A Snippet of Progress.

12. Keep Flickr updated - in progress

I attended a conference above Charleston on the Gullah culture for my senior honors thesis this weekend, and it was held on a plantation that had been transformed into an abbey. It was the first "summer" day I had experienced, with temperatures in the high eighties or low nineties and the sun radiating from the sky, and the grounds and gardens were absolutely gorgeous. Words cannot describe it. But I put a handful of the pictures I took up on my Flickr, so take a look.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chainse/

31. Complete a senior honors project I am proud of - in progress

The conference was my first big step into the research and development of my thesis, but I also received an e-mail from the Honors Program today that said I was officially approved. So there's that.

56. Exercise 2-3 times a week (3/143) - in progress

I won't lie, I did not exercise this past week. I barely had enough time to shower. I stayed on campus from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. almost every day, and then I left for South Carolina at 5 p.m. Thursday and spent my weekend traveling. So this week was a failure there. I think if I have a 90% success rate, that would be commendable. That's like 129 weeks out of 143. I get 14 whole weeks off. 

In other news, I was thisclose to Charleston this weekend! About 30 miles north. And, because I had to wake up at 5:30 a.m. to drive from Columbia to Monck's Corner, I technically woke up for a sunrise. But I'd rather enjoy the experience and not glance every ten minutes or so over my left shoulder out the driver's window and see the sunrise behind a row of trees as I drive on the highway. So I'll hold off on considering that accomplished too.

-Till next time

Saving the environment.

10. Rewrite the list of common editing mistakes in the Bstone office - accomplished

So a few editors on staff next year spent six hours in the office last Sunday, moving around furniture and cleaning things up and throwing out old paper. The two copy editors before me had separate sheets on the way of common editing mistakes, and because I apparently have obsessive-compulsive disorder, I needed to arrange them on one sheet, in columns, in alphabetical order. 

I did this, but apparently not well enough for my satisfaction. So I got more paper and I'm going to redo it. But, in the event that I do not, this has technically been accomplished. Which makes it two down... 99 to go.

42. Try 15 new restaurants (6/15) - in progress

My mom and brother visited this weekend, and on Friday we went to Dukerz for dinner. It's a sports bar in Harrisonburg, and it was fabulous. I usually don't finish my meals at restaurants, but their cheeseburger was the best I'd had in a while. I inhaled it.

56. Exercise 2-3 times a week (3/143) - in progress

This week has been a little rough, so I exercised in unconventional ways and left my usual gym hours for napping. Moving filing cabinets on Sunday was a workout, and if you do not believe me, try moving filing cabinets. And then on Saturday I walked around the loop at Purcell with my mom -- not racewalking, but exercise nonetheless.

71. Take cardboard and newspaper to the dump - accomplished

Sorted the pile that had overtaken the area next to our trash can and took it to the recycling center. It was actually kind of a treat, because it was very warm on Friday and I had the windows down and the sunroof open, and I enjoyed the drive. I'll continue to do this, but I'm marking it accomplished rather than in progress. Three down.

74. Do my laundry in cold water (2/3) - in progress

I still haven't noticed any glaring stains left on my clothes, and I realized today that the heat from the dryer might kill some of the germs that I fear so greatly. So I'm thinking from here on out, I might stick with the cold water. I'll try it one more time, but I have good feelings about this one. If it saves that much money, I'm down

-Till next time

Trucking along.

7. Watch all movies on AFI's top 100 (15/100) - in progress

Okay so I started watching "Bonnie and Clyde" on Saturday and I haven't finished it yet, but I plan on doing that right after I post. So far, so good. I think I'm a little more than halfway. Bonnie is kind of an annoying character thought. Can you tell I don't really critique movies often?

22. Compile the lyrics I've written somewhere, creatively - in progress

Here's the photo of the assignment I was talking about last week. You can't see the lyrics very well, but I figured I'd upload it to Flickr too.

42. Try 15 new restaurants (6/15) - in progress

I was at a friend's house on South Main Friday night, and we walked down to Little Italy for dinner, which was very delicious and very cheap. We got pizza, so no interesting news on that, but it was really pretty good... I'll choose that over Dominos for delivery.

56. Exercise 2-3 times a week (3/143)  - in progress

This was an active week - the gym three times and walking home up Port once. It was the first weekend in a while I had been home and not super busy, so I went to UREC on Saturday. It was very empty, but that meant easy registration for my favorite class: Step & Sculpt. Yes, sometimes I am a huge nerd.

68. Donate blood once a year (1/3) - in progress

I did it! On Wednesday, to be exact. Donating blood is very big deal for me, because I am typically either underweight or don't have enough iron. In fact, the first time I donated, the woman took a sample of my blood and dropped it into a pill-sized bottle filled with some chemical. If my blood had enough iron, it would sink and I could donate. It did not sink, and so she shook it. That was the only time I donated other than Wednesday. But it was very successful. It took eleven minutes. Although apparently I have very small veins, so I was in pain for a few days afterward with the bruising.

74. Do my laundry in cold water three times (1/3) - in progress

I did this a few weeks ago, and I didn't notice a difference at all. I suppose there could be all sorts of microscopic germs still on my clothes... but if there is, I don't know it. So I suppose that's good.

-Till next time

8. Read 50 books (1/50)

Status - in progress

So I haven't made any progress on this one since the last time I posted about "Sarah's Key," because I've tweaked the goal. I originally said novels for class counted, but sometimes when I am reading for class, I find that because I am forced to read the piece, I focus less on it than if I were reading for pleasure. That said, I have made a list of books I'd like to read, and I will only count novels read for class if they also happen to fall on this list.

1. Brave New World / Aldus Huxley

2. Lord of the Flies / William Goldring

3. A Clockwork Orange / Anthony Burgess

4. Sophie's Choice / William Styron

5. Anna Karenina / Leo Tolstoy

6. Night / Eli Wiesel

7. The Poisonwood Bible / Barbara Kingsolver

8. Catch 22 / Joseph Heller

9. My Sister's Keeper / Jodi Picoult

10. White Oleander / Janet Fitch

11. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close / Jonathan Safran Foer

12. The Virgin Suicides / Jeffrey Eugenides

13. The Red Tent / Anita Diamant

14. The Memory Keeper's Daughter / Kim Edwards

15. The Chocolate War / Robert Cormier

16. The Tales of Beedle the Bard / J.K. Rowling

17. Change of Heart / Jodi Picoult

18. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time / Mark Haddon

19. The Reader / Bernard Schlink

20. Loving Frank / Nancy Horan

21. Love Walked In / Marisa de los Santos

22. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas / John Boyne

23. Jackie by Josie / Caroline Preston

24. Three Cups of Tea / Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin

25. Little Pink Slips / Sally Koslow

Writing, exercise & the environment

14. Do a creative writing prompt once a week, 52 times (1/52) - in progress

So I cheated a little bit, in terms of taking the creative writing prompt from the site I said I would. They had a suggestion to take the last line from a poem I liked, and write my own poem from that. What I really did was go to explodingdog.com, which is a Web site where users submit a phrase or sentence, and an artist, Sam Brown, creates illustrations from them. I like to take the titles and use them either in poetry, or as inspiration. Although I don't call it poetry. I call them lyrics... because I have an aversion to poetry. In any case, I wrote something. It counts. I titled it, "I dream of treehouses, I fear great heights." And some time in the future, when it's not so personal and doesn't hit so close to home, I'll post it. For now, it's saved on my desktop.

22. Compile the lyrics I've written somewhere, creatively - in progress

I had an assignment for a class to express myself in a combination of words and image, on a paper at least 18 x 24 inches. So I used a handful of my lyrics--but not all of them, so I don't believe this counts. I am still proud of it though, so I'll post a picture when I get home today.

44. Bookmark heyitsfree.net and check it regularly - in progress

I bookmarked this in March, and I am supposedly receiving two free issues of Redbook sometime soon... we'll see if that happens. Otherwise I haven't done anything with that yet. But I'm on the lookout.

56. Exercise 2-3 times a week (2/143) - in progress

Took a step class & a power yoga class last week, AND walked home up Port twice. If that's not exercise, I don't know what is. Although after my yoga class I nearly decided to never exercise again. Being sore is the strangest combination of feeling accomplished and never wanting to move again.

66. Stop using plastic grocery bags - in progress

I only slipped once so far. I do always feel like the cashier is irritated by my request to use my own bag though... but I would like to know, is it really that much more difficult? I've never been a cashier, so I don't know. My plastic bag knitted from plastic bags is coming along slowly though. I haven't had much free time recently.

In other news, last week when I went to Wal-Mart for groceries, I had used my canvas bag for a gym bag, and so I had my street clothes in it. Which meant I had to transfer my jeans and shirt and bra to my backpack in the back seat of my car so I could use the empty canvas bag for groceries... and I dropped my bra in the parking lot. It just sort of... fell out of my hands? I don't think anyone saw. Just another adventure in my pursuit of environmentally friendly practices.

-Till next time