Visit 5 Cities: Chicago, IL

Part of my 101 in 1001 is to visit 5 new cities.

Trip 3 - Chicago, IL - 8/4/11-8/8/11

Visited Audrey in Chicago during Lollapalooza! Nothing is nastier than an outdoor music festival after a rainstorm.

Try 10 New Nice Restaurants

As part of my 101 in 1001, I am going to try out 10 new nice restaurants. I don’t really have a solid definition for “nice”, but who cares.

1. Ruth’s Chris 12-10-10 - Jon’s Birthday! Jon has convinced me that the filet is always the best way to go. I took Jon here for his birthday, but it was both of our first times trying this restaurant. I am pretty satisfied with the choice!
2. Fogo de Chao 2-11-11 - Jon and I ate here for Valentine’s Day! O..M..G! Talk about an amazing food experience. I really love meat, and the bread was to DIE for. 
3.  TRIO
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101 in 1001

I read about the 101 goals to accomplish in 1001 days on Kat’s blog (I also stole some of her goals), so I decided to try it out as well. Here are my 101 in 1001, starting December 1, 2010 and ending October 28, 2013. Wish me luck!

          For my body

1. Work out/exercise at least 3 times a week
   
2. Go vegetarian for a month
3. Get a bike and ride it regularly
4. Take a yoga class (do yoga twice a week)
5. No soft drinks for a year (starting Jan. 2 with Jon!)
   
6. No alcohol for a month
7. Try a personal trainer
8. Avoid fast food
9. Get 8 hours of sleep each night for one week every month
   
10. Wear glasses for a week
    
    For my peace of mind
11. Avoid traffic tickets of all kinds
12. Purge my apartment of unnecessary things
13. Take a day off of work to do something fun alone
14. Swim in an ocean or go scuba diving (my biggest fears)
15. Complete the 50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind
    
    For others
16. Mentor a student one semester
17. Volunteer monthly for a year
18. Donate to a worthy cause each year
    
19. Distribute the first Texas Exes Asian Alumni Network scholarship
20. Campaign for a politician for the 2012 elections
21. Pay for someone behind in a coffee shop line once a month
    
22. Sort through my wardrobe and donate old clothes
23. Help 10 students succeed academically
24. Compliment a stranger each week
25. Run a charity run (5K) each year
    
    For the environment
26. Use only reusable mugs for coffee
27. Recycle whenever possible
28. Get my parents to quit smoking
29. Avoid driving for one week
    
    For fun
30. Learn to play the guitar
    
31. Take a dance class
32. Record 2 original songs
33. Learn to cook 50 recipes and compile in a cookbook
    
    • 12-14-10 Layered Dip - does it count if I don’t actually cook it? I made this for work (DDCE’s End-of-Semester Celebration food competition) and won the “Best Appetizer” award for this one!
    • 1-8-11 Thai Basil Chicken - Not bad! Fish sauce is kind of gross, though. Not in taste, but in smell. Also, too much of it is no bueno.
34. Go on a random road trip
35. Buy a new phone - bought the Samsung Galaxy S2!
36. Buy an e-book reader
37. Finish 10 puzzles
38. Bake a cake/cookies/cupcakes - peanut butter chocolate cookies
    
39. Get Lasik
40. Complete a 7-day Facebook fast
41. Complete a 7-day phone fast
42. Write a letter to 5 friends I haven’t talked to in a long time
43. Perform at an open mic night
44. Make 10 new good friends
45. Write 10 letters (in Chinese) to my grandparents
46. Move into a nice apartment
47. Furnish my apartment with new furniture
    
48. Get a state map postcard for each of the 50 states
49. Host a dinner party and cook the food
50. Complete the 365 Challenge
51. Go on a cruise
52. Host a Halloween party
53. Bake a vegan cake
54. Take a cooking class
55. Write a children’s book
56. Spend an entire day in bed
57. Visit 5 cities
58. Learn Claire de Lune
59. Visit Taiwan - Thanksgiving 2011
60. Live in a new city
61. Go on a trip with girlfriends
62. Try 10 new nice restaurants
63. Celebrate a birthday in a different city
64. Change my hairstyle
65. Take some kids to an amusement park
66. Make a website
67. Watch all of One Piece
68. Watch 26 new movies, each starting with a letter of the alphabet
69. Knit a blanket
70. Get nominated and serve on a well-known nonprofit board
71. Write an autobiography
72. Meet an online friend in person - Done
73. Buy new glasses
    
    For my brain
74. Learn Spanish
75. Read all C.S. Lewis Works
76. Re-learn Calculus
77. Learn how the stock market works
78. Learn to create vector art
79. Learn and keep up with politics
80. Read 50 books (recommendations are welcome!)
    
    Traveling Mercies (1-4-11)
    Safe Haven (1-7-11)
    Eat, Pray, Love
    Ender’s Game
    Total Leadership
    Time Traveler’s Wife
    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
    The Fountainhead
    Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
    Atonement
    Their Eyes Were Watching God
    The Sound and the Fury
    The Grapes of Wrath
    East of Eden
    Wuthering Heights
    Gone with the Wind
    A Clockwork Orange
    The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
    Little Women
    Love in the Time of Cholera
    Memoirs of a Geisha
    War and Peace
    Lord of the Flies
    The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
    The Girl Who Played With Fire
    House Rules
    Worth Dying For
    Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
    The Five People You Meet in Heaven
    Olive Kitteridge
    Push
    The Shack
    Sarah’s Key
    The Alchemist
    The Art of Racing in the Rain
    Love the One You’re With
    The Things They Carried
    The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel
    North of Beautiful
    Some Girls Are
    Blue Like Jazz
    Looking for Alaska
    Fahrenheit 451
    The World According to Garp (recommended by Doug)
    Wheel of Life (recommended by Ramona)
    Be There Now (recommended by Ramona)
    Moo
    Beer and Circus
    
    For my faith
81. Read the Bible from cover to cover
82. Blog about faith
83. Attend church
    
    For my career
84. Get a job outside of Texas
85. Present at a Student Affairs conference
86. Get to work at 8 a.m.
    
87. Get certified for High School math, science, history
88. Publish 2 articles
89. Teach an elementary classroom
90. Read the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed
    
91. Graduate with my master’s degree
92. Start my Ph.D.
93. Attend 4 Student Affairs conferences
94. Teach an ESL course
95. Develop a model for educating through technology
96. Develop curriculum that integrates technology for an elementary school class project
    
    For my wallet
97. Pay off student loans
98. Save 10K
99. Invest in real estate
    
100. Own gold/silver (inspired by Jon :) )
101. Save $25/month for my Roth IRA
102. No eating out for one full week of each month
     

I thought this day would never come. I’m all caught up in One Piece.

(S) Watch 26 new movies…

…each starting with a different letter of the alphabet.

1-2-11 - Shutter Island

Jon and I watched this late at night during our trip to LA when we weren’t ready to sleep. I had only seen part of it before at the Barton Creek movie theater before the theater kept malfunctioning.

You’d think this movie was scary based on the trailers, but it’s really not. The ending has an interesting twist to it! Of course, Jon guessed the ending somehow. He’s so good at that. If you’re bored one night, this isn’t a bad movie to rent and watch.

Read 50 Books: Traveling Mercies

1-4-11 - Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott

I’m not sure there’s ever been a book where I laughed more than I did while reading Traveling Mercies. Anne’s sense of humor is so unique it’s impressive.

If you’re searching for spirituality and need a good read, this one’s the way to go. Anne’s memoirs recount her experiences through various worldly obsessions and her path towards Christianity. It’s not a very conservative book, but that’s what makes it so great.

This was a read recommended by Gideon Tsang, pastor at Vox Veniae.

Visit 5 Cities: Los Angeles

This is part of my 101 in 1001.

Trip 2 - Los Angeles, California - 12/30/10 - 1/3/11

Over the New Year, I got to go to the Rose Bowl (Wisconsin vs. TCU) game, and spend New Year’s in LA! This time around, Wisconsin didn’t win, but the trip was still a lot of fun.

We went to the Badger pep rally at the Santa Monica Pier, which was really incredible. In fact, all of the Badger fanfare is really amazing. They also had a neat performance called the 5th quarter where the band played at LA Live for a huge crowd of fans. During the games, they have what’s called “jump around” between the 3rd and 4th quarter where the fans jump up and down to the song “Jump Around”. The Rose Bowl wasn’t going to play the song, but all the Badger fans, which made up about 3/4 of the stadium, just went ahead with the jump around anyway.

NYE in LA was awesome! Jon and I went to a bar in the LA Live area. We spent a total of $10 that night at that bar. Let’s just say I made many, many trips to the bathroom with our pints of free coke refills and the “water” bottle in my purse. We tried to play matchmaker and get a New Year’s kiss for a guy we met that night. I pulled over a random girl and we introduced them to each other 90 seconds before the countdown. Too bad they only hugged at midnight. I wanted to keep in touch with the girl, but I think she was too drunk to properly introduce herself to me.

To end the trip, we played drinking games in the hotel. Jon’s 11 year-old nephew drank orange juice. I learned a new card game similar to VC, except with positions like President (when you’re the winner) that give you complete control over drinking during the game. That means you can tell anyone to drink any amount at any time while you’re President. I was President 3 times in a row, but I didn’t utilize my presidential powers to the fullest extent. And unfortunately, I had one too many screwdrivers that night.

Our flight home was packed with purple TCU fans everywhere. Good thing I sat in between two very nice TCU fans who helped me as I was recuperating from my hangover.

Pros: Rose Bowl (Badger) fun, New Year’s in a new city, hot tub in cold weather, and of course spending time with Jon.

Cons: Drinking too much and feeling not-so-well on the 6 a.m. flight home.

(L) Watch 26 new movies…

…each starting with a different letter of the alphabet.

12-25-10 — Life is Beautiful (La vita è bella)

This was an incredible movie! I always love films set during WWII, or any war for that matter. Even better, this is an Italian language film! In this film, a Jewish man has some ridiculous humor and manages to get his wife that way. Eventually, he’ll use that same humor to try to protect his son when his family ends up in a Nazi concentration camp.

I’d definitely recommend watching this movie!

(D) Watch 26 new movies…

…each starting with a different letter of the alphabet.

12-22-10 — Dear John

I cried myself to sleep after watching this movie. Haha. I love all movies based on Nicholas Sparks’ novels. I just can’t help it. He’s my favorite author, and getting to see his movies made into film is great. Dear John is about a guy in the army who meets a girl and they, of course, fall in love. They spend one year apart, vowing to write each other constantly and to see one another again. Then, 9/11 happens and he decides to re-enlist for another 2 years to serve his country. During these two years, John receives a letter from Savannah saying she’s moving on. John returns home when his father is ill, and decides to visit Savannah.

What does he find? You’ll just have to watch it to find out! It’s a different ending from the book, so it was a bit unexpected for me!

Visit 5 Cities: San Jose

One of my 101 in 1001 goals is to visit 5 new cities.

Trip 1 - San Jose/San Francisco - 12/2/10 -12/6/10, Jon and I took a vacation to San Jose and San Francisco to visit some friends. The weather and trip overall was great!

We visited Stanford University and somehow got to sneak into the football stadium. Elaine showed me and Jon around and toured Stanford for the first time as well.

We also visited Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge (almost):

Many thanks to Elaine, Andrew and Anita for their hospitality in San Jose and San Francisco!!!

Pros: Beautiful city, visiting friends and doing touristy things.

Cons: Traffic, general transportation costs and rain during our Fisherman’s Wharf visit.

C.S. Lewis Works

OK so, I know this is not all of C.S. Lewis’s works, but here are the ones I want to read:

Space Trilogy

Chronicles of Narnia

The Pilgrim’s Regress

Mere Christianity - I cheated; I’ve already read this one.

The Problem of Pain

Surprised by Joy

Miracles

The Great Divorce

The Screwtape Letters

50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind

1. How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?
   11-26-10 - I’d be 27 years old
2. Which is worse, failing or never trying?
   11-26-10 - Never trying
3. If life is so short, why do we do so many things we don’t like and like so many things we don’t do?
   11-26-10 - Because the grass is ALWAYS greener on the other side of the fence. And because a lot of the times, what we really like to do requires money we don’t have.
4. When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you’ve done?
   11-27-10 - Probably. There never seems to be enough hours in a day.
5. What is the one thing you’d most like to change about the world?
   11-27-10 - educate the people
6. If happiness was the national currency, what kind of work would make you rich?
   11-27-10 - I would be a year-round gift giver
7. Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you are doing?
   11-29-10 - Definitely doing what I believe in, but there’s a lot more I want to do.
8. If the average human life span was 40 years, how would you live your life differently?
   11-29-10 - I would have had kids 10 years ago.
9. To what degree have you actually controlled the course your life has taken?
   11-29-10 - I feel like 95% of my life decision have been my choice.
10. Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right things?
    11-29-10 - Doing the right things.
11. You’re having lunch with three people you respect and admire.  They all start criticizing a close friend of yours, not knowing she is your friend.  The criticism is distasteful and unjustified.  What do you do?
    11-29-10 - Make sure they realize their comments are distasteful and unjustified?
12. If you could offer a newborn child only one piece of advice, what would it be?
    11-29-10 - Treasure your memories.
13. Would you break the law to save a loved one?
    11-29-10 - Of course.
14. Have you ever seen insanity where you later saw creativity?
15. What’s something you know you do differently than most people?
16. How come the things that make you happy don’t make everyone happy?
17. What one thing have you not done that you really want to do?  What’s holding you back?
18. Are you holding onto something you need to let go of?
19. If you had to move to a state or country besides the one you currently live in, where would you move and why?
20. Do you push the elevator button more than once?  Do you really believe it makes the elevator faster? 12-14-10 - No, and no.
    
21. Would you rather be a worried genius or a joyful simpleton? 12-14-10 - I’d rather be a joyful simpleton. That doesn’t mean I am, though.
    
22. Why are you, you? 12-21-10 - I think because of how I was raised and who I’ve been friends with?
    
23. Have you been the kind of friend you want as a friend? 12-21-10 - It depends on which friendship you’re referring to, but more or less yes.
    
24. Which is worse, when a good friend moves away, or losing touch with a good friend who lives right near you? 12-21-10 - Losing touch with a good friend who lives near you; good friends moving away doesn’t have to be an end to a friendship.
    
25. What are you most grateful for?
26. Would you rather lose all of your old memories, or never be able to make new ones?
27. Is is possible to know the truth without challenging it first?
28. Has your greatest fear ever come true?
29. Do you remember that time 5 years ago when you were extremely upset?  Does it really matter now?
30. What is your happiest childhood memory?  What makes it so special?
31. At what time in your recent past have you felt most passionate and alive?
32. If not now, then when?
33. If you haven’t achieved it yet, what do you have to lose?
34. Have you ever been with someone, said nothing, and walked away feeling like you just had the best conversation ever?
    
35. Why do religions that support love cause so many wars? 2-7-11 Because when people have strong, deep-rooted beliefs, they will defend them to no end.
    
36. Is it possible to know, without a doubt, what is good and what is evil? 2-7-11 No, it’s all relative.
    
37. If you just won a million dollars, would you quit your job? 2-7-11 No! Not immediately, at least.
    
38. Would you rather have less work to do, or more work you actually enjoy doing? 2-7-11 More work I enjoy doing, for sure.
    
39. Do you feel like you’ve lived this day a hundred times before? 2-7-11 No, every day seems like a new, unique one.
    
40. When was the last time you marched into the dark with only the soft glow of an idea you strongly believed in? 2-7-11 When I was challenged for a decision I made as President of an organization.
    
41. If you knew that everyone you know was going to die tomorrow, who would you visit today? 2-7-11 My family.
    
42. Would you be willing to reduce your life expectancy by 10 years to become extremely attractive or famous? 2-7-11 No
    
43. What is the difference between being alive and truly living?
44. When is it time to stop calculating risk and rewards, and just go ahead and do what you know is right?
45. If we learn from our mistakes, why are we always so afraid to make a mistake?
46. What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you?
47. When was the last time you noticed the sound of your own breathing? 12-15-10 When I jogged last night.
    
48. What do you love?  Have any of your recent actions openly expressed this love? 2-7-11 I love family and friends; I hope so.
    
49. In 5 years from now, will you remember what you did yesterday? 2-7-11 Probably not
50. What about the day before that?  Or the day before that? 2-7-11 I have a bad memory, so probably not.
    
51. Decisions are being made right now.  The question is:  Are you making them for yourself, or are you letting others make them for you?

Taken from: http://www.marcandangel.com/2009/07/13/50-questions-that-will-free-your-mind/