The year is half over already! I set some hefty goals for myself in February. Two things inspired my goals for this year. The first was a small, but significant breakdown regarding a heartbreak and the dilemma of non-fair-trade socks*. The other was a friend’s husband’s blog, The Art of Nonconformity, by Chris Guillebeau (which I highly recommend!).
Mostly my goal was to be happy where I am, content in the space I dwell in—physically, spiritually and emotionally. They involve money savings goals and reading goals. Mostly they were an effort to feed the travel monster that often takes over my brain, but also learn how to love the place I am in, which for now is Seattle.
2009 Goals…the tally so far
One New Café Each Month
February: Irwin’s, Wallingford
March: Zeitgiest, Pioneer Square
April: The Crumpet Shop, Pike Place Market
May: Elliot Bay Café, Pioneer Square
One New Restaurant Each Month
February: failed!
March: Canterbury Inn, Capitol Hill
April: Fishermen’s on the Pier, Downtown
May: Homegrown, Fremont
One New Thing Each Month
February: Volunteer Park and Greenhouse
March: went to a play “The Mistakes Madeline Made” featuring Taylor Maxwell (co-worker and friend)
April: Seattle Underground Tour & Ye Old Curiosity Shop
May: Discovery Park (same day the bear was seen...)
Read 50 Books This Year…count as of today: 14
A River Runs Through It, Norm Maclean (read if and fall in love…I’m just warning you)
If Grace Is True (did not enjoy at all)
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer (best book of my year so far, maybe my life)
The Audacity of Hope, Barak Obama (slow going, but made me want to be in politics, HA!)
“Vanity Fair”, Feb Issue (new president meets pages littered with pictures of a young Paul Newman…brilliant!)
Spilling Over, Sabrina Ward Harrison (under the topic of faith, “talked to $*@(#, survived.”)
Mountains Beyond Mountains, Tracey Kidder (made me want to do something with my life, like change the world)
Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller (an oldie but a goodie…more religious than I remember but a wonderful bridge to expanding faith and thought.)
The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (SO GOOD! Big Bird will never cease to teach me new and valuable lessons about life.)
Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke (I think I will read this book every day for the rest of my life)
In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan (by day three I had finished half the book and completely changed the way I eat)
Blink, Malcolm Gladwell (amazing! Again! Loved it from the first word, which is what the book is all about.)
A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway (this might actually be my favorite book ever. It changes my life every time I read it. “My words would become something that would have to be destroyed and sometimes, if possible, me with them”)
Grace (Eventually), Anne Lamott (no better way to explain my love for her than saying I call her my Guru. We all have so much to learn about gentleness, love and chaos. She embraces them all.)
Other goals for my life this year include but are not limited to…
One trip out of the United States of America: Canada Extravaganza ’09! June 21st-July 5th.
Getting my health figured out: Kidney stones, check!; cavities, processing; Migraines, procrastinating; Wisdom teeth, end of the year.
Starting College: procrastinating…
Take up four new hobbies and loving old ones: mostly I’ve just been focusing on writing and reading, which are really all I like to do anyway.
Starting a blog and letting the world see this part of me: Obviously, this is well underway.
There are seven months left of this new year! Get started on your own list!
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*ps. Chris' wife, and a friend of mine, Jolie, is an artist of many mediums. She knits socks and I couldn't decide if I should by the fair trade socks shipped to Seattle from South America or buy some from her. The dilemma came in when I realized that in order to pay her a livable wage for the socks they would cost 100's of dollars! This should not have stressed me out, but it did.
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