Fall Folliage in Central Park

• make a gourd birdfeeder (this was already attempted and ruled out because I learned gourds take 8 months to dry! I thought you could do them in the oven, but apparently there is no way to speed the process up. Who knew?)

• take Linus to Herding Instinct Test on a sheepfarm in New Jersey

• finish my Meditation for Dummies book

• write out my Christmas lists! This includes list of presents to buy for family & friends, Christmas-card address list, Christmas sweater party invite list, and also present wishlist

• visit my parents at their home in North Conway, NH

• surprise Earl on a random night by picking him up directly from his office and taking him out to a fun dinner downtown somewhere new

• have four friends over for dinner

• start swimming regularly and get ready for the Grand Cayman 5k Sea Swim in November

• be a better friend (answer my phone, respond promptly to emails)

• finish and submit my post baccalaureate program applications for Spring 09

• finish up our Halloween costumes!!! they are going to be so awesome I have something really special planned this year. This includes finding a reptilian green dress for myself.

• ride to the apple orchards with my girlfriends again on our annual apple orchard ride
  

1. run the entire Long Path- not all at once, but in sections (status: have run the first 12 miles)
2. run 50 miles
3. get to an advanced level of swing dancing
4. learn to do aerials in swing dance
5. finish all of my tattoos- buffalo, dragon, De la Vega, Ironman
6. volunteer at a 100-mile race
7. double Century road bike
8. out and out own an apartment in NYC w. no mortgage
9. have permanent cedar planters surrounding our patio
10. paint a cute scene on the bathtub planter
11. get birds to live in a birdhouse on my property
12. learn about Manhattan flora and fauna, be able to name trees and flowers while walking around the parks
13. go on a Central Park Nature Walk
14. ride on a double decker bus tour
15. take Earl to Babbo
16. have my nieces visit us in NYC
17. go on a long weekend to visit my parents in New Hampshire
18. maintain yoga classes 4x per week
19. weigh under 125lbs again!
20. patch up a few waybegone friendships
21. hike the Appalachian Trail
22. heli ski in the Chugach Range
23. visit Kellie in AK.
24. own a farm in Argentina, perhaps near Bariloche or Mendoza
25. become and ophthalmologist or a nurse practicioner
26. go on a scaffold in NYC cleaning windows, be up over the 50th story
27. Do not kill Herman, my very first potted plant! (Accomplished: he is alive and thriving on our patio after 5 years of living with me in NYC).
    
28. Own a corgi (Accomplished: we now have Linus the rescue dog who lights up our lives!)
    
29. have a professional photoshoot with Earl on a fall day at the beach
30. Do something anonymously nice for two of my friends who are having a rough time (status: 1/2 accomplished thus far).
31. track down my Japanese exchange student, Akiko Minoche, who I lost contact with when she moved to Tokyo and her parents left Nagano
32. build a birdhouse
33. run the Badwater 135
34. run 100 miles
    
35. Own TWO corgis! (status: 1/2 accomplished)
36. have alpacas on the farm in Argentina, teach the corgis how to herd them
37. have 500 readers/day for Dances with Corgis
38. meet Gala Darling in person!
39. be a Big Sister with Big Brothers/Big Sisters (status: applied and denied because they have too many volunteer mentors and not enough students in need of Big Sisters, will revisit in 6 months)
40. write a bunch of wishes on pieces of paper, fold them up into paper airplanes and throw them off the roof of a building in NYC all at once
41. cook 250 meals from the NYC cookbook by Molly O’Neal (status: have done 2/250, oy)
42. learn more about gardening
43. grow plants from seeds
44. go dogsledding
45. shop mostly or entirely with locally grown products
46. volunteer for a week or two on an organic farm
47. ace all of my post baccalaureate classes
48. gogo dance at a NYC club
49. take an intermediate level hiphop dance class with Luam
50. take a hiphop dance class with Eric J
51. stay on top of my reading, read a lot
52. Read the NYTimes most Sundays (accomplished!)
53. stay on top of writing in my journal
54. own a sex swing
55. teach kids to play chess/work with a Chess in the Schools program
56. start playing competitive chess again
57. make sure my parents are taken care of and happy in their golden years
58. love Earl! (status: ongoing!)
59. grow old with my beloved
60. get married and have it be a fantastic party
61. road trip on The Blues Highway, New Orleans to Chicago via Memphis and Nashville
62. write a book
63. ski at Taos
64. climb a tree and take photographs in it
65. camp on the beach for a week again
66. Take my mom to a broadway show (Accomplished, took her to Phantom)
67. be an old lady and wear lots of crazy hats all the time
68. do a running race in the desert
69. go to antartica
70. travel in South America from Mexico to Argentina on the PanAm highway either via roadbike or car
    
71. huck a 15 ft cliff while skiing (status: at about 6ft but have yet to really stomp a landing)
72. do Nurses or Doctors without Borders
73. have Linus train for and pass the Canine Good Citizens Test
74. do a race or join the NYC Harriers
75. go on a hot air balloon ride! (status: bought a gift certificate for Letchworth State Park balloons but have yet to make it up there for the weekend)
76. play chess for $$$ in Washington Square Park
77. play masters level Go (status: attended classes at NYC Go Center but am still on the small/training level)
78. see otters in the wild!!!!!
79. stomp grapes for wine
80. throw my parents a fabulous 50th anniversary party
81. be in a food-eating contest, could be for anything
82. eat a giant burger in Pennsylvania with Steve
    
83. do something really special to remember Nils other than drink PBR and tell stories about him with friends
84. do a few more alleycat races with the NYC Bike Messengers (we did Cranksgiving last year and it was so fun!)
85. have a Progressive Dinner with friends in NYC
86. Design a nice website for Danceswithcorgis.com (accomplished!)
87. write thank-you notes consistently. Forever. (status: accomplished, but ongoing)
88. never lose my sense of wonder
89. do a long ocean swim (status: registered for the 5k sea swim with Wendy, Brent and Jenny)
90. take Earl marlin fishing
91. hogtie Earl and tickle him mercilessly
92. take an across the USA food roadtrip, taking cue from Roadfood by Jane and Michael Stern
93. take a ride on Famous Fat Dave’s Wheels of Steel
94. continue the annual Apple Orchard Ride tradition!
95. check off more restaurants in my NYC-eatery checklist
96. go to Blue Hill at Stone Barn
97. pace my friend Nick at Leadville 100
98. visit 1 new country per year
99. skydive NOT tandem
    
100. make a tradition of going Bemelmans after every NYC black tie event (status: ongoing, but accomplished thus far!)
101. make my own pickles
102. ride the tractor on Earls parents’ farm
103. make more wreaths to hang up in the apartment
104. make pasta from scratch
105. go to Russia
106. take Earl on a date in the back of my old Tacoma
107. own a videocamera and learn how to edit (status: 1/2 accomplished)
108. keep working on these and checking them off as I go!

One of the books I’m currently working my way through is Goals! by Brian Tracy. This was recommended by hiker/explorer DonkeyLegs, whos hikes I had been following on the Appalachian Trail. Seeing as I had been in a bit of a rut, the 100 Goals list concept intrigued me.

One of the exercises in the book is to create a list of 100 things you would like to do in your lifetime, and no matter what you do not stop listing until you reach 100 items. So on a balmy summer evening this July, I enlisted Earl to join me and we sat on the patio under candlelight, splitting a bottle of wine while writing out our goals.

I was surprised at how easily the list came to me. I wrote furiously and quickly surpassed 100. Some goals were small and silly, others were big essential life-changing items. A few where X-rated and some were family oriented. Many where deep seeded goals which I have been harboring for years, whereas others struck my fancy right there on a whim. Very many of them are seemingly frivolous yet are surprisingly important to me. Happily, more than couple of them have already accomplished between July and today!

Later while perusing the web I also came across the website of Ian Usher, who earned international acclaim when he sold his life on ebay. He’s now continuing the momentum from his last endeavor and attempting 100 Goals in 100 Weeks. I poked around Ian’s site and was inspired how he listed his goals out in the open, upping the accountability factor. Ian’s website reminded me quite a bit of the style of my friend and triathlete Felix Wong, who posts of lists his goals and notes once they are accomplished. I’ve always admired Felix’s site and aspired to create something akin to his checklists. Aspects of each Ian and Felix site’s reminded me of why I initially started my Ironman blog, partially to document all the training out in the open and make sure I actually DID it all!

Paying homage to DonkeyLegs, Ian and Felix, I have posted my 100 Goals. A few of the more risque goals have been toned down with an editor’s eye for this site. Listing them all out was not only fun and rejuvenating, but also a bit grounding. It was almost as though creating the list helped center me closer to my purpose; I found myself reenergized and ready to start checking them off. I believe Brian Tracy would be proud!