One of my good friends, and mentor, is turning 60 this year. I spent a week with her over my holiday break in Boston. While I was there, we came up with a fun idea for her New Year's Resolution. The resolution? To do 60 things in honor of her birthday! (Full disclosure: this wasn't an original idea. A good friend of mine made his resolution last year to do 100 new things so I just swiped his brilliance. Thanks to him!)
I decided to honor her birthday as well and I have now made my New Year's resolution to do 60 things too! Then, as I shared this with my mom, she insisted that I blog about it....and now she has hopped on the band wagon! (Little Sister, you gonna join us? Howe Girls Do 60 Things!) In hindsight, it would've been better to start this in 2012, when I got to chill backstage with Aerosmith and Johnny Depp, have lunch with a secret celeb that I can't mention here, carry a float in the Hollywood Christmas Parade, and attend a black-tie event at Hollywood's famous Magic Castle. However, I am up for a challenge! Feel free to honor this brilliant idea...that I stole!
Oh, here are my rules. The events can be planned or spontaneous. I'm not too picky...it can be big or little but there should be a fun story to go along with it.
1. Photographed in the Celebrity section of the Boston Globe.
Granted, this picture was taken on New Year's Eve, but I count it because it wasn't published in the Globe until
after the 1st.
2. Bought an E-reader.
A Kobo to be more specific. I was against these for years. Then independent bookstores started offering the Kobo so I got me one from
Porter Square Books. It will never replace my obsession with real books but I am sorta loving it a lot, as the kind salesman at PSB warned me I might.
3. "Ran"
the stairs of Echo Park.
Echo Park is a neighborhood close to where I live in LA and they are famous for their hills...and stairs. A friend asked if I wanted to give it a whirl, I said yes, I almost died. Yes, I did walk a bit. That is totally fine with me, it stays on the list.
4. Visited Whittier, California.
You might not know this little suburb of LA but it is about a 30 minute drive east of where I live. I count this because a coworker lives there and has about an hour commute each way with the traffic and I give him shit about it all the time. Usually it goes something like this, "Whittier? Are you sure that even exists?" So I went. Woohoo!
5. Paid cash for an international flight.
Yeah, so I saved the money and used my debit card but that sucker did not go on credit. For those of you who know me, this is a big deal. I am the WORST with money and I am usually down to about a nickel left in my bank account at the end of the month. I would like to thank my last year's resolution,
getting my ducks in a row, for helping me accomplish this.
6. Was quoted in the LA Times.
This may be the year the whole world discovers me. Recently, it was reported that Dunkin Donuts was coming to SoCal. I despise DD and put up with it's nastiness when I lived in Boston. I happened to be home sick on the day they reported it so I sent out my disappointed tweet to the world, the LA Times folks liked it, they included it in their paper. That was about a week ago. Yesterday, a parent of a student came up to me and said, "Hey, nice tweet in the Times." Yep, I have arrived!
6. Hugged the world's biggest tree.
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| It is HUGE!!! |
Last weekend my college pal, Phil, and I decided to take advantage of the fact that we are both randomly located in SoCal and we traveled to Sequoia National Park. While there, we met General Sherman, the tree in the world with the most mass. (Something like over 2 million pounds.)
7. Visited King's Canyon National Park
This is where I show my true ability to stretch my own rules. King's Canyon National Park is just north of Sequoia National Park. We visited both parks...I am counting both on my list. Yep, I am. At King's Canyon I visited the world's third largest tree, General Grant. (Also known as the nation's Christmas Tree but I don't know why.)
8. Went snow-shoeing.
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I thought the snow-covered boulders in the
river looked like marshmallows |
Those of you who know me know that in addition to being terrible with money, I also avoid most winter activities. (I do live in the lovely/disgusting city of LA after all.) However, while in the mountains last weekend, the opportunity to snow shoe presented itself and I said, "Oh hell yeah!" P.S. I had an amazing time and would definitely do it again. Do I see a return to Buffalo in my future? Ha! No way!
9. Drank a Hot Buttered Rum
Also included on the trip-to-the-mountains. Never had one of these bad boys and I usually avoid rum due to an unfortunate experience in college (c'mon, we've all been there) but this sucker was delicious! It may have been the stick of butter that melted in the rum...
10. Completed my first crossword puzzle without any clues!
This morning, for the first time, I achieved a goal I set out to reach last year. My sister does the WaPo Crossword every day and last summer I jumped on the bandwagon. I even started getting up an hour earlier every day to get it done before school. Usually I try the "Master" mode, aka no red letters when you get one wrong, for as long as possible and then switch to "Regular" mode with red letters when I can't take it anymore. Yes, I know this is cheating. But today I did it. High-five me!
So, that is what I have done so far. Not too bad for the first month. I have a few things on deck that are planned. Here are things you can look forward to seeing later:
1. Disney. Never been, gotta do it.
2. Stay in a cottage in the Scottish Highlands. (Remember that plane ticket? It is for Little Sister's 30th birthday.)
3. Drive on the left side of the road...while in Scotland. Hehe.
4. Run an entire 5K. I have participated in races, just never ran the whole thing before.
5. Cupcake Decorating Class. Just need to sign up!
6. Learn to swim? This is a possibility. I haven't decided if I am going to but I think I kinda sorta maybe want to.
