going to try to get to regularly. I really want to get Rennie's Companion Dog title - at a minimum - since she's done so well with her training to date.
  
• Read at least two of the books on Jen's Summer Reading List. Current picks right now are: On the Road by Jack Kerouac and American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Of course, I have to finish Daniel Deronda first, because - after 300 pages - I'm kind of caught up in the story. (Also, for those who like the Masterpiece Theatre-esque book dramatizations, the BBC version of Daniel Deronda with Hugh Dancy and Romola Garai is fantastic.) And, of course, then there's the new Steve Goodman bio I've been dying to read. So I've got a long reading list that doesn't look like it's going to win me any gift certificates. Wah. Ah well...
  
• As much as possible, sit down at and play the piano every day - even if it's only for 5 minutes.
  

Less-Fun But Still Important Stuff

• Finish up my Web Design diploma! (I have two more classes and then I'm finito! Hooray!)
  
• As of March, I have a bank of 4 extra vacation weeks to use over the next 2 years. Once I've completed my web design diploma, I plan is to sign up for some computer science and/or web programming classes at the local community college or my alma mater (Portland State University) and use 8 hours of my "sabbatical" time per week to attend said classes. I was initially hoping that this class-taking would begin in January (giving me about 3.5 months of recuperation time) but at this point I'm still not clear on what my options are, what I have to do enroll in one or the other school and/or how much said classes are going to cost me. So I've got much research to do to make this happen.
  
• Look into consolidating my school loans to lock in a (hopefully low) fixed APR for when I have to start repaying the darned things!
  
• Figure out which medication to take, or if I want to stop taking it altogether. I'm continuing with the Avonex for the moment, which I'm finding largely manageable, so maybe indecision is a good thing for the moment.
  

Goodness! It's going to be a busy summer!