- See the Barnes Collection in Merion, PA, before it goes to Philadelphia. Watch The Art of the Steal and you’ll want to, too.
- Start a quarterly food swap. Each participant makes a large batch of food and then gets to go home with a selection from everyone’s food.
- I want these sandals, from St. Tropez. They have you trace your foot on paper and make them right to your size.
- I want to love all my clothes. I’ll give away or alter anything I don’t.
- One international trip. I have learned not to be more specific than this.
- One day a month, I will put a day on the calendar with no plans, wake up, and do what I like all day.
- I will bring my lunch to work.
- More photographing. I will take more pictures, and make a pretty iPhoto book of my year for my 35th birthday.
- (care of my friend Amy) pick one month of the year and eat only locally-grown or raised food that whole month.
- Start a seasonal salon. I’ll pick a topic and host intelligent conversation on that topic 4 times this year.
- Fix up the fucking yard. I don’t know how to say it without swearing. I am going into my fourth year in my place and, despite my friend Brian’s one valiant weeding session, my neighbor Sam’s creation of a raised veggie bed, my yard is still a mess. i must stop the madness.
- Go skeet shooting. Because it sounds awesome.
- I want to go back to my school in Maine for a week and just print in the darkroom. Possibly in the spring.
- Take more house tours. The Adamson and one other one that is a private museum in LA are the top choices.
- Enter the KCRW pie baking contest. With a gluten free pie.
- Read Let the Great World Spin, by Calum McCann
- Do my morning pages. As many days as I can.
- Meditate 20 minutes a day.
- Go swimming. In the ocean and anywhere else I can. Within reason, but more often than I do now.
- Read more happy books and see more happy movies. I stray towards the dark. Need some brightness in my life.
- Actually watch a network TV show while it is on.
- Raise $1000 for MOSTE, the charity I am on the board of and that I am a mentor for.
- Take a burlesque class.
- Automate as many things in my life as I can. For example, I put myself on a scheduled delivery of kitty litter from Amazon. Now I never have to remember to go to the store for that again and haul it up to the house. More of that, please!
- Examine my beliefs and drop the ones that aren’t working. I wanted some more philosophical items this year, and I think I frequently run up against thoughts that may not be true that I believe to be. I will keep an eye out for unnecessary limits this year.
- I want to ride my bike more. I am going to get it tuned up and ride it if I am staying within my general neighborhood area. I was inspired to do this as well by the president of the company I work for. She’s started biking to work on a beach cruiser a few days a week. Looks like fun, and great exercise.
- Have a cafe night a couple of nights a month. I have magazines and books I love reading but I rarely have time to enjoy them. Cafe reading night is going on the calendar, just like any other appointment.
- My lovely cat, Sebastian, has made my upholstered headboard his own personal scratching post. I need to find out a way to repair it that looks cool and not pitiful.
- I want to have a grown-up party. My new job has inspired me to take entertaining more seriously. I’d like to have a party for friends, with flowers and printed cocktail napkins and a pre-made playlist and yummy food. My friend Ruth thinks there might be some rented white things… like linens and tables and chairs. We’ll see…it should be fun.
- I’d like to keep up appearances more lady-wise. I have a tendency to let my nails chip and stay that way for weeks before I deal with it. And those are just my toes. I’m lucky if I bother painting my fingernails at all. So… I think I will do a bit more to pamper my lady self this year. Nails… a facial here and there. I want to feel like a girl again. Am really excited about this one, actually.
- One of my best friends since seventh grade moved to Iowa for work a few years ago. her husband sent me this video about a bookstore near where they live. I really want to go to Iowa and see them and meet this bookstore guy.*
- I have a lot of amazing cooks for friends. I have been watching and learning things like preserving and pickling from them and have been lucky to sponge off their skills. This year, I will make a batch of jam or pickles all by myself.
- Once a month I will buy a magazine I have never read before and learn something new. Perhaps bring it to cafe night.
- Re-cover my dining room chairs. I already have the fabric. I just need to staple gun. If I’m going to rally for classy dinner parties, the least I can do for those who show up is let them sit on properly covered chairs.
*I haven’t forgotten about you, Tara! I don’t keep things from previous years on the list, but I do work on them after the year is over. I’ll figure out a time to come to Boulder. Let’s talk soon!
