101 Things in 1,001 Days
Notes:
1) I only put tallies at the end of the items that are quantifiable and are not singular.
2) I strike through the ones I've completed, italicize the ones I've made progress on and underline the ones that are ongoing and so far, so good.
Family/ Home:
1) Get the cat and dog their shots and spayed and neutered.
2) Teach the dog to respond to her name.
3) Adopt a brother or sister for the cat and dog.
4) Move.
5) After moving, visit my mom on a regular basis (at least once a month).
6) Visit my dad on a semi-regular basis (at least once a year).
7) Spend a summer reconnecting with family in Ohio.
8) Learn from my dad how to restore old cars.
Education/ Work:
9) Go back to school to finish my BA.
10) Take on extracurricular activities in school that’ll look good on my resume.
11) Achieve a high enough GPA to qualify for Phi Beta Kappa honor society (and maintain it!).
12) Obtain an amazing internship.
13) Line up a great job for after I graduate.
Financial:
14) Pay off my debt.
15) Get a credit card and actively work at restoring credit.
16) Learn how to save money and spend wisely(!)
17) Start a house fund to save up a down payment on a home.
Charity/ Activism:
18) Donate a portion of each paycheck to a charity.
19) Spend a vacation volunteering for a charitable organization.
20) Volunteer for Obama’s re-election campaign (given that he proves to be as great of a president that I think he’s going to be and given that he starts his re-election campaign before this challenge is over - otherwise it’ll be on my next one!)
21) Volunteer for Gavin Newsom’s gubernatorial campaign in 2010.
22) Start volunteering for an animal shelter every other weekend.
23) Give blood every month. (0/32)
Health/ Appearance:
24) Become physically healthier - not just lose weight, but become fit and healthy.
25) Take the first step to achieving #23 by going for daily walks/ runs.
26) Hike to the top of Runyon Canyon before moving from L.A.
27) Run a marathon.
28) Give meditation a shot.
29) Same goes for yoga.
30) Grow out my hair (this might seem easy, but I always give in to my urges to chop off my hair).
31) Get my teeth straightened.
32) Get my moles removed.
Hobbies/ Interests/ Entertainment:
33) Resume my photography, make prints of my favorite photos from the past few years, get frames and hang them properly.
34) Slowly start buying photo and darkroom equipment so that by the time this challenge is through I’ll have everything I need for a home darkroom.
35) Play around with at least one new baking recipe a month until I find my ~signature~ cupcake.
36) Learn a second language.
37) Start scrapbooking again.
38) Make handmade gifts for loved ones as birthday and holiday gifts.
39) Finish writing my freaking novel already.
40) Attempt the 50 Books in 2009 challenge and succeed this time. Repeat in 2010 and 2011. (This year: 1/50; Total: 0/3)
41) See all the movies nominated for Golden Globe, SAG and Independent Spirit and Academy Award awards each year. (This year: 0/3; Total: 0/12)
42) Learn to drive a stick shift.
43) Buy an old, beaten down car and restore it myself.
44) Learn how to hot-wire a car.
45) Go to a shooting range.
46) Go through my e-mail account and clear out the 1,000+ messages I’ve read but for some reason haven’t deleted (and keep it cleared out!)
47) Go to a park at least once a week. (0/139)
48) Go to a museum/ gallery at least once a week. (0/139)
49) Go to the beach at least once a month. (0/32)
50) Go to a zoo/ aquarium at least once a month. (0/32)
51) Eat at least one food I’ve never tried before every six months. (0/5)
52) Attempt making sushi at home.
53) Ride in a hot-air balloon.
54) Ride in a helicopter.
55) Take flying lessons and get my pilot’s license.
56) Get a motorcycle license.
57) Learn to play the guitar.
58) Go to a NASCAR race.
59) Go to a hockey game.
60) Take a dance lesson.
61) Go rock(wall!) climbing.
62) Go snowboarding.
63) Swim with dolphins.
64) Go scuba diving.
65) Catch up on all the shows I’ve fallen behind on.
66) Learn how to pick a lock.
Social/ Travel:
67) Get my passport.
68) Be more sociable and (try to) make new friends.
69) Send out birthday cards on time.
70) Don’t let a single holiday go by without celebrating.
71) Start making and sending cards for all major holidays.
72) Take a cross-country road trip and do it right this time!
73) Spend New Year’s in Times Square.
74) Attend Mardi Gras.
75) Go to the Super Bowl.
76) Go to the Kentucky Derby and wear the most amazing giant floppy hat.
77) Visit the Bahamas and stay at the Atlantis resort (note to self: do not go down the shark slide).
78) Go to the NASCAR Champions Banquet.
79) Visit Catalina Island.
80) When Springsteen tours for his new album go to at least one show.
81) Ditto for Kelly Clarkson.
82) Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in L.A.’s Pershing Square.
83) Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago.
84) Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in New York.
85) Celebrate July 4 at the National Mall in D.C.
86) Celebrate July 4 at the Turtle Bay Resort in Oahu, Hawaii.
87) Celebrate Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Mass.
88) Stay at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York
89) Stay at the Mountain Lake Hotel in Pembroke, Virginia
90) Drive along the West Coast, from the Canadian border to the Mexican border.
91) Visit Iceland and drive around Ring Road, the 800+ mile road circling the island.
92) Visit at least one new country a year. (0/3)
93) See and do all the California items in the book, “1,000 Places to See Before You Die.” (4/11)
Purchases:
94) Buy an external hard-drive to backup my important files.
95) Get a pair of prescription sunglasses.
96) Build up a respectable, grown-up wardrobe.
97) Build up my book, DVD, TV show on DVD, record and CD collections.
98) Get the tattoo I’ve been talking about forever.
99) Buy the “30 Rock” DVDs and see what all the hype’s about. (0/3 [seasons])
100) NEED NEW GOAL!
Uncategorized:
101) On Sept. 29, 2011 have a party to celebrate the completion of this list!
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Progress I’ve made:
-JANUARY:
Completed: 38) Start scrapbooking again: I pulled all of my old scrapbooking supplies out and have taken inventory and I made a brand new page!
Partial: I got my cat his shots (#1) and have an appointment for my dog; I found how to legally change my name (#9) and learned it’s $350, so I’ll have to wait until I can afford to splurge; I started taking photos every day (#34) and am posting a photo a day in my journal; and I also looked into flying lessons (#54) and I now know where I’m going to take them, but, again, I need to save up a little before diving into that one.
-FEBRUARY:
Completed: 46) Go through my e-mail account and clear out the 1,000+ messages I’ve read but for some reason haven’t deleted (and keep it cleared out!): I've got it all cleared out! Now I just have to make sure to keep it that way.
Partial: I've been continuing to grow out my hair (#31), though I did cut my bangs - which totally doesn't count; I've made a bunch of bows and gave them to friends and family as gifts (#39), though there was no occasion; I'm making my way through my first book of the year (#41), though I'm way behind on the goal as a whole; I only have four more movies to go for the Oscars! (#42); I didn't realize how many shows I was behind on and how far I was behind on them! (#65) But I'm making my way through them; I've sent handmade or e-cards out on all occasions so far this year (#68); and I've celebrated the first big holiday of the year (#69), Valentine's Day, despite being single, so I get extra props there; I also signed up to volunteer for the California Democratic Party State Convention, which isn't technically anything on my list, but it's in the vein of my political activism and being-more-social goals; and I have been being more social and I even saw a local band live and stayed after to get an autograph and a photo, which is HUGE for me because I usually hang back in the corner and just watch other people having fun. And I've been keeping up with the goals I started making progress on last month, of resuming my photography (#34) and scrapbooking (#38).
-MARCH:
Completed: 4) Move: I moved into a new apartment! While I'm really excited about it, completing this big goal has taken up a lot of time and energy this past month, so I didn't get much else done.
Partial: I've been way more social (#67), but I haven't made any new friends yet. In the same vein, I'm making a conscious effort to not be such a social retard and I try to not turn down any opportunity. I've been going to concerts every Tuesday (The Ballas Hough Band has a residency at The Grove here in L.A.) and I even took photos with the band and got autographs, which is something I never would have done before, and I even participated in a Conga line at the show on St. Patty's Day! I bought some CDs, movies and TV shows on amazon.com (#96)
Unfortunately, I actually took a step back on one of my goals (#46: Go through my e-mail account and clear out the 1,000+ messages I’ve read but for some reason haven’t deleted [and keep it cleared out!]) this month. I was without Internet for a couple of weeks while moving and my inbox is crazy full so I need to sift through the hundreds of emails and delete the junk and tend to the ones of importance.
-APRIL:
Completed: 75) When Springsteen tours for his new album go to at least one show: April 15 at the Sports Arena in L.A.! The man is a God. Seriously.
Partial: I've been continuing to be more social (#67), but I haven't tackled the making-new-friends part of it yet.
-MAY:
Completed: 22) Volunteer for Gavin Newsom’s gubernatorial campaign in 2010: He kicked off his campaign at the end of the month and I signed up to volunteer on his Website!
2) Teach the dog to respond to her name: I did it! You call, "Baby Girl!" and she looks at you, and even comes over to you if you pat your knees or make kissy sounds. Everyone thinks she's mentally disabled (she's the result of incest and has a slight deformation and has behavioral issues), but she CAN learn! Yay her.
Partial: Many of my on-going goals (5, 31, 34, 39, 42, 65, 67, 68, 69, 70) are going well, but many more I haven't even touched. Regarding catching up on my shows (#65), I'm almost there! I've come to terms with the fact that I'll always be playing catch up as the shows continue to air, but as of right now I am much less behind than before. I'm completely caught up on "Bones," "Fringe," "The Mentalist" and "Life" (R.I.P.) among others. And I'm this close to being caught up on "In Plain Sight." Then it's onto this past season of "Monk" and the current season of "Breaking Bad," then I'm open to start brand new shows like "Eureka" and "Heroes."
-JUNE:
Completed: 81) Ditto for Kelly Clarkson (the above item is "When Springsteen tours for his new album go to at least one show"): I drove to Utah to see Kelly's first concert of her summer mini-tour! It was her first full-length show since I saw her three times in California in the fall of 2007.
Partial: I finished my first book of this year (#40) - I know! Six months and one book. It's pathetic. I have no chance at hitting the 50-book mark by the end of the year, but I'm sticking with the goal anyway. I'm on my second book. ( My 50 Books Challenge post). I've been doing better than just seeing my mom once a month (#5), but we've actually set Sundays aside as our day to hang out. Albeit, I thought I was moving farther away so seeing her once a month seemed logical at the time. I've cleared out my email, again, and am going to try keeping it up this time (#46). I've acquired many new books, DVDs and CDs (#97) and my media collection is looking pretty good right now.