Finish Line: 48 Hour Book Challenge

Reading: 17 Hours, 29 Minutes 
Books Started: Six 
Books Finished: Three and a Half 
Pages Read: 1140

I might add links to GoodReads reviews ... once I write them!

Finished (and Loved) 
The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
I Crawl Through It by A.S. King 
Black Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Still Reading:
Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger 

Still Listening:
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss and narrated by Nick Podehl

Started, But Want Something Lighter:
Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman

Started, Didn't Like:
Spinster by Kate Bolick

I met friends for drinks on Saturday night, slept like a normal each night, and even made a trip to the local street fair, Seventh Heaven, and purchased two hats for the low low price of $10! Some day I will crack the half-way mark!

Tenth Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge

Oh, boy. I may have selected too many books for the 48 Hour Book Challenge.

In addition to the ones pictured, I also have The Name of The Wind fired up and ready to go in my Audible app. My phone is also holding some ebooks, notably Gail Carriger's Finishing School series start starts with Etiquette & Espionage.

Unlike previous 48HBCs, I don't have much planned this weekend, other than reading. Perhaps a few errands -- cleaning, laundry, etc -- that can be done while listening to Nick Podehl narrate.

For now, my plan is to start Friday evening and to try to read more than half the time. It seems totally easy, right?

Start: 8:00pm Friday
Finish: 8:00pm Sunday
Goal: 25 Hours

R&R

Like a child with a chore chart, I've been tracking my progress with each category of my Things-cation:

Cook (Sun, Tue)
Bake (Sun)
Nap (Sun, Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri)
Read (Tue, Wed, Fri)
Run (Sun, Mon, Tue, Fri)
Write (Mon, Tue)
Drink (Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri)
Clean (Mon, Wed, Thu)
Trash (Tue, Wed, Thu)
File (Wed)
*Shop (Fri)

I broke my glasses two months ago and during my trip to Maryland I've managed to replace them with a buy-one-get-one-free deal. (I pick them up tonight!) We're making a butterfly cake for Easter, so I expect to log another check for baking. 

I've never been a fan of staycation. I'd much rather visit a friend who lives in some not-close city (Milwaukee, Austin, San Francisco) but it's been nice to cross things off my to-do list in between massive amounts of leisure. Is it too early for a nap? 

40-40-40

For previous birthdays, I have compiled a list of things to do leading up to my birthday. In the approach to 40, I am keeping it simple:

1. Lose 40 pounds
2. Write 40 blog posts
3. Complete 40 (different) running routes

I am approximately 40 weeks from my 40^th birthday so I just need to do each of these things once a week. At some point in my past, I abandoned the idea of losing weight because it always resulted in me feeling like a failure. It often involved unrealistic or unhealthy approach with a too-short timeline. Eat less, smoke more! However, eating and exercising in such a way that I lose a pound a week doesn't seem like a bad idea. My life includes a lot of beer, chips, and cheese. I will try not to be too obsessed ... except maybe when planning those running routes. 

How awesome would it be to turn 40 and to feel as if I am the most healthy I have ever been?

Things-cation

I am in the midst of nine days away from work, but a lack of funds keeps me from doing anything more than enjoying a couple of happy hour beers at my local joint. On the first day, I made of list of Things I Would Like To Do and maybe even like to do every day. This is what I came up with:

• Cook
• Bake
• Nap
• Read
• Run
• Write
• Drink
• Clean
• Trash
• File

I'm in New York the first five days then I travel to Maryland with my best friend, her husband, and her adorable toddler. We grew up in the same town, Westminster, and will spend the next four days with our respective families. I am aiming for five Things a day so even after the set change, I will focus on napping, reading, running, writing, and drinking. I see visits to the Moose Lodge and American Legion in my future, but I hope to entice at least one friend out to Westminster to enjoy fine cold beverages on lovely Main Street. 

The visit is also a belated visit for my mom's birthday so I imagine a couple of mother-daughter outings. We will buy things! We will eat lunch specials at Forbidden City! I will probably fix something with her computer or printer!

When I opened my MapMyRun app, I gasped when I saw that the last time I went for a run was January 1. Three months? How could I go so long? Winter has been rough and spring is being stubborn, but running centers me. What have I been doing for the last three months? Professional commitments kept me busy for January, but February and March have been same old, same old business as usual. It has been quite cold, but it still feels like no excuse. April, I am embracing you with open arms, tech shirts, and my beloved running fannypack.   

Tag: You're It!

Photograph by Jacob Walsh

At the beginning of the year, I started tagging one of my Facebook friends each day. I explained it with my first post: 

"Last year, Matthew Allison tagged a different Facebook friend each year. He began each post with "(Over 365 Facebook friends, one tagged each day in 2013!)" and then shared some little bit about the person and how they knew each other. I don't have *that* many friends, so I plan to also tag pages that I follow. Since Matt is my inspiration, I'll begin with him. We both work at Queens Library, and we first met during a 'staff appreciation' event during National Library Week in 2007. He's super into skate boarding and writing, and I like how he balances being laid back yet dedicated to improvement. Determined yet accepting of life's twists and turns. Cheers!"

It's been a fun exercise in writing and in appreciation. I added the names of all my friends, along with certain pages and groups, to a spreadsheet and ordered it by first name. After starting with Matt, I selected each daily pick using the RANDOM.ORG True Random Number Generator and plugging in the spreadsheet row span. Once I feature a friend, I remove that person from the spreadsheet. I started with 270 friends, groups, or pages. My opening sentence is now: Over 365 Facebook friends, groups, or pages. One tagged each day in 2014!  Perhaps I will add new folks to the spreadsheet as I go along and perhaps I will stop once September is over.  

I keep thinking a number will come up and I'll groan, "Ugh, not that person!" Instead, each time I have been excited to see where my jumbled memories and mused tapping lead me. 

38 Things

Giant Kitten assists with writing.

Now that I'm 38, I made a list of 38 things to (maybe) do. 

Travel
1. Costa Rica
2. More! Canada! More!
3. Destination half-marathon

Health, Wellness, and General Good
4. Repeat vegan-for-a-month.
5. Volunteer with Healing Arts Initiative.
6. Go skiing or ice skating.
7. Join Citi Bike once stations arrive in neighborhood (Park Slope).

Organization and Finances 
8. 52 Week Money Challenge
9. Cut money on food in half.
10. Make more money.

Exploration and Learning
11. Knit!
12. Do book-a-day with mostly children's books.
13. Take children's literature, development, or services class.
14. Do book challenges.
15. The Great Saunter
16. Enjoy the fuck out of SXSWi.
17. Learn to draw comics.
18. Make pottery.
19. Take a sewing class with Megan.
20. Eat foods listed on 100 Foods To Eat Before You Die. 
21. Read a different best-selling author monthly.
22. Do crossword puzzles.
23. Watch AFI's 100 Years 100 Movies. 

Social
24. Send holiday cards.
25. Facebook friend, page, and group tagging - one a day for 270 days. 
26. Dance, motherfucker, dance.
27. Find Susan a boyfriend.
28. Hack dating.
29. Get a boyfriend. 

Writing
30. Keep a diary, write a page a day, or update blog. 
31. Write letters.
32. NaNoWriMo -- this is the year!
33. Submit a Metropolitan Diary.
34. Edit Wikipedia entries

Miscellaneous
35. Rollovers
36. New glasses!
37. Stop dressing like a social studies teacher.
38. Lose 10%.