ACCOUNTANT BY DAY

Here is my original post about the 101 Things project.

Start Date: December 28, 2007
End Date: September 24, 2010

Progress updated as of April 8, 2008

Experiences

1.  Attend 5 local events or attractions in Kansas City (0/5).
2.  Purchase something I saw advertised “AS SEEN ON TV”.
3.  Watch every episode of the X-Files (6/202). Listen to all available online archived episodes of NPR’s “This American Life” (56/346).
4. Vote in every election held during the 1,001 day period (0/?).
5. Participate in the Gimme Your Stuff cultural exchange.
6. Ride on a motorcycle with someone for a distance of at least one mile.
7. Attend a live play that cost $10 or more for admission.
8. Write 40 haiku without ever writing more than one in a single day (3/40).
9. Release 5 books into the wild through Bookcrossing (1/5).
10. See a movie at a drive-in theater.
11. Participate in the beginner’s obedience class at PetSmart with my dog.
12. See all 5 of the Best Picture nominees every year during the 1,001 days (3/15).
13. Purchase an inexpensive GPS device and go on at least 5 geocaching expeditions (1/5).
14. Buy a fish for my cube at work and keep it alive for at least 6 months.
15. Spend a weekend day with my boyfriend relaxing somewhere other than home.
16. Buy at least one share of stock in something.
17. Participate in the 365 day challenge (42/365).
18. Visit a fortune teller and see if I can make it difficult for them to accurately read me “psychically”. For instance, alter my body language or dress very differently.
19. Get in touch with someone I have not had contact with in over one year.
20. Watch 5 films that came out before 1950 (1/5).
21. Sleep outside for one night.
22. Write a letter in response to a piece of junk mail, just to see if it is ever acknowledged.
23. Invite my boyfriend to go out somewhere together 10 times (0/10).
24. Get someone to video chat with me.
25. Gamble $10 or more.
26. Decorate the house for a holiday and have people over.
27. Keep a nightly dream journal for thirty days.
28. Visit a cemetery with graves older than 1925 and take photographs to commemorate some of them.
29. Park the car in Westport and wander around on foot for at least half an hour.
30. Pick something from the house and see if I can sell it on eBay.
31. Leave a $5 bill in a public place such as a mall and linger nearby to time how long it takes for someone to pick it up or do something about it.
32. Spend at least two hours doing something with a person I don’t see very often.
33. I hope that someone gets my…I hope that someone gets my…I hope that someone gets my MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE YEAH.

Creative Pursuits

34. Buy and assemble a Lego kit with more than 50 pieces.
35. Submit a card to PostSecret.
36. Design, plan and complete a cross-stitch project at least 10 inches long on its narrowest dimension.
37. Complete an intermediate level crochet project from start to finish.
38. Master knitting well enough to complete an 8 by 8 inch swatch.
39. Sew a quilt at least 3 feet by 3 feet.
40. Build a dollhouse with at least one room and three pieces of furniture.
41. Make an article of clothing or an accessory that I am not embarrassed to wear or have with me in public.
42. Design a photo collage or wall art to display at home or at work.
43. Spend a morning going to garage sales. Do something creative with whatever I purchase.
44. Make a photo album with at least 25 pictures to commemorate my travels at my old job.
45. Participate in the 100 Snapshots challenge.
46. Find a second hand sewing machine and complete a simple sewing project from a pattern.

Do-Gooding

47. Donate at least $50 to the Johnson County Library OR perform at least 5 hours of volunteer work for the library association.
48. Send a card to someone without a specific occasion.
49. Leave a small, anonymous gift for someone.
50. Send a care package to another person “just because”.
51. Participate in a walk for a cause OR raise at least $25 to support a cause.
52. Babysit for someone’s child or pet free of charge.
53. Find something in my house that I don’t use anymore, which would be of genuine utility to another person, and give it to them. Completed 3/15/08.
54. Have dinner with my grandmother 10 times (2/10).
55. Pay for the car behind me in a fast food drive through.

Food & Drink

56. For 12 nonconsecutive months, prepare at least one new recipe during the month (1/12).
57. Eat at 6 restaurants I have never visited before (1/6).
58. Begin an (indoor or outdoor) herb garden with at least three types of herbs and maintain it in acceptably good health for at least 6 months (0/6).
59. Try a new recipe that I would normally pass up out of concern that my boyfriend would not like it.
60. Brew my own beer or wine at home.
61. Make cheese from scratch.
62. Try a new food that I may not like, such as liverwurst or tripe.
63. Shop for fresh produce at River Market and make something that day using what I bought there.
64. Eat vegetarian for one week to see what it is like.
65. Build a food sculpture, such as a gingerbread house, with another person.
66. Learn 5 new recipes with WW points of 8 or less per serving, which my boyfriend will willingly eat again (0/5).
67. Try an ethnic food that is new to me, such as Cuban, Ethiopian or El Salvadorean.
68. Eat fish or seafood once a week for a month.
69. Prepare a recipe that I have always thought sounded good but which I never made before because the right occasion never came up.
70. Team up with someone else and make candy, cookies, or some other treat around Christmastime.

Intellectual Pursuits

71. Read at least 5 books that were named on a list of important works of literature, which I have not previously read.
72. Re-learn the meanings, pronunciations, and writings of all the first year Kanji characters I forgot after stopping my studies in Japanese.
73. Read a book at least 200 pages long from cover to cover in one day.
74. Sign up for and complete a UMKC Communiversity course.
75. For five consecutive days, go to bed at 9:00 and read for at least an hour before going to sleep.
76. Master at least 5 chapters in my old engineering calculus textbook (0/5).
77. Complete a jigsaw puzzle with at least 500 pieces.
78. Learn to do some simple coding in PHP.
79. Read 10 books that I own but have not finished (1/10).
80. For at least 46 nonconsecutive weeks, exercise at a moderate intensity at least 3 times during the calendar week, for at least 20 minutes each session (9/46).

Personal

81. Pass the CPA exam.
82. Have my hair professionally highlighted in a salon.
83. Finish painting the walls and trim in my living room, dining room, and second bedroom.
84. Attend an alumni function held by my old college residence hall.
85. Reach my Weight Watchers lifetime fitness goal (147 lbs/130 lbs).
86. Remember to write down what I eat at least 75% of the time (30/750 days).
87. Starting in March 2008, clear all yard debris and outdoor clutter from the front of the house. Completed 3/15/08.
88. Put together an emergency supply kit in case of power outage or natural disaster.
89. Identify a bad habit and abstain from it for 45 days to see if that breaks me of it.
90. After receiving exceptional customer service, phone the place of business and compliment the employee to their supervisor. Completed 2/20/08.

Travel

91. Visit my friend in Vancouver.
92. Visit the aquarium in Baltimore.
93. Travel to another city by Amtrak from Union Station in Kansas City.
94. Visit a zoo that is not in Kansas City.
95. Travel somewhere between 6 and 8 hours away from Kansas City by car.

Writing Exercises

96. Blog no less than twice a week, for a minimum of 100 nonconsecutive weeks (11/100).
97. Participate in 3 nonconsecutive Sunday Scribblings writing prompts (http://sundayscribblings.blogspot.com/).
98. Get a copy of the book “Legacy” and use it as a prompt to write at least three 500 word or longer autobiographical vignettes.
99. Participate in a writing contest OR submit a piece for publication somewhere.
100. Participate in NaBloPoMo OR NaNoWriMo for at least one year during the 1,001 days.
101. Keep track of anything I later think of and wish I had added to this list. Pick one item to complete and save the rest for the next list.