101 Things in 1001 Days - Part Deux

101 Things in 1001 Days - Part Deux

Target Start Date: December 6, 2009 (Age 36)
End Date: September 2, 2012 (Age 38)

1. Go to the Texas State Fair to try a variety of Fried foods (Coke, Butter, Snickers, etc.)
2. Go to the NEW Texas Stadium to watch my Dallas Cowboys play a game!
3. Get another passport stamp!
4. Go on a cruise
5. Finish my landscaping projects
6. Get back to a size 10!
7. Spend a weekend in bed...with someone
8. Fall in love....
9. Tithe for a full year.
10. Join a ministry at church
11. Purchase all of my *favorite* books
12. Finish decorating and arranging the Queens Quarters
13. Attend the Essence Festival ... again!
14. Take a one-tank road trip at least twice a year
15. Buy some new boots
16. Get my parents and grandparents situated in ____________________.
17. Take a trip to see my friends in DC and NY every fall
18. Go to the Hershey Spa!
19. Take my lunch to work for a month
20. Update my iPod/playlists
21. Get some new eyeglasses
22. Go natural!!
23. Get my car detailed
24. Upgrade/redecorate my blog!!!
25. Update my resume and revisit my 5 Bold Steps
26. 1,000 Tweets!
27. Attend an Ohio University Black Alumni Reunion
28. Go to Howard Homecoming
29. Organize my finances with a financial planner
30. Date a white man, a latino man, a fire fighter, a cop (is this 4 different things? LOL)
31. Get a personal trainer
32. Go to a Hawks game
33. Go to a Braves game
34. Go to a Falcons game
35. Buy a new TV
36. Get cable/satellite TV
37. Get lasered by my dermatologist
38. See Frankie Beverly and Maze in concert
39. See Anita Baker in concert
40. See Stevie Wonder in concert
41. See Bill Cosby in concert
42. Get a new cell phone/PDA
43. Participate in NaNoWriMo
44. Update my family genealogy on Ancestry.com
45. Plan for my trip to Cuba!
46. Hire a financial planner
47. Increase my retirement allocations
48. Rethink my financial retirement plans/Organize my retirement portfolio
49. Build my emergency fund
50. Pay off my credit card debt
51. Write a letter to myself to read in 1001 days
52. Hit balls at the driving range
53. Try a new recipe every month
    
54. Try yoga
55. Go to a drive-in movie
56. Go to a midnight movie
57. Buy a new coat
58. Update my wardrobe
59. Brush up on my Spanish
60. Go rollerskating
61. Write a letter to the editor
62. Contact my Congressional Representative and Senator
63. Participate in a political campaign
64. Go to Cabo San Lucas, the Bahamas or Bermuda
    
65. Make plans for my 40th birthday!
66. Have a nude sketch or photo session
    
67. Buy a new watch
    
68. Walk to/from work from MARTA everyday for a week
69. Buy a new black purse
70. Get a new wallet
71. Light my fireplace weekly for a month
    
72. Go to a comedy show
73. Arrange Happy Hour with my GT buddies
74. Write on the wall of every FB friend during a given month
75. Pray every night
76. Go ice skating
    
77. Backup my computer
78. Organize my home office
79. Go fishing
80. Edit and organize my 101 Things list
81. Frame my favorite photos
82. Spend a day without the internet
83. Go bowling
84. Finish 3 DIY projects
85. Go see a movie on opening night.
86. Pay it Forward/Random Act of Kindness
    
87. Blog every other day for a month
88. Play the lotto
89. Visit 3 of the states I have not yet been to
90. Write 5 satisfaction letters to companies/organizations I appreciate or admire
91. Read 5 memoirs/autobiographies
92. Save $1 for every task not completed.
93. Go shopping at the thrift store
94. Attend a grown-folks event (100 Black Men, Red Tie Soiree, etc.)
95. Clean up my email accounts
96. Do a detox/cleanse
97. Write my husband a love letter
98. Get a makeup/makeover
    
99. Join a fantasy football league
    
100. Start a new 101 things list when this one comes to an end!
     

Horoscope's talkin'...

From my weekend....

Friday ~ You may have thought your need to retreat was just a passing notion, but today you're motivated to make it happen. It might be as simple as taking a walk by yourself or making a phone call to graciously bow out of a social engagement. Worrying about the consequences of your self-imposed isolation can turn your decision into a difficult one, but once it's made you'll probably feel relieved and ready to enjoy your mini-escape.

Saturday ~ It can be quite a challenge now to balance your desire for activities that add meaning to your life with other people's expectations that you should be more lighthearted and playful. But it's not business-as-usual for you these days and you may not be interested in shifting into party mode just to satisfy someone else. Now that chatty Mercury is in philosophical Sagittarius don't hesitate to say yes if you think a social engagement might provide a context for interesting conversation.

Sunday ~ It feels like one phase of your life is coming to an end, but this is just a sign that there are new opportunities right around the next corner. Today's mysterious Scorpio New Moon falls in your 12th House of Destiny, making the current transition more significant than you realize. But don't waste energy grieving what you are leaving behind; your enthusiasm for what's ahead is a key component to your success.

It is time to write...

INvisibility

I saw this on PostSecret and saved it. It spoke to my state of mind about dating some 2 years ago. Being invisible in this city of millions. No one seeking me.

But today, I found it, for it speaks to that state of being invisible. Some days I wonder --

if something happened to me, and I was gone tomorrow, would anybody miss me?

Death has been SO prevalent this year and while I've kept it together for a good part of the passings, today I learned of a fellow blogger's that tore at my heart. At work, as I found out the news, I found myself praying and crying, praying and crying, for her youth taken away....and realized how these tears are pent up from the death that has been at our door for the greater part of the summer, of the year.

She wasn't even 40....

I thought about when I found myself in tears at my local Hallmark, earlier this summer, as I was buying a sympathy card for Mr. Perfect, who'd lost his best friend.

He was MY age. Gone, much too soon!

Having known neither of them personally didn't matter -- what struck me was the suddeness, along with their ages. In that sense, it became personal, for I but HIS grace, go I.....

And I thought also of the love expressed AFTER their passing -- did either of them KNOW how they were LOVED in life? That is what makes my heart hurt, so. As invisible as I feel these days, where is the love that would be poured out if I was gone? Why can't I feel that now? Why don't we love well, in the present? It's enough to make me cry....

I pray for their loved ones, that they may be comforted, just as I pray that one day I won't feel so invisble....

..::More to Come::..

Snippets. Period.

I swear this is the summer of snippets. Can't get a full-on blog thought out for the life of me. Maybe in the fall, but in the meantime, here's what's on MY mind:

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because you had the experience." Quote from a mother character in E.Lynn's final book. Resonates with me deeply this year. Especially since I had a heart-to-heart with my best friend across the oceans today. He actually admitted that the break-up convo is hard. For him, not just for her. That's a revelation!

I realized today that I've only had sex twice this summer. Sympathy sex and break-up sex. Pause. Moving right along...

Friendship. I'm coming to terms with all it encompasses. Saved a friendship over the weekend, although I don't quite know if it will ever be the same, yet, it has been repaired enough to grow again, I believe. Yet and still, I'm learning to be accept what constitutes friendship in the here and now, may be different from what I feel it is. That, and I'm slightly smarting over married couples that just can't be bothered with the likes of single, ol' me. As if I'm a pariah. I'm seeking out the love so it can be spread my way. It always seems like singles that know married folks, tend to become married, so may that luck hit yours truly in like fashion! Friends first, of course :)

Seems like summer just started and it's over MUCH TOO SOON! The grind is back at full tilt and I need ANOTHER vacation.

Lastly, am I? It appears I won, but it doesn't much feel like a prize. Shouldn't have even been a contest, truth be told. *singing --"Stop looking for, looking for, I'm the one......"*

Babies, babies and more babies. And weddings, too. And nope, still ain't got a date.

...::More to Come::...

If one more person dies....

I've found myself REPEATING that phrase this summer. It's painful to count the number of deaths, public and private, that I've learned about.


The tragic...

The unexpected...

The expected, if you will.


The latest (knock on wood) surely took me by surprise (again). I remember meeting E. Lynn back in the 90s at Vertigo Books, when it was in Dupont Circle. I had copies of his latest book in hand for his reading and his signature, as well as copies of his earlier books for my then-roommate. I didn't have my camera, so no pictures where taken, but I remember him being gracious and thankful that so many came out to support his work. Sadly, I've yet to upack my books from my move LAST YEAR, so that book, along with the others I've bought at many a now-closed independent book store are sitting in boxes upstairs, waiting, for a brand new bookcase to call home.....


I've never been a buyer of books, so I'm likely not a novelists' BFF. Rather, I'm a supporter of my local library and it's there that I test drive books that I may decide to add to my collection. When that decision is made, more often than not, I make the purchase at my local, independent bookstore. Although I've not found or supported a particular store here in the ATL, I have fond memories of the stores long gone that I frequented in DC:


Bicks Books in Adams Morgan, where my "fetish" for erotica was born and stoked...

Karibu, first in PG Plaza, then Bowie...where I knew folks and folks knew me...

Vertigo in Dupont, then College Park...

Kramerbooks & Afterwords, and my first "date" with the Good Rev. Dr...

Olsson's downtown at Metro Center, was it?...


For all the stories & characters, quotes & scenes, lyrics & sounds I've loved before, by all the authors and artists that are no longer with us, I bid you adieu and pray that you rest, peacefully....

..::More to Come::..