Life List

Inspired by Maggie Mason’s 100 things to do before I go.

  1. Set up file sharing between my Mac and my netbook
  2. Make gnocchi gorgonzola from scratch
  3. Host my own seder
  4. Hang shelves in my bedroom
  5. Go to grad school
  6. Pay off my grad school loans (working on it)
  7. Own a globe
  8. Adopt a pet (oh hello, George Margot Kitty)
  9. Take a dance class
  10. Make a cake with more than two layers (proof)
  11. Pick fruit (peaches & apples, so far)
  12. Make jam with said fruit (vanilla peach, ginger peach, peach & ancho chile, apple butter)
  13. Can (well, technically, jar) things:
    1. jam (so far: cherry, apple butter, peach, marmalade)
    2. homemade Sriracha
    3. homemade barbecue sauce
  14. Frame and hang a set of art and photos, like this (voila!)
  15. Go camping in the snow
  16. Live in Uganda for a year
  17. Go back to Uganda
  18. Go back again
  19. Ride the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Lake Baikal
  20. Visit zoos in 10 different countries (so far: Chile, Guatemala, Kenya, Netherlands, Uganda, United States)
  21. Ride trains in 20 different countries (so far: Bosnia, Croatia, Canada, France, Hungary, Netherlands, Russia, United States)
  22. Have a favorite cocktail (currently: a tie between Death in the Gulf Stream and The Burlington)
  23. Learn how to make five cocktails from memory
  24. Have a barista offer me “the usual” at a coffee shop
  25. Work at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  26. Experience white nights
  27. Give a professional presentation/talk in a language other than English
  28. Learn how to whistle (note: I have been trying for 20 years. I think this will be the hardest thing on this list to accomplish)
  29. Learn how to do a handstand
  30. Successfully operate a parachute
  31. Stop being afraid of spiders
  32. Make homemade pad thai that tastes better than (good) restaurant pad thai (amazingly, a vegetarian version of Alton Brown’s recipe was the winner)
  33. Learn how to make Massaman curry from scratch
  34. Learn how to play five songs on the harmonica or the piano or the guitar
  35. Live in New York City
  36. Spend a week as a vegan
  37. Successfully climb a volcano
  38. Road trip up (or down) the West Coast
  39. Spend a month offline (so far: 19 days is my longest stretch)
  40. Go on a weekend yoga retreat
  41. Be able to hold Chaturanga Dandasana for 10 seconds
  42. Learn how to bake a consistently, solidly delicious loaf of bread off the cuff, sans recipe
  43. Teach someone how to bake a consistently, solidly delicious loaf of bread off the cuff, sans recipe
  44. Go backpacking
  45. Own a swing (rope, tire, or porch)
  46. Own a hammock (in college; sadly no longer in my apartment)
  47. Own another hammock (mission accomplished)
  48. Read 100 books in 365 days (ta-da!)
  49. Take 1000 photos in 365 days (the best ones are on Instagram at #rhj365)
  50. Wear plaid
  51. Chop (almost) all my hair off
  52. Grow vegetables (mmmm, lettuce)
  53. Submit an idea to Radiolab that makes it onto the show
  54. Take a vacation that involves buying a last-minute plane ticket at the airport
  55. Practice yoga at least once a week for a year (thank you, O2)
  56. Take my niblings on a trip abroad
  57. Spend an afternoon at a Turkish bath, in Turkey
  58. Run a half marathon
  59. Learn to like poached eggs (turns out I just needed to, you know, try one) (update: back to thinking they’re disgusting, but at least I gave it a shot?)
  60. Run The Other Half
  61. Try 15 new vegetables (so far: okra, Brazilian cucumbers, parsnips, chard, collard greens, garlic scapes, turnips)
  62. Complete a triathlon
  63. Run a marathon (trained up to 22 miles and then got injured. current goal: rehab, base building)
  64. Take CS50
  65. Give someone a balloon bouquet
  66. Make a quilt
  67. Give someone a handmade quilt
  68. Make something out of clay that I can use every day
  69. Seek out a mentor
  70. Mentor someone
  71. Knit a sweater
  72. Give someone a sweater I’ve knitted
  73. Make a piece of clothing I’m comfortable wearing in public
  74. Contribute to 10 repos on GitHub that I don’t own (1, 2, 3)
  75. Tend a goat (meet Jack, one of eight goats at the Mass Audubon Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary)
  76. Join the 4000 Footer Club
  77. Start blogging using Jekyll

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