The 101

The Mission
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

For your consumption, a list of 101 things I would like to accomplish over the next 1001 days (my last day: April 12, 2011). Putting this list together was an exercise (it took a day, and 7 pages of a legal pad). Upon putting together the final draft, I realized that the list paints a little picture of me. Perhaps it's me as I would like to be by the end of two-and-three-quarter years, but that counts for something.

I'll be maintaining this blog (at least once a week, according to the list) with updates about The List. And I'll make a spreadsheet to help me track how I'm doing along the way.

This feels like a scientific experiment. And like I'm under a microscope, or in a Petri dish. But I don't mind it, since it's mostly me doing the inspecting.

[Note: I'm not sure why some links are displaying different than others, but nearly every one of my list items should lead you to a longer description of itself.]

I only have one body. I better treat it right.
  1/  Complete 5 hours of exercise a week
  2/  Get down to 105 lbs.
  3/  Maintain goal weight
  4/  Improve posture through exercise, practice
  5/  Increase running distance from 2 to 10 miles
  6/  Participate in a 5K
  7/  Do 10 (full) pull-ups in a row
  8/  Get killer abs before I have a baby
  9/  Maintain a subscription to Women's Health and: do one new exercise from it a week; cook one recipe from it a month
10/  Take my vitamins every day
11/  Drink 3 glasses of red wine each week
12/  Drink my 64 ounces a day
13/  Go without dairy for one week
14/  Go without dairy for one month
15/  Go a week with having only fruits for dessert
16/  Go a month with having only fruits for dessert
17/  No more sunburns!
18/  Floss every day

Oh, how I enjoy solitary moments, especially when there's coffee.
19/  Read one book a month
20/  Spend at least one day a week not staring at a computer or television screen
21/  Take modern dance classes
22/  Spend one evening or morning a week at a coffee shop
23/  Go one week without visiting a pop blog
24/  Go one month without visiting a pop blog
25/  See one movie a month by myself (with Whoppers. The candy, not the meat treat). If the box office is less than stellar, choose a reasonable alternative (visit a museum, a poetry slam, etc.)
26/  Get an iPod Touch
27/  Frame Poppop's letter to One-Year-Old Me
28/  Learn how to snowboard ... without falling on my rear
29/  Get fully pampered at a spa, followed by a fancy dinner with Patrick (in a new dress. That is, me in a new dress, not Patrick.)
30/  Spend a weekend on a solo retreat
31/  Pay off student loan (depending on how house-buying and baby-having go, this may have to be tweaked)
32/  Pray
33/  Practice yoga in a class setting
34/  Attend a ball (preferably a masque)

I better never stop learning, or become unwilling to teach.
35/  Applescripting
36/  Become an Adobe Certified Instructor
37/  Improve my Spanish-language skills
38/  Be on the hunt for and read blogs/books written by people whose accomplishments inspire me
39/  Teach an editing class (redefine this goal if obstacles are too great)

Get some culture, will you?
40/  Attend a lecture series
41/  See a local theater production
42/  Attend at least one live music show a season

There's something to be said about doing it yourself.
43/  Maintain at least weekly blog entries with updates about my 101
44/  Create a spreadsheet to track the 101; create individual spreadsheets for any relevant list items
45/  Set up a user-friendly system online for my list-making and -keeping
46/  Create a blog on lindsaydurango.com; integrate The 101
47/  Knit a blanket
48/  Knit a sweater
49/  Knit socks
50/  Make scrap-paper art once a month
51/  Take my film camera on all vacations; take at least one roll of film for each trip
52/  Create a cookbook for my homemade recipes

You, me, us.
53/  Join a knitting group
54/  Join a book club
55/  Write an e-mail a week to an old friend
56/  Send one handwritten letter a month
57/  Host two parties a year
58/  Send out a care package once every two months
59/  Surprise Patrick with flowers
60/  Surprise Patrick with a weekend trip
61/  Write Patrick a love letter
62/  Call friends and family once a week to catch up
63/  Play Wii with Patrick once week
64/  Be a good blog friend (read! comments!)
65/  Spend a day cooking for Patrick
66/ Brush Tita (and Simian, if he lets me) once a week

We've only got one planet. We better treat it right.
67/  For at least one continuous month, eat only locally produced food (whether at home or out at a restaurant)
68/  Slowly reduce consumption of packaged and disposable goods.
69/  Go one month without dining out -- but during that time, at home have at least one restaurant-quality meal a week
70/  Transition to all-organic, free-range meats
71/  Go a week without using a car 
72/  Go a month without using a car (may have to be abandoned depending on our living situation)
73/  Give only handmade gifts one holiday season

Home sweet home.
74/  Move to Portland
75/  Buy a home
76/  Establish a cohesive interior design for our home
77/  Have a baby
78/  Host foster animals at least once

I claim this kitchen in the name of Lindsay Durango.
79/  Master these coffee-shop faves in my kitchen: bagels, scones, donuts, biscotti, muffins, frappuccino
80/  Bake once a week
81/  Bake these breads from scratch: French, sandwich loaf, sourdough, whole wheat, yeast rolls, cinnamon raisin, pizza crust
82/  Bake a whole chicken
83/  Bake each of the following at least twice a year, and whenever requested (as long as the asker is not taking advantage, nudge nudge): cheesecake, carrot cake, chocolate cake, apple pie
84/  Develop my own brand of cupcake, down to the sprinkles
85/  Learn to make a collection of soups from scratch, including: gazpacho, potato leek, cream of mushroom, tomato, chicken vegetable, beef stew, clam chowder
86/  Prepare a seafood dish at least once a month
87/  Learn to prepare these dinner-out favorites from scratch: fettuccine alfredo, pizza, tamales, enchiladas, tortilla chips, pad thai
88/  Prepare a new dish from the Colombian cookbook once every two months
89/  Put together a full holiday meal for guests
90/  Make granola from scratch

If you've got to work, make it something you enjoy.
91/  Make personal business cards
92/  Send out networking messages once a month after getting to Portland
93/  Set up my office at home (make our current kitchen table into my work desk)
94/  Market my skills for freelance

There's a whole world out there.
95/  Take a long weekend to Cannon Beach, Ore.
96/  Spend one weekend a year in Seattle
97/  Visit Mela in Austin
98/  Vacation in Canada
99/  Tour California wine country
100/  Visit Patrick's cousin in Casper, Wyo.

101/  Make another list