2015 was spent being pretty jealous of seeing other people’s travel photos so I’m setting a new goal for myself to visit at least 5 new cities next year.
Not to say that I didn’t travel anywhere myself this year. I was frozen in New York at the beginning of this year, then got tattooed in New Orleans in the spring with my girls, went on a road trip to San Francisco for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and had a mini vacay in Portland too, but these are all cities I’ve been to before.
So far I don’t have a wanderlist for next year but I have a friend in Boston who has room for me. I’ve never been there before and it’s definitely somewhere I’ve wanted to visit though I’ve heard mixed things. I’m sure I’ll have fun though, I usually love new cities.
I’ve never been to our nation’s capital. It might be nice to go during the last year of Obama’s p/residency.  I think Sarah’s on the lookout for international travel for us which is probably the most exciting prospect. A friend suggested Stockholm to me which sounds great, I love the Swedes! Patrick might be traveling more in the new year, maybe Europe, or China, or SUNNYVALE so that could also bring opportunities for me to tag along.
Burning Man Temple 2009, Reprocessed 2012 by Michael Holden on 500px
There’s a part of me that’s afraid I would like Burning Man so much I would have to go every year until I die, which is why I still haven’t gone. There’s another part of me that is afraid I would hate it and the be stuck out there for five more days.
Today is my first day of 31. So far, it’s not anything spectacular: had a great dinner at Patina with Patrick, but there’s also been some unfortunate changes at work that happened this week and I’m slowly coming to the realization of what it means.
Now, let’s go back to a year ago when I was setting goals for myself and trying to make a big deal out of 30 (which actually wasn’t that big a deal because most of the time I can’t actually remember how old I am). I made a list of things I wanted to do last year. Like an over ambitious new year resolution, it started out with a bang and lots of enthusiasm, but then life caught up with me and I didn’t care so much anymore.
Here’s what I did end up doing:
1. Swim with a Beluga (or some kind of up close and personal experience) 2. Steampunk Party
Aircaptain Cooper
3. Get a scooter 4.Host a masquerade party
Mysteriously Masked Me
5. Learn how to sail 6. Disneyland
R2-DME
7. Do laughing yoga
8. Learn how to drive manual
9. Indoor skydiving
10. Visit http://www.skyzonesports.com/ (caution: this site has auto play sound)
11. Have a Thanksgiving feast (not on Thanksgiving) 12. Kayak in Hawaii
KAYAAAAKIN’!
13. Dim Sum Party! 14. Travel overseas (Hong Kong? Europe? Bali?)
We traveled over an ocean. That counts, right?
The view from Diamond Head in Honolulu, HI
15. Make and eat a pizza (being really ambitious here)
I made myself a pizza
16. Get a goldfish!
17. Host a private screening of a movie in a theater (http://www.dickclarkproductionstheater.com/)
18. Screen an old movie (with a projector preferrably) and wear clothes from that era 19. Ride a train to a destination outside of L.A.
This is Ann and I, en route to Memphis from New Orleans
20. Visit a museum
21. Go on The Price is Right (kind of dreading this, actually) 22. Make a movie -Â I shot and directed this:http://instagram.com/p/ghMxcGrSIx/
23. Have a big Chinese family dinner gathering at parents’ house 24. Do a factory tour (of anything: donuts, tortillas, furniture, cars)
We toured the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in St. Louis. Missouri
25. Go to a farm or petting zoo
I touched this cute lil guy!
26. Celebrate at a barcade (Dave and Buster’s or other arcade/drinking/dining environment)
27. Learn CSS 28. Visit New Orleans
Ann eating a real beignet from the real Cafe Du Monde
29. New tattoo in a new city
I was this close to getting my feet tattooed in New Orleans
30. Go to Graceland
I’m going to Graceland (Graceland), Memphis, Tennessee.
Tomorrow though, Patrick and I embark on an 11 hour flight that will take us to a very far place on the globe, Hong Kong.
So I was running yesterday (1.5 miles on a treadmill – this is really amazing for me) and was thinking about what I wanted to do with this year. I’ve come up with some new guidelines for living and got really excited about them because I think they are things I can commit to and can definitely achieve. Very much like my 24 books in 12 months goal: even if I don’t hit the end goal, I’ll still get pretty far and that’s just as good.
So without further ado, here they are:
– I will be active every day. Most days this means gym, but I will also start using my cheapo Reebok pedometer to make sure I am meeting that 10k steps/day min.
– No meat on weekdays (very lax on this one as I’ve been eating lots of fish this week)
– Brain training. I’ve started using Lumosity and it’s kind of interesting, supposedly it’s exercises to improve neuroplasticity. I’m only on day four so we’ll see how I feel after about a month. I’ve also started using DuoLingo to teach myself Spanish.
Soon I’ll have conversations *worth* having.
– This will be the year of blog. I will blog once a week. I will also learn how to fix this WordPress template.
– 12 items, 12 months. I’m bringing this one back. I want to save money so I’m only allowed to buy one new article of clothing (including shoes and purses, excluding bras, panties and socks).
I’m pretty sure I thought of more on that 15 minute mile but I think those are probably the most significant ones.
Not sure if I’m supposed to run or play dead so I’ll just act like a fast zombie.
Getting back into the swing of things! (posting I mean) I’m in Hawaii and I’m on vacation (also accomplishing the “travel overseas” and the “kayak in Hawaii” items on my 30 for 30 list). I made some observations while here on Oahu:
Waikiki is full of young Japanese families. This means lots of new parents with cute, fat little babies everywhere.
Those Japanese families like to shop, and not just shopping at say… Target or Banana Republic but like, Coach, Ralph Lauren, Armani shopping.
Marketing for shooting ranges in Waikiki is like “escort” advertising in Vegas. Why are there so many shooting ranges in the tourist area?
Japanese restaurants are in abundance (duh)
Coconut syrup is greatness. I might get some from Amazon.com just to show everyone in LA how good it is.
