First Quarter Goals

Late but not forgotten.

My goals for the first quarter of 2012 were simple: get my finances in order, take care of the details for my summer travel, and get myself out of a rut and into a productive cycle at work.

All completed successfully!

Financial goals:

• I met with the reps for each of the retirement funds where my money is located and had productive information meetings. I feel great about the status of my current funds.
• I have slight adjustments to make with one fund: transforming a general fund into a Roth IRA to forward my plans to build a swanky retirement home: TBD.
• I worked to get credit cards paid off, and have currently only two outstanding bills.
• I donated two printers and a laptop to charity, getting them out of my house while earning a tax credit.
• I transformed two discount coupons into cheap yoga classes for April-May, thereby forcing myself to exercise while saving about 80% of the possible cost.
• I found and signed a lease on an apartment in Paris for June, using my savings to pay for the trip--as planned.
• I scheduled my flights, including the ones with the cat, roundtrip to CDG/Heathrow and back as part of my summer course payment (no cost to me but the cat's flights and suitcases).
• I maintained a strict weekly budget on my groceries, making it for all but two weeks of this quarter.

Outstanding:

• Taxes for 2011: I will meet with The Tax Man prior to summer travel to handle this.
• Roth IRA: I will also handle this prior to summer 2012.

Summer Travel:

• Apartment in Paris: check.
• Flights: check (including the cat!).
• Chunnel tickets: check (not yet received, but bought).
• Class for July: a May 2012 project.

Work, Rut to Productive:

• Aidoo reading completed for African Literature conference: check.
• Playwriting students brought together with music composition students, resulting in original music for original play performances: check.
• Short Joan plays performed in Medieval Studies course on Joan of Arc: check.
• Original playwriting festival staging six plays with 28 actors, 6 directors (2 professional, 1 faculty, 3 students), 6 stage managers, 2 crew, and 6 happy playwrights: check.
• Students earning grants for community-based arts project with award-winning playwright and documentary filmmaker for one month this summer, total of $7K: check.
• Course filled with non-majors with positive response: check!
• Internship developed for studentwith film shoot in Louisiana: check!
• Book reviews for two journals: check!
• Entries for encylopedia on performing arts: check!
• Contract for summer course: check!
• Proposal for new fall 2012 night course: check!

April through June: focus on health and creativity.