In the Slammer

Goals in progress for today: #3 Have a meal with a family member twice a month, #12 Visit one kitschy/specific/small museum or attraction every month, and #5 Document my year by taking a picture (with me in it!) every week.

Hi everyone!  It's been a very busy week in my world, and I feel like I got a lot done.  This will be a fairly picture-heavy post, so I'll try to keep the wordiness to a minimum.  I'm going to say that this week I went over and above on #5 Document my year by taking a picture (with me in it!) every week.  I went to my first guitar lesson this week, and I think it went well.  We'll see how next week goes.  It will probably be a while before I'm able to play an actual song.  The recipient of my first letter received it, and it went over really well.  That makes me feel a lot better about writing the other 9 letters. 

I went to a roller derby bout with the BF, my best friend Brandi, and two more friends yesterday.  It was part of the Irvington Halloween Festival and was a costumed, co-ed bout.  It was a lot of fun, especially since Brandi was dressed as Lucille Ball (or at least I think that's what her costume was).  Isn't she cute?!

Today my dad and I went to fulfill my first month of #12 Visit one kitschy/specific/small museum or attraction every month.  Originally my plan had been to visit the Antique Fan Museum, but since their hours are a bit limited, it will have to wait for a day of during the week.  I found a Rotary Jail Museum in Crawfordsville, so Dad and I got in the car and headed that way.  It was absolutely worth the $3 admission.  It's a rotating jail in a cool old building. 

There were a lot of cool details in the building (the doorknobs, the hinges, even the details in the jail door were awesome!) and there were also some very cool old documents and things that had been used by the jailers. 

After leaving the jail, Dad and I went to look for a nearby Geocache.  It was a tricky one, but we found it pretty quickly.  The two of us a smart cookies when it comes to finding these things. 

From there we went to a little hole in the wall diner for lunch (#3 Have a meal with a family member twice a month for October complete!) and then walked down the road to Lane Place, which was also incredibly cool.  The woman there was insanely knowledgeable and answered every question we threw at her.  When I started asking a few questions about something knitted that was on display, she told me about a few more knitted things in the collection that were in storage, and then suggested I bring my knitting group for a textiles centered tour of the home.  Dudes.  If I can convince my fiber loving friends to make the trip out to Crawfordsville one Saturday, I will ABSOLUTELY take her up on that offer!  Here are a few of the best shots from Lane Place.

We finished up our outing by visiting the grounds of the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum.  Sadly, the museum is undergoing construction to repair the roof, so we weren't able to go in, but we did walk around and check things out.  It was a great day, and I enjoyed spending time with my dad.  If you're out that way, I highly recommend checking out what Crawfordsville, IN has to offer.  

Slacking. It's something I do.

Goals in progress for today: #5 Document my year by taking a picture (with me in it!) every week, #3 Have a meal/coffee/visit with a friend or family member twice a month, #15 Watch the classic movies everyone has seen but me and #11 Turn up the music and clean for an hour every Sunday.

This week seemed to pass by really quickly, and I didn't get as much done as I had anticipated.  I was supposed to have my first guitar lesson a few days ago, but the place rescheduled.  If all goes well I'll be starting on Thursday.  Since I've never taken any formal guitar lessons, I'm going to assume they will begin like piano lessons did oh so many years ago, and I'll be starting out on things like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Mary Had a Little Lamb.  I'll tell you right now, I plan on twinkling the hell out of that little star.  It may not be Zeppelin, but you've got to start with the basics.  

On Friday night the house was empty so my friend Jen came over to watch movies with me, thus fulfilling #3 Visit with a friend twice a month and with the goal of starting #15 Watch the classic movies everyone has seen but me.  While we did watch a movie, I'm not sure the movie we watched really falls into that category.  Classic, yes.  Seen by everyone but me, not so much.  We watched The Third Man, and I liked it, but I had never heard of it before.  It's an Orson Welles film, so if you like him, check it out.  Yesterday, seeing that I hadn't really accomplished what I was going for the night before, I found Cool Hand Luke on Netflix and watched it.  Have you seen this movie?!  Why hello there Paul Newman (pre-salad dressing era).  He doesn't look quite so attractive on the front of the Italian Dressing bottle.  I'm just sayin'.   I've got a few other movies in my queue (Cleopatra, Sunset Boulevard, Casablanca, etc.) but if you've got suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them. 

So on my second Sunday of the year I again forgot about #11 Turn up the music and clean for an hour every Sunday until I decided to write this post.  I'm going to do it as soon as I finish this up, but I wish I could remember to do it on Sunday morning, as I had originally planned to do.  Next Sunday though!  Next Sunday, I'll do it in the morning.  The BF isn't feeling well and is bed, so I'll be wearing headphones as I clean this evening. 

I've had a few suggestions for the last 2 spots on my list.  They've included reading the classics, performing random acts of kindness, running/walking the Mini Marathon, writing a letter to my 39 year old self, and several others, but I'm having a hard time deciding.  I've also thought about entering a competition of some sort (could be knitting related, could be a poetry contest, could be a pie eating contest, whatever).  What do you all think?

And now, for my weekly picture:

That's all for today, kids.  November is coming up very quickly, which means I'll be busting ass to complete NaNoWriMo, so don't expect anything too wordy from me in the next few weeks.  For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo is a challenge (no winners, no losers) to write a 50,000 word novel in a mere 30 days.  I've participated for the past 5 or 6 years, but I've never finished.  This is my year.  I can feel it!  For now though, I'm off to find my headphones so I can begin my overdue cleaning. 

Writer's Cramp

Goals in progress for today: #8 Send 10 handwritten letters, and #2 Learn to play a song on the guitar.


There's a lot of planning to be done for this project.  I've been looking up kitschy/quirky museums, researching train routes, finding patterns for the crocheted hat, and today, I signed up for guitar lessons.  Starting tomorrow I'll be taking weekly guitar lessons at a local music shop.  Originally I had hoped to have the BF help me with #2 Learn to play a song on the guitar, but after some trial and error, I think it would be best for me to take lessons from someone else.  I'm a little emotional, and I tend to get frustrated really easily, but I can usually push past those things if I'm around someone I don't know very well.  It also cuts down on my whining, which I'm sure the BF appreciates. 

I've added a couple more things to the list.  I'll be taking a trip on a train, probably to Chicago over a weekend in March, and I'll be spending a weekend away all by myself.  I come from a very large family, and now I live in a small-ish house with 2 other adults, 2 dogs, and a cat, so I don't get a lot of alone time.  I think this will be a fantastic thing for me.  I'll be trying to come up with inexpensive ideas for my Me Weekend, and perhaps I'll be able to incorporate some of my other goals while I'm at it. 

My first handwritten letter will be dropped in the mailbox later today, which means I've now officially started #8 Send 10 handwritten letters.  I was wondering out loud who I should send one to, and my coworker suggested I send one to a family member who I rarely talk to, and see even less.  I told her I don't talk to that side of the family that often (not out of conflict or anything, just sheer distance), and her response was "that's exactly why you should send them a letter".  Touche, salesman.  The letter is relatively short (2 pages) but my arm was KILLING me after I wrote it!  Perhaps that should be an indication to me that I'm not doing enough letter writing.

Thanks for reading, and keep in mind: I still need 2 more things for my list!

A Week Finished

Goals in progress for today: #5 Document my year by taking a picture (with me in it!) every week, and #11 Turn up the music and clean for an hour every Sunday.

Today marks the end of my first full week of being 29, leaving me with only 51 more until the big 3-0.  I am ashamed to admit that it only took 7 days for me to fail at one of my goals.  Today is Sunday, which should have meant I completed #11 Turn up the music and clean for an hour every Sunday, but I didn't.  I didn't realize it until about 10 minutes ago when I decided to write this post, and for a fleeting moment I thought about getting to it right then.  The couch and the cozy blanket won out, so I'll just have to clean twice as much next Sunday. 

At my knitting group someone suggested I add skydiving to my list for the year, and I figured why not?  It is now written down as #26.  It's kind of pricey, and I'll be waiting until the weather is nice for that one, so it's on the back burner for now.  Speaking of pricey, have any of you ever looked into hot air balloon rides?!!!  Those things are NOT cheap, which makes me a little sad.  A one hour ride for two people is almost $500.  It's cheaper to go by myself, but what fun would that be?  There's a historical museum-y type thing not far from our house that has a balloon and it's only $15 to ride, but you ride for about 10 minutes with 20 other people.  Hopefully I'll be able to scrounge up the cash to go on a nice, private, romantic ride with the BF, but if that isn't in the cards, Conner Prairie will have to do.

One of my friends got married today, and the BF and I went and had a great time.  The weather was beautiful, the bride looked stunning, and the cake was amazing.  And what are at weddings?  Cameras.  Lots and lots of cameras.  The wedding photographer even took a picture of my shoes.  I took a few myself, to help with #5 Document my year by taking a picture (with me in it!) every week.  Here's my favorite of the group.

That's all for now.  Congratulations, Kim & Dustin! 

A Slow Start

Goals in progress for today: #3 Have coffee with a friend twice a month, and #5 Document my year by taking a picture (with me in it!) every week

Hey everyone.  This 30 by 30 project has been all I have been able to think about since Monday, and I'm really excited to be sharing it with all of you.  I've gotten some great suggestions on things to add to my list, and I've updated the last post to reflect those.  The new goals are to publish a knitting pattern, go on a kayaking trip, and to learn French.  The last one will be a challenge in that I won't really know when to say it's complete.  Perhaps I need to put something more concrete into that one.  Also, I'd like to clarify #22.  When I said I wanted to take a spinning class, I meant spinning yarn, not spinning on one of those tiny bicycles at the gym.  That might kill me.  Although now that I think about it, maybe I'll add that to the list, too.  We'll see.  I'm also considering adding a reading goal.  Definitely something to think about.

I've gotten great feedback, and I feel really good about making this happen.  I'm setting up an old movie night with my friend Jessica and her husband to start #15 Watch the classic movies everyone has seen but me.  I've also chosen my first stop for #12 Visit one kitschy/specific/small museum or attraction every month.  There's an Antique Fan Museum in Zionsville, and the best part is that it's free! 

My #3 Have coffee with a friend twice a month visit with Jen was lovely.  I haven't seen her in several months so it was nice to catch up.  I really hope this goal will help me to stay in touch with people a little bit better than I do now.  I'm hoping some old friends who I haven't seen in a while will pop up for this one.  I guess we'll see. 

One of the goals that I think will be one of the hardest for me will be #5 Document my year by taking a picture (with me in it!) every week.  I don't like to have my picture taken, but this is supposed to push my limits so I'm doing it.  Here's my first picture, taken early yesterday morning when I got to my desk. 

Later, gator! 

Let's Start at the Very Beginning...

After celebrating my 29th birthday and coming to the realization that I'm in my last year of my 20s, I decided I needed to do something big. A trip was out of the question, as was an extravagant purchase like a house, so I decided to come up with a list of 30 things to do before my 30th birthday. Some of them are silly, some of them are physical, some of them will be huge challenges, and some of them will be ridiculously fun.

My goal is to keep myself busy and do things outside my comfort zone or my normal routine, and to do these things on a shoestring budget. I've got a couple of pricier things on the list, but the majority are either free or close to it.

I haven't finished my list, but below is what I've got so far. I'll update as I go. My 30th birthday is October 10, 2011. 364 days to go.

1. Ride in a hot air balloon
2. Learn to play a song on the guitar
3. Have a meal/coffee/visit with a friend or family member twice a month
4. Run 1 mile without stopping
5. Document my year by taking a picture (with me in it!) every week
6. Volunteer somewhere I wouldn't normally volunteer
7. Submit a postcard to PostSecret
8. Send 10 handwritten letters (1 complete)
9. Crochet a hat - possibly this one
10. Participate in NaNoWriMo and hopefully finish
11. Turn up the music and clean for an hour every Sunday
12. Visit one kitschy/specific/small museum or attraction every month
13. Go swing dancing in Fountain Square
14. Be vegetarian for a month (I'll need your help on this one, Paige)
15. Watch the classic movies everyone has seen but me
16. Take the stairs to the top of the Soldiers and Sailors monument
17. Repurpose a thrift store dress/outfit ala New Dress A Day
18. Get a Brazilian bikini wax (sorry you had to read that Mom and Dad)
19. Change the oil in my car myself
20. Learn to cook something fancy from a real live chef
21. Host a cocktail/dinner party for my friends
22. Take some sort of artsy class like spinning yarn or painting
23. UPDATE - Learn French (although I'm not sure when I'll be able to say this is complete)
24. UPDATE - Publish a knitting pattern
25. UPDATE - Go on a kayaking trip
26. UPDATE - Go skydiving
27. UPDATE - Take a train trip
28. UPDATE - Spend a weekend away all by myself

I'll be enlisting help from lots of my family and friends for these challenges, and if you have any words of encouragement I'd love to hear them. Wish me luck!