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I'm addicted to the internet. I have spent no less than five hours today perusing different sites, mostly looking for teaching jobs in the Detroit area. I will admit that I had a few self-indulgent moments, though. I just can't seem to step away.

I've entered the official Phase One of a new writing project. It is already growing into something I didn't really expect. Reenee will definitely have to keep me reeled in with this one. I can easily get lost in it all. I've been working on longhand writing, as well as typing, which is actually helping with the project.

Cleaning today was extremely therapeutic. I gathered a number of items that I've been lugging with me over the years and made the decision to trash them. My goal to elminate 35 percent of my "clutter" is working. It's strange to look around and see so much of it all simply gone. I am thinking more will be gone by the time I move this summer. If I get a public school teaching position, I think I might just sell the entire living room and kitchen sets and start anew. I could even sell my little twin size bed. I am currently trying to sell my rosewood xylophone.

My writing is another story, though. I have compiled and backed up only about a quarter of all of it. I have manuscript upon manuscript in large Sterilite tubs. Some are written longhand, while others are typed and saved somewhere in my sea of disks. I bought myself a flash drive in October, and I have used almost half of the storage space. I still have two tubs worth to type up. I also must get another flash drive and a few more disks so that I can back up every file. If I were to print everything, it would probably take a few more tubs. That's space I just don't have in an apartment. What I need to do is start sending these things out. I had a couple of plays I was going to have staged in Kalamazoo, but I never followed through and set things up. And now, I just don't really have the time with all the hoops I have to jump through for grad school and teaching next fall. I really hope I get a regular English teacher position. I miss teaching literature. I'd love to teach a film interpretation elective, if possible. That would be so much fun! Yearbook would be cool, too. Just a lot of work. I would absolutely LOVE to teach creative writing. I usually infuse that into every English class I teach, but to have a class devoted solely to that...that would be great! I remember Mrs. Dunham's class. She was a total freak, but she encouraged people so much.

But, I digress. While I was listening to Stephen King books on tape today during housecleaning, I found that I had to stop to "write". My "writing" using consists of saying my story aloud into my MP3 player/voice recorder. I save it to the computer, and then I transcribe it. I need to install voice recognition software and let the computer do most of the work.

I need to stop writing and do something. I think I'll ride my bike this evening. I feel myself becoming increasingly lazy as spring break progresses.