Languages

(scrubs on TV)

LANGUAGES

Learn enough sign language to be able to have a conversation with my cousins.

Two of my cousins are deaf, and I've never really gotten to know them. They seem like such interesting people, so this goal could also go under familial. 

Learn enough Spanish to be able to function in Mexico English-free.

YES! I love Spanish! I want to speak it!!! I also want to go to Mexico (Baja California) for a long period of time, and I won't do it till I can speak Spanish.

Visit Montreal and Vieux-Quebec, speak only French.

Loved what I saw of Montreal, and I think it would totally enhance the experience to really immerse myself and speak French.

Learn how to say 'love' and 'where is the bathroom?' in fifteen languages. (Three down, twelve to go!)

This just seems like a cool goal. It's a fun one.

ykylm,

rae

Reading

(clear isabel-he moved me)

Read Wuthering Heights

Ugh, this one is taking forever. I get fifty pages in and then I throw it across the room and have to start over because I have no idea what's going on. I usually love Brontes! Jane Eyre! Come on!!!! This is a classic, I am GOING TO GET THROUGH IT.

Read War and Peace

I really liked Anna Karenina so I figured War and Peace was a good next step. The Russian names can really throw me off though, which is why this is one that I'll have to just sit down and do. I also need to read the Brothers Karamazov, but that didn't make the list-cut.

Read Suite Francaise

I have heard nothing but good things about this book and it looks really interesting.

Read the Sunday New York Times, cover to cover

So cool! What a challenge. What an expensive challenge-isn't it like a four-dollar newspaper? But I could spend a whole day with this paper, apparently.

One week, no gossip blogs or magazines.

This is in effort to try and focus on getting some of the other stuff on the list done, you see. 

Meet Will Ferguson and have an intelligent and informed conversation

I LOVE WILL FERGUSON. I have entire chunks of 'How to be a Canadian' and 'Why I Hate Canadians' memorised. I quote him in everyday life. I took the Canadian History for Dummies book he wrote on a missions trip and my teammates laughed at me. He lives in Canada-in fact, I think he lives in Calgary-so the next time he does WordFest or something like that, I am there. I am SO there. (Man, what a fangirl).

Type up and make pretty the French favorite poems for my dorm room.

These are: Roman by Arthur Rimbaud, Liberté by Paul Eluard, Chanson (Si vous n'avez rien à me dire) by Victor Hugo and Hymne à la Beauté by Charles Baudelaire. You French speakers should look them up, they're all beautiful. This is so that I get into the spirit of French residence and whatnot, and I really like these poems. I might frame them and stuff.

One month, no television.

To have more time to read, you see...even though reading is pretty much all I do anyway.

Read the newspaper every day for two weeks.

Keeping informed, keeping informed, keeping infoooooormed!!

ykylm,

rae

next: languages

Familial and for others

(emmy rossum, slow me down)

Watch a whole football game with Alanna and Dad. Don't complain.

Aw maaaaan. This is going to be hard, I don't LIKE football. But it's really important to family members and you BET it'll be a challenge. I could have done this yesterday but I so wasn't in the mood. 

Cook, prepare for, serve and clean up a familial/romantic dinner. (This is two things, but their reasonings are the same).

I HAVE TO LEARN TO COOK. FOR MORE THAN ONE SETTING. AND MORE THAN ONE MEAL (THE STIR-FRY I CAN CURRENTLY CREATE).

Learn the basic premise of the game 'Halo' and play two rounds with Brett.

This is one of Brett's favorite things, so I'd like to understand it.

For a month, every time I want to see a movie, do volunteer (charity?) work instead.

Seriously, the amount of time I spend at the cinema's becoming a little ridiculous, especially in summer. And this is beneficial for others as well as a challenge for me.

Volunteer for a political candidate.

I did this once already, and I'd like to get more involved doing it again.

Recycle every can or bottle I use or come across for a month.

Hurray, environmental stewardship!

Donate blood.

Oh, I was SO close to this one. Still want to do it, it's so easy and so helpful.

Be a Big Sister for a year.

I hope I can actually do this in the timeframe.

ykylm

rae

Personal-Really Big Challenges

(tim hughes-everything)

Welcome to the ones that are really taxing. If I can do every thing on this part of the list, I'll consider it a huge success.

Run a 10K race. Run 60% of the way.

I have always wanted to be able to run. Part of the reason I don't is the lovely spectre of exercise-induced asthma, but if I was in shape, I don't think it'd be that big of a deal. I have an inhaler. Let's be honest with ourselves. This one requires me to train and stuff, and that's going to be a huge challenge.

Take a biology course.

I realised in Bio 30 this year that I love biology-especially genetics-but that there's enough in the entire subject that I don't like that I stop trying at some points. I'd like to take-and pass-a university biology course. This one is really just for me.

Jump off the 10m platform at a dive tank.

I used to take diving, and I couldn't even bring myself to jump from any higher than the 5m. Diving from the 3m was a challenge (in fact, I don't ever think I did it; I stuck to 'fall-ins'). And I love to dive even though I'm not very good at it. This is another one to help me get over the fear of falling. 

Keep my dorm room so clean...mother unannounced...

I am a messy person. I'm not generally dirty, but I'm messy. Clutter, while not 'comforting' exactly, doesn't bother me at all. However, I think moving is a good time for me to make some big changes, and so this is one of them. 

Own a fish. Keep it alive.

Feed it, change the water. Keep it alive means for six months. Goldfish don't really live that long, do they?

Buy a small bikini and wear it to the pool. Feel good about myself.

Oh, boy, the self-image issues. I really need to do this, and I think it's going to be a reward for doing a lot of the health stuff. 

Own two houseplants. Keep them alive.

Okay, Robyn, I'll take the spider plants. I like the idea of living things being dependent on me.

Take a ballroom dance class. Sign up without a partner.

My boyfriend can waltz and I fall over my own feet. Does this seem rather backwards to anyone else? Seriously, the lack of grace I possess is appalling. The signing up without a partner is because most people do these classes with someone they know, and I think it'd be really cool to split up and meet other people. (Robyn, you can still take the same one as me! Let's not push the 'alone' business).

One week, no texting.

Oh, maaaaan. This is going to be really hard. That's all I can say!

One week, no makeup.

Again with the self-image issues. I am going to have to make a real bloody effort, too, to pick a week where I actually am going out in public.

Memorise a book of the Bible.

I must qualify this one with 'and make it one that's longer than 3 John.' But I would like to know that I have a whole book memorised, and yet again, in order to do this I'm going to have to spend some quality time with the Bible.

One month, no picking at cuticles, pulling out eyelashes/eyebrows or biting nails.

These are my stress habits and the reason that I have messed up hands and eyebrows. I'm going to replace them with something creative.

Eat at a restaurant and see a movie alone.

Rachel did this once in Friends, didn't she? This is a huge challenge because people notice when you do things alone, it makes you the centre of attention.

Put 10% of every paycheque into a savings' account.

This one starts with the next paycheque I get. I am really bad at saving money, and I need to do it. Point final. 

next-familial and for others.

ykylm,

rae