To Be Read on 4/1/12

To the future me, from the past you...

“Growing up is never easy. You hold on to things that were. You wonder what's to come. But that night, I think we knew it was time to let go of what had been, and look ahead to what would be. Other days. New days. Days to come. The thing is, we didn't have to hate each other for getting older. We just had to forgive ourselves... for growing up.”

- The Wonder Years

It's 2012! (How weird does that sound?) And, hopefully, you've completed most of your 101 goals.

As I'm writing this, however, you haven't completed any. And yeah, that does suck. But I think these next 1,000 days are going to be AMAZING. I'm going to accomplish a lot (I hope), and while it's definitely going to be tough, I think I'm going to have a lot of fun in the process.

I'm particularly excited about goal #s 32 and 33, 65, 71, 72, and 73; and I'm definitely excited about #82 (going to Paris). I do hope you and Em actually took that trip! Or should I say take? I'm really confused as to what tense to write in right now... Anyway, #87 should be pretty fun and #92 should just be interesting.

If you've accomplished #3 (save $5,000), #35 (driver's license FINALLY), #46 and 47 (the two private ones), and/or #57 (buy or long-term lease a horse) - congratulations. Those were some tough ones, and I'm definitely very happy for you!

God, I wonder what you've learned from this all, and if it's been as much of an adventure as it sounds. Even if you've only completed a handful of those goals, I know that you've grown so much. It's weird to think of myself in your position, to think of where my life is going to be in nearly three years.

I hope, along the way, you got to do #s 80 and 59, as well as 18, 19, and 25 - or at least 24. Relationships like these are important in life, and even if it takes some effort and trouble to keep them alive, you should. Speaking of which, I hope you did visit Katie and cross off goal #28.

I hope you're still writing like goals 66-68 & 74 tell you. Maybe you've gotten pretty good at pop art after #s 69 and 70. Maybe you even made some money off of it (#9). Maybe you're a great artist or maybe you just suck; either way, it's good to know.

You're probably cooking for yourself now, and all those recipes you had to tackle for goal #10 are probably coming handing. I hope you're pretty good at making stuff from scratch, and cooking/baking for others, because that's pretty much what I intended you (us? me?) to get from this.

Think about your jobless, penniless self. Did you get any cool jobs? Make any money? And the girl who had to follow a recipe straight from the book... Are you a better cook? More confident? Think about the girl who loved her close, small group of friends. You'd better have made some new ones, but tried to prevent yourself from losing the old. "One is silver, and the other's gold," and whatnot.

Maybe you've learned to play poker (#36). Maybe you can sew (#51), or whistle (#52). You might be a great rider (#53-65), or a more random, creative person (#83-98, pretty much). Maybe you've given back to the world (#4-6, #95). But the goals that you've accomplished have left you a better, more fulfilled, more worldly person, whether you realize it or not. And as for the goals that went unfinished, they still have their fair share of lessons to teach you. Maybe a few of them will even be on your next list... because you'd better be making a next list.

I hope these last 1,001 days have been great- maybe even the greatest of your life! And I hope your next 1,001 go just as well.

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"We grown neither better nor worse as we get old, but more like ourselves."
-Mary Lamberton Becker

...One Year Later

Considering how I haven't updated this in over a year, it's safe to say that I have a lot to catch up on. Don't worry, I've still be working on my goals (although less vigorously than I maybe should have), and I have so many stories to tell. Rest assured that I will be posting frequently in these next several days.

I supposed a good place to start is with Goal #21, which would be The Scavenger Hunt. Way back in... October, was it? Yes, way back in October, our entire class decided to celebrate being high school seniors by having a team scavenger hunt the night before our last Spirit Day. 250 girls in about 50 cars speeding around and running around New Orleans in the middle of the night. In costume. Our group had to split into two teams, so we decided to be cowboys & indians. Just guess which team I ended up on.

I spent the night running around in my plaid shirt and sparkly cowgirl hat, proposing to Lucky Dog venders on Bourbon Street, searching graveyards for a grave with the name of me or one of my fellow cowgirls, dancing to Sandstorm in a grocery store parking lot, yelling "The British are coming!" down store aisles, jumping into freezing cold pools, and just generally wreaking havoc on the town. It was more fun than I'd expected, and at least where I come from, a scavenger hunt is pretty much a right of passage in high school. Unfortunately, we had to call it a night when all 250 of us showed up at Ihop (the ending point of the hunt) and tried to cram ourselves into one corner of the restaurant. The staff were not happy, we were not happy, and no one got breakfast. Oh well, it was worth it.

The Road Trip of Awesome: Small Town to Big City

Well, yesterday passed fairly uneventfully in terms of my birthday. Other than the five million facebook “Happy birthday!” messages and a small gift from my mom, we didn’t make much of a fuss about it. It didn’t event feel like my birthday; so much is going on that my head can barely stop spinning, much less recognize the fact that I’m seventeen. (Plus, it’s been a while since I thought of myself as sixteen, anyway.)

Anyway, as far as yesterday went, it was nice. We got up early in the morning, had breakfast on the run, and got to Washington & Lee University for a group information session. The guy who led that, Chris, was a character—tall and skinny with pinstripe black pants, a short-sleeved white button up, and a ruffled red bowtie; but if you’re thinking nerdy, he actually wasn’t. He was just… I don’t know, interesting. After Chris finished the information session, we toured the campus with Abbie. It was a pretty comical coincidence as both Abbie (“Abbie, not Abigail”) and I were in sweater-tops, floral skirts, and nice sandals. Although, other than Abbie and the moms, I was the only girl on the tour. It was maybe four guys and me, which in itself was kind of amusing, and might have been beneficial if I had thought any of them were cute.

Okay, I’m just going to come right out and say it: Washington & Lee is a quirky school. It’s like Mount Carmel for college kids, for one thing. Remember Sr. Camille Anne’s “High Five” speech? If you see someone in the hall and they’re less than five feet away, we say hi. Well, I got pretty much the same speech yesterday, much to my amusement. “If we make eye contact with each other, we smile and say hello.” Plus, it’s not much bigger than Mount Carmel and the professors and even the president of the school knows you. (If you’re a senior, apparently, the president has you over for dinner at least once during the year.) And you need to pass a swim test to graduate college. Oh my! I could go on and on, but that makes it sound like I didn’t like it—and I did. It’s a very pretty school with a great focus on education and a friendly, easygoing attitude.

After the tour, we took a carriage ride through Lexington. I always love carriage rides outside of New Orleans, because everywhere else but New Orleans uses horses instead of mules, and not to hate on mules or anything, but horses have so much more of a personality. Our driving horses were two black Morgan/Percheron crosses who were about sixteen and ready to settle into semi-retirement. In fact, I think we were their last ride as full-time drivers. Their names were Dick and Dan, and their human counterpart, the carriage driver, was named Angel. She had a smoker’s voice, lilted by a southern accent, and was absolutely nice, but had a little kick to her that made her completely at odds with her name. She was feisty and nice to her horses; I liked her.

The town, as we discovered even further from the tour, is absolutely charming. The houses have names, like in an Austen novel (like Mansfield Park ;p) or like something out of Wuthering Heights. And people knew the local pets by name. (Let me insert here that before the tour, we went to get coffee at a local little coffee shop and on the wall, there were rows of pegs where regular customers kept their coffee mugs.) Dick and Dan were pretty adorable, too. They were terribly confused when a delivery truck stood in their usual parking spot, and Dan never quite recovered, trodding along with a confused look on his face for the rest of his, and Dick the Chicken (who spooked at or at least curiously considered every little thing that crossed his path) was especially smart and had picked up a neat little trick. We had to stop at red lights every so often, and without fail, at every red light, Dick would start moving a half-second before the light turned green. As the green light on the other side of the intersection switched to red, the light makes a little clicking noise. Dick can apparently hear this click and has learned that it means its time to go. It never surprises me how smart these animals can be.

We were staying in Lexington last night and had nothing to do after the carriage ride, so we ended up eating lunch on the back patio of a little restaurant in a hill, doing some laundry at the local laundry mat (what an experience! I’ve never been to one in my life), did some shopping downtown, and then we hung around the pool, reading and soaking in the gorgeous scenery.

We left Lexington this morning, after a pretty nice breakfast on the front porch of our hotel, looking out past the brick archways onto the rolling green lawn. From there, it was only a two hour drive to Richmond, pretty miniscule compared to the twelve and five hour drives we’ve been used to. We got to Richmond at a little after eleven this morning and spent the afternoon exploring.

We ate lunch at Noodles, a little restaurant that sells (you guessed it!) noodles, and spent the afternoon shopping in Carytown and at Stony Point, both outdoor boutiques and brand-name stores on what they call the West End. Finally, we called it a day and headed back to the hotel. Tomorrow, we’ll tour the University of Richmond.

Until then, good night!

The Road Trip of Awesome: Car Trouble, Wild Turkeys, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding

There’s never a dull moment, not even on driving on the interstate through little foothills of the Smokies.

This morning, when we tried to pull out of Asheville, North Carolina, the car started to sound funny. The engine was stalling a little as it turned on, and as we had five hours of driving ahead of us, we didn’t want to take any chances and end up stranded on the side of the road. So, once we got the car started, we had to pull in to the Sears up the road from our hotel and let the mechanics take a look. Lucky we did, too, because by the time the men went to look at the car, the engine was so dead that it wouldn’t even start.

While our car was getting its check-up, we walked up the road to an iHop and ate breakfast. (Nutella crepes and ice coffee overlooking the mountains is wonderful.) Even the walk wasn’t too bad, despite the fact that we were practically walking alongside the highway. The weather up here is pretty cool in the morning (while New Orleans is getting a heat index of 110 back home). Anyway, an hour later, we had our car back, with a brand new battery, and were finally able to head out for Virginia.

We were cruising along the interstate, singing along to Disco Classics (plus me reading a chapter or two of Mansfield Park—Goal #37), when we saw the exit to Natural Bridge, Virginia. We hadn’t planned on making a pit stop, but we figured, hey, what else are road trips for? So we veered off the interstate and headed into another little mountain city.

What amuses me about the “Natty B”, as locals call, is that this gorgeous, completely natural stone crossway between two mountains has been around for millions, possibly billions, of years (as estimated by geologists), and humans think they can just stick a building up in front of it and charge you eighteen bucks to see it. I don’t get why people think they own every thing, but regardless, it was well worth the money. The bridge itself is both fascinating and beautiful, plus there’s much more to explore back behind the bridge. We stumbled across a recreation of a 1700s Indian village (complete with guides in costume!), and then decided to hike up the mountain some to see the Lace Waterfall. We figured, after yesterday’s phony waterfall, we might as well see a real one.

On our way up the mountain, we got to witness the rescue of a wild baby turkey. The flock of wild turkeys was crossing the creek when one of the babies got swept up by the current and was carried away by the creek. He finally lodged himself between a few of the rocks in the water, but the flock kept moving on. The mother kept calling back to the baby, but he was good and stuck, trying to flutter his wings helplessly, the poor thing. Luckily, a local hero happened to be standing by and gallantly climbed over the railing that lined the trail, pushed his way through the thin stretch of forest to the creek, where he braved slippery rocks and icy water to reach the bird. Meanwhile, the water was rising near the baby bird’s head, and had it not been for this heroic man, he would have drowned. But his white knight grabbed him (gently) from the rocks, crossed to the other side of the creek, and deposited the baby turkey safely on his banks. We can only hope that he’ll be reunited with his mother. But he’s better off either way, as death was slowly creeping up on him as he was in the water.

Once we finished our eventful detour to Natural Bridge, we continued on to Lexington. I must say, it is the most adorable little town. I was a little worried before we arrived, because small towns can be either hit or miss: terribly country or cute and quaint. Luckily, downtown Lexington is something akin to Stars Hollow, Connecticut. (The movie theater is playing three movies: Sex and the City, Prince of Persia, and Shrek 4.) And our hotel is a modern Hampton Inn in a historic little building. Everything here is reminiscent of a different century, but with a little modern twist.

After checking out what we could of the campus of Washington & Lee University, we stopped to eat dinner at Niko’s Grille, a family owned and operated restaurant, with a bit of everything on the menu but specializing in Greek food. And let me tell you, it was like stepping into the restaurant from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The married couple who owns it runs the register and makes friends with the customers, and their children wait the tables (along with some local help) and cook.

On our way out, we overheard a conversation between the couple owning the grille and a customer.
HUSBAND: Oh, this is your second time back here, huh? I don’t recognize you! I can’t believe it!
CUSTOMER: Yeah, I’ve been once before, and decided to come back.
WIFE, jumping in from across the room: Oh, yeah! He’s been in here before! You didn’t see him?

All in Greek accents, of course. (Except for the customer.) They can remember some faces, those two, and they have no problem pulling up a chair while you’re eating to chat with you. It was charming.

As for now, we’re back at the hotel room, getting ready for bed. Tomorrow, we tour our first college, which means getting up bright and early. Joy joy joy.

The Road Trip of Awesome: Whoa! A LOT has happened.

We left Atlanta early Sunday morning, stopping at mass along the way. And the mass alone has enough stories surrounding it that I fill a whole blog about it. We walked in to a mass on the feast of Corpus Christi that was said in both Latin and Spanish (you had the sense of déjà vu as the prayers went on), and then, at one point, I wasn’t sure if we were at a poetry reading or church. The priest was quite the performer, reciting a Corpus Christi-themed poem with all the rhythm and gusto normally given to Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven”. The ceremony went on for nearly two hours, and as there was no end in sight, we finally had to excuse ourselves before the final blessing. (This was after a “special treat” for mass that day, in which we processed around the church itself and then into and around the lobby and then back into the church to take our seats again.) After that fiasco, we were finally able to hit the road. Again.

The three and a half hour drive to Asheville was nowhere near as monotonous as the first stretch of the journey. The Interstate took us on a winding, forested path through the hills and eventually we entered into the Smoky Mountains themselves. True to their name, plumes of steam and fog billowed like smoke off the gigantic mountain faces, and the slow, winding roads turned into sharp curves up the mountain at seventy miles an hour. We went uphill and downhill and uphill and downhill for what seemed like ever, the car protesting all the way. It was kind of a relief to be able to pull off the interstate and turn on to the quaint, trafficky little streets of Asheville.

The city is adorable. It’s nestled in the hills and is filled with cute, quirky little districts. The historic district and downtown are definitely my favorites. The historic district has all the crisp, clean chain stores like American Eagle and Soma nestled into old brick buildings, while downtown is kind of like the French Quarter—not in looks, but in the strange, New Age shops, the homey cafes, and colorful people it attracts. Sunday evening, we decided to park in a lot downtown and walk the streets. (The traffic lights are such that it is faster to walk than to drive.) Even walking from one store to the next, you’re hill-climbing, though, and it’s a bit of a challenge. They’re huge on books here, though, and I even found a cute little zine stand that I checked out, which should count for Goal #44. While we were browsing one of the used bookstores right off Broadway, a summer shower hit out of nowhere, and we were caught in a furious little rainstorm. When the skies finally cleared, we continued exploring and found a cute little park on the outskirts of downtown, all cobblestone and ferns. All in all, it was a pretty nice night.

Despite yesterday’s bout of rain, the weather today was beautiful. Cool, almost, with no humidity and bright blue skies and those white, puffy clouds that always make me smile. We divided up our time today between getting lost and touring the absolutely gorgeous and somewhat famous Biltmore Estate. It was built in the 19th century and spreads out over 8,000 acres of mountains and hills and meadows and rivers. The Biltmore House and its gardens were both inspired by French renaissance architecture, and both look so reminiscent of the palace at Versailles that you can’t help but notice the influence. If you’ve ever seen the movie Marie Antoinette, you have some idea of what the Biltmore Estate looks like. The house itself is seven-stories tall, although the ceilings are so high in some rooms that there are only three or four main floors.

We spent an hour and a half in the Biltmore House alone. It reminded me of clue, as they have a Billiard Room and a Conservatory and an underground passageway that leads from one part of the house to the next. The library alone houses 23,000 books, and there are numerous other stocked bookshelves in the house. Plus, there’s a bowling alley, a swimming pool, and three kitchens. It’s pretty amazing, and pictures are coming soon. (Although, I left my camera cord at home, so they’ll have to wait a little while.)

Even once you leave the house, there was so much to do on the grounds that we were quite content to spend all day there. The Vanderbilts today have converted the old stable (all mode of stone and brick and wrought-iron) into a restaurant, so I ate lunch in what, about one hundred years ago, used to be a horse stall. The horse’s hay rack and water bucket (made of iron) and even the sliding doors of the stalls and the drains and pipes of that they used for washing the animals were all in tact. Later, I got to spend my time with some real horses, two huge Belgian Drafts with wide, innocent eyes and the sweetest personalities—Chester and Burt. They were down at the restored 1900s farm on the estate, along with a ram and sheep and roosters and baby chicks. I was in heaven.

We did quite a bit of hiking, both uphill and down, and even got suckered into talking a mile-long trail to see a “waterfall”—nothing more than a little splash of water flowing over the side of a bridge. Five miles of forest trails and one wine tasting(/grape juice tasting) later, we were ready to go back to the hotel.

I had to take an hour or so in the room to recoop before I had the energy to go walk through Asheville Mall, nothing nearly as exciting as Biltmore today. And tomorrow, it’s back on the road—to a new town and a new hotel, with more adventures. Heck, we’re so crazy we’ll even take on a new state!

At seven o’clock tomorrow morning, we’ll be sipping coffee and packing up the car, ready to head out of this place. Goodbye North Carolina, hello Virginia!

Lexington, here we come.

P.S. Click the title of this post to be linked to Biltmore’s website. Check it out, because it’s pretty awesome.

The Road Trip of Awesome: Green and Flat and Nine Hours Long

Oh joy untold! After nine hours on the road, we’ve finally made it to Atlanta, and are (hopefully) finished with the more boring part of our journey—which means, Let the Road Trip of Awesome begin!

We decided late last night that we were going to leave this morning, after I took the SAT Subject tests. So my day, in a nutshell, has been comprised of a one hour Literature test, a one hour History test, and nine hours in the car. But honestly, it was just a bit more eventful than it sounds.

I left New Orleans at eleven o’clock in the morning, Starbucks in hand, and radio turned up loud—jamming out to The Greatest Hits of Fleetwood Mac. We hit the Interstate for nine hours straight, stopping in or at least passing through all the major destinations between here and Georgia: Gulf Port, Mobile, Montgomery, Auburn, and (finally) Atlanta. The scenery was always green and flat, but there were some interesting sights: a Taco Bell “hiring if you’re smiling”, the outlet mall at Gulf Port, and the frat boys at Auburn. Finally, towards Atlanta, the route itself started getting a little pretty. The little round hills and tall, noble-looking trees beat green and flat any day.

Atlanta was a little tricky, because it has about a dozen lanes of highway curving through the city, and the GPS sometimes expects us to cross over about six of them at a time. Not going to happen, so we ended up taking a little scenic tour of Atlanta (purely by accident), and ended up finally pulling over on Pleasant Hill in north Atlanta. It’s eight o’clock at night New Orleans time (nine in Atlanta), and we’ve been driving since eleven. Plus, we’ve spent the day in four different states, so it’s understandable that we’re kind of tired.

Okay, that’s an understatement. To be honest, when we checked in to our hotel, we were downright delirious. (Someone couldn’t even figure out how to use the elevator at first. :p) I plan on staying right here in bed, with my sweatshirt, my iPod, and my book that I’m reading and not moving again until tomorrow morning. Because once we wake up, we’ve got three hours of driving to go. Compared to the nine hours, the drive to South Carolina sounds so easy.

And speaking of things that sound easy, I haven’t forgotten my hopes of accomplishing some of my 101 goals on this trip. I’ve been trudging through Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park all day (part of Goal #37) and the book is finally starting to pick up. Plus, I have big plans to knock out some other goals, like Visiting Katie (#28) and most definitely seeing two states that I’ve never seen before (#81). But I’ve done enough for tonight.

Until tomorrow… Arrivederci.

Cha-Ching

One of my goals that hasn't got much attention on my journey of 1,001 days would be Number 3--that is, Save $5,000. That's probably because I don't have a job, or any source of income, for that matter, and when the numbers in your bank account stay stagnant, there isn't really much to report. However, I got an interesting email yesterday that just may let me cross off that pesky little Goal Number 3...

I know, I know. As a general rule, emails "giving" you money are NEVER legitimate. So this may sound kind of sketchy, but bear with me, please! I entered a contest back in April sponsored by AllState. Basically, they were offering $2,000 to students who had encouraged safe driving in their communities, and as I am an active member of my local SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) chapter, I definitely help target teens on matters of safe vs. dangerous driving. I submitted my entry a little haphazardly and certainly at the last minute, and I wasn't really expecting to win anything. So you can imagine my surprise when, via email yesterday morning, I was notified that I was one of the selected winners of the contest--and have a fat $2,000 check headed my way. Hello, money!

Now, I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch, and I won't really say I've met Goal #3 until I have my brand-new, $2000 increase marked on my bank balance slip. But, in the meantime, things are looking pretty good! I got my dad (a CPA) to check it all out, and he says it sounds like I will definitely be getting my money--a little reward for all the work I put into my SADD chapter, this year. I guess it goes to show you that some good deeds do, in fact, get rewarded.

... But still. I can't believe I actually won two grand! How crazy is that?

If it looks like Open Mic Night and it sounds like Open Mic Night...

... It probably is Open Mic Night.

Well, Goal #97 specifically states "Go to Open Mic night at Starbucks," but you don't mind if I fudge a little on this one, do you? I hope not, because it's been forever since I've crossed off a goal, and the days are just ticking away. (There are 681 left.)

I went to an open poetry reading at a local coffee shop called The Fairgrinds (conveniently located across from The Fairgrounds racetrack, and sporting an all-too-appropriate jockey theme, as well!), which segued into an open "poetry to music" mic night. And don't be fooled--poetry to music is just a fancy word for song.

It was basically just a bunch of teenage girls drinking coffee and getting hit on by too-old waiters, listening to other teenage girls venting about life in rhyme and meter. There were funny poems, sad ones, rambling ones, pessimistic ones, cute ones... And I am not the biggest fan of amateur poetry, but I did enjoy the experience, and it even has me in a poetry-writing mood. Which is strange, if you know me at all, because I very much prefer prose. (This blog being case-in-point.)

It was an interesting outing, to say the least, but not really something I'd go to again anytime soon. At the risk of using a metaphor on the verge of a conceit, I'll say that my "Open Mic Night" was wasabi to the creative sushi. A good spice to have, but a little goes a long way.

Lookin' Like Hot Stuff

Well... How are we liking the new layout? I'm so ready for summer, and the colors of this place always reflect my mood. So yeah, we're a little bright and happy right now.

On the down side, I did a bit of math and figured out how many days I have left until Day One Thousand and One. Well, actually, me doing math is a bit of a joke. I actually plugged in the date on a handy dandy Time Calculator and voila! 682 days until my own, personal D-Day.

682 days?! That's a little less than two years for 86 goals. It's sounds both impossible and completely do-able at the same time... Either way, I know that if I don't get my derriere into action over the summer, I'm SOL.

Remember that Road Trip of Awesome I mentioned awhile back? Well, it's back on! And it's grown. Humongously. It's now something like the Road Trip of Total Epic Win, but that's it a bit of a mouthful, so I think I'll stick with the old name. I'll be blogging from the road this summer, it seems. From highway motels and latenight Waffle Houses. So this should be interesting.

I'm not going to give you the full outline of The Road Trip of Awesome just yet because A) that would be counting my chickens before they've hatched (let's not forget last time) and B) that would ruin the surprise of my blog posts all through the month of June. But I will let you know that I will have two blogs to be keeping updated, plus all the tons and tons of things that I will actually have to do on the road trip. So pay no mind if my posts get a little frantic.

But I will let you know that I will specifically be working on at least eight different goals on this Road Trip of Awesome, so be prepared for some major accomplishment here, folks.

Counting down the days till summer... It sounds so easy.

I Hate It When This Happens...

Don't you hate when you plan something, and you're super excited for it, and everything seems to be in place and then... BAM! Life happens, and everything turns out wrong.

Friday was an awesome day. It kicked off Mardi Gras, and the Butterflies of 2011 erupted into a complete and EPIC celebration after winning Gym Day: and I mean crying, hugging, screaming, and throwing paper hats into the air. We also second-lined out the gym with our Saints Super Bowl shirts and fist pumped like the champs we were.

And then, things took a turn for the worst.

Remember when I said that I had an adventure planned in which I would cross off several of my goals? Well, no more. I was planning the Road Trip of Awesome that would take eight days to complete and through which I would travel up the southeast. Because sure, it's February, but it's the SOUTH; certainly they won't be getting any bad weather.

Or so I thought. I bet the the wall of snow in Atlanta, Georgia is laughing at me right now. Of all the times for the road to be "unusually treacherous", it must occur on the one week of the year that I plan to do some driving. And to top it off, I am PMSing and in no mood to deal with planning a SECOND trip to make up for this one. I don't want to call and cancel tours or email family and say that we won't be visiting or tell my friends that, sorry, your weather sucks, so I can't come see. I'm more in the mood to say, "Screw you, Virginia." I'll stick to New Orleans. At least we have Mardi Gras, and the Super Bowl Champs, and good weather. And everyone here is in even better spirits than usual.

I plan to spend my week off cooking, and reading, and writing instead, so at least I'll accomplish something.

Ah well... So long to the Road Trip of Awesome, hello to the Week of Nothing...

Oh, hello, Blog. Long time no see.

Oh, God. It's about time I updated this poor blog. It's still decked out for the holidays, for God's sake! The red and green color scheme will have to change- soon.

And speaking of changes, there will be some changes to my goals' list! Reviewing my fabulous one hundred and one, I've noticed that I made a lot more progress this month than I'd thought. For instance, thanks to the Free Rice toolbar, I've easily donated the 50,000 grains of rice I needed to complete goal #95. Let's see... From the little research I've done, approximately 7,000 grains equals one serving. So if I've donated 100,000 grains, that means I've fed about 14 people. Not bad, but I think I'll keep donating.

I've also been trying out some new recipes for Goal #10, and I've stumbled across a cookie recipe to die for! You can use any kind of sugar cookie recipe (preferably drop cookies), make the dough, mix two parts sugar to one part cinnamon together in a bowl (alter to you taste), roll the individual balls of dough in the cinnamon-sugar, place on a cookie sheet, bake, and... Voila! Delicious Cinnamon Sugar Cookies, every time! I made four dozen batches last weekend, and my friends are still raving about them.

I'm making progress on a few more of my goals, but I think I'll save those for later. It'll give me something to blog about later- which I promise I will do again, very soon!

It's been HOW MANY days and I've only completed THAT MANY goals?

Well, my Christmas break is sadly over. I kind of bummed around, so I didn't get quite as much accomplished as I hoped. I did, however, try out three new recipes: Tabasco pickles, gingerbread muffins, and apple pocket pies. The pies were my favorite and were helped along greatly by some William Sonoma products; they were too cute for me to eat, so I sent them off to the owners of my horse barn for a merry horsey Christmas. I think the gift basket replaces Christmas cards, so that takes care of Goal #59. And, if you're getting technical, there was a card amidst the pile of pocket pies.

I only made one bow for Christmas before realizing that I needed a TON more red and green scraps if I was going to make any more... Unfortunately, all the Christmas ads ended up in the garbage, and that one lone bow was all that got made. But hey, it was cute.

I have however been killing this FreeRice goal. In the past month, I've earned about 48,000 grains, which (when combined with the 3,000 grains I'd earned beforehand) puts me over halfway to my goal of 50,000 grains donated.

One of my resolutions for 2010 is to cross off 50 more goals this year. Hmmm. We shall see.

By the way, in case you were wondering, today is Day 185.

Feeding A Hundred

"If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one." -Mother Teresa

Next to Thanksgiving, Christmas is the time of year when people seem to gorge themselves the most. Ham, apple cider, gingerbread, fruitcake, eggnog, candy canes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, nuts, custard, pie... Is your mouth watering yet? The holiday season seems to be the time to eat, and as Christmas Eve approaches, I'll be spending less time on the internet and more time in the kitchen. But not everyone is so lucky as to gorge themselves on my sugar-tabasco pickles or sweet potato souffle.

In fact, there are about 852 million people in the world this Christmas who will go hungry. 852 million. You and I cannot possibly feed 852 million people... But the World Food Program can. Or at least, they can try.

If you want to join me in helping the WFP feed those starving mouths, there is a very simple way to do it: click the title of this post ("Feeding a Hundred") and it should link you to freerice.com's Toolbar Installation page. Or you can simply click here: http://freerice.com/toolbar.php?utm_source=lp_banner Downloading this toolbar is free and easy, and for every five searches you run, freerice.com sponsors donate 2,500 grains of rice to hungry people; it takes almost no time and very little effort.

Of course, through the toolbar, you can only donate up to 5,000 grains a day. If you're interested in contributing more, or just don't want another toolbar cluttering up your internet page, you can spend a little more time earning rice by playing the games at freerice.com. There, you donate as much rice as you want by submitting correct answers as you are quizzed on subjects of your choice. Improve your English grammar or vocabulary; learn some Italian, Spanish, French or German words; test your knowledge of geography, basic math, or the periodic table. You can even learn some famous paintings while you're at it.

I've made it a habit to "waste" extra time on the Internet on freerice.com when I'm bored rather than playing FarmVille or browsing bumper stickers on Facebook. If I'm at a loss for something to do, I just head over to Free Rice and start accumulating grains. For me, it's more than reaching some goal before my deadline's up; it's about making the lives of others easier to live, in any small way that I can.

So, Merry Christmas, everyone! Enjoy your holiday meals-- and, maybe, I'll see at FreeRice.com?

"I don't think I can explain this in any way that would make my parents believe me..."

Maybe you've never heard of the worldwide treasure hunting phenomenon that is Geocaching. If so, that's okay; I hadn't heard of it either until I began my 101 in 1001 project. In looking for random, fun things to put on my list of 101 goals, I came across geocaching.com and, without any real understanding of how the treasure hunt worked, slapped it on my list as Goal #86.

Last night, my friends and I finally decided to find out what geocaching is really about. We headed to the website and, after reading up on the details, decided to finally try it out for ourselves: at ten o'clock at night, on one of the coldest winter days on record. Four girls and a boyfriend.

So here's the gist: we each brought an object to place into the "cache" that we would make. I brought a ring and a bouncy ball; my friends put in eyeliner, and an oversized stuffed fish that probably shouldn't have been able to fit in such a small container, among other random objects we had found lying around. We closed our cache, which was, by decree of geocaching.com, an airtight, waterproof container. We were then ready to hide our geocache, but that wasn't all we would do: we were also going to find some hidden treasure of our own.

Now, geocaching is set up to work by GPS. The coordinates of each cache is recorded online, and it's cachers jobs to find the containers hidden at each location. When you find it, you can take something out, but you have to put something else in to replace it. Then you put it back in its hiding spot and let some other cacher find it. The key to finding the cache is the GPS coordinates, because while the geocache may be hidden, the GPS lets you know that you're looking in the right spot. Our only problem was that last night, we didn't have a GPS with us.

We ran around for hours in the dark, trekking across busy highways and deserted parks in search of the "sketchy door" where the cache we were finding was supposedly located. We nearly got arrested not once, not twice, but three times as we waved our flashlights into gaping holes in the ground shouting, "Is that the box?" We stopped at green lights and ran from strangers and dashed into oncoming traffic and jammed out to music and made illegal u-turns and waved to hobos and finally, finally found the box. Or rather, film canister.

And it was empty.

All right, fine. Not empty. But all it had was a list of the people's names who had found the box before us. Somehow, we weren't disappointed. We were just happy that we had found our box.

And so as we replaced the canister and hid the geocache of our creation, there was a spirit of triumph in the air. And then my friend Frenchie turned to me and said with a laugh, "I'm sorry my fish was too big."

The Greatest Time of Year

Well, the site has been made over for Christmas! I have time to do that now, since my novel is officially complete! That's right! 50,000 words in only 29 days this time! But I've got to move on to other goals before I get a sunburn basking in this triumph.

Lately, I've been volunteering at Rescue Ranch, a rehabilitation/adoption center for abused horses, in tune with goals #5 and #11. That means dodging the hooves of angry stallions and mucking out empty stalls while I jam out to the country station. Seems like a lot of work for only one volunteer hour a week. But I'll get my 125 hours one way or another.

I've also finally gotten a job, although I don't think it really counts for goal #2. I landed a gig babysitting for two grammar school cheerleaders and their six-year-old little sister. I can't really tell you if that's better or worse than volunteering at the horse shelter, but I do know that it at least pays. Goal #3, here we come...

And with Christmas cheer in the air, I'm getting ready to tackle several goals during the holiday season. I plan on volunteering at the retirement home over Christmas break (#4) and baking some holiday treats for my family and friends (#10 & 15). It's also the time of year for hot chocolate at the barn (#16) and stocking stuffers for my equine friends (#17). And as the presents and Christmas cards go out, I should be able to manage Goal #59 and at least some of Goal #18. Plus, all those presents need bows! (#76) It's also the time of year for spontaneous kindness, and I figure over the two week break that I get from school, I can fit in some Random Acts of Kindness (#83) and inspirational post-it notes (#88) and maybe even some more free rice (#95).

Now, I doubt I'll get to all of these in the 20 days left in the Christmas season or even the week or so that I have off following it, but if I at least get to half of them, I'm in pretty good shape for the New Year. And from there, who knows?

NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul

It's official. I now automatically check my word count on anything I'm writing every fifteen minutes. Like clockwork. Even on school essays.

I don't think I can last much longer. My novel, The Duct Tape Conspiracy, has no plot, and I have ten days to write 25,000 more words. FML. But at least my novel is amusing...

"This waiting game, she didn't like it. What was she supposed to do? Twiddle her thumbs and pretend that nothing had happened? But she had just pulled off the greatest heist in duct tape history! Someone, somewhere out to be talking out it.

Caden let out a frustrated huff. 'I need muffins.'"

"I'm so glad that you're singing softly to yourself. It really makes my ears bleed."

"I dressed up as Mayor Ray Nagin and gave a speech promoting the reinstitution of slavery."

"They're called the TIE DYE Police. ...They're way scarier than they sound, I swear."

"I'm not inviting y'all over anymore if Mr. Glitter keeps ending up in the freezer."

Only Americans would think to feed the world via internet

I decided to devote this morning to Goal #95 Donate 100,000 grains of rice to freerice.com. With a little less than 4,000 grains donated since the beginning of the 1,001 days, I'm sorely behind. But there's still time to complete this goal, and learn somethings while I'm at it.

Let's see what I've picked up today...

1,170 grains of rice

And I learned a something--how awesome of a word is tomfoolery! I think I'll have to incorporate that into my NaNo novel.

And I think that it's the first time I've felt alive

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."

If I could have it my way, I'd never leave the back of a horse. There's something about the way they move that's indescribable. But it's sensational. It's almost like flying; it sets your soul free.

I love it when I'm jumping my horse and we're soaring through the air and dancing around the turns. The first time you fly over a fence of any decent height, you'll understand. It's empowering. Suddenly, the ground is no limitation to you. All you have is sky, and adrenaline, and this strange sense of peace. The only boundaries you have left to break is how high and how fast you can go.

And today, when I rode, I pushed these boundaries even further.

I didn't think I'd ever gallop until I moved out of the city. Arenas stuck in the middle of suburbia aren't made for galloping. Besides, everyone here is so hunter-focused that speed like that is rarely called for. But jumper lessons are my time to fly, and today, I was finally able to hand-gallop.

My horse is a jumper at heart. I never thought I'd have to kick him at the canter. But one swift kick and we're changing gears, charging forward like a mighty Crusader. Faster, faster; higher, higher. The jumps are raised, and we're rocketing over them, fences that look like mountains to this wide-eyed hunter. The usual 2'3" morphs into 2'6" and glides into 2'9" and suddenly I'm jumping more than half my height, leaping over oxers and through bounces like a ballerina from The Nutcracker. It was graceful and exhilarating all at once.

Sure, I'll soon be back to my hunter turns and pristine posture, but for just that one hour, I was able to melt away my old reality and create a new one: one who flies without wings, and leaps without fear.

So long, Goal #65. It's been a blast.

Aaaand we're back!

Phew. My computer's been struggling with a virus for the past week, but it seems to be pretty much over it now. Thank goodness.

There's been some progress on a few goals, namely:
#7 Volunteer Hours - Worked a school fair (the stuffed animal booth) and dealt with whiny children for three hours and plastered on a smile for my school's open house for five hours, bumping me up to 85 volunteer hours. Only 40 more hours to go... Good Lord.

#11 Cook with something purchased at the Farmer's Market - I made an incredibly delicious caprese salad with freshly picked tomatoes. Delicious. You have to try it.

#13 Bake a tie-dye cake - I didn't realize this was actually a goal in and of itself when I blogged about this a few weeks ago. Turns out, I crossed off a goal.

And, as there are 15 (I think) days until November, I'm focusing solely on NaNoWriMo now.
Novel: The Duct-Tape Conspiracy
Genre: Adventure/Comedy
Characters: 1 (and counting)
Words: 0
Cups of Coffee Drank: 0
Nervous Breakdowns: 0

Let Your Imagination Rain

To me, October is nothing more than a head start into November. And November is the one month of the year when I am truly free to be myself. November, to me, does not mean the New Moon premier, Thanksgiving, or my sister's birthday (sorry, girl!). November means one thing and one thing only: NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month.

I discovered NaNo a few years ago, and the idea of a month dedicated to writing a novel piqued my interest. I was one of those people who always said, "One day, I will write a book". But I'd never finished any short story, let alone a 50,000 word novella. I was also put off by the "No plot? No problem!" slogan adopted by NaNoWriMo. I thought, What's the point of writing a novel with no plot? The things I had read about NaNo were fairly misleading.

But NaNoWriMo is not some structureless "churn out 50,000 random words" kind of thing. It is very much an event where you will get out of it as much as you put in. November 2008 (yes, last year) was my first time participating in National Novel Writing Month. November 2008 was also the start of the biggest journey of my life.

I put my heart and soul into November last year, and The Circular Path, my complete, coherent, first-ever novel, is the least that I got out of it. I went from an insecure, over-critical, dubious girl with one scene in my head to strong, passionate dreamer who has tapped into a well of creativity. NaNoWriMo taught me who I was, not just as a writer, but as a human being. Through NaNo, I discovered the essence of me: the core of my fears, the heart of my longings, the source of my passions. I began to see the person that I was, the person that I am, and the person that I want to be.

That journey- the journey of disovering me- is far from over. In fact, it's going to restart again, more vigorous than ever, in just 27 days. Just being on the NaNoWriMo homepage fills me with a sense of peace, of pride, of invincibility. It fills me with the sense of being me.

All hail the thirty days and thirty nights of literary abandon.