40 Before 40 (study/quiz 7)

This list is originally from Insider. I'm not going to respond to each of the items below individually because so many of my reactions are just "wtf" or "gtfo" or "sounds awesome oh right, i forgot i'm not a millionaire" or "sounds like a terrible idea". Of the good ideas, most are "Good Idea!I'll show you what I mean.

"sounds awesome oh right, i forgot i'm not a millionaire"

1. Celebrate New Year's Eve in a foreign city. (Oh! I've done this anyway so I guess you don't have to be a millionaire!)

3. Splurge on a meal at The French Laundry in California, or another three-star Michelin restaurant.

5. Dress up for opening night and see a performance at one of the world's famous opera houses, like the Met in New York or La Scala in Milan.

11. Travel across Europe by train on the elegant Venice-Simplon Orient Express.

20. Go on a spiritual journey, whether it's an ashram in India, the Western Wall in Jerusalem, or St. Peter's in Vatican City.

25. Treat yourself to an expensive accessory, like a Rolex watch or a Chanel bag.

26. Gamble big and sit at the high-rollers table at a casino in Las Vegas.

28. Ski in the French Alps or some other far-flung destination.

31. Go yachting in Monaco or Saint-Tropez, France.

33. Buy an extravagant gift for someone else.

36. Eat grilled steak at a parillada in Argentina or a churrascaria in Brazil.

"sounds like a terrible idea" or "yawn"

2. Challenge yourself to complete something that seems impossible. Compete in the Ironman Triathlon, climb a mountain, or finish a 100-mile race.

9. Play a round of golf at Pebble Beach Golf Links in California or Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, considered to be some of the best golf courses in America.

12. Sit courtside at a basketball game and cheer on your team.

13. Quit a job.

34. Drastically reinvent your look at least once.


"gtfo"

29. Learn five good wine and cheese pairings.

30. Sleep outdoors without sacrificing luxury at a "glamping" accommodation, like Montana's Resort at Paws Up.


"good idea! I've already done this"

4. Prepare food at a soup kitchen or volunteer your time in another way to help others.

10. Go skinny-dipping.

14. Buy a piece of art you're proud to display.

15. Drive down California's Pacific Coast Highway or the Great Ocean Road in southern Australia.

27. Perfect at least one dish — even if you're not a skilled cook.

32. Learn something new. Take a pilot lesson, learn a new language, or get certified in a new sport, like scuba diving.

37. Go on a solo trip.

38. Take on a leadership position.

39. Break a bad habit.

40. Go wine tasting in Italy's Tuscany region, France's Champagne area, or another region that's famous for its wine.

"wtf" and also "gtfo" and also "sounds awesome oh right, i forgot i'm not a millionaire*"

7. Go on safari in Africa (*if you're talking about a photo safari)

That leaves the following:

6. Meet a hero (Done! Unless we aren't counting our parents which seems mean.)

8. Enjoy a really amazing $100 bottle of wine without thinking about the price tag (sounds good except by definition*)

22. Stay at the Four Seasons, or another luxury hotel, on a whim (sounds good except by definition*)

* how can you make a point of ordering a $100 bottle of wine "without thinking about the price tag" or make a point of staying a luxury hotel but do it on a whim?

16. Do something good for someone who doesn't know who you are (Good idea! Have I done this?)

17. See Madonna, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, or another iconic artist perform live (I appreciate the sentiment but iconic is a pretty vague term: do Beck, Phish, Tori Amos, or Parliament count?)

18. Read every book by a favorite author (Good idea! Have I done this?)

19. Return the favor and take your parents out for a nice dinner (Just once?)

21. Mentor a young person in your profession (I'll commit to a profession first then maybe)

23. Donate 5% of your earnings to a charity each year (Good idea! What's 5% of $0?)

24. Bungee jump, sky dive, go white-water rafting, or do something to get your adrenaline pumping (Ziplining!!)

35. Get in the best shape of your life (Unfortunately I have a little more than 3 months and I'm not sure that will be enough time...)

Looking at all these 40 before 40 lists is starting to make me nervous or angry or often both but sometimes excited. 

joys of homeownership

hi there my dearest homies.

please allow me to start at the beginning.

our home inspector told us before we bought the house that the ductwork was in shambles. we included in our offer the contingency that the previous owner had to replace or fix it but had a trip to san francisco scheduled the week before closing. like the good-natured naive northern californians we were at the time, we assumed 1) that our realtor was on the up-and-up, and 2) that the home inspector was a man of integrity and compassion, and 3) that the homeowner was a DIY pseudo-master who would try to get something substandard through if possible not necessarily because of any bad intentions but because he believed it was all done 100% correctly (we were right about the last one, actually).

our realtor walked through the re-inspection with the home inspector and the homeowner since we were 3000 miles away and gave it the thumbs-up. fast-forward to the first week in the house when we noticed the living room vibrating. we called a repairman who told us it was just because the furnace/blower was stacked precariously on some cement blocks and it had gotten unbalanced somehow, probably during the re-inspection, and oh my god have you seen your ductwork LOL YOU GOT A DATE WEDNESDAY BABY.

so yesterday after months of getting quotes and talking to various companies and having various companies pass us off to other companies because they stopped doing HVAC and deciding whether we wanted to replace our shitty outdoor AC unit that was only four years old or our shitty furnace and blower that was only 30-ish years old or our evaporator coil that was only 15-ish years old or our water heater that was only 20-ish years old or all of the above (we ended up replacing the water heater back in december and postponing the rest) we finally agreed on a project that will cost close to $10k (and then our AC broke one 90 degree day but turns out it was just the evaporating coil that had frozen solid NBD) and all this would be a lot easier to stomach if i had a job already and then today...

a guy came to look at our dryer which quit abruptly a few weeks ago and determined that it would cost $450 to fix it which is basically the same price as a new dryer and since the old dryer is 7-11 years old (we don't have any of the paperwork because the homeowner didn't leave it WHY WOULD HE) we have to replace it. so no doing any of the ginormous amount of laundry currently stacked up in our bedroom and on top of that i have to find a dryer to buy and maybe it's time to get a job but i heard from the job i really wanted yesterday and they already filled the position so i'm trying to keep a positive outlook - oh and did i mention i'm getting ready to turn 40 in a few months and i'm 40 pounds overweight?

i know i'm being very un-Dude right now but the stress is getting to me man. it's getting to me.

oh this was called the joys of homeownership, right. well let's see.

um...

i'm glad we don't share walls with anyone because when i play Leonard Cohen REALLY LOUD once Collin goes to Whole Foods to get his salad for lunch, no one will call the police. so that's something.

TGIF!

TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! TGIF!

I'm going to the BEACH!!

Haiku for Kimberly

Dead roach in hallway.
Insides flipped to the outside.
This is not your home.

Eye of the needle/hurricane

Wow. Remember how I said getting my sewing machine threaded was a reasonable goal for yesterday afternoon? I stick by that, but realize now that despite thinking it was a joke and a goal that I couldn't help but meet, it was DIFFICULT. That thread is tiny, and even having two separate diagrams and two different colors of thread (upper and lower threads), the act of getting them both to do what they are supposed to do, where they are supposed to do it and how, was surprisingly complicated!

After several hours of cursing and finagling, I am super proud to announce that: I MADE A COASTER!! And yes, that IS just two pieces of fabric sewn together, one of top of the other, but nonetheless, I'm impressed with myself. And deservedly so/sew.

My printer has not yet come at work, but I am pleased to announce that my orders from bluefly and anthropologie have! I also got a pair of shoes that is surprisingly ugly, but were also only $20. They're ugly, but they are comfortable, and they are practical, and they are professional (up to my standards, that is), and they are sandals, so they will be kept despite not being keepers. :-)

So anyway, after a marathon day of meeting (I count a two-hour meeting as a day-long marathon), and before I head to a post-work meeting about non-profit development (awesome - also two hours, by the way), I'm going to sign off. I'm sorry Mom has gone, but I look forward to alone time with Sam and Max tonight, too.

Perhaps I'll get crazy and make ANOTHER COASTER! WOAH! Somebody stop this sewing fanatic!! I'm sew crazy.

xox

PS. I'm setting a goal of doing yoga tonight. Just FYI. I need some centering. I got a new book about yoga and lifestyle. This week I'm supposed to eat 3 meals a day as much as possible (although I'm snacking on raisins right now since I have that meeting right after work), and drink warm water throughout the days. Like tea without tea leaves. I know, exciting! But I tell you what, getting up and getting my warm water DID provide a nice change of pace several times during that marathon meeting. So, thank you warm water diet. :-)

Wah, wah, wah...

See, is that a baby crying or a slide guitar? Who knows? It's all a matter of perception. Just saying.

Rehearsal last night was... ok. I'll probably write more about it in my improv blog, but maybe not! Maybe I'll just stuff it down, deep inside, where all my other non-memorable, disappointing and deflating experiences go. Yay! Feels better that way. ;-)

I finished the embroidery last night while I finished watching the last episode of Firefly. I love that series. I got it on sale at Borders recently and I'm really glad I got it. It's a subtly good show -- just consistently good quality, not using flashy stupid things to get your adrenaline going, but with enough exciting scrapes to keep the show fast-paced. It's really good. My favorite episode is definitely "Out of Gas" but "Heart of Gold" is a close second. The latter was never even aired! I hate when networks give up on brilliant shows just because they hate me and are out to get me. Another one I want is Jericho, but that ended tragically (i.e. with a huge unanswered cliffhanger). Firefly ended reasonably well, although the movie Serenity did a good job on some story lines and on others SUCKED. Anyway, moving on...

So the little embroidery thingy-do is done, but now I have to make it into a pillow or something. I don't know about that. I want to start a sewing project, actually, but 1) I'm nervous, and 2) I can't decide on any fabrics! This is totally a good thing for me. I need practice making safe (relatively inconsequential) decisions. It will build up my confidence for when I have to make big (real) decisions.

So I'm going back to work. Today I get to design things (newsletter, brochure) so I'm excited about that! This is the part of my job that I really love.

Charity :-)

How YOU doin'?

Yesterday's trips to the CNN Center, the High, and the Botanical Garden were relatively awesome. We didn't make it to the Zoo, so I'm hoping I'll be able to make it out there next Sunday.

Today's Drew's birthday AND the character workshop, so I know tonight will be fun. I'm disappointed in my current progress with the character I'm working on, but it's just a start, so I'm not going to worry too much.

Wednesday I'm going to NYC! With my Mom! To visit my brother and sister-in-law! And see my brother's video game show! All exciting things. It will be super nice to get out of Atlanta for a minute.

Today I'm at work, though, and it's driving me bananas. I need a new job. One that doesn't force me to take 5 minute blogging breaks to write about how I need a new job.

Wish me luck.

good news? are you kidding?

No, seriously. There is some good stuff to share. In no particular order:

1) I have gotten 8 interviews done for my dissertation! 30 minutes into the last one, which was yesterday, my silly little digital voice recorder shut off. It's an Olympus WS-100, and I love it because it was very cheap and until yesterday had been somewhat reliable. I'm not sure what happened yesterday. It issued forth a nervous beep, I picked it up and saw it flashing "Lo" and an empty battery, and then it immediately turned itself off. Hmm, that was weird, I thought, because I always anal-ly check the battery before I leave. Luckily, the part of the interview that I really needed most to be in his words was captured pre-meltdown (this I consider a great blessing, since we actually did the interview backwards as it turned out, and under normal circumstances I would have missed that part!). The crazy part was that after this, I started frantically writing down the things he said and then my pen ran out of ink! No, I'm not kidding! So I had to stop him and Bless his heart, he offered me a pen. What a very nice guy he was. I love interviewing acupuncturists. I have met some really great people. I'll never forget the sweet man who told me, "You will have many successes" at the end of our interview. I am actually looking forward to transcribing that one. Of course, I'm almost done with the acupuncturist interviews (yay!) so I'll soon have to move on to physicians. Eek. I'm a little more nervous about them. Well, once thing at a time.

2) I saw Transformers. Awesome. It's not the cartoon version. Get over it, nerds. It's fiction anyway.



From this website.

3) I finally bought a new iPod to replace the one that was viciously and maliciously stolen from my car during that thunder storm. Poor Jeffrey, out there alone in this world, probably he ended up in the locker of some rude rich teenager troublemaker who was disappointed that the iPod he lucked upon when he and his friends were causing random destruction of the neighborhood cars was a pre-video version. Poor little Jeffrey. It was hard for me to replace my sweet little boy, who also happened to be very expensive to replace. I ended up buying another one online at the Apple Store. It was a pretty good price; I got the 30 GB Video-playing iPod. I don't really need one that big or with video-playing capability, but it was the smallest one they had. The best part is that I could get little Jeffrey, Jr. engraved. He's so sweet, and this time I got the black one. I'm really enjoying it.



4) My stepdad is getting better and better. He should be going back to work in a week or so, light duty at first. I'm so lucky that they caught his blockage before he had a heart attack. Life is good.

5) I am on Weight Watchers and finally feel like I am gaining control over how I look. I figured, I'm turning 30 in a couple of months; I don't know what I want to do to celebrate (nothing seems exciting enough to match how truly excited I really am about it, in some very sick-feeling way) but I know I want to look as good as possible doing it. I've been exercising regularly for some time now but only after I started watching what I eat have I begun to lose weight. It feels really good. I look forward to fitting into my clothes again. Maybe I'll buy a new skirt or something, although I'm actually pretty happy with all of my clothes, I just wish I fit into them without looking like a white-collar hooker. :)

From this website.

6) In honor of my monumental birthday, I have decided to get a portrait made (photography). I'm pretty excited about that, and I know my family members will be excited to have a portrait of me that is less than 12 years old. I wish my cats could be in it, but I'd like to get it made somewhere outside the city, or in a park or something, and I don't really think the cats would enjoy the trip. I'm starting to think that maybe I'll try to get it made on my birthday. Making this decision has been strangely empowering. Most people get portraits made when they get engaged or married, or have a baby. Getting this portrait made is like saying that I am enough. It's empowering, but it's not actually how I saw myself spending my thirtieth birthday. Sometimes I get pretty sad about the things in my life that I don't have that I always wanted, but the truth is, when I manage to forget about the social pressures or socially constructed expectations (of others and of myself), I realize that my life is exactly how I want it to be. I would like to have kids one day, but I can, as soon as I get a stable job. It's funny, that's kind of how I always wanted to do it anyway. I don't actually enjoy being in romantic relationships. Sometimes I laugh when I catch myself mourning the lack of one in my life.

7) I am not sure if I have emphasized in the past how much I love the show "What Not to Wear" on TLC. If I had to choose between a What Not to Wear episode and a Top Chef episode, I would be very stressed out. (Although it does alarm me how many of the worst dressed people actually watch the show, apparently having learned nothing.)

From this website.

8) Speaking of looking good, I am really digging my shorter hair. The front layers follow my jaw line, and the back layers rest at the top of my back. This guy did a great job. I hope he's still there when I go back (the turnover rate at my salon is higher than the one at McDonald's, I swear). I'm thinking about getting my hair done before my portrait. How luxurious. I can't wait until I get a real job.

9) Oh, speaking of real jobs, UNCG is hiring! I probably won't get the job (and wouldn't want it, actually) because they are trying to be more of a research university (the way many state schools are going, in attempting to get more funding), but it's so nice to know that schools in Greensboro actually do hire people. :) Of course, I must admit that this makes it seem unlikely that they will hire an adjunct lecturer for the year after I graduate, and I was kind of hoping to get a job like that, since they're much less research-oriented than tenure track positions (and therefore more perfect for me, aside from the instability variable. Anyway, seeing this position advertised makes me very excited about the possibility of actually getting a job, period! I mean, exclamation point!

10) Sometimes I think that maybe I'm thirty and single because my potential family is out there waiting for me to get a job in that town and then move there, making it possible for my intended family to find me. How exciting to know that somewhere out there is a place for me. I just have to find it. And the fact is, I have no choice but to find it. :) And in the meantime, my life is a lot less complicated and stressful than it could be.

The moral of the story:

Life really is what you make of it. Two people, both given the same pile of shit to work with, may choose to a) mope and complain and feel bad, or b) make a shit sandwich. (If you haven't seen Drowning Mona, you really should.) See, I have my moments of optimism, too!



Charity :)