Things that seem harder than they are

Things still to do: 97

Things worked on: 1, 5, 10, 14, 38, 45, 33, 56, 57, 59, 62, 67

Things completed: 21, 51

Since my last post, work on my goals has been pretty action-packed. I wrote small amounts about all of them, but will those come out slowly. Now I can celebrate accomplishment of two things at once! Hooray!

Yes, it is ridiculous it took so long to order the component cables. Finally I did it and not just to get an easy win. You see, I had this receiver that doesn't receive. I used to use it to amplify a CD player back before I had an iPod. Then I used it for the iPod so I could listen to it while putting together a puzzle or doing something crafty in the living room. The problem was that the receiver had no radio function and so it sat in the corner pathetically, a half-ceiver. Recently, though,  I was handed down a receiver that receives. It looks about 20 years newer and has more fancy hook-ups. Brilliance struck and now the receiver is not only receiving and ready for iPod hook-up, it is also allowing me to enjoy my television in real stereo sound for the first time. I had no idea that audio from my tv could sound like that. With my new-found appreciation for the power of my television, I decided I could no longer wait for the video component cables. If the receiver had this power, then these cables might just be magic as well. Of course with the completion of this resolution, I am very excited to tackle that task of figuring out how to handle the digital tv conversion. I think a bigger tv just might handle that.

In the end, this very inconsequential and rather pointless story points out to me that sometimes things end up taking their own time. I put some things on my list that I've been meaning to do for a while. Why haven't I done them earlier? Even something as simple as ordering cables? Because sometimes one's mind just isn't there. Too many other things, and sometimes fictional things, get in the way. 

I recently read Stardust by Neil Gaiman and in it, a tree gives a leaf to the protagonist and tells him he will know when to use it. Inherently knowing when to use something is a convention used in other stories to varying success as well. I think this plot device is used because we all have moments of realizing, "Ah, now is the time. Now it makes sense. Now it falls into place." I believe this is the hope that fills attics and closets with birthday and Christmas gifts that we just don't need when they are given to us. We are waiting for the moment to say, "Just give me a second: I have the perfect thing."

Sometimes we need to help these moments happen and sometimes they happen on their own. My list of things to do may be a push to get circumstances to the right time for 100 activities. At least so far, it has helped for three. 

Things to do: 99
Things completed: 86, 24

Things worked on: 1, 2, 10, 11, 39, 85

Every time I look at my list, I find myself wanting to tweak it. Every time I look at someone else's list, I also find myself wanting to tweak mine. Apparently I have a bent toward shameless goal stealing! I think the problem is that I don't have a set philosophy on what my list should be. One day, I view it as a giant practical kind of To Do list with items that can be neatly crossed off. Other days, I see it more as a kind of ongoing quest for self-improvement. God knows I'm a fixer-upper, but those kinds of goals are more challenging to quantify, let alone cross off. "Paint my room" is easy. "Stop being such a weasel about social things" or "look people in the eye more" or "Do what makes you happy" or "Say yes!" require an actual plan with steps to be considered viable goals. And, then there are the kinds of ongoing "form a habit" goals, that can be crossed off monthly, but won't really be complete after just one cycle. Sheesh! Goals are hard!

So, for now, I am sticking with my original list, knowing that it is okay to be flexible later if parts of it aren't working out for me. The truth is that once you get past my core goals, the rest really are a lot of "it would be nice" kinds of things and I know there are at least a few on my list (like "learn about wines" that lack the kind of specificity required to be a true goal instead of just a wish. That said, I still think this is a fun project and I'm really glad Anne and I decided to collaborate a bit on it, because I really want 2008 to be all about creating fertile conditions for maximum happiness to bloom!

So, on to my progress...

86 - The Ring

So, I found a really lovely Black Hills gold ring. I have to admit that I have normally not been a big fan of that line of tri-colored gold jewelry (i'm more of a silver fan), but this one really is pretty and it has a little butterfly on it. Having bought it as a reminder of all of the improvements I want to make to myself and my life, it is just too perfect a symbol. As an added bonus, I was able to order it through a sister company and was able to save a lot of money on it, which doesn't exactly fill my budget goal, but is a nice little act of spending wisely.

The down side is that having ordered it, I didn't get to try it on first.
As it turns out, it is sized a little small compared to other rings I own of the same size. I can get it on, but it is more than a little snug. At first, I was going to exchange it, but after measuring it against some of my rings that are about the same size, but fit nicely a year or two ago, I have decided to keep it and make it part of the reward for my weight loss goal as I suspect it'll fit just fine in about 15 pounds or so.

24 - Try a new recipe each month (January)

It is pretty likely that this will not be the last recipe I will try before the month is over as I have one for Coq au vin that I have been dying to try. Technically, my recipe doesn't really fit my original intention with this goal, since I had really meant to try things out of different books and this is one that I made up. But, after thinking about it, why penalize myself for being creative? A recipe is a recipe!

One food I really love is Thai pizza. When Trader Joe's used to carry it, I would buy their frozen ones all the time, I still buy the California Pizza Kitchen ones from the freezer section from time to time, and recently also tried ordering one from Pizza Schmizza. All of them are good, but none really had the perfect sauce. So, I embarked on a quest to make my own and am very pleased with the results, having made it twice now. The best thing is that it's easy to do! None of this is very precise, since it was all done by taste, but what you need is:

pizza dough (Use your favorite recipe - I just used a Boboli thin crust from the store, because I am lazy, but a really good dough could only improve matters!)
1 pkg shredded mozzarella cheese (you probably won't need it all)
Trader Joe's peanut sauce (maybe a 1/4 cup?)
Chunky peanutbutter (two generous tablespoons)
Sesame oil (add gradually, you won't need much - I mainly added for consistency and also to help cut some of the saltiness/tanginess of the Trader Joe's sauce that the peanutbutter didn't quite eradicate)
whatever toppings you like (I used chicken, shredded carrot, bean sprouts, but I think some chopped peanuts would also be good)

The chicken I had was just leftover boiled chicken from making enchiladas (if you've never made them with mole sauce, you should!) the night before, but next time I want to try doing the chicken using the sate marinade and peanut sauce from Dhanit's Chicken Sate in Molly O'Neill's New York Cookbook. Thai pizza would be a great way to use the leftovers from that recipe, which I haven't made in years, but remember as tasting very good.

Apologies to a kitty cat

Things to do: 99

Things completed: 0

Things worked on: 4, 5, 38, 40, 65

I was getting ready to work on 24: finishing Pikmin 2. If you don't know what Pikmin are, then you can look here. I also have some very small (perhaps life-sized) figures of pikmin that I take pictures of in various locations. It started out as a way to learn how to use my camera and has turned into a full-blown hobby. As I write this, I have just learned that I have won more figures on ebay (Please cue Weird Al Yankovic to sing "I'm highest bidder!").

So, as I sat down at the couch to play and move further to my goal of completing Pikmin 2, I stepped on the cat. She is all black and was sittting under the coffee table and I just didn't see her. I have had her for almost a year, and this is the first time I stepped on her. I heard the pathetic "mrow" and felt her run out from under my foot. I felt terrible. I spent the next couple of hours intermittently asking Tim if she was going to hate me now. In the end, she was fine and we are friends. I am pretty sure I didn't fully step on her (since I was sitting at the time) and she is running around without a care or a limp.

It is possible to communicate some things to cats: most of which involve food, lack of permission to scratch things, and my desire for her to come over so I can pet her. One thing I cannot communicate is my apology for accidentally stepping on her. After she ran off, I wanted to find her and make her feel better. Of course, she wasn't really in the mood for that and hid under the bed. I was crushed. Although Tim assured me that she was fine and would be my friend again, I was frustrated by my inability to communicate.

As happens when riding the bus and trying to ignore everyone else there, I became reflective. On the morning after I had my accidental run-in with the cat, I was thinking on the bus about apologies that don't get heard or communicated. The hardest ones to deal with for me are the ones where I realize much later that I should apologize and now don't have the opportunity. So, Mr. Burkhardt, I'm sorry I was a jerk while sitting in the back of calculus. I wasn't embarassed by how obviously I was ignoring math class at that point, but now I feel bad. You were doing your job and you were nice and I didn't pay attention to those facts. Math has played more of a role in my working history than I ever anticipated. And I'm sorry, Christina, that in 5th or 6th grade I went along with my friend who claimed you were wearing a stuffed bra although I had no evidence. I am sure at this point that my behavior was not the greatest tragedy in either of these lives or the others that I think about periodically. I'm also sure if I had behaved the opposite way that it wouldn't have been the high-point of their lives either. At this point, I am not in contact with these two people, so my apologies now are like apologies to the kitty cat – unheard by those who probably should hear it.

Of course, I will not share with the world all my regrets and all the times I was a real pain in the butt. I will say that for many years I have made only one real New Year's resolution and that is to be a better person than I was the year before. I have tried to be more truthful and more considerate and I am hoping that with these incremental changes over time, I won't be needing to make a lot of apologies in the future for stupid behavior. And I have learned to look under the table before I stretch my feet out, which is already an improvement for this year.

Practicality vs. Sentimentality

Things still to do: 99

Things completed: 26

Things worked on: 4, 24, 29, 38, 40, 51

Number 26 completed! That one had to do with going through a closet. It looked much worse than it was. I thought it was jam packed with stuff I didn't remember, but it turns out that I was just too lazy to put things back where they belonged. I did take everything out and evaluate before putting it back in, using an organizationally much improved method of storage. Needless to say, things are often in closets because they aren't in use. The question I began to ask was whether I would ever use these things. 

It is easy enough to say, "Yes, I will probably need these light bulbs, even if not today." It is also easy enough to say, "This hammer is good." But I ran into a very interesting phenomenon I call "The Surprise Cache of Aprons." I'm not sure how widespread this is. 

There was the apron I made for myself about 8 years ago. I think I may have used it once. There is the apron that was a Christmas present for me this year. It is really nice and I should make a point of wearing that one. It has some French words relating to cuisine (I am guessing) on a small tag on the front, so I have a feeling it might make me speak with an accent. 

The next apron I found was one of many my mother made when I was a kid. I am pretty sure of the following facts, but I was probably in a lower single digit age when this was going on, so I reserve the right to claim that I am making this all up. My family used to help out with a Pulaski Day celebration held every October. This involved sending off a group of people to march in the Pulaski Day parade held in New York City and then having a dance when they returned. We would go to the Polish Church and help make food and participate in the party activities – although I'm not sure anyone in my immediate family ever marched. I believe at least one year, my mom decided to make aprons for people, many of which featured some cute little patch or some Polish words. The apron I have has the silhouette of a boy and girl holding hands and kissing with a little heart over their heads. I remember others had polka dancers on them or beer with "Na zdrowie" written above it. This is what I found in my closet and put back in with all the others. That one has some sentimental value that outweighs the fact that I have not to this point, found aprons particularly useful.

There was one more apron that I found that came to me in a bag with random things supposedly from home. I have no idea what the story is on this and have no memories attached to it at all. Unlike the others, this one is only a half apron, which means to me it is really for show and not as practical as a full-body apron – well, at least for the way that I cook. I don't know why I have it and don't think it is useful. There is some chatter in the family about a visit from my mom, so I decided to keep this one until she arrives and can explain its significance, if any. If there isn't any particular significance, then I believe that the cache will be down by one apron before the end of the year. 

Within the past year, I have also been evaluating objects in my house for whatever the negative version of sentimentality is. It is time to eliminate those things which remind me of times that I would rather forget. Why keep these reminders of unhappiness sitting around? Something as innocuous as a tupperware container makes me think of the lousy roommate I had. As powerful as objects are to remind us of fun and love and happiness, some others can be surprisingly dark, even if the cheery orange lid says otherwise. Happily, I found none of those types of things in this closet. I know there are a couple in the other closet on my list, so it might take a while for progress on that cleaning/organizing to begin.

Better Late than Never (Martina's Goals)

So, here I am, Slacky Slackerson, Would Be Mayor of Slackerville, if I weren't too much of a slacker to run! Since this blog was created, I really have meant to come share my list (maybe one of my goals should be to cut my procrastination down by 85%), but somehow I keep thinking that I need to tweak one more thing, read it one more time, etc. I think we can see now why I need a list to tell me what to do! Left to my own devices, it is quite possible that nothing would get done.

Like Anne's, my list is a combination of big stuff and little. I am fascinated by the areas where we have overlap, considering that we came up with the lists independently of each other. I will try to mark my items off by changing them to a color other than black and writing a bit about the experience as I complete, but I actually have already done #86 (a black hills gold ring with a little butterfly symbolizing metamorphosis!) and suppose that embarking on this blog with Anne would fulfill #6, but I'm going to wait a little to mark it off, since the project is by no means finished and I want to feel open to collaborating more!

1-Pay off my car
2-Pay off the rest of my credit card debt
3-Create a budget
4-Lose weight (I'll keep the actual amount to myself for now)
5-Join a gym & set up an exercise program
6-Collaborate with someone on a creative project
7-Exercise at least 3x a week (will be considered complete after 3 months of steady commitment to this)
8-Make an appointment with a personal trainer
9-Make a quilt
10-Complete January blogstravaganza
11-Write 12 short stories, essays or poems in the next year (I.e. 1/month)
12-Finish the first draft of my mystery novel
13-Learn another language
14-Take a class
15-Join/start a writing group or take a writing class
16-Make something with my own hands once a month (craft project)
17-Join a choir or that music thingy from the "Keep PDX Weird" event
18-Learn 12 new songs on my violin in the next year (I.e. 1/month)
19-Get my bow rehaired
20-Clean out/organize my books
21-Make curtains for my bedroom
22-Go for a walk in a new park/trail at least once a month
23-Learn about wines
24-Try a new recipe once a month - Jan 08: Thai Pizza; Feb 08: West African Ground Nut Stew
25-Invite friends over for dinner at least once a month
26-Try a new restaurant once a month - Jan 08: Jim Dandy; Feb 08: Van Hanh
27-Make Stollen
28-Once a month, pick someone and buy them a gift/do something to make them happy for no reason at all: Jan 08 - no one; Feb 08 - sent flowers to my mom;
29-Moisturize every day
30-Organize my recipes
31-Study a new Tarot card each month
32-Go on a real vacation
33-Resume Wednesday activity schedule with Jen
34-Spend a month as a vegetarian (in progress Feb08)
35-Play my guitar more than once a year
36-Cut my diet coke consumption down to 1 a day (or better - none a day) and drink more water
37-Sign up for organic grocery delivery or foodshare
38-Study a new artist/composer each month
39-Go to a concert/play once a month
40-Go to the Shakespeare festival in Ashland
41-Host a summer barbeque
42-Plan a trip to Europe
43-Renew my passport
44-Go through and get rid of CD's that need to be released into the wild
45-Go on another retreat
46-Visit the Oregon Trail museums I haven't yet visited
47-Read a poem each week
48-Read something in another language each week
49-Visit the East Coast
50-Write a handwritten letter to someone once a month
51-Meet a friend for coffee/drinks/whatever once a month
52-Regularly deposit money into savings
53-Take control of my 401k investments by taking a class/reading a book on investing
54-Call or e-mail friends at least once a week
55-Finish the photo wall
56-Take (or procure) a flattering picture of each of my friends for the wall 57-Attend a pow-wow
58-Make a dress
59-Clean out my closet (clothes AND shoes)
60-Buy new underthings and get rid of the old
61-Clean out the garage
62-Attend a pagan festival (Beltaine and/or some other)
63-Update my birthday list
64-Take pictures at events, gatherings, etc.
65-Go to the beach once a month in the sunny months
66-Visit Leavenworth
67-Paint my bedroom
68-Pull up the carpet in my bedroom
69-Paint the deck
70-Paint the front porch
71-Go on a road trip during the summer
72-Use my Entertainment book regularly, keep track of the savings & put them in a fun money jar
73-Buy and TAKE a daily vitamin
74-Learn to knit
75-Go camping
76-Get and update a new address book
77-Learn enough about photography to make my good pictures more than happy accidents
78-Go to a reading or lecture at least once a month
79-Participate in NaNoWriMo for real and following their rules
80-Join Amnesty International
81-Join The Humane Society (or some other animal organization)
82-Learn to make an origami crane
83-Run the whole way around the track
84-Go on December pilgrimage with Jenny R. and her family
85-Write something (journal, blog, whatever) every day
86-Buy a ring to symbolize my year of change - wear it every day as a reminder
87-Get a manicure
88-Treat myself to a spa day
89-Create an enticing reward system for every 10 pounds I lose
90-Get tickets for my mom to be able to see Cirque du Soleil
91-Read the Bible, Koran, Baghavad Gita
92-Buy a pair of comfortable athletic shoes
93-Visit a Buddhist temple
94-Learn yoga/take an exercise class
95-Plant a vegetable/herb garden
96-Make preserves
97-Research and make a list of fun summer festival outings
98-Make stepping stones for the garden
99-Go berry picking on Sauvie Island
100-Buy fresh cherries from the fruit loop when they are in season
101-Plan something fabulous for my birthday this year

A Bland Recipe and A Good One

Things still to do: 100

Things done: 27 (ongoing)

Things worked on: 27, 38, 40, 45

On Christmas Eve, Tim and I have a quiet evening together- or for at least part of it; Tim has a quiet evening in the living room and I have a busy evening in the kitchen for part of it, too. We eat out often together, but Christmas Eve is a time to be home and enjoy each other's company and I get to cook a ridiculous amount of food for just two people. Most years (so far) we have not been able to get through all of the courses I have planned. This year we came close.

For the pasta course, I made Spaghetti with the "Good Woman's" Olive and Tomato Sauce. I really enjoyed this dish and happily ate the leftovers for dinner and lunch later in the week. I found this recipe in a book given to me by a friend many years ago called Italian Cooking with Olive Oil by Diane Seed. I enjoyed this enough to decide that my first month of 27 (try a new recipe every month) should be from this book. Unfortunately, I ended up with a much blander recipe that I thought had good potential: Pasta Shells with Creamy Walnut-Ricotta Sauce. Perhaps what made it so sad was that I have been looking forward to trying this recipe for a week now. I haven't given up on the book yet, but I will be more cautious in my next choice.  

The sauce for the Walnut-Ricotta Sauce is cold (until you put it on the hot pasta) and consists of:

1-1/2 cups ricotta cheese (12 ounces)

1/3 cup packed basil leaves, torn into small pieces

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

So I tasted it and didn't add too much salt and pepper only to toss the pasta with this and

1 cup finely chopped walnuts

What a difference those walnuts make. I added way more salt and pepper than I normally would when I cook for myself because (and it may be obvious to you already) these ingredients are kind of zingless. Not to disparage ricotta cheese and walnuts, which I like individually, but there isn't any zing there. I have a feeling it was the word "creamy" that may have made me partially blind to this fact.

The "Good Woman's" Olive and Tomato Sauce is made with 

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 cup black Mediterranean olives, pitted and coarsely chopped

1 cup green Mediterranean olives, pitted and coarsely chopped (I accidentally got green olives stuffed with sun dried tomatoes and they were very good)

1/3 cup capers

1 (15-oz) can peeled Italian plum tomatoes, undrained and coarsely chopped (or fresh tomatoes)

3 Tbsp chopped fresh leaf parsley

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste (doesn't every recipe end this way?)

First you fry the garlic in the oil (1 minute). Then you add the olives and fry that (2 minutes). Then you add the capers and fry that (1 minute). Stir in the tomatoes and parsley and simmer for about 20 minutes until it is thick. Lastly, salt and pepper. The zing factor is much higher.

So, since this is a monthly to-do, I can't cross it off fully, but I am still feeling that sense of accomplishment. 

Easy or Inspired?

Things still to do: 100

Things done: 0

Worked on: 27, 38, 45, 67, 71

When I considered coming up with these goals, I decided to seed it with a couple easy ones that could be knocked off in little time. One of those is 21: purchasing component cables for the wii. This has been on my to do list for months. Why I haven't done it yet is a mystery to me, but I put it on there to encourage myself to finally do it and give myself an easy win when I start to feel that my motivation is waning. 

I tried not to make my list too easy, though. In writing about my goals, I knew that I would be inspired to reflect on the story behind them and the experience of getting them done and the feeling of satisfaction of completion. Some are obviously more inspirational than others, but that doesn't mean that the simple ones can't end up doing that, too. So, I tried to strike a balance. Too many easy ones means no reflection. Too many inspirational ones would be a lot of work before feeling any amount of accomplishment. 

Lastly, I wanted to make sure that these were all possible. I kept in mind my own financial situation and the control I have over my life. If this were my dream list (maybe I need to write my top 10 dreams), I'd include a trip around the world. Unfortunately, my life doesn't accommodate that right now, so it was left off. We'll just have to wait for the year I'm independently wealthy and make goals.

This weekend I began the pursuit of completion and realized that there may be forces beyond me that will affect my ability to get through the list. It is hard to find out you aren't the center of the world (that was not on my list, please note). It turns out the geek craft night (number 67) hasn't been meeting for a couple of months. Quickly I jump to the internet and put out a message on the yahoo group where I found out about it. Someone responded expressing interest as well, but so far the organizer hasn't responded. Here is now a simple one (just show up one night at some location) that has just gotten more complicated. I'm hoping the original organizer will pick it up again- otherwise, I may need to figure out a way to fulfill this goal in another way. Maybe I should just show up alone and knit by myself in a corner on some night? I will be the sole geek. It probably wouldn't be the first time.

I do hope that you will have patience when reading what I write. I had an old boyfriend long ago tell me that I don't tell stories so much as facts. Perhaps a string of facts is as close as I get to a story. In grad school, someone (I don't remember who, although I remember where I was standing and what I said to spark the following evaluation) commented that talking to me was like reading a stream of consciousness novel. This does not bode well for all the fascinating stories and insights that will come up as I sort through jewelry and scan pictures and call people I have only communicated with via Christmas card for years. Recently, though, someone told me that I am full of stories and when I denied this, she looked at me as if I were kidding her. Perhaps this is a time of change for me- so please humor me until the change is complete and I find my story-telling voice instead of my fact-telling voice.

Special note to M- thanks for joining me in this! I am looking forward to seeing your list. 

100 in 1000 days

The following are 100 things to do within the next 1000 days. Due date is September 30, 2010! Hard to believe.
1) Make an afghan for afghans for Afghans
2) Consolidate 401k/IRA/503b plans hanging around from previous jobs
3) Research before and one year after consolidation the performance of the funds
4) Confirm at least once that all address in my address book are accurate
5) Call everyone who sent me a Christmas card within 6 months of January 1
6) Sell extra books
7) Buy a good pair of winter boots
8) Get a car
9) Watch all my Looney Tunes DVDs
10) Lose at least 20 pounds
11) Get green stripe belt
12) Be able to do a high-section roundhouse kick
13) Go to taekwondo class three times a week for at least one month
14) Finish at least 5 books I haven't finished yet sitting on my shelves
15) Visit Mom for a week
16) Visit Tim's family
17) Visit Uncle Matty
18) Visit family graves
19) Create a spreadsheet for gift tracking (those I give)
20) Look into loveseat/foldout bed
21) Get component cables for Wii
22) Get amber ring fixed
23) Finish a Wii game
24) Finish Pikmin 2
25) Finish a DS game
26) Go through living room closet/organize/dispose
27) Try a new recipe every month
28) Finish DK Junglebeat
29) Get through a Guitar Hero song on Expert
30) Get Wii Fit and use it
31) Go to eye doctor
32) Get new glasses
33) Get a Dr. Hauschka mask and use it
34) Find and buy jeans that fit well
35) Buy a good black turtleneck
36) Get a bra fitting
37) Make something with a piece of fabric I already own
38) Go through and organize jewelry
39) Sell/Try to sell something I've made
40) Finish at least 4 of the cross-stitch kits that I have
41) Make 1000 cranes
42) Make and post a product for my website
43) Buy beeswax candles
44) Go to a fair
45) Invite someone to my house every month
46) Clean out front room closet
47) Clean out file cabinet
48) Try to print my own photos on printer
49) Organize/Store files sitting under desk
50) Clean out desk drawers
51) Integrate Tim's music into mine
52) Import DVDs into computer
53) Look into new harddrive/backup configuration
54) Get Looney Tunes on my iPod
55) Catch up on podcasts
56) Set up folders for iPod in iTunes and organize updating/synching
57) Post to website every month
58) Fix guestbook on website
59) Choose color scheme for website
60) Make booklists on website nicer looking
61) Decide on other domain name: parked domain or new site and set it up
62) Get a full first draft of translation
63) Figure out camera settings for indoor group pictures
64) Find something red to wear for rat year
65) Figure out what to do with earrings I don't wear
66) Read travel book by Achim von Arnim
67) Go to geek knitting meeting
68) Evaluate usefulness of Seashore program
69) Create calendar or something to share my pictures
70) Finish scanning old paper photos
71) Join a guild
72) Get a backup made of my digital/digitized photos
73) Start to learn a new language
74) Find a Spanish reader and read it
75) Learn at least 250 kanji
76) Read one of the Polish books at home
77) Read through/finish Vietnamese textbook
78) Compliment a total stranger
79) Try a new restaurant in downtown Boston
80) Go to NYC
81) See a musical
82) Buy a friend lunch when it isn't their birthday
83) Have a day where I fully live: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all."
84) Translate my resume into German
85) Take someone on my favorite downtown walk
86) Write letters to three people letting them know how special they are
87) Set up an ebay account to see that sanrio item
88) Finish a first draft of a creative writing project
89) Pay off Citibank card and cancel it
90) Spend no money for 4 days straight
91) Eat at No 9 Park
92) Eat at Aujord'hui
93) Figure out how I will convert to digital TV
94) Bind a book
95) Make/Attempt to make all the box patterns in that origami book
96) Make the cherry blossom origami that was the reason I got that other origami book
97) Save for/Plan/or Actually take a trip to the Pacific Northwest
98) Meet Wendy's children
99) Try to learn a song on the harmonica
100) Learn 5 chords on the guitar and be able to switch between them all well