Past Year's Accountability 2019

It’s the end of another year, and in what has become one of my longest inane traditions, here I am writing an entry on an increasingly-neglected blog recounting all the things I said I’d do this year that, alas, I didn’t do. This is the first year that I’ve actually considered not writing a Past Year’s Accountability post, both because I feel like no one even reads blogs anymore, especially not this one which I almost never update anymore, and because I feel like a list of goals I made this time last year seems so irrelevant to my feelings about how this year actually turned out. There are some things I wanted to do this year that I feel bad about not doing, certainly. But I’ve also accomplished some amazing things this year that weren’t even glimmers in my imagination last December, including starting my own theatre company and producing my first play in which I also acted for the first time. 

So, shrug emoji, I guess?

Without further ado, here are my resolutions for 2019:

1. Write 20K words of Spritely Fire and Motion

I’ve been working — albeit slowly — on a book on Shakespeare adapted into movement, tentatively called Spritely Fire and Motion. One of my goals for 2019 was to make significant progress on it, but I got sidelined by other creative projects and didn’t have time to work on this book. So, no credit here.

2. Learn a significant amount of ASL

Part of the work on the Shakespeare in movement book was to learn some ASL. While my other creative endeavors can partially excuse not doing any actual writing, learning ASL could’ve been easily done in my spare time, but instead I wasted time scrolling on Instagram and other bullshit. Again, no credit here.

3. Take 12 ballet classes

Another part of my work on the Shakespeare in movement book was to start taking ballet classes again. This is another thing that I just couldn’t find the time to fit into my schedule, due to working at my day job and spending most of my free time on other creative stuff. While I’m not proud of not having taken any ballet classes this year, I feel less bad about it than I do about not having learned any ASL. Again, no credit. 

4. Write the BardVenture book

Again, I was pretty busy with other various creative stuff to make any serious progress toward writing projects this year. Turning my collection of blog entries from my BardVenture road trip wouldn’t have been a huge undertaking, but it was still more than I had time to do. No credit here.

5. Submit my short stories to 15 magazines/publications

I submitted my work to 16 magazines. I’ve only gotten one response and it was a rejection, but the point was just to start putting my work out there. Full credit for this resolution.

6. Raise $2K with Leah toward buying our bus

My wife and I are planning to move into a schoolbus in 2021, and we set a modest goal of putting $2,000 in savings to start toward buying our bus. As of December, we have a little over $4K in our bus fund. Full credit.

7. Enter the ASC SNC contest again

I had originally wanted to enter the Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries playwriting contest at the American Shakespeare Center again this year, but I just couldn’t find the time. No credit.

8. Publish BC6 or BC book

Zoa and I published the sixth issue of our Shakespeare zine, Brief Candle, at the Richmond Zine Fest back in October. Full credit.

9. Write two short stories

I wrote almost nothing all year. What a depressing thing to admit. No credit.

10. Donate blood three times

I have type O negative blood, which means I’m a universal donor. I had originally intended to be more philanthropic with my life-giving blood this year, but because I got tattooed while I was in London in January, I was ineligible to donate all year. No credit, although through no fault of my own. I didn’t realize when I got tattooed that it would disqualify me.

11. Teach three Shakespeare classes (other than St Margarets)

I taught six classes at two different schools this year, other than the two days of lecturing I do every year at St. Margaret’s. Full credit here.

12. Get credit score above 700

As petty as this seems, after all the trouble that Leah and I had finding an apartment when we moved to Philly thanks to my awful credit, I decided that I needed to be an adult and get my finances in order so that we would never have that problem again. Now that we’re thinking about buying a schoolbus, I wanted my credit to be in as good of shape as possible to help with getting approved for a loan. I set a goal of 700 and surpassed it, according to Credit Karma. Full credit for this resolution.

13. Surf

I never even went to a beach all summer. No credit.

14. Publish a book for LSP

Zoa and I have decided to streamline LSP and focus just on zines. So, no credit here.

15. Go back to college

I briefly considered going back to school at the end of last year, but quickly abandoned that goal when I remembered that the exorbitant cost of a college education is not at all justified by the amount that I would learn.

16. Do something special for Leah for our anniversary

What a shitty husband I am. No credit here.

So my success rate for 2019 was 5/16 or around 31%. That’s a pretty steep dropoff but not my lowest score of all time.