One year!

I should have posted this yesterday...but I forgot. It is officially one year (well, one year + 1 day) through my Day Zero Project. Seems weird.

According to the Day Zero Project tracking of my project, I have 635 days left, and am 30% complete. Of course, that 30% only accounts for the tasks that I've completed, not how much progress I've made on some which are yet to be completed.

It's been fun so far, and I'm happy with what I've completed, but I've got a long way to go! Wish me luck!

To-do list

What's your to-do list like? I keep two organizers/calendars. A smaller one where I keep track of my schedule/events/work days etcetera. I keep a larger one that is exclusively a running to-do list. It has big stuff, but mostly smaller stuff...like clothes I need to mend, things I need to mail, things I need to buy, etc.

I feel like I'm juggling a lot in my life right now. I wrote it all down to make it somewhat easier to deal with. Here's my to-do list of all the important stuff/what my life is right now:

Grad school:
-pick concentration
-mail copy of transcripts and certificate to admissions

Jobs:
-check AESOP constantly for subbing jobs
-mail transcripts to UPSM for subbing, set up meeting
-won’t find out til early-to-mid-may if I’m invited back for a teaching demonstration at UPSM, and then, if I get the job until the end of May.
-Prepare for interview on Tuesday
-research school
-practice interview questions
-update resume and portfolio (paper and on-line)
-Complete Ypsi High job application
-Apply for office/supplemental/part time jobs to survive over the summer

Roller Derby:
-Skate 2-3 times/week
-Attend Racer’s speed-skating class Mondays, as often as possible
-Get outdoor wheels
-Practice jumping
-Increase speed/endurance
-Practice backwards skating

Tutoring:
-Tutoring every Tuesday for three hours at YMS when I'm not working
-Find some time to get to Clemente high to help with editing historical writing publication pieces.
-Figure out what summer program I want to be involved with and contact 826 about it

Mail:
-package and mail letter and zines to Billi
-find handheld recorder, finish tape to Nicole, mail tape, zines and list of distros for her to check out
-package and mail traveling notebook.

Arts/Crafts:
-Make a lot of new journals
-Get etsy shop up and running--re-design
-make more pads--including post-partum pads and wet bags, create “packs”, sell on etsy with help of Jessicalyn.
-Get journals ready for shadow art fair
-Come up with interesting table design/decoration for Shadow Art Fair
-Look into vending at Ann Arbor Artist’s Market

I hope your life is a little less complicated.

#80: Go to a protest

Completed 04.05.11

So, it was quite a bit different from most of the other protests I've participated in, but this past week my mom and I went to a Take Back the Night march & survivor speakout. It was hosted by HAVEN, a non-profit my friend Blair works for that offers a range of services for victims of abuse. It was on the campus of Oakland University, as Take Back the Night marches are usually on campuses. It seemed a bit odd since I wasn't a student there...walking through a campus I had no connection to, at night when not many students are around. I'm sure it held more meaning for OU students--we even had a girl join us who was just walking around campus!

The survivor speakout portion was really moving--yeah, I cried. Quite a bit. Listening to stories of survivors, what they went through, and how they got through it, made me so proud of them, and so grateful that I haven't had to deal with such tough issues. As a woman in this society, I've dealt with my share of harassment, cat calls and misogyny, but never anything as bad as family members assaulting you for years. I wanted to hug every person that spoke, but settled for just hugging our friend who did. They all have such courage, it is a true inspiration.

Here's an article on the march. To be fair, the video is of the beginning, when we were having a hard time getting the chants together :] If you look closely, you'll see my mom and I. And my friends Blair and Lauren are two of the people holding the banner!

#23: Table at a zine fest.

Completed 3.26.11

I tabled at the Chicago Zine Fest the other weekend. It got off to a bit of a rocky start. I spent literally the entire day beforehand copying, cutting, assembling and stapling zines until 11:30 at night. Blair and I got on the Megabus to Chicago at 7:30 am, and about two minutes after we were on the bus I realized I had forgotten them all at home. After a couple minutes of freaking out and brainstorming plans that wouldn't work, I realized I had one copy of each issue in my backpack, so I could make copies when we got there. Unfortunately, I had spent $70 on copies the day before, and really couldn't afford to do that again. But, I called my lovely boyfriend during my panic, and he offered to pay for the new copies, as his contribution to my endeavor. Awwww. Then I had to enlist the help of Blair and Melody to help me assemble them all, which they graciously did. I also did a reading at the exhibitor reading the night before, which was a lot of fun. The day of the zine fest was a long day, but I had a great time seeing friends, meeting new people, having interesting conversations, and trading with lots of people and getting lots of new zines.

Like I said in the last post, this was kind of my "last hurrah" in the zine community. And it was a nice way to go out.

Besides the zine fest, I had a great time in Chicago with Blair, Melody and Jason. We ate lots of good food and talked a lot about criming, and our new best friends Darquavious and Cheezegravion Q. Pimp. Thus, I went on my fifth vacation, completing #43: Go on five vacations.

#17 & #30

#17: Put out issues #16 & #17, completed 3.24.11
#30: Finish piece on queer identity and publish in a zine, completed 3.24.11

My life, interests and priorities have changed a lot since I started this list, and it hasn't even been a year yet. Some of the fitness goals were a bit hard for me to get motivated about, but when we adopted Chance I started jogging with him every day. And now I'm in training to try out for roller derby, and made a workout schedule for myself, so things like doing yoga twice a week happens every week now. Also, I made this list a few weeks after attending the Chicago Zine Fest last year. I have been publishing zines for the last ten years of my life, since I was 15. It's something that's always been important to me, as well as feeling at home in the zine community. I slacked a bit for a few years during college, only publishing one zine every year or two, instead of twice a year or more. I always explained it away as being busy with school. And after I went to the CZF I was inspired! I wanted to start doing my zine more seriously, and so this list contains a lot of items related to making and promoting zines (publish queer piece in a zine, publish two issues of Checkered Past, submit zines to five distros, leave my zines in 5 places, table at a zine fest). And so, I signed up for the CZF this year, and decided to finish up those two issues before the fest. I finished up CP #16, which was such a long, hefty issue, that I didn't have the motivation to do a lot of interesting layout design with it, I just glued the printed out pages onto maps. And then it came down to CP#17. The prospect of gathering the material/writing for it and putting it together was so...unappealing. I just really didn't want to do it. And at first I decided not to at all. At the last minute I decided to put together a mini-zine of one section I was going to have in CP#17: interesting stories from my time working in a hotel. So I did that instead, and threw together Hotel Stories in lieu of CP#17. And I'm glad I did.

But it just made me realize that my heart's not in this anymore. It probably hasn't been for years, or I would have been making zines no matter how busy I was. I don't really do that kind of writing anymore, and I guess I don't have a desire/need to put my life out there for others in the same way (I say while typing in a blog...psht). I'm more comfortable just living my life and keeping it to myself.

So, I think I'm done making zines, at least for now. CZF was sort of my last hurrah in the zine community, and it was a great way to go out.