Day 18 - Little Bits

Yan and I went on a field trip on her Vespa last weekend. Riding the scooter is a ton of fun, though it took some getting used to. Rule number one--don't flail about. Rule number two--squeeze Yan's butt with your knees. Rule number three--lean forward when going uphill. Rule number four--try not to kick Yan with your looong legs. -_^



Yan and Red Sonja. Yan has a thing for red.

While out we went to Outback (#71), and I can't say that I cared for it. Then again, I don't care for steakhouses much, period. The french onion soup was pretty good, though.

We also went to JoAnns so I could finally use the $25 gift card I got for Christmas. I picked up sock needles, stitch holders, stitch markers... all the stupid little stuff you need but always forget to buy. I also grabbed two balls of self-striping dishcloth cotton.



Miter dishcloth based on Mason-Dixon Knitting's miter square. One towards #5--woot!

As far as other knitting goes I'm trying to make a lace scarf (#6) in time for my mom's big Alaskan cruise. I've finished four of nine pattern repeats, so it's getting there! I also finished a pair of socks (#1), which I'll show you as soon as I get some pictures taken.

I'm saddened to report that I lapsed in taking my vitamins for a few days so #26 has been reset and told to sit in the corner for a while.

I like the way that thinking about this list has kept me goal oriented. Just making it was a wonderful exercise in figuring out what is important in my life. It also prevents me from living on auto pilot. Who wants to do that?

Days 10, 11, and 12 - Ups and Downs

I get my New Yorker on Thursday or Friday, always. In Albany I got it on Monday or Tuesday, but I'm on the West Coast now. It takes longer to mail things out here. Then why oh why did my New Yorker come on Tuesday this week?? I was only half finished with last week's. #10 has been reset. Simply opening my mailbox made for an insta-fail.

Tuesday was a great day otherwise--free museum day! Two friends and I went out for some free culture. We started the day at the Conservatory of Flowers, which is like a greenhouse on steroids. They have different rooms for different climates--tropical, mountain highlands--that are brimming with flowers.



Their special exhibit was about butterflies, which is a yearly thing, apparently. The coolest thing is that they're not in cages--they just flutter around the room as they please. You can watch them feed from pretty flowers and feeders or just plain ol' hang out.



This guy might have been my favorite.

Then we went to the de Young Museum and went up it's observation tower to get a look at the city and the bay. Didn't go through the exhibits, though. We took our time walking about of the park, and found this lake while we were at it:



It was huge. There were people in rowboats and peddleboats enjoying the weather. Really neat. Then it was off to the Legion of Honor. We arrived about an hour before close and realized that the Annie Leibovitz exhibit was there. We only had to pay five dollars to get into the special exhibit and man, it was amazing. We spent most of that hour in awe. So cool. We bought our postcards in the museum shop and were greeted by this happy sculpture on our way out:



First of all, San Francisco is one of the few places you could have this thing outside. (There was another one inside.) Number two... how cool is that?



After that we headed back to more familiar territory for dinner. It did end up being a new-to-me restaurant, though. I don't know the name, but it's the Thai place kitty corner from the coffeeshop in the Richmond. (It means something to me, trust me.) The pineapple fried rice was amazing. Definitely will be heading back.

So, in all that, what list items did I accomplish? While it looks like I went to three museums... I didn't. First of all, the Convervatory of Flowers is not a museum. Second of all, we didn't see any of the de Young past the observatory. And third of all, we only saw the special exhibit at the Legion of Honor. So... no checks for #64. The new restaurant counts as #71. #10 got put back to square one. And I did take my vitamins for #26. ...let's just called it a mixed day.

Day 10 - Simply Keeping Up

Work has started again, and so my life is crazy again. This week I'm a little short on hours, but it will give me three days off to enjoy. Tomorrow I'll go museum hopping with friends (#64), and who knows, maybe I'll get to try a new restaurant (#71). And the vitamin thing (#26) is still going strong.

I'm up to page 34 in this week's New Yorker (#10)--I love David Sedaris. Some of his essays are on the short side, but I'm savoring this four page reflection on quitting smoking. The rest of the magazine should go quickly, as I usually skip over the fiction. I want to work in radio and news, and any reading time spent on "fake" stuff kinda feels like wasted time. I aspire to fill my head with facts and true stories, instead.

I've been working on my Japanese 社会 textbook (#48) as well and have now reached page 43. To be fair it was a picture and graph heavy section. Having a Japanese boyfriend is absolutely wonderful when I reach weird parts of the text.

Me: Hey Ken, take a look at this sentence for me. I think it means this, but the way it's written confuses me.
Ken: That's not natural Japanese--it confuses me, too.

I love it when it's not just me.

I leave you with the most beautiful character I've scribbled down in a long time--a hiragana ki. It has the perfect proportions and swish factor. Starred for easy identification and my own amusement. ^_^

Day 6 - Unexpected Free Time

I thought I would be going to work today, but they have most everything set up for tomorrow's soft open so I just stayed at home. It didn't quite feel like a day off, but I can't quite figure out why. Action on a couple of new items today:

#4 - I now have yarn for the Irtfa'a shawl. It isn't exactly the shade I was hoping for, but getting 1,760 yards of laceweight for $10 isn't an everyday occurrence. It should be fine. My next "action step" (I think I picked that up from a 'steps to success' book somewhere... GTD?) is to buy the pattern from Anne's website. I won't be able to start working on it until I finish a lace scarf I have on the needles, though, so it might wait a couple of weeks.

#8 - Tomorrow ought to be the day I find out if I have this internship or not. The not knowing is not fun. Once I have the answer I'll be able to plan the next few months of my life, which I look forward to.

#10 - The next New Yorker just arrived today. I'm on page 24, which means I skipped over all the movie and show listings in the front and read half of a Talk of the Town article. -_^

#26 - Yes.

#48 - I'm up to page 38 in the 社会 textbook. This section is all about the jobs people do, from banker to construction worker. Not too much new vocab and lots of pictures make fast going (it'll be reversed in later chapters--I know, I already peeked). The best new word in this section is 勧誘する人, or roughly traveling salesman.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to have a "me" lunch, and there's a chance some friends and I will visit a museum or two on Tuesday. I like this feeling of making progress. ^_^

Day 5 - Back to Work

Today was our first official store meeting. It was great to meet more of the people I'll be working with, and I love a bunch of 'em already. Awesome sign.

Today's progress, in order by number:

#1 - I'm halfway through two different socks--one in plain stockinette and another in a nice, logical pattern. The yarn for that one is pretty dark, though, so I can only work on it during the day.

#8 - Still no news, but every time my phone rings I jump.

#26 - Taken.

#83 - I got rid of a material thing today--an extra needle sizer with incorrectly milled holes. No point in keeping it, or even giving it away. Tossed.

Day 4 - Short and Sweet

I helped set up the store this morning (so many boxes!) and then went to my knitting group... I'm exhausted. So here's the lowdown.

#26 - Vitamin drunk.

#4 - Yarn procured.

#10 - Still waiting for the next New Yorker to arrive.

That's about it.

Day 3 - First Completed Item

I finally get to bold an item today! It's this:

#41 - Complete 2nd grade kanji (160 characters)

I may as well bold it here too--it just looks better. -_^ Some background info: Japanese was my second major in college and I studied abroad in Osaka for a year. I love Japanese and gets lots of opportunities to speak it at home with my boyfriend. So while my listening and speaking are pretty good my reading and writing need some work. In order to pass Level 2 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (#47, wouldn't you know it) you have to know 1,000 kanji, or written characters. That's about half of what Japanese people learn in school, or nearly every character from first to sixth grade.

I've studied a lot of kanji in the past, and at my peak I probably knew close to 600... but being two years out of practice really puts a damper on things. I'm closer to 400 now. My current study strategy is to read level appropriate material (3rd-4th grade at the moment) and go through the characters systematically by grade level, brushing up the ones I know and fully learning the ones I don't. So--second grade kanji, done. Third grade kanji, you're next.

To go along with this I've been going through a textbook I recently got called 小学３･４年社会自由自在 ...it's a social studies book for third and fourth graders. Not only am I learning new words ("Oooo, harbor! Breakwater!") but it's also great for getting Japanese culture and common sense into my head. There's a section on Japanese map symbols, which are totally different from ours. Another chapter gives a geography lesson about each prefecture and what goods it's famous for (Niigata = rice, if you ever wanted to know). It's the stuff that every good Japanese should know, and every bumbling American needs help with. It's been satisfying study, not to mention #48 on my list.

Okay, enough about Japanese, it's time to ask the question I know is on your mind--did I take my vitamins today? Yes. Yes I did. One more to #26. I also finished reading this week's New Yorker, but I'm not putting #10 in italics. I'd rather it feel unofficial. The moment it feels real, like an obligation, I'm going to drop the ball. Right now it's just an... experiment. ^_^

Related to #8, I called the people at a radio internship I applied to and they said decisions will be made this week. When I called the really nice guy on the other end was like, "If you don't get it, do reapply". That made me think two things. One, does he already know if I made it or not? And two, maybe this is more competitive than I thought. It was encouraging, though. New internships come up every few months, and this isn't something I'm going to give up on.

Okay, this long entry dearly needs a picture. Here's that first completed pair of socks I mentioned, for #1:



Comfort Socks in Trekking (color 62) on size 1 needles. Plain Jane.

Day 2 - Triple Check

There's no way I'm going to keep this pace up, but it's fun while it's lasting!

I organized a little get together (#67) with my knitting friends today--we all went to Leland Tea Company and had tons of goodies. I forgot how hot in can get in there! We had lots of fun anyway. While there I tried a new tea (#21), pear caramel. I'm not sure caramel belongs in my tea, but it was a really interesting flavor. And yes, I did take my vitamins (#26). -_^

In an earlier post I figured that in order to finish on time I need to check off one item every three days. If that holds, I've done 18 days of work in 48 measly hours! It won't last, though, I know. And maybe I'm just buying myself time so I'll actually have days available so I can finish the travel-based section of my list. And while each check is roughly 1/100th of the list they're not weighted equally. Taking a vitamin does not equal buying a laptop or writing a letter in Japanese. Maybe it's like taking a test--you know how they tell you to get the easy questions out of the way first, so you can concentrate on the hard stuff? Maybe I'm doing that--blowing through the fluff.

Day 1 - Check, Check, and Check

There's nothing like hitting the ground running. I took my vitamins first thing this morning for #26 and finished up a pair of socks for #1 (pics later). Check, check. And here's the third check:



A big batch of pasta headed for the freezer for #20. Ken and I got our microwave only recently (I know, welcome us to the 20th century) and we've been enjoying the convenience. I used Paul Newman's Sockittome sauce (...the name was close to that) and half boxes of pasta I had lying around. Five meals all set for me.

Even though I'm not officially going for #10, I'm trying to get through this week's New Yorker in order to unofficially go for #10. -_^ The mag is currently on my desk, opened to page 26. We'll see where I am tomorrow.

Getting Started

Going through my list several things catch my eye. First of all--am I going to be okay with so many long term projects? What if I hate knitting socks a year from now? Will I really be able to do all that cooking? I planned for everything to be doable (no "floss everyday (0/1001)" for me!) but still.

I'm going to get one of the long term projects, #26 - Take vitamins every day for a month, started right away. I'm also nearly done with a pair of socks, so that'll knock one off of #1 - Complete 40 pairs of socks. Tomorrow I think I'll make some pasta to freeze, which will be a start on #20 - Make and freeze meals ahead of time. Some of the long term goals are tempting (#10, I'm looking at you) but I don't want to burn myself out by taking on too much too soon.

If you space everything out, 101 in 1001 is roughly one item every 10 days. But when you count up all the multiples in my list (like those 40 pairs of socks) it's more like one item every three days. Eeep. Time to get started!