101 Things in 1001 Days

This time around, I tried but am officially failing these things:

84. Ride the carousel on the National Mall- The carousel has been closed during the entire duration of the list. I went past it in-person a few times just to make sure. And, yes, the National Park Service website had not been lying; it was indeed closed.

86. Use Whitehall Farms gift card- This farm went out of business. My gift card will remain unspent, but it's nice to know the money went to help this local business while it was still operating.

87. See Pumpkin Glow- The company putting on this event in my area went out of business during the pandemic and never returned. I attempted to go to a small event run by a local church, but I got the address wrong and didn't make it in time.

These are goals I completely and totally failed on. Didn't even start them.

35. Dig up some of Dum Spiro Spero and do something with it
Man, I wish I'd been able to do something with this set of novels I started more than 20 years ago. Because I still love the characters and wish I could transform them into something worth reading. But I just couldn't think of what to do with it. Turn it into short stories? Archive it forever and write it off? Finish the novels? Think of better plots? Nope. I got nothing. Poor Clan MacLennan of Kintail!

37. Publish a Writers’ Roundtable anthology/collection
Technically, I did do one thing toward this goal. I looked into using Submittable to get submissions from roundtable members. However, there was no plan that fit my budget. And that's where my momentum ended. So it was hardly a beginning. This just didn't happen. I did end up spending over a year self-publishing my own collection of stories, so my efforts went into collecting, editing, organizing, adding, editing more, commissioning cover art, and putting it all together. I wish that project could replace this one. But that's not the way my list works.

45. Drive the whole Blue Ridge Parkway
I am SO sad that I didn't get this done. I wanted to do it some autumn, which normally would be a pretty good time work-wise for it (and weather-wise as well). But lately my life has been so busy it just never happened. I had no chances to sit down and plan and even fewer to actually take off a week of work to do it. I hope that I'll be able to do it some time in my life!

79. Go through all my CDs and floppy discs
Okay, so I'm really not as lazy as I seem! No, I didn't even start this (okay, technically I did go through one stack of CDs, but I didn't do anything with them, so I don't think that really counts. The reason I didn't get this one done is because I ran out of hard drive and backup drive space. I have nowhere to put any of the files that live on those DCs and floppies. And without somewhere to put them, there really wasn't any reason to go through them. I'm adding this to my list #5 though. Now I know what it takes (an additional, large backup drive) I feel like this will be a fun project.

92. Have someone take a photo of me with one of my collections (Eeyore?) in this style: http://www.flickr.com/photos/emilyblincoe/sets/72157633958747915/
I had a couple mental planning sessions for this, and there was one day I almost did it, but it rained badly. So now my deck is a awful-looking and the photo is probably going to be terrible. But I'm having a friend over on Saturday who might be able to help me with this. It'll count in my grace period.

Total not even started: 5

64. Move into new house completely & have a housewarming party

I'm officially calling this a fail. I keep chickening out of having a housewarming party. There are just too many factors to consider. So even though I worked really hard toward this and gave myself an extra month, it's just not happening.

Another list of the things I'm not going to get done this time around :-(

11. Catch up on Gabaldon series to-date (re-read & read for the first time)
I did read one of the books, but I just didn't have time to make it through more. I am hoping to find space for this on my next list, because this is definitely something I still want to do.

13. Get a BookCrossing book journaled in every state
I did make a few good efforts regarding this, but it wasn't completely in my control. The list is down now to only 4 states remaining!

59. Build story towers & bookends for all HP books out of LEGO
I made one, but the other 6 and the bookends are unstarted. All my LEGO is tied up in other projects right now, so I probably won't be able to complete this either.

85. Visit Chincoteague/Assateague
I'm just not going to make it! I didn't have time for another large, solo trip like this. I still really hope to see these places some day!

93. Go to a Hershey Bears game
I nearly worked up the courage to go last December, but I got nervous about being at a hockey game alone. It's not as much fun to celebrate goals when you're on your own, even if you're in a big crowd.

74. Volunteer more than 100 hours a year at one library and earn the Presidential Volunteer Service Award

The annual volunteer party happened this year while I was away on a business trip. I’ve really done all I can to get this award. I’ve put in the hours, I registered on the government website and logged my hours. I contacted my supervisor who got me in touch with the volunteer coordinator for the entire library system; she enrolled our system in the program and sent me the special ID number so I could link my hours to that project. However, individuals are unable to purchase the awards for themselves. And I don’t want to make the library system buy me something just so I can cross this off the list. So I’ve come as close to completion as I can get personally. The final step just didn’t happen, which is a shame as it would have been neat to have a certificate with Obama’s signature on it, thanking me for my service. But the most important part of this—the service itself—is completed. So it’s still mostly a win :-)

I'm officially calling this a fail, though, and marking it as such on my list.

74. Volunteer more than 100 hours a year at one library and earn the Presidential Volunteer Service Award