Listing

Over the years I have made many, many lists.  I looooooove lists.  Currently I am working on a list of goals, I guess.  Now that I have successfully accomplished the whole Bachelors Degree thing, I need to figure out what I want to do next.  If I don't I'll end up eating bon-bons and watching soap operas.  So here's a few of the things that are currently on the list of things I want to do.

Things I Want to Do

1.  Read.  A lot.  Done and done.  I have 2 current goals in this category: a) to read all the books I have checked out from the library, and b) to read all the books I own.  The hard part of this is that I keep adding more books to both of those goals, making it an endless process that can never be completed.  However, I'm trying to become a little better organized on this front and maybe I can make some headway.  I've been turned on to a site called GoodReads which is amazing, though I am still figuring out how to navigate it.  I'm hoping to create a couple of lists on the site to help me keep track of the hundreds of books I currently have floating around.  You can check out my profile at http://www.goodreads.com/profile/stephaniemblack .  


2.  Learn a language.  I'm not overly picky about which language.  I've been particularly interested in Russian, Gaelic, and most other totally useless languages.  Husband would love for all of us to learn Mandarin together.   Fortunately, my library offers a really cool language learning feature on its website. Unfortunately, none of the aforementioned languages are offered.  So my new goal is to learn Latin American Spanish.  


3.  Take classes.  Lots and lots of classes.  I never want to stop learning.  I am interested in just about everything.  Even things I didn't think I was interested in, it turns out I am.  I'm hoping to start finding all those free discussions and classes that the library and other community establishments offer and taking advantage of them.  Non-profits are fizzling out, they just don't have any support by the people or by the government (at least around here), so it's important to take advantage of all the cool programs they offer while they can still offer them.  


4.  Bake my way through Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook.  I have wanted to do this since I got the book in 2005.  Just start at the beginning and bake every single recipe.  I'm thinking rather than try to do a new recipe every day, maybe one a week would be more practical.  The recipes aren't exactly low-cal, and they often call for ingredients that are either difficult to find or expensive (or both), so trying to rock through it too fast is just going to make me even fatter than I already am, and even poorer.


5.  Get active.  I have got to be one of the laziest human beings in the world.  I bought a Wii Fit, thinking if it was for a video game I might actually move around a little.  That lasted about two weeks.  My goal is to do something other than sit in front of my computer or behind my book or whatever it is I'm sitting with.  I just need to stop sitting.  There are two physical things I have always wanted to do: Kickboxing and Yoga.  I'm not too interested in much else.  But kickboxing would very clearly kick my ass currently.  So I think this goal needs to be broken up into many smaller goals.  Mini-goal number one:  just move for thirty minutes every day, even if that means just pacing back and forth across the house.


So there we have it.  Top 5 goals of the day.  I'm sure I have a lot more to add to it.  Which is good because if we're not striving for goals, what are we really doing?  I encourage anyone who may be reading this to think about what you would like to accomplish, and do something small to get yourself on the way to that.  Until next time, happy listing.