An Experimental Life

Monday, April 09, 2007

The Überlist

It's my birthday today. I'm 27!

I found it hard working up the enthusiasm to celebrate this year, although I'm having a get together in a couple of weeks with some friends (everyone was busy over Easter, and next weekend I'm away). Not sure why I can't get excited, but it felt very strange waking up to an empty house on my birthday, which I'm not sure I've ever done before. My parents are off house-sitting for some friends, so it's just me here. And the ultra-demanding cats. And 8 rabbits. Fun, fun, fun. Family dinner tonight though, which will be nice.

One thing I have always liked doing is setting goals for myself. And I tend to take stock on my birthday of what I've achieved with my life and what I still want to, everything from major goals like 'see the world' and 'find love', to the rather more mundane, like 'buy a new handbag'. I usually make a few New Year's Resolutions each year, but for 2007 I actually made an Überlist, which is more like a year-long list of things to accomplish. Or, as one website described it - like New Year's Resolutions on speed. What started as a super-cool idea by a few bloggers about a decade back has now taken the blogging world by storm. Like millions of others, I am jumping on the Über-bandwagon. It's a pretty big list, but hey, I'm not getting any younger so I have to fit more into each year! It's 107 things to do in 2007.

So this was the list I made shortly before the end of 2006 (things in bold are done, things in italics I have made some progress towards). Oh, and yes, I am so incredibly anal that I even arranged them into categories...

Clothing, Fashion, Accessories
1. Buy a new handbag
2. Mend jeans
3. Buy a new pair of sandals - yes, but now I’m allergic to them! (Apparently I'm allergic to the chrome in leather tanning solution. Yep, it sucks.)
4. Get properly fitted for a GOOD bra

5. Start wearing heels for going dancing
6. Buy a cool swirly skirt (yes, bought 2 actually!)
7. Buy some nicer tops for going dancing (yes, but hopefully will get more)
8. Find some nice jewellery that suits me - well, I think it does. AND I even made it myself!
9. Buy a nice jumper or jacket (well, it's more a coat, but it's what I needed)

Health, Fitness, Beauty
10. Do each New Vogue class at Star Studios at least once (so that includes Carousel, Tracy Leigh Waltz, La Bomba, Barclay Blues, Excelsior Schottische, Twilight Waltz, Swing Waltz, Lucille Waltz and Tango Terrific.)
11. Walk to work at least 3 days each week for a month - I probably did it for about 3 weeks, but now I’ve decided I prefer to drive since it means I can come home for lunch. Plus, I prefer to walk when I don’t have to carry anything.
12. Ride 500 km on the exercise bike before I go overseas.
13. Go to the dentist (though I do have to go back once more in August).

14. Get a pap smear
15. Wash face with a cleanser more often (I paid enough for expensive products, I might as well use them!)
16. Get legs waxed - yes, for the first but also the last time! Never again.
17. Go to the optometrist
18. Look into getting contact lenses for going travelling (maybe) - I think I've decided not to worry about this one.
19. Drink more water
20. Get to a size 20 - I made it! Well, I'm now an 18 in jeans, and sort of an 18-20 in tops. And still going down...
21. Get to bed before midnight every night for 2 weeks - I probably came close when living in Vancouver

Food
22. Experiment with at least 6 new recipes - made a chilli pork stir fry, a Thai red chicken curry, a creamy chicken/mushroom pasta (with evaporated milk, not cream), couscous apple pudding, bircher muesli, and mini individual choc-mint cheesecakes - ALL RELATIVELY HEALTHY RECIPES, believe it or not!

23. Start cooking once a fortnight
24. Eat a piece of fruit everyday for 2 weeks
25. Stop eating McDonald’s/Hungry Jacks/KFC - I basically have. I think I've had McDonald's once since the start of the year
26. Take lunch to work at least 3 days each week for a month

27. Cut down on chocolate - I still have it maybe once a week or so, but small amounts at a time (not whole family blocks devoured during a movie!)
28. Discover at least 6 new eating places locally that do good, cheap food - well, local in Vancouver!

29. Choose a cook book out of the many on my shelf and make at least a third of the recipes (not really unhealthy ones)

Travel
30. Book flights for overseas (yes, except for several shorter legs. The round-the-world ticket is booked and paid for).

31. Book flights for Perth
32. Buy a backpack
33. Organise visas (finally!)

34. Organise some sort of work while overseas? Contact temp agencies etc.

Work & Study
35. Update my resume
36. Unenrol from the Masters course (well, not so much as unenrol as apply to graduate with the Grad Cert).


Skills to learn
37. Learn how to take better photos (and take more photos) with my digital camera

38. Learn how to use Photoshop
39. Learn how to use a sewing machine and make something
40. Start learning another language that I might find useful overseas - I bought a Spanish phrasebook with CD, so that’s a start (or it would be if I actually got around to listening to it!) 41. Learn 5 new jokes/stories and be able to tell them really well
42. Learn how to check the oil and water in my car

Art, Writing, Craft
43. Journal more often - both writing and art
44. Start using some of my massive collection of scrapbooking paper
45. Scrapbook photos of 1996 Europe trip
46. Scrapbook NZ photos
47. Finish NZ journal
48. Get into the habit of blogging once a week before going overseas
49. Mosaic a mirror frame for the bathroom as a present for Mum (for Mothers’ Day)
50. Make a piece of artwork other than journalling (just a small watercolour/pen sketch, but it's something)
51. Mosaic something - for me
52. Start using art supplies more (and stop buying stuff!!)
53. Make a watercolour palette with Sheer Heaven and Neocolour II crayons.
54. Find the perfect travel journal - a gorgeous leather-bound softcover book which was a present from Heather & Ross. Thanks guys!!

55. Make something with the marbled fabric I bought in January 2006
56. Do some more on my stained-glass-window cross-stitch
57. Go somewhere - park, café, beach etc - and journal for at least half an hour

Literature & Music
58. Go to more choral concerts - Tallis Scholars (Feb), Newman College (May), Kodaly Choral Festival (June), Vancouver Chamber Choir (twice - Sep & Oct), Musica Intima (Oct), Vancouver Cantata Singers (Oct), Phoenix Chamber Choir (Oct), Chor Leoni/Christ Church Cathedral (Oct), Valley Festival Singers (Nov), Chor Leoni (Nov), Laudate Singers (Dec), Seattle Chamber Singers (Dec)

59. Read 25 books - read 18: City of God (E.L. Doctorow), Year of Wonders (Geraldine Brooks), The Sunday Philosophy Club (Alexander McCall Smith), Choke (Chuck Palahniuk), Stranger on a Train (Jenny Diski), Odd One Out (Monica McInerney), Tales of the City (Armistead Maupin), Orpheus Lost (Janette Turner Hospital), Saturday (Ian McEwan), The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger), Games We Play (Simona Vinci), HappinessTM (Will Ferguson), The World According to Garp (John Irving), Icefields (Thomas Wharton), The Blind Assassin (Margaret Atwood), Choke Hold (Todd Babiak), Flat (Mark MacDonald), Girlfriend in a Coma (Douglas Coupland)
60. Go to a play - Julius Caesar at the 'Bard on the Beach' Festival in Vancouver
61. Listen (like, really listen) to one new piece of music each week
62. Buy an mp3 player and choose music to put on it that I will want with me overseas
63. Write more reviews for Amazon (and get back into the top 7000 reviewers - I know, hardly a high-status position, but with hundreds of thousands of reviewers, it's not bad).
64. Archive all the mp3s on my hard drive to CD
65. Read one book of the Bible each month

Social life & relationships
66. Have a fondue night with friends
67. Catch up with Josh for lunch

68. Get in touch with Lauren
69. Stay in touch more with Linsey, Larry and Amy
70. Stay in contact more with Ross & Heather
71. Make a new friend - lots of them at NYCA!
72. Do something fun for New Year’s Eve
73. Kiss someone (this one I wasn't expecting to happen!)
74. Go skinny dipping
75. Say ‘yes’ to every social invitation for at least a month (unless it clashes with something)

Money
76. Get $13,000 across various savings accounts (i.e. not including main account)

77. Cut down on buying books (considering last year's goal was to reduce my books by 10%, and I actually increased by about 15%!) - now that I'm overseas I've cut way down on buying books, but only because I can't carry them around with me everywhere!
78. Look into my superannuation and try to understand it (and make sure that I don’t actually have to DO something)
79. Donate $1 to a charity for every book I buy in 2007
80. Apply for a credit card

De-cluttering, tidying, sorting
81. Clear out desk drawers and make better use of the space
82. Sort through the top drawer of my dressing table and start using stuff like bath bombs
83. Stop leaving clean washing in the basket on my floor - hang it up!

84. Keep floor clutter free everyday for 2 weeks (only done because all the junk that lurked on my floor is now piled up on my desk. So next step is to clear the desk!)
85. Make bed everyday for 2 weeks

86. Sort through clothes and get rid of stuff I don’t wear
87. Organise the chaotic mess of shoes and bags in my wardrobe

Places to Visit
88. Do the Melbourne’s Golden Mile walk
89. Do a White Hat tour
90. Go away for a few days holiday in the new year (Torquay with Melissa)
91. Go to the beach more often
92. Go to the art gallery - yes, in Melbourne, Vancouver, Portland (and hopefully San Jose soon!)
93. Go berry picking

Other
94. Frame my degree (it's been 3 1/2 years!)
95. Frame my graduation photos (ditto)
96. Watch some 'must-see' movies - watched It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th St on Christmas Eve, both old American classics
97. Stay up to date with the few TV shows I watch (don't let the unwatched tapes pile up!)
98. Cut down on how much TV I watch overall
99. Go a whole week without TV

100. Sell some things on ebay
101. Get Concordis minutes & archives ready to hand over to the new secretary
102. Stop caring so much what people think of me

103. Learn to like myself - although no one ever likes themselves all the time, I think I've made enough progress with this this year that I'm going to count it!
104. Get less impatient with my mother (it's easier when I'm on the other side of the world!)
105. Complain less about being single - well, I don't think I've complained for a while...
106. Say ‘yes’ more - I've definitely been doing this and some good things have happened as a result!
107. Make another Überlist for 2008

I know some of these are really vague - I'm not quite sure at what point I could claim that #102-106 are done. And there are things on the list that I'm fairly sure won't actually happen this year (or maybe ever). But that's OK. It doesn't mean they shouldn't be on the list, I guess...

I'll try to keep updating progress throughout the rest of the year. Stay tuned!

List last updated 2/1/08

Labels:

2 Comments:

  • Ohhh, sorry! I missed your birthday. :-( Happy 27th birthday! That is one hell of a list. Nice to read you again.

    By Blogger Heather, At 8:51 pm  

  • Hi Heather, thanks for the comment and the birthday greetings! Sorry, I meant to reply sooner. Hope you're well, look forward to your next post too. Bron.

    By Blogger Bron, At 6:05 pm  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]



<< Home