The Yearly Wrap-Up and Next Year's List

Ahhhhh, yes. Here we are one day before New Year's and four days before my birthday, which means that the 30/30 is more or less done. I... well. Second try is a charm, right? Yes.

Most pathetic unaccomplished goal: "Spend a day at the beach". Really, Laura? A day at the beach was too much? Shameful.

Totally excited for the 31/31. Here they are again. Some things:

1. You'll notice that I have alternates for my January snow activities. Are we ever going to get snow this winter? Anyhow, alternates in case of an absence of snow.

2. I changed my mind about the "all books by one author" thing, BECAUSE... I started to notice that there were a lot of books that I SHOULD have read by now, but haven't. Books that everyone has read. Like To Kill a Mockingbird. Honestly, Laura, come on. SO, the new plan is that one of my goals is to read 12 catch-up books- I gave each month one book.

So here we go, by month:

January
Try cross-country skiing (#5)
Alternate: Go ice skating

Try snowshoeing (#13)

Alternate: Try indoor rock climbing

Start the Sunday night dinner tradition (#26)
Book: Franny and Zooey by my boyfriend J.D. Salinger

February
Scan loose photos (#12)
Cook a turkey and salmon (not together) (#16)
Host a fondue party (#11)
Book: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (won't that be cheery in February?)

March
Revamp sun porch (#28)
Go see a play (#6)
See _____'s films (#19) What do you think???
Book: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

April
Start composting (#21)
Learn to sew (#20)

Dig out the backyard (#29)
Book: Animal Farm by George Orwell AND Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. They're both pretty short.

May
Start your gardening venture (#10)
Learn to make Coq au Vin, which is fantastic
Take a swimming class (#15)
Book: 1984 by George Orwell

June
Take Brady camping (#8)
Be a vegetarian for one month (#17)
Go to the Waterfront Film Festival (#23)
Book: One Thousand Years of Solitude by Marquez (coincidentally, I have started- and loved- this book one thousand times...

July
Go fishing (#22)
Build Brady a backyard clubhouse (#27)
Learn to play chess (#24)
Book: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (that's three dystopian novels... if I seem a little pessimistic in the spring/summer, you'll know why...)

August
Go to Shipshewana (#1)
Try paintball (#25)
Book: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov ( I effing LOVE the first half of this book, which I've read 20 times.. can't WAIT to find out what happens in the second half..)

September
Host a backyard party (#31)
Take another college class (#18)
Book: Lord of the Flies by William Golding (anyone else wonder what the heck I was doing in high school? I do...)

October
Watch "Out of Africa" so that I can maybe understand why my dad is so flipping obsessed with it (#9)
Attend a murder mystery dinner (#30)
Book: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

November
Cut down a Christmas tree with Lumberjack Brady

Book: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

December
Take Brady to Frankenchicken (#4)
Take the trip you planned last year (#2) (which should be interesting, since I didn't plan one)

Book: Native Son by Richard Wright (we read the first half of this in AP English in high school. Scratch that- the rest of the class read the whole thing. I apparently became distracted...)