The Official Life List

After weeks of agony, I finally have a complete life list a scant two days before the deadline. I’ve edited the organization a bit to reflect my new blog categories because I’m meticulous that way. The new breakdown did help me come up with a 30 more items, so yay for persnickety.

Nicole and I share the same view on life lists. For me, this isn’t a bucket list. Aside from a few obvious goals, I won’t look back on my life with disappointment if I fail to achieve an item on this list. Also, I expect the list will change as I do. This list reflects, not dictates, my life.

So, without further ado, this is who I am today.

Family

• Visit all 58 U.S. National Parks: Acadia, American Samoa, Arches, Badlands, Big Bend, Biscayne, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Carlsbad Caverns, Channel Islands, Congaree, Crater Lake, Cuyahoga Valley, Death Valley, Denali, Dry Tortugas, Everglades, Gates of the Arctic, Glacier, Glacier Bay, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Great Basin, Great Sand Dunes, Great Smoky Mountains, Guadalupe Mountains, Haleakala, Hawaii Volcanoes, Hot Springs, Isle Royale, Joshua Tree, Katmai, Kenai Fjords, Kings Canyon, Kobuk Valley, Lake Clark, Lassen Volcanic, Mammoth Cave, Mesa Verde, Mount Rainier, North Cascades, Olympic, Petrified Forest, Redwood, Rocky Mountain, Saguaro, Sequoia, Shenandoah, Theodore Roosevelt, Virgin Islands, Voyageurs, Wind Cave, Wrangell Saint Elias, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Zion. (Inspired by Leslie.)
• Go camping and “rough it.”
• Vacation on a house boat on Lake Powell.
• Visit all 50 states.
• Vacation in an R.V.
• Tour the Smithsonian.
• Visit the World Trade Center Memorial and Museum.
• Visit Iguazu Falls. (I did this with my family as a child.)
• Celebrate Mikey and Nicholas’s 8th grade graduation.
• Celebrate Nicholas’s 8th grade graduation.
• Celebrate Mikey’s high school graduation.
• Celebrate Nicholas’s high school graduation.
• Celebrate Mikey’s college graduation.
• Celebrate Nicholas’s college graduation.
• Make more than enough money to put my husband through school or allow him a career change.
• Live in Buenos Aires for one year.
• Establish a “set in stone” family night.
• Establish a “set in stone” date night.
• Introduce my grandmother to my husband and our sons.
• Visit Argentina.
• France.
• Italy.
• Austria.
• Germany.
• Sweden.
• Denmark.
• Holland.
• Visit Anne Frank Museum. (I did this as a child. Unforgettable.)
• Read Chronicles of Narnia with the boys.
• Read the Harry Potter series with the boys.
• Visit a farm sanctuary.
• Go zip lining.
• Fly in a hot air balloon.
• Create a life list with my husband. Help him achieve it.
• Create a life list with the boys. Help them achieve it.

House & Home

• Have nothing in my home that is not useful or that I do not believe to be beautiful.
• Create Essential Papers File. (Inspired by 52 Bites.)
• Fold a fitted sheet Gap perfect without a Youtube tutorial.
• Grow vegetables from seed.
• Plant and harvest backyard vegetable garden.
• Have a paperless kitchen. (Inspired by 52 Bites.)
• Sew a quilt or bedspread for Mikey and Nicholas.
• Create a compost system…pile…whatever they are called.
• Have a collection of effective, nontoxic, homemade cleaning supply recipes.
• Host a regular dinner and game night.
• Find and buy the perfect dining room table.
• Make the house as green and energy efficient as possible.
• Have a home that reflects our family.
• Buy a comfortable sofa in an unusual color.
• Make a fairy garden.
• Have our home featured in a magazine.

Health (Body, Mind, Spirit)

• Sleep 8 hours every night for at least 30 days.
• Become a person who exercises regularly.
• Compete in a tennis tournament.
• Run a 5k.
• Achieve a healthy body image.
• Spend one day per week offline.
• Pay off all debt: credit card, student loan #1, student loan #2, mortgage, line of credit.
• Read the Bible cover to cover.
• Attend mass at Saint Peter’s Basilica.
• Tour the Holy See.
• Visit all four Papal Basilicas: Saint Peter’s Basilica, Saint John Lateran, Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Saint Mary Major.
• See the Pope.
• Shake hands with the Pope.
• Visit the Holy Land.
• Attend a spiritual retreat or spend a weekend in a monastery.
• Read Catechism of the Catholic Church.
• Pray the rosary for everyday 30 days.
• Inspire someone to make permanent life changes.

Life & Style

• Speak Spanish fluently once again.
• Write and publish a book.
• Appear on the New York Times bestseller list.
• Attend a book signing.
• Write a monthly or weekly column for a magazine or newspaper.
• Have a signature scent.
• Have a perfume named after me.
• Develop an all-natural, nontoxic beauty routine.
• Replace my makeup with all-natural, nontoxic, and green alternatives.
• Read the Western Canon. (Any suggestion on which source to follow?)
• Use my camera’s manual settings. Correctly.
• Read a book series in a genre I normally avoid. (e.g., The Hobbit and the complete Lord of the Rings or A Game of Thrones.)
• Read my Unread Library.
• Construct family tree at least three generations up.
• Have a birthday party.
• Watch 100 classic movies.
• Swim with dolphins.
• Bathe an elephant.

Food

• Eat a salad made from garden vegetables.
• Have a go-to pie crust recipe.
• Can something.
• Make yogurt.
• Have a go-to recipe for empanadas from scratch that won’t make me want to poke my eyes out.
• Have a go-to bread recipe.
• Make “I must be in Mexico” refried pinto beans from scratch.
• Eat completely unprocessed for 30 days.
• Eat vegan for 120 days.
• Abstain from sugar and flour for 365 days straight.
• Eliminate caffeine from my diet.
• Attend holistic culinary school or seminar.
• Make a big batch of green goddess dressing.

 

The Life List (in progress)

Thank you for all the positive feedback on my series and your excitement for it to continue on a smaller scale! I think it will fit in nicely with the posting I usually do around here. I’m also happy so many of us seem to be in the same place right now, which, depending on the day you ask me, can seem like the edge of a tall precipice. Simple, intentional living and thoughtful spending? Piece of cake! I’m currently drafting blueprints for a yurt in New Mexico. I’ll show it to you as soon as I finish my lunch; that McDonald’s happy meal won’t stay hot forever.

Or will it?

I decided to organize my new focus with a list. I know, another one. It’s true, I’m a list person, but not because I’m scheduled and organized. The opposite, actually. Without a list, without structure, without deadlines or goals, I flounder. I’m like a BeyBlade skittering across a hardwood floor, allowing tongues and grooves steer me into the unknown. Lists are my Bey stadiums, four walls that provide enough structure for me to 1…2…3…let it rip!

(I often wonder how my life would be different if I had daughters.)

Knowing this about myself, I should already have a list of 100 bucket items typed up and ready for the satisfying strikes of a fine point Sharpie marker. I don’t. It took registering for Camp Mighty for me to consider analyzing my wants so closely and even now, a week before I’m scheduled to leave, I’m still without a completed list.

I’m nervous about meeting new people, and whether they will like me. I’m nervous about spending several nights away from home, away from the moments of solitude I need to refresh and recharge. I’m nervous about what to wear.

But most of all, today I’m nervous about finishing this list. I know I’m missing something. Technically, I’m missing 30 somethings. I know I want more than 1-70, but numbers 71-100 elude me.

Here is my list so far. I’m open to suggestions and trolling the Oprah website for inspiration.

Family

1. Visit all 58 U.S. National Parks: Acadia, American Samoa, Arches, Badlands, Big Bend, Biscayne, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Carlsbad Caverns, Channel Islands, Congaree, Crater Lake, Cuyahoga Valley, Death Valley, Denali, Dry Tortugas, Everglades, Gates of the Arctic, Glacier, Glacier Bay, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Great Basin, Great Sand Dunes, Great Smoky Mountains, Guadalupe Mountains, Haleakala, Hawaii Volcanoes, Hot Springs, Isle Royale, Joshua Tree, Katmai, Kenai Fjords, Kings Canyon, Kobuk Valley, Lake Clark, Lassen Volcanic, Mammoth Cave, Mesa Verde, Mount Rainier, North Cascades, Olympic, Petrified Forest, Redwood, Rocky Mountain, Saguaro, Sequoia, Shenandoah, Theodore Roosevelt, Virgin Islands, Voyageurs, Wind Cave, Wrangell Saint Elias, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Zion. (Inspired by Leslie.)
2. Go camping and “rough it.”
3. Vacation on a house boat on Lake Powell.
4. Visit all 50 states.
5. Vacation in an R.V.
6. Tour the Smithsonian.
7. Visit the World Trade Center Memorial and Museum.
8. Visit Iguazu Falls. (I did this with my family as a child.)
9. Celebrate Mikey’s 8th grade graduation.
10. Celebrate Nicholas’s 8th grade graduation.
11. Celebrate Mikey’s high school graduation.
12. Celebrate Nicholas’s high school graduation.
13. Celebrate Mikey’s college graduation.
14. Celebrate Nicholas’s college graduation. (The preceding six items inspired by Laura Mayes.)
15. Make more than enough money to put my husband through school or allow him a career change.
16. Live in Argentina for one year.
17. Establish a “set in stone” family night.
18. Establish a “set in stone” date night.
19. Introduce my grandmother to my husband and our sons.
20. Visit Argentina.
21. France.
22. Italy.
23. Austria.
24. Germany.
25. Sweden.
26. Denmark.
27. Holland.
28. Visit Anne Frank Museum. (I did this as a child. Unforgettable.)
29. Read Chronicles of Narnia with the boys.
30. Read the Harry Potter series with the boys.

Home

1. Have nothing in my home that is not useful or that I do not believe to be beautiful.
2. Create Essential Papers File. (Inspired by 52 Bites.)
3. Fold a fitted sheet Gap perfect without a Youtube tutorial.
4. Grow vegetables from seed.
5. Plant and harvest backyard vegetable garden.
6. Eat a salad made from garden vegetables.
7. Have a paperless kitchen. (Inspired by 52 Bites.)
8. Have a go-to pie crust recipe.
9. Can something.
10. Make yogurt.
11. Have a go-to recipe for empanadas from scratch that won’t make me want to poke my eyes out.
12. Sew a quilt or bedspread for Mikey and Nicholas.
13. Have a go-to bread recipe.
14. Create a compost system…pile…whatever they are called.
15. Make “I must be in Mexico” refried pinto beans from scratch.

Serenity

1. Read the Bible cover to cover.
2. Attend mass at Saint Peter’s Basilica.
3. Tour the Holy See.
4. Visit all four Papal Basilicas: Saint Peter’s Basilica, Saint John Lateran, Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Saint Mary Major.
5. See the Pope.
6. Shake hands with the Pope.
7. Read Catechism of the Catholic Church.
8. Pray the rosary for everyday 30 days.
9. Sleep 8 hours every night for at least 30 days.
10. Become a person who exercises regularly.
11. Compete in a tennis tournament.
12. Eat completely unprocessed for 30 days.
13. Abstain from sugar and flour for 365 days straight.
14. Run a 5k.
15. Pay off all debt: credit card, student loan #1, student loan #2, mortgage, line of credit.

Life

1. Speak Spanish fluently once again.
2. Write and publish a book.
3. Write monthly or weekly column for a magazine or newspaper.
4. Have a signature scent.
5. Have a perfume named after me.
6. Read the Western Canon. (Any suggestion on which source to follow?)
7. Use my camera’s manual setting. Correctly.
8. Read a book series in a genre I normally avoid. (e.g., The Hobbit and the complete Lord of the Rings or A Game of Thrones.)
9. Read my Unread Library.
10. Build family tree at least three generations up.

 

UPDATE: Would you look at that? I finished my list! You can check out the Official Life List here.

Gathering Research

I wanted to first thank everyone for the thoughtful response to my post on Friday. I have much more to say about the subject, and have even committed myself to a large project inspired by that William Morris quote. If you follow me on Twitter, you know what I’m doing. I’ll share more this week once I iron out the details.

The above is a picture of me and the boys (oh, Nicholas) at Legoland this summer. I didn’t blog about Legoland because…I don’t know. It’s exactly the sort of thing a mom blogger should do that I don’t. I’m not so great at this niche of mine. In fact, I’m almost terrible at delivering the required. When I first signed on with Federated Media, we were divided into smaller groups like parenting, living, technology, food, etc. I scanned the bloggers in my section, technology, and made note of which blogs I recognized and how many were bigger than me. I’m kidding about the technology bit, but the end result is the same. I recognized one name (Dooce) and everyone was bigger. I’m drawn to design blogs, lifestyle blogs, and blogs where the author seems intent on bettering herself or living to her potential. I read very few parenting blogs.

I went to Blog Sugar yesterday, a faith-based blogging conference hosted by friends Rachel and Andrea and expected to walk into a room full of people I wouldn’t recognize. I was right! I wish I would have told you of my plans to attend but, again, I didn’t due to my shoddy blogging practices. Two people recognized me there, so that was nice. But outside of the two, I was as new to the attendees as they were to me. In short: I don’t read mom blogs, and mom bloggers don’t read me.

What do you think of that, Federated? Are you still glad you brought me on?

I thought about the incongruity of this fact most of the ride home, but I have yet to make sense of it. I need to process the event, replay conversations, and over think before I find an answer. That, however, is going to take a few days. Showing up alone to an event where I knew less than 1% of the attendees was a big deal for someone as shy as I am. I couldn’t sleep last night from the adrenaline so today I’m dragging. I can’t possibly beat a dead horse under these conditions! I need my mental faculties at 100% to over analyze to the best of my abilities.

Having said that, I’m not too tired to gather research, which I love even more than analysis! I want to know what your favorite mom blog is and why you love it.  I also want to hear from those who don’t read mom blogs. If you don’t, why are you here? (And thank you for reading, of course.) As I sat and chatted with the people at my table and exchanged information, I came home excited to read more about them. After reading a few posts, I realized I didn’t know what I was missing.

 

 

Decorate Book Signing, cont.

I posted the first picture on facebook Sunday afternoon. On Monday one of my oldest and best friends, Tiffany, called me.

“That picture doesn’t really look like you.”

“Nope.”

“I mean, it’s not your best picture.”

“Nope.”

“Is that the only picture you have of the book signing?”

“Nope.”

“Okay, so am I to assume the rest aren’t that much better?”

“Yup.”

The pictures aren’t great. They aren’t bad, either, thanks to Tristan’s editing skills. I wish my arm didn’t look like a ham hock in that last picture, but oh well. The good news is that the quality of the pictures are inversely related to the fun had by all. I had a wonderful time and I’m glad I went. I would do it again in a heart beat with a different outfit and a portable swamp cooler.

Between the earthquake and the hurricane, I should have expected a weather calamity. I didn’t. Instead, I drove into LA under the blast of our Subaru’s air conditioning, smug with my good hair. I maneuvered my way into a tricky parking garage, found the perfect spot within minutes, and reapplied my lip gloss while a favorite song played.

Then I got out of the car and began the slow and steady process of death by dehydration. I refer to Friday’s weather as Cancún in August. Or, for those unfamiliar with Central America, Swamp Before Hurricane.

The humidity. My God, the humidity.

I dashed from the 3rd floor of the garage to the front doors of Anthropologie, my feet keeping time with crazed internal chanting. My makeup is melting! My makeup is melting! My makeup is melting! I was like Paul Revere, but with first world problems. And, because bladders are squirrely devils, it wasn’t until I crossed the threshold that my pelvic floor rang the alarm. The nearest bathroom was on the 3rd floor of the Barnes and Noble a few stores across the way. Naturally.

So I ran across, then up, and then back down and across again. Once inside Anthropologie, I scanned the store and saw no one I knew, giving me time to buy my copy of Decorate while I waited. Except, something physiological happened. I don’t know if it was the running in high heels, the humidity, or the hassle of finding a book without a wrinkled or torn dust jacket (seriously, do publishers ship by burro these days?), but three steps into my walk towards the register my pores opened up like the Gates of Mordor and released a torrent of sweat so powerful I am surprised display tables didn’t float away in a sea of anxiety.

I sloshed my way to the front and stood behind two slender, petite women. For once, thanks to my heels, I was tall(er).

But the sweat kept coming. It trickled down my scalp, past my shoulders, and down to the waistband of jeans 3000° thanks to a hefty stretch-cotton ratio. I fanned myself and asked the slender woman ahead of me if I was in the right line.

Of course, it was Alex. Alex, looking at me in gentle, doe-eyed wonder while I fanned myself like my grandmother after a walk to the butcher. And her friend, Lindsay, who interns at Rue. Naturally.

When we went to grab seats, I was sweating. When Tristan showed up, I was sweating. When the presentation started, and then ended, I was sweating. I was sweating while I waited for Holly to sign my book. Waiting for my friends, more sweating. Going to sit outside on the only benches available, sweating!

I wasn’t surprised when Tiffany called to tell me I looked a little off in the pictures. I felt as lovely as a dead body left to float in a river, and the pictures are black and white for a reason. Tristan said it was the only way she could “mask the myriad of horrors.”

They are bad, and you’ll never see them. Naturally.

But! The presentation was inspiring. Leslie Shewring from A Creative Mint and Betsy Burnham of Burnham Design were the special guests. Holly was warm, open, and took time to speak to everyone in line. Rather than a quick signature, everyone received a personalized note. Afterwards, Holly, Leslie, and Leslie’s friend, Kara, joined us for dinner at a French outdoor cafe. (Holly is sitting to my right in the group shot.)

The picture of the gentleman reading the book is a funny story. They were tourists from London enjoying the mild weather (sarcasm!). Since we were at an outdoor cafe, our tables were no more than 6 inches apart. He asked me if we were all friends celebrating a birthday, and I told him we were celebrating, but not our age. I shared with him my copy of Holly’s book and he got a kick out of meeting a best selling author.

I did, too. Naturally.

Decorate Book Signing!

I’ll be at the Holly Becker/Decorate book signing tomorrow! I asked a while back on Twitter if anyone else was going, but aside from the lovely Alexandra, I heard crickets. I refuse to feel miffed. It’s because you live outside California, right?* I know it’s not because you are willing to miss an opportunity to see me look older, heavier, shorter, and infinitely more awkward than I do here on the blog.** And if that’s the case, shame on you. Where’s your catty female spirit?!

The mood board portion of the event is full, but the book signing is open to anyone willing to hang around and have fun. Afterward, Tristan, Danni, Alex, Andrea, and I will grab a bite to eat. Please do join us! All we ask is that you keep your van, rope, and chloroform soaked rags at home.

* Seriously. In which state do you live?

** Do you remember that scene in Moonlighting where Cybil Sheppard’s character (Maddie Hayes!) opened the door to her office and addressed Bruce Willis (David Addison, Jr.!) from behind a gauze-y tissue because there wasn’t a soft lens? I want to do that tomorrow.