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On this last day of 2009 and third-to-last day of being 29, here's the recap of the 29 Things. I accomplished 13 of them, scratched 11 of them, and am carrying over the rest.
I'm pretty pleased with what I did get done overall, considering how the year started. But while 2009 had some really rough spots and I can't wait to put my 20's behind me, the year was good to me. I have a job I like even better, friends and family who help me out, hobbies, and Toby. As Joseph Addison says, "Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."
So here's the report--green is done, red is scratched or not done, black is going on the 30 Things list, and any commentary is in italics:
- Learn the names of the Wasatch mountain peaks--I only can point to Mt. Olympus--I can point to Twin Peaks, Lone Peak, and Dromedary Peak now, too.
- Pay off the remaining debt--Seriously, I thought this day would never come.
- Get a queen size mattress
- Make a queen-sized quilt--Done! Another day I thought would never come.
- Hike Bald Mountain in the Uintas again--This sounded less and less appealing as the year went on and I more fully embraced my fear of heights. So scratch this one.
- Finish reading The Silmarillion--I have also fully embraced my inability to retain anything in this book. Scratch!
- Knit Christmas stockings (starting with Toby's, of course)--Only Toby's is done but that's the only one that really counts. It's not like I'm going to hang and fill one for myself.
- Visit the north end of Zion National Park
- Be less wimpy about riding my bike on cooler days--I was still wimpy, but I've come up with a better plan for next year.
- Eat at Red Iguana
- Eat at The Paris
- Chill a watermelon in a stream on a picnic in the mountains--I will now admit that I don't like watermelon. And I will not be hiking Bald Mountain to give the melon time to chill. Scratch!
- Knit at least one thing for charity using up yarn I have--I bought yarn to knit a hat, which ended up being a practice hat for a gift, and then gave away the first hat to Big Brothers Big Sisters and never took a picture of the gift hat.
- Get a new desk chair, if an affordable molded Eames chair exists--I am going to force myself to spend the money for a new chair in 2010. I'll just pretend it's a pair of shoes.
- Cook moules marnieres and frites--I originally meant "from scratch," i.e. get the mussels, scrub them, purge them, parboil the taters, fun with deep-frying, etc. I cooked a lot of frozen mussels instead. And The Paris offers both the moules and the frites, so I am going to pass on this.
- Stop biting my nails.--I have good days and bad days. Still working on this.
- Learn how to sew knit fabric--Done! And easy!
- Drink an Old Fashioned at the bar at Bambara
- Learn how to apply eye makeup that doesn't look scary or amateurish--I've even gone from powder eyeliner to a real pencil in the last month or two.
- Go to the Oyster Bar one Monday a month after work for a half-priced appetizer--I modified this one in my halfway report, so I'm just calling it done.
- Replace my Rubbermaid kitchen garbage can with a broken spring top with something nicer. --I really had a hard time justifying this purchase (but not the purchase of many shoes), so I am indeed turning 30 with duct tape on my garbage can. This one gets top priority in 2010.
- Knit an elaborate cabled sweater--I have the yarn and the pattern picked out! Tune in Tuesday for more.
- Build my collection of Bach CDs--The only CD I bought this year was Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. Again, no problem buying shoes, but CDs seemed so extravagant.
- Learn how to dance--This plan started out so well, but it ended up not working. Live and learn.
- Stop getting plastic bags from the grocery store
- Have tea at The Grand America--It turned out that they are a client at my new job, so I have had plenty of Grand America experiences without any tea.
- Make cloth napkins and use them for everyday meals
- Go out to breakfast one weekend a month
- Go to Moab for New Year's Eve--I'm having a party on New Year's Day instead. No travel in the snow, no leaving Toby alone, no getting drunk the night before: Perfect. I still want to try to get to Moab in 2010, though.
Between changes in my life, changes in my goals, and just running out of steam, I think I will only have about a 50% success rate on my 29 Things (a full report is coming, as are 30 Things for next year). But yesterday I accomplished the one that meant most to me (#2): I made the last payment on credit card debt that I've been carrying for years, and which I've been repaying for the last three. It was a lot of debt. I was stupid. It was really hard to be on such a tight budget. But now: Debt-free! I can finally consider adult things like home ownership.
Done...
done...
done....
done, DONE!
Done, done, done, done, done, done, done, done.....Why yes, the quilt is finished after nine months. It kept us warm last night. Toby approves of it. But what project will stay at the back of mind mind now? Something like this? (I'm serious; I think I like quilting.) Although maybe I'll take a few months and enjoy this one being done. (If you're like me, now you have to go listen to the real Richard Strauss piece. Here's a video link for you.)
I wonder if all these "in progress" quilt posts will spoil the final reveal, but I'm just so pleased with any step forward that I can't not show it. The latest step forward is, of course, the quilting. Like the Velveteen Rabbit, it's a Real Quilt now. Behold the even machine stitching:
And look how it looks like a real quilt all folded up:
The only step left is to finish the raw edges with some binding. I hope to at least start that over the long weekend.
I thought it would be good to check in on my list of things to do before I turn 30...it is almost August (yikes!). I think my progress is pretty good, but it's time to start cooking shellfish and buying garbage cans before it's too late.
Thing's I've done are in green; commentary is in boldface:
1. Learn the names of the Wasatch mountain peaks--I only can point to Mt. Olympus
2. Pay off the remaining debt
3. Get a queen size mattress. It's getting delivered Friday!
4. Make a queen-sized quilt Umm, closer—check for pictures this week.
5. Hike Bald Mountain in the Uintas again
6. Finish reading The Silmarillion
7. Knit Christmas stockings (starting with Toby's, of course)
8. Visit the north end of Zion National Park
9. Be less wimpy about riding my bike on cooler days. I am riding; it’s not cool, but I think I can stay in the habit through fall.
10. Eat at Red Iguana
11. Eat at The Paris. (For our second anniversary last weekend)
12. Chill a watermelon in a stream on a picnic in the mountains
13. Knit at least one thing for charity using up yarn I have
14. Get a new desk chair, if an affordable molded Eames chair exists
15. Cook moules marnieres and frites
16. Stop biting my nails.—I only bite the nails of my little fingers now! 8 out of 10 isn’t bad!
17. Learn how to sew knit fabric
18. Drink an Old Fashioned at the bar at Bambara (When I got the new job!)
19. Learn how to apply eye makeup that doesn't look scary or amateurish—I’ve been wearing it but I think it’s so subtle as to be almost unnoticeable. I’ve been given a hint about dry eyeliner and a brush, so we’ll see.
20. Go to the Oyster Bar one Monday a month after work for a half-priced appetizer—I went ONE Monday and it was just not good. I think all the full-priced dinners I can afford now can replace the Oyster Bar.
21. Replace my Rubbermaid kitchen garbage can with a broken spring top with something nicer.
22. Knit an elaborate cabled sweater
23. Build my collection of Bach CDs
24. Learn how to dance
25. Stop getting plastic bags from the grocery store—I realized I need plastic bags for cleaning the litterbox, so I don’t think I can STOP, but I have really cut back.
26. Have tea at The Grand America
27. Make cloth napkins and use them for everyday meals—I haven’t made them, but we are using cloth napkins.
28. Go out to breakfast one weekend a month—So far, so good: we missed June but we did go out twice in May.
29. Go to Moab for New Year's Eve
I've finally started riding my bike to work! I know I wanted to be less wimpy about riding in cooler weather (Thing #9), but I started my new job in April and was just too shy to wheel my bike through the office right away. (It didn't help my shyness to learn that one coworker is a fancy bike racer and one boss rode/ran/swam the Hawaii Ironman last year.)But now I've started riding and it's significantly easier to pedal every time, which is good, and all the roadies at work are friendly, and I'm getting waves from passersby again. Velo bon!
1. Tonight is Drink an Old Fashioned at the Bar at Bambara Night--here's to getting back on track with the 29 Things!2. I didn't mention it, but I sent my owl sweater pictures to the designer for a contest, and I won a prize! I won the "Ma's favorite prize, " meaning that the designer's mom liked mine best, and my owl-ish goodies and yarn arrived today:
3. I haven't checked out Martha Stewart's blog in a long time, but yesterday's post title was "My horse, Martyn, loves a good massage" so of course I had to go see. I was reveling in the absurdity until I realized that I would probably do anything to make an animal of mine more comfortable. And if I had Martha's fortune, I would definitely hire a Sherpa to give my ailing horse a massage.
Yesterday, when I said I had a knit top for thing #17, "in progress," that really meant that I had the pattern ready to go. Well, Monday morning is a good time to go to fabric stores so I got the fabric, pre-washed it, made some cookies while I waited for it to finish drying because the dryer is going out at the apartment, cut it out, and started sewing at 4:00. At 7:00, I was done. Is something that fast even a real project? 
Granted, it's not a complicated piece of clothing and sweatshirt fleece is really forgiving. But I'm happy with it because now I have sweats to wear around the house! I might have to start watching daytime TV, too.As for accomplishing thing #17, I think I've learned enough to proceed with nicer fabrics. I over-stretched the neck a little when I sewed it and I'll redraft the sleeves the next time I make this, but overall I think it worked pretty well. (The pattern and all tips were from this great book. Highly recommended!)
When I was laid off I thought immediately of the 29 Things and how things like paying off debt and buying a new mattress (#2 and #3) would have to be put on hold. While those things and other things that involve money or eating out have had to wait, understandably, I've been able to cross a few things off the list:4. Make a queen-sized quilt. I bet you thought I forgot about this, but I've been working on it at my parents' house on Sundays. I already had the fabric when I was laid off, so I thought making a quilt with no pressure to finish and put it on a new mattress might be nice. I finished piecing the top yesterday! Now I have to add a border, because someone forgot to check her math about how big a queen-size quilt needs to be. Then there's the back and then, well, the quilting part. Good thing there's no pressure.16. Stop biting my nails. I've made some progress here, too: After I gnawed them off completely in February, I've been able to let them grow a little, if only because I never want my hands to look like that again.17. Learn how to sew knit fabric. I did a practice T-shirt that ended in the FAIL bin, but I have something else in progress now and future plans for a knit dress. I think I can get this thing figured out.25. Stop getting plastic bags from the grocery store.
Only about a 50% success rate with this one so far, but at least it's 50%. And it doesn't cost money.27. Make cloth napkins and use them for everyday meals. I haven't made any yet, but I have found three sets on clearance at Target and we've been using them regularly. 28. Go out to breakfast one weekend a month.
This was able to happen in January and even in February (we went out for Valentine's Day brunch instead of dinner at The Paris)(#11), so maybe I can keep this one up if we go somewhere humble in March. And one thing I can't wait to do: 18. Drink an Old Fashioned at the bar at Bambara the minute I find out I have a job again.
Before I thought of the 29 Things, I had already planned to take some sort of Continuing Ed class with Mr. Isbell in 2009, just to get us off the couch and away from re-watching old seasons of The Office. Once I realized I'd like to know how to dance going into the next decade, we signed up to learn "East Coast Swing." Our first class was last night.We picked swing because it was a more convenient night than the general ballroom dance class, and because I thought the music would be better--you'd expect big band swing standards from Duke Ellington, Glen Miller, and Tommy Dorsey in a swing class, right? Well, that wasn't the case. Although we're not really dancing yet, either, just going through the steps, so I guess we wouldn't have done good music justice anyway.Despite my disappointment in the music (Bad 90's swing revival stuff? Really?), it was fun, and when I got home I learned a lot about the history of swing. And now I want some saddle shoes:
This will so be us in a month.
1. The URL tells you all you need to know:www.cutethingsfallingasleep.org. Just don't watch it when you're in an afternoon tired funk at work.2. I've been thinking about quilts--Thing 4 on the 29 Things. To practice quilting and binding a big quilt, I am thinking about making a doll quilt. For Toby. To sit on when he looks out the window. Because I am a crazy cat lady. (Although I think I would be crazier if I made a doll quilt for actual DOLLS.)3. I've also been thinking about storage solutions, so this is appropriate: Translate your name into an IKEA furniture name here. 
I turned 29 Saturday--which for me marks a new year much better than any drunken New Year's Eve goings-on--and I made some birthday resolutions of things I'd like to have happen before I turn 30 and magically become a bona-fide adult. So here's my list of 29 things I want to accomplish before I turn 30: - Learn the names of the Wasatch mountain peaks--I only can point to Mt. Olympus
- Pay off the remaining debt
- Get a queen size mattress
- Make a queen-sized quilt
- Hike Bald Mountain in the Uintas again
- Finish reading The Silmarillion
- Knit Christmas stockings (starting with Toby's, of course)
- Visit the north end of Zion National Park
- Be less wimpy about riding my bike on cooler days (80% of Copenhageners ride their bikes throughout the winter. So does my father. I'm shamed enough to try to be tougher in the spring and fall.)
- Eat at Red Iguana
- Eat at The Paris
- Chill a watermelon in a stream on a picnic in the mountains
- Knit at least one thing for charity using up yarn I have
- Get a new desk chair, if an affordable molded Eames chair exists
- Cook moules marnieres and frites
- Stop biting my nails. (God only knows how, since I've been wanting to stop biting my nails for about 20 years, but I'd like to have lovely grown-up hands now.)
- Learn how to sew knit fabric
- Drink an Old Fashioned at the bar at Bambara
- Learn how to apply eye makeup that doesn't look scary or amateurish
- Go to the Oyster Bar one Monday a month after work for a half-priced appetizer
- Replace my Rubbermaid kitchen garbage can with a broken spring top with something nicer. Because a 30-year-old should not have duct tape on her garbage can.
- Knit an elaborate cabled sweater*
- Build my collection of Bach CDs
- Learn how to dance
- Stop getting plastic bags from the grocery store
- Have tea at The Grand America
- Make cloth napkins and use them for everyday meals
- Go out to breakfast one weekend a month
- Go to Moab for New Year's Eve
*I think this is the one to knit--after I finish that cardigan and make an owl sweater and Christmas stockings and the charity thing, of course. Hey, I have a year.
