Life list

1. Snorkel in Costa Rica
2. Paint a self-portrait
3. Write a letter to Barack Obama
4. Video interview my extended family about what it was like growing up
5. Track down some long-lost relatives in Germany and have dinner with them
6. Redesign my blog (or pay someone else to do it) [Header by Lisa Congdon in 2012]
7. Publish Write a book
8. Translate a novel from French to English
9. Fly to Paris for my birthday
10. Spend a summer abroad
11. Own a bike and use it to commute to work.
12. Visit the Grand Canyon
13. Be economically comfortable
14. Run a 10k [Completed- 10k in DC in 2011]
15. Discover a fish I like to eat and learn how to cook it
16. Buy a sewing machine and make something usable
17. Make homemade butter/cheese/ice cream
18. Grow a watermelon and eat it
19. Visit Texas [Completed- SXSW in 2011]
20. Learn another language conversationally
21. Use my blog to supplement my income [meh, no longer a goal]
22. Raise children [As of 2012 and 2015, this is happening!]
23. Have a wedding on our own terms [Completed- August 13, 2011!]
24. Learn one computer language
25. Accompany my brother (singing) at a concert in front of other people.
26. Learn to like at least one kind of eggs. [Scrambled eggs as of spring 2016]
27. Swim with a dolphin.
28. Attend the New Yorker Festival as a speaker/guest/panelist.
29. Teach a class. [NIFW Creative Summer Camp in June/July 2012.]
30. Get a professional headshot done. [Completed- with Amber's help in late 2011]
31. Start a Saturday morning tradition that I continue for a year. [Bagels with Chris 2011-2012]
32. Open a B&B. Have my sister design it.
33. Master 10 dinner recipes that I feel comfortable cooking for a group of people.
34. Have a reunion for my residents from 3rd floor prosser.
35. Organize a 1-day conference. where unpublished writers come to share their work, write and make writerly connections.
36. Make a sizeable donation to Muhlenberg.
37. Take a trip with my siblings.
38. Take a trip with my mom and sister.
39. Run a half-marathon.
40. Run a race in a foreign country.
41. Go to Middlebury language school for another summer.
42. Make personal contact (letter, meet, take to lunch, etc.) with the following writers who have influenced me: Elizabeth Gilbert, Charles Baxter, William Trevor, Ann Patchett, Audrey Niffenegger
43. Attend TED
44. Create an office space that allows me to work, interrupted, at long stretches of time. It should be comfortable, inspiring and able to shut out the outside world.
45. Host a foreign exchange student.
46. Try having bangs. [Completed- fall 2011!]
47. Live in a house with fruit trees in the backyard.
48. Learn how to change a tire.
49. Invite Ingrid Michaelson to a party at our place. [I invited her via Twitter to our deck party in 2012; no dice!]
50. Spend a period of time living close to family. [Oddly, it's Berkeley, CA! Living near Kate]
51. Do a multi-day hike and camp overnight.
52. Find an awesome pillow that is not too thin or too fat, but just perfect.
53. Rewatch Lost.
54. Have photos of family and friends framed and visible in our home.
55. Go on a safari in Africa.
56. Research and write a walking tour… then give it!
57. Be able to identify 10 birds by sight and sound.
58. Work on a farm again and milk cows.
59. Start a business with my husband.
60. Grow a tree and plant it in our yard.
61. Have a yard.
62. Surprise Chris with a weekend away.
63. Find a church/religious place that's for me.
64. Work in a bookstore.
65. Meet Dave Eggers.
66. Create an online community around No Is For Wimps. [NIFW re-established 2012.]
67. Visit all the 826 Valencias. [Completed: San Fran, Brooklyn, Seattle, DC, Chicago]
68. Learn to blow dry my hair straight.
69. Get a dog.
70. Have my dog trained to be able to go to nursing homes and bring him/her there on a regular basis.
71. Join a rowing team and get SWEET arms.
72. Get my MFA (if only because of the dedicated time to write).
73. Attend weddings in other countries. [Completed so far: India]
74. Gift a plane ticket for a friend to come and visit us.
75. Host a dinner with Chris for the top 3 people who have influenced each of our lives. Pay for travel expenses for those 6 people and host a long dinner where they can meet and we can thank them.
76. Speak French with my children so they have a base knowledge of the language at least. [Doing this at least partially with both boys]
77. Host a board game night and invite the board gamiest people I know.
78. Go to a movie and sneak into a second one after the first is over!
[Accomplished September 2012, saw Hope Springs and Jesse and Celeste Forever]
79. Write a wedding post and have it published on A Practical Wedding. [Submitted June 2012.]
80. Pet an elephant.
81. Start an annual tradition with Chris that focuses on planning for the next year.
82. Once kids are old enough, make a fancy Back to School dinner every year.
83. Learn to tap dance.
84. Visit my host family in Aix-en-Provence.
85. Have my sister as my doula for the birth of at least one of my children. [Kate helped welcome Aaron into the world on July 3, 2015!]
86. Invest my/our money in a forward-thinking way.
87. Memorize the names (and order) of all the US presidents.
88. Visit Jefferson's home in Virginia.
89. Visit Hemingway's house in Florida.
90. Take at least one trip alone every year. Could be as simple as a long weekend to visit friends or fam. [2012: Chicago with Mom]
91. Visit Pompeii.
92. Try Bikram yoga.
93. Get certified as a Yoga instructor.
94. Witness the birth of a baby (not my own).
95. Help found a scholarship to send students abroad.
96. Give myself a $1000 shopping spree to create a new wardrobe I feel good about.
97. Plant hydrangea plants in our yard and cut the flowers as they bloom to make the house homey.
98. Attend the Clinton Global Initiative.
99. Cook my way through one cookbook (however small!)
100. Tell a story on This American Life.

101. Help change a struggling city into a thriving one.

102. Use my communication skills to help people understand something difficult. Could be national healthcare, the DMV, Green Card applications or something else that's known for being a black box.

103. Birth a baby.  [Noah, born 10/13/12, Aaron born 7/3/15]