33 Things

So my birthday was on Sunday – 32. It was quiet, a little ordinary, but I was okay with it…actually I was rather preoccupied, having had my interview the day before, so it really came and went without fanfare in my mind (though my wonderful friends did give me a little party that was perfect and my friend, who just learned to knit, made me this awesome hat and scarf combo that is supersuper soft and FANTASTICALLY warm).

But I was thinking about the past year and the things that I have done, the things that I wanted but didn’t do and then, in my reacquainting myself with my favorite blogs, I was reminded of Andrea’s list. What an inspiration! And what a great idea; it gives you something to look forward to, and if something doesn’t happen, add it to next year’s list!

This is what I have come up with for ideas, most of which are do-able and won’t take loads of money.

33 things

1. visit a foreign country (even if it’s only Canada to visit friends, but shoot for Ireland)
2. create a studio
3. buy a new sofa and chair…and maybe a recliner, too!
4. paint with abandon
5. take all of my fabric scraps and make a scrap quilt
6. read a book a month
7. go on at least one art walk
8. plant bulbs in the spring
9. pay off as many credit cards/loans/etc. in a year as possible
10. create guerilla art
11. learn to knit
12. stick with WW and be adamant about it
13. take yoga
14. write a short children’s story
15. illustrate said short children’s story
16. spend at least one Saturday or Sunday a month having b’fast in a café, or diner, or little bitty outta the way place, alone.
17. learn a foreign language (French, Spanish, Italian?)
18. go whitewater rafting
19. go camping at least once
20. meditate on a daily basis (because it really does make you feel better)
21. take vitamins EVERYDAY!
22. grow a more successful garden
23. learn to play darts again…or rather bone up on your rather rusty skills
24. make new friends
25. have at least three parties and invite everyone, whether they get along or not, just for the heck of it!
26. dance…often…even if people are looking
27. slide down the banister at work, if only once
28. hike up a mountain, even if it’s only a small one
29. write more (stories, journal entries, whatever)
30. make more interesting dinners, rather than the same old same old
31. pay more attention to my creative voice and run with it (even if there is dirt on the floor, dishes in the sink and laundry threatening to take over the bedroom)
32. cross off at the very least half of these things by November 16, 2009
33. turn 33 on November 16, 2009

The funny thing is, when I first started my list, I was having a hard time coming up with ideas. I mean really, what did I want? But then it just started flowing and now I’m thinking, “oooh, I could add a #34. Make at least one snowman in the yard and #35. Plan more road trips, even if they’re only day trips and #36. Buy a new china pattern and retire the old one and #37…”

Hmmm…I could start the never-ending list and just keep adding to it and adding to it…but for now, I’ll leave it where it is.

(okay, so I lied and posted a list...but I love lists...I love crossing things off lists...it's just a part of who I am!)

oh so NOT with it!

sleepy. oh so very sleepy. i didn't get out of work until 11:30 - a 15 & 1/2 hour day. yuck. i'm back at work now, working on 5 & 1/2 hours of sleep and we're preparing for another 15, 16, 17 or more hour day! This long holiday weekend cannot come too soon.

So i've been thinking of all the things that i want to do this summer and being the queen of lists, i've started a mental list (much like the mind maps). This is what I've got thus far:

• bake more - especially bread and cookies and strawberry rhubarb pie
• rip down the wall in mum and dad's old bedroom, then insulate, sheet rock and paint it pale pale sage (there is going to be a lot of green in my house!)
• paint the upstairs hallway and mural the downstairs hall
• clean out the ugly, rednecky backyard and make it pretty!
• put up fencing so my little doggie doo can play in her backyard without running freely about the neighborhood!
• create a garden, outdoor sanctuary in the backyard, complete with fire pit and tiki torches
• get dear brother derek to make metal fire pit
• swim at the lake as much as possible
• go for more road trips and explore portions of maine that, despite living here forever, i have yet to visit
• learn to make clothes
• dye my own fabric
• clean off the porch and return it to the sacred space it once was

oh how i miss lounging on my screen porch on the futon, the gentle summer breeze blowing through, reading a book, drinking ice tea. it was pure relaxation. now the porch is home to a whole bunch of stuff packed in boxes. the futon mattress is at the lake and even then alex wants to trade me his bunk beds for it. he's 14 now and, like me at that age, has a penchant for changing, rearranging and switching out furniture in his bedroom. he likes the idea of being able to turn the futon into a couch. and being the loving aunt that i am, i told him okay, besides once the bed is out of mum & dad's old room, i was moving the futon up there anyway...and i was really dreading that! he hasn't mention it to his dad yet, though. we'll have to see (my sister's cool with it, it's just the hubby we have to run it past).

i think the porch is this weekend's project (nothing like getting a head start on the summer list). i'm craving my porch space and cringe every time i look at it. piled high with boxes, remnants of potting season and the futon frame. it's not a big porch but i really would like to be able to sit at my little table on warm mornings and eat my breakfast or cool evenings with my dinner. since the futon will be going, i also have an old papsan chair (from the late days of high school) that i can stick out there. tallulah will be pleased, it was her favorite chair in my old apartment when she was a kitten. somewhere i have picts of her as a baby. she's 7 now (or will be in july). i bet once it's set up, sadie will claim it (if she can get into it). she and tal will fight over it. they are much like little kids! tally has a catseat attached to a window in the living room and sadie sits on the back of the couch and looks out another window in the living room, but lately tal's been sitting in sadie's spot and i think it's on purpose! sadie gets so mad - she whines and barks at the cat and looks at me like, "mumma, she's sitting in my seat! do something!!!" eventually she gets up on the couch, the cat (who is 30 lbs lighter than the dog) hisses and swats and does her version of running away (which is waddling as fast as her fat butt can waddle).

• oh, make more smoothies!
• learn to make fruit leather in the dehydrator
• read...lots! catch up on guilty pleasures robert b. parkers and jim butchers and charlaine harris and maryjanice davidson (it's kind of funny, for all the "literature" i read at university, i am all for the paperback sci-fi, fantasy and detective novels - they are total escapism for me. and though i love hemingway, his simple depiction of extraordinary lives in places i've never been...his characters just don't hold my attention like spencer & hawk, harry dresden or anita blake!)
• take sadie swimming at tyler pond more often

if i think of more things (which i will), i'll be sure to list them!