2011’s aspirations: actual vs. real
Let’s check in on the things I thought I should be able to get around to doing this year and how I fared:
- have Q104.3 play a Workforce Block of Fleetwood Mac in my honor - they did and I missed it
- qualify for the Boston Marathon, ideally before the NYC Marathon, so I can actually enjoy that experience (insanity to even consider for a moment, and if they touch the 3:40 I currently need, this may get abandoned pretty quickly) - I realized that training to BQ threatened to make me resent running and for me that was too big of a risk. A cop out? Perhaps. I ran three marathons this year, though, so I’m not going to get all down on myself for that one.
- get myself a Milly dress and some investment shoes As someone who owns quite a few Liz Lange for Target maternity dresses purchased on clearance for less than $10, I have been trying to work through allowing myself to purchase a single dress whose price involves 3 figures. I’m not there there yet. But! Some internet sale + coupon magic happened and I took care of the latter.
- go on some sort of an international adventure - Oh, I think we covered that.
- play a non-serious sport, e.g. work softball, volleyball - I may have been the least-dedicated member of my company’s softball team, but I still did it, and I have the pink-stitched glove and uniform shirt still hanging in a bag in my cubicle to prove it.
- finally get myself a bicycle so I can indulge all of my getting-to-the-PATH-faster, riverside-biking and adorably-quaint-errand-running fantasies I haven’t technically done this, but word on the street is that my uncle has a bike he does not use taking up residence in his garage, which means this is as good as complete. If I get a bike rack. And go get it. And he was serious about being okay with me stealing it.
- try to become more of a grown-up with regards to planning meals and actually cooking items (ETERNAL GOAL), and be more conscientious about what I’m eating, what’s in it, and where it comes from - No. Not even close. I had nachos for dinner last night (not really, but had this been written many other days that could have been true). I’ve realized that the second part matters more to me and I’m going to focus on that one moving forward.
- do stand-up in public and partake in more comedy-watching - I did do stand-up in public (once) and I have the DVD to prove it. Perhaps some day I will get drunk enough to feel comfortable watching it. I’ve been watching a decent amount of non-Melissa stand-up too, so I consider this item accomplished, though part of me wishes I put a little more effort into trying stand-up again outside the warm fuzzy environment of my class graduation show.
- potential classes: graphic design, training, meditation, tennis, surfing, vegetable chopping, Bob Ross-style painting In lieu of grad school (trademarked phrase), I took graphic design at SVA, improv at UCB, and single-serving sessions on meditation and gin-cocktail making. I made several attempts to make vegetable-chopping happen too, but the stars would not align to allow for that one before the end of the year.
- institute New Food Tuesdays -I want to say I did this one single time. Sadly, I do not believe that counts as “instituting” anything. It’s a solid idea though, so perhaps it will make the cut for 2012.
- identify and partake in a side hustle Not so much.
- stop pretending it’s acceptable to use my sister’s boyfriend’s old Blackberry with a cracked screen and no data plan and get myself one of them smartphones Y’all, I have a phone with apps and a touchscreen and I love it so much. As someone who feeds off instant-access to information it has made me positively joyous.
