Monday, May 3, 2010

Lauren Life List Vol. 2

The list grows by ten more items:

Get a tree tattoo on my ribs
Teach at a University
Buy 5 loved one's unique, extravagant gifts (lucky you, eh?)
Read all of Margaret Atwood (Completed: Cat's Eye, The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake, Moral Disorder)*
Read all of Joan Didion (Completed: Year of Magical Thinking, Currently working on: Where I was From)
Roadtrip from San Diego to Miami
Sunbath topless in the French Riviera
Go to: Italy, Spain, England, Ireland, France
Visit 50 Baseball Stadiums (Completed: Kingdome, Safeco, AT&T Park, and The Coliseum)
Go to Blogher

I'm making goals and I'm trying to acheive them. Slowly. Goal making is fun, it has me thinking a lot about what I REALLY want to accomplish as opposed to what just kind of seems fun in the moment. It has me remembering things I thought were cool in highschool and allowing myself to keep those activities on the list (feminist rally in DC is one of those). I learned to appreciate things from other people as well (ex boyfriends fueled my appreciation for baseball, as did Maris and our continued tradition of going to games together), better writers and better readers inspire me to be just that: Better. And sometimes we have to challenge ourselves to have fun. It's so easy to get sucked up into the everyday grind. Planning fun things that push you out of your comfort zone is essential to the prevention of becoming stale.

This morning I was thinking about my goals for the year I'm 25 and I'll get into an update about those at a later date, but it occure to me that it's not really about acheiving the number I set for myself or within the time frame I created - and not to sound too "new age sports team theory" on you, but it's really about the effort I put in. If I don't end up going to 50 baseball stadiums, but I end up going to 35 - hell! at least I went to 35, which is pretty awesome. It would be extra awesome if/when I do hit those goals right on the head, but if I don't I'm not going to beat myself up over it. Making this list is already giving me a reason to do things I would normally put off until the latest episode of Greys Anatomy is over, but now I'm reaching for the next book on my list or making travel plans instead. Pushing myself to do new things and experiencing more of life is way better than simply focusing on the end point.

*Holy shit Margaret Atwood is an incredibly prolific writer. I'm impressed by how many stories she has going on inside her head. Even children's books, I kid you not, and at least 15 books of poetry. This is going to be a fun, life-long task.

1 comment:

  1. omg omg omg omg OMG I totally forgot to tell you that your list (and the original one) have totally inspired me to make one of my OWN :) And I will totally give you credit for having me actually think about it as a cohesive goal/item, but its always been a thing for me that I read all of Toni Morrison! So anyways, I will let you know when my list is ready for its first draft showing and email to you cute little self!

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