Lists and More Lists

It's often instructive to look back over a day and see exactly how you 'moved the meter' toward a goal. Often the day is filled with many little shoves in the right direction. Another day there will be a terrific leap forward on one front and then, of course, I think I can sit back and relax. Yet another kind of day can be all about laying plans and setting a course, taking stock, regrouping.
Every single day I make a list and print it out. The list is then overlaid with penciled in items. Or I renumber the list and simply follow the numbered tasks. Lately, I've topped the list with goals for the week. Here are this week's goals:
1. Finish with the electrical contractor. He was in the space today and will be there again tomorrow. I've been lucky enough to borrow lights from HCCS and they'll be put in place by following my rained soaked mat board on which I drew the space to scale, but have covered it over with so many sets of numbers and circles etc. that any electrician looking at it should throw up his/her hands and ask for a real plan. This electrician had the sense to move right ahead after a few questions about my chalk marks on the concrete floor. I gave him my cell phone number and didn't hear from him all afternoon so I assume all is well?
2. A second goal is to get all the materials to Mark for the kiosk at the City Hall Visitors Center. I pick up the poster tomorrow sometime after 10:00.
3. I've got to spend time finding a good contact on the quilt festival staff. Who wouldn't want to eat lunch at Irma's and see Second Seating if they're teaching at festival for a week? Lunch hour is a good time for an arts destination.
4. I need to send out press packets to a couple of radio stations, the Houston Chronicle folks (what left of them) and local on-line arts websites.
5. I need to buy sheets of plexi for my collages. I can drill holes in them this weekend for little brass tacks that will hold the plexi to the frames. I want those pieces finished. I am still getting parts of collages mounted on mat board so I won't run into another gluing mess.
6. Finally, I need to finish all the text for this show and there's plenty of it.
So those are the week's goals. And here's what happened today after I took an early morning walk and saw pecans everywhere. The squirrels seem to take one bite and then toss the nut. You could hear them up in the trees and then a pecan would fall to the street. But I digress. Here's the day:
1. The painters returned to repaint the chartreuse wall and it's much better now.
1. I spoke with the electrical contractor early this morning and then was there to meet the electrician and his helper just before noon. While in the space I measured for Jesse's batiks, Aggie's metal pieces, my collages, montages and searched for space for Jose's wall pieces. We are literally running out of space. I'm going to have to be a stern editor for all eight of us. Amazing that suddenly there is so much work pouring in.
2. I called Bobby Schlitzberger to see when he can pick up that ton of compressed beer and soda cans and it looks like we'll do that on Thursday at 1:00.
3. I called Spectrum Metal Recycling to confirm that Thursday is a good day to borrow a bale of cans and it is. Except they'd like me to choose the bale tomorrow so they can power wash it and make it beautiful. How nice is that?
4. I met with Mark Lacey this afternoon and gave him a pile of CDs and we talked about making a sound track to play in the space. Snippets of songs will be interspersed with city sounds, trains, feral parrots, traffic, wind, rain, church bells, street music, whatever.
5. I went to Fiesta and met the assistant manager and asked if I could have lots of boxes. Yes, I can, but I have to pick them up on alternate mornings at 6:00 a.m. because they stock all night and then every other morning, they compress the boxes and they're gone.
6. We scheduled construction of the plate shelves for late Wednesday afternoon. I'll be glad to see them and wonder how I'll paint them. I called Jose and asked if he'd mind if we used his totem wall piece as a part of the plate wall. I think it will be wonderful as a fulcrum of sorts.
7. Before I left the house for the day, I sat at the kitchen table and paid bills and dropped them off at the post office. Done for a few more weeks.
8. At 5:00 today I proofed the posters for the kiosk and for the space. They'll be ready tomorrow. Then I went to Michael's to buy some sort of varnish to put on the plates to which I am affixing photo decals. Also bought a frame for the very nice Houston Woman Magazine Second Seating story which I will take to Irma's tomorrow. By the way, the stories and listings are beginning and that is good news.
9. Called a person who is willing to play docent in the space during October and will meet him on Monday for coffee. Still have a second person to call about this.
10. Tonight, I reprinted the Clorox table stories and glued them on the white labels I made last night. They'll be tied to the table linens stacked under the Clorox chandelier. Still need to get some facts and figures from the Clorox plant itself. Must send an email.
11. Tied on more than a dozen little painted labels to the wall hanging made from Hurricane Ike damaged fabrics. I think I am about done with that piece. Spoke with Mary B. and a friend. By the way, these two chairs are nearly finished. It was a heck of a job to applique that velvet on. I think I'll cover the rest of the backside of the chairs with gold spray paint and be done with it.
12. Now of course, I am really tired, been writing this post for over an hour, but am contemplating tomorrow's list that includes the following:
1. 6:00 a.m. Trip to Fiesta for corrugated boxes.
2 Take boxes to the space. Meet the electrician. See what he's done and where he's headed.
3. Receive extension ladder at 8:45 from Allison so the theater lighting guy can use when clamping the can lights to whatever he will be clamping them to.
4. Morning is self-improvement time. Pilates at 10:00. Must call the theater guy and tell him I won't be there until nearly 1:00.
5. Haircut at 11:30. This will be the haircut that sees me through the opening reception. One must plan these things and the timing is right.
6. Get to the space and talk about the lighting.
7. At 2:00, choose that compressed bale of beer and soda cans at Spectrum Recycling.
8. Pick up posters at A&E and pick up photos that have been mounted on board at Art Supply.
9. Check emails and wait for a tree man to come and deal with a fallen limp from the big tree in the ravine. He came this evening to look at the giant limb and give me a bid. That tree was really hurt during Hurricane Ike. I fear for it.
That's tomorrow. Just so you know what is taking up my days. A lot. Hey, I am still really happy about the City of Houston's special opportunity grant given through the Houston Arts Alliance. It's keeping me sane, meaning I am not worrying about raising ever more money. I am simply working to get this show assembled and lit.