Well, I did it. I got through my very first 99 in 999 list! I wanted to get all of them done, obviously, but think 70/99 isn't too bad for a first go, right? I'm going to go with "yes," because I did so many things I wouldn't have done otherwise, and I feel super accomplished about it. Let's recap the last few I did, and then I'll tell you what my favorite items on the list were.
#29 - write in a journal weekly for six months
I didn't do this on the blog so much, and I thought I was sucking really bad at this goal--but then I remembered that I've been writing down three awesome things that happen each day, and that totally counts as journaling! Way to go, self! Too bad you didn't think of that months and months and months ago when you were oversharing on the internet.
#35 - send a care package to someone
I thought this was going to be one the simplest ones to do, but it wound up being pretty tricky! Due to a lot of safety and health restrictions (which make sense), many places won't let you send your own care packages. They either ask that you ship a box to a central location to get parceled out, or that you donate money instead. Well, I did some research, and I decided to go with a CAREpackage! Fun fact: the term "care package" is actually a registered trademark by this company, who created the original care packages in 1946 to be mailed to Europe after WWII. They're still a legitimate organization who now mail care packages to women in Third World countries. I got to "build" my box online, and I had a long list of things to choose from to put "into" the box: mosquito nets, schoolbooks, business classes, etc. Everything is focused on giving women and young girls in these areas the opportunity to be healthy, educated, and self-sufficient, and a lot of the things you can pick aren't very expensive at all. (I think a set of schoolbooks is around $7.) This goal wound up being different than the packed-by-hand-and-mailed-with-love box that I imagined, but I'm glad we live in a world where it's so easy to help on a global scale.
#50 - write down three awesome things that happen each day for six months
I've been keeping this list on a little digital sticky note on my laptop, and every day when I come home from class/work/school, I write down three great things I can remember from the day. Sometimes it's HARD. Especially this past semester, when I'm so burned out and want to just hate everything. I'm definitely going to keep this one up, because it's so cool to look back at all the nice things that happened to you for months in a row.
#57 - have a recycling bin and utilize it once a week
For a long time, we thought our apartment complex didn't have recycling pickup...but then (like a whole year later) we found out that it does! So we got a second trash can to use for recycling, and we've been on a recycling spree ever since. It's crazy how much stuff we use every week that can be recycled. Now that I'm aware of it, I cringe when I see bottles in garbage cans or people throwing away big stacks of paper. Basically I'm ready to film a Captain Planet episode now.
#62 - avoid having cable/satellite TV for the entire 999 days
Ricky and I are totally a Netflix Instant family, and it's been AWESOME. We watch the shows we like ("Once Upon a Time," "Modern Family"--the classics) on Hulu for free, and we do Netflix for everything else. The only time I was sad we didn't have cable was during the Olympics, but then I reminded myself that paying for cable just so I could watch the Olympics every two years probably wouldn't be a great investment. We've done so well without "real TV" that we're pretty sure we're not going to get cable anytime in the foreseeable future.
#70 - send flowers to someone
I've been waiting for just the right moment to use this one, but after my lovely friend Kaitlyn came home from spending 18 months in Argentina (during which time I did not contact her ONCE, because my friendship skills have a lot of room for improvement), I had my eureka moment. Sending flowers as a total surprise is like the best feeling ever. EVER. Especially when the person lives across the country and you're just waiting for the moment the flowers get delivered. Thanks for letting me send you flowers, Kaitlyn! :D
#85 - make a book list
I agonized over this one! I love books, and it's so hard for me to make a "to-read" list, because it winds up being like 100 books every time. So I was having a hard time figuring out what the theme of my list was going to be, how many books should be on it, etc. Luckily, when we were at MegaCon this year meeting the Star Trek: Next Generation cast, Ricky had the awesome idea to ask each cast member for a book recommendation! That gave us a great opportunity to talk to them about books they enjoyed, books we enjoyed, and just books in general. (Way less awkward and more fulfilling than just telling them how awesome we think they are...even though they are totally awesome.) We missed a few members of the cast because they had gone to a Q&A panel by the time we thought about it, but here's what we have:
Brent Spiner (Data): The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough (He originally said "I don't read much fiction" when we asked him, and Ricky and I burst out laughing, because I don't think Ricky's read a fiction book in like five years--we love nonfiction.)
Levar Burton (Geordi La Forge): Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley (This was the book his movie "Roots" was based off of--I didn't know there was a book! Also, I'm not sure my life will ever get better than getting a personal book recommendation from the host of Reading Rainbow. It just won't.)
Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar): Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. (Angela and Robin both said this was good, so now it's confirmed! Denise Crosby is like the nicest person in the world.)
John De Lancie (Q): The Discoverers by Daniel Boorstin
Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi): The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy by Stieg Larson (She was so enthusiastic about telling us when we asked her! She said she was "desolate" when she got to the end. I complimented her adjective.)
Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker): Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan
Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher): House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. (I forgot to ask him this at the Con, so I sent him a message on tumblr and he responded. Cool!)
Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard): Macbeth by William Shakespeare (Ok, he didn't actually recommend this--we didn't have time to ask him because the line behind us was super long! But Ricky hasn't read this in a long time, so I'm putting in on here.)
#86 - keep a running list of all books completed
I've been keeping those on Facebook, but I'll probably move them over to Goodreads sooner or later. :) I LOVE keeping track of the books I've read! It makes me feel really productive with my life...and really nerdy. I love it.
#98 - visit the Florida Keys
Can I just mention that living this close to the Keys is pretty fantastic? After we went the Renaissance Faire, we decided to swing down to Key Largo (about an hour south) for dinner. Driving next to the water at night is beautiful! The restaurant we originally wanted to go to was packed (and the host was super rude about it), so we drove around until we found something that looked good. And that something was Mrs. Mac's Kitchen. Ricky had the most amazing honey-mustard crab cakes. My mouth is watering just thinking about them. I had mahi-mahi, but their house seasoning didn't have a lot of flavor, so that was disappointed. It made up for it when we grabbed a coupon for a free key lime dessert out of the Key Largo guidebook they had for free next to the register (smart thinking, me!) and shared this great milkshake/smoothie/ice cream sort of combo that was all key lime flavored and frozen and delicious.
I can't believe that's all of them!! I just wrote out a check for $70 to mail to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. This is a great thing, you guys. Everyone should do this--it's so worth it.
Stay tuned for the launch of my new 99 in 999 list this weekend!
#29 - write in a journal weekly for six months
I didn't do this on the blog so much, and I thought I was sucking really bad at this goal--but then I remembered that I've been writing down three awesome things that happen each day, and that totally counts as journaling! Way to go, self! Too bad you didn't think of that months and months and months ago when you were oversharing on the internet.
#35 - send a care package to someone
I thought this was going to be one the simplest ones to do, but it wound up being pretty tricky! Due to a lot of safety and health restrictions (which make sense), many places won't let you send your own care packages. They either ask that you ship a box to a central location to get parceled out, or that you donate money instead. Well, I did some research, and I decided to go with a CAREpackage! Fun fact: the term "care package" is actually a registered trademark by this company, who created the original care packages in 1946 to be mailed to Europe after WWII. They're still a legitimate organization who now mail care packages to women in Third World countries. I got to "build" my box online, and I had a long list of things to choose from to put "into" the box: mosquito nets, schoolbooks, business classes, etc. Everything is focused on giving women and young girls in these areas the opportunity to be healthy, educated, and self-sufficient, and a lot of the things you can pick aren't very expensive at all. (I think a set of schoolbooks is around $7.) This goal wound up being different than the packed-by-hand-and-mailed-with-love box that I imagined, but I'm glad we live in a world where it's so easy to help on a global scale.
#50 - write down three awesome things that happen each day for six months
I've been keeping this list on a little digital sticky note on my laptop, and every day when I come home from class/work/school, I write down three great things I can remember from the day. Sometimes it's HARD. Especially this past semester, when I'm so burned out and want to just hate everything. I'm definitely going to keep this one up, because it's so cool to look back at all the nice things that happened to you for months in a row.
#57 - have a recycling bin and utilize it once a week
For a long time, we thought our apartment complex didn't have recycling pickup...but then (like a whole year later) we found out that it does! So we got a second trash can to use for recycling, and we've been on a recycling spree ever since. It's crazy how much stuff we use every week that can be recycled. Now that I'm aware of it, I cringe when I see bottles in garbage cans or people throwing away big stacks of paper. Basically I'm ready to film a Captain Planet episode now.
#62 - avoid having cable/satellite TV for the entire 999 days
Ricky and I are totally a Netflix Instant family, and it's been AWESOME. We watch the shows we like ("Once Upon a Time," "Modern Family"--the classics) on Hulu for free, and we do Netflix for everything else. The only time I was sad we didn't have cable was during the Olympics, but then I reminded myself that paying for cable just so I could watch the Olympics every two years probably wouldn't be a great investment. We've done so well without "real TV" that we're pretty sure we're not going to get cable anytime in the foreseeable future.
#70 - send flowers to someone
I've been waiting for just the right moment to use this one, but after my lovely friend Kaitlyn came home from spending 18 months in Argentina (during which time I did not contact her ONCE, because my friendship skills have a lot of room for improvement), I had my eureka moment. Sending flowers as a total surprise is like the best feeling ever. EVER. Especially when the person lives across the country and you're just waiting for the moment the flowers get delivered. Thanks for letting me send you flowers, Kaitlyn! :D
#85 - make a book list
I agonized over this one! I love books, and it's so hard for me to make a "to-read" list, because it winds up being like 100 books every time. So I was having a hard time figuring out what the theme of my list was going to be, how many books should be on it, etc. Luckily, when we were at MegaCon this year meeting the Star Trek: Next Generation cast, Ricky had the awesome idea to ask each cast member for a book recommendation! That gave us a great opportunity to talk to them about books they enjoyed, books we enjoyed, and just books in general. (Way less awkward and more fulfilling than just telling them how awesome we think they are...even though they are totally awesome.) We missed a few members of the cast because they had gone to a Q&A panel by the time we thought about it, but here's what we have:
Brent Spiner (Data): The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough (He originally said "I don't read much fiction" when we asked him, and Ricky and I burst out laughing, because I don't think Ricky's read a fiction book in like five years--we love nonfiction.)
Levar Burton (Geordi La Forge): Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley (This was the book his movie "Roots" was based off of--I didn't know there was a book! Also, I'm not sure my life will ever get better than getting a personal book recommendation from the host of Reading Rainbow. It just won't.)
Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar): Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. (Angela and Robin both said this was good, so now it's confirmed! Denise Crosby is like the nicest person in the world.)
John De Lancie (Q): The Discoverers by Daniel Boorstin
Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi): The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy by Stieg Larson (She was so enthusiastic about telling us when we asked her! She said she was "desolate" when she got to the end. I complimented her adjective.)
Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker): Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan
Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher): House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. (I forgot to ask him this at the Con, so I sent him a message on tumblr and he responded. Cool!)
Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard): Macbeth by William Shakespeare (Ok, he didn't actually recommend this--we didn't have time to ask him because the line behind us was super long! But Ricky hasn't read this in a long time, so I'm putting in on here.)
#86 - keep a running list of all books completed
I've been keeping those on Facebook, but I'll probably move them over to Goodreads sooner or later. :) I LOVE keeping track of the books I've read! It makes me feel really productive with my life...and really nerdy. I love it.
#98 - visit the Florida Keys
Can I just mention that living this close to the Keys is pretty fantastic? After we went the Renaissance Faire, we decided to swing down to Key Largo (about an hour south) for dinner. Driving next to the water at night is beautiful! The restaurant we originally wanted to go to was packed (and the host was super rude about it), so we drove around until we found something that looked good. And that something was Mrs. Mac's Kitchen. Ricky had the most amazing honey-mustard crab cakes. My mouth is watering just thinking about them. I had mahi-mahi, but their house seasoning didn't have a lot of flavor, so that was disappointed. It made up for it when we grabbed a coupon for a free key lime dessert out of the Key Largo guidebook they had for free next to the register (smart thinking, me!) and shared this great milkshake/smoothie/ice cream sort of combo that was all key lime flavored and frozen and delicious.
 |
| Outside the restaurant after a full day of Renaissancing |
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| Loved it here! Definitely getting those crab cakes next time. |
I can't believe that's all of them!! I just wrote out a check for $70 to mail to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. This is a great thing, you guys. Everyone should do this--it's so worth it.
Stay tuned for the launch of my new 99 in 999 list this weekend!
YAY Katie! You're the best! Congrats! :]
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't read House of Leaves by Mel's wedding, you can totally borrow mine. As experimental novels go, it doesn't hit you like a Jonathan Safran Foer, but it's fascinatingly detailed and super easy to get lost in exploring.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it's crazy it's been 999+ days. Yeah for 70! I only hope I can do so well!