The List

January is probably my least favorite month. It makes me feel down and kind of anxious. Autumn is over. The holidays have passed. It feels like the air has been let out of a balloon. A lot of build-up and then just flatness. I  compiled a list of one hundred things to attempt in 2013 to take my mind off the blahness of January and to prepare for a year of good things after a year of not-so-good. This isn’t a resolution list. What are you wanting to do this year?

♡ 1. Make a red velvet cake. 
♡ 2. Take a dance class at the Old Town School. (Latin Dance 1 in progress) Kind of a bust. I couldn't get with the taking direction thing.
♡ 3. Look into the school library certification requirements (but only look). 
♡ 4. Create a writing space. 
♡ 5. Get glasses adjusted or replaced. 
♡ 6. Make more watercolor postcards. 
♡ 7. Post a picture a day on FB. Somewhere along the way I gave up on this. Who cares, right?
♡ 8. Go to the opera. 
♡ 9. Read only books that I currently have at home or that are received for the Pura Belpre or see #74 (no new library books unless research related). Ohohoho, that's a good one!
♡ 10. Send mom a bag of Meyer lemons. 
♡ 11. Have a cocktail at Uncommon Ground. 1/20: I had to revise this one because the Sophia Loren is no longer on the menu. Apparently, they switch up the drinks every couple of weeks. 11/15 Had a mochatini: creme de cacao, gin, and I can't remember what else but here were coffee beans floating on top. Boozy coffee drink. Eh.
♡ 12. Establish a monthly date night with BZ. [1/19: "Lincoln"and a late dinner at Uncommon Ground; 2/1 Yo La Tengo at the Vic--we went with a friend, but it was kind of a date since there was no child involved!]
♡ 13. Make shadow puppets. 
♡ 14. Finish a draft of my book. (in progress)
♡ 15. Tattoos with Jenna! 
♡ 16. Write up the books I read this year. (in progress) NOPE.
♡ 17. Have a Halloween party. Didn't happen. I did, however, serve as a parent volunteer when E's class had their Halloween party! I had to come up with an activity for them to do. We made sugar skull masks. Sequins EVERYWHERE!
♡ 18. Let my hair down--literally and figuratively. 
♡ 19. Record mom talking about her life. 
♡ 20. Speak Spanish with E. 
♡ 21. Buy new underwear. 
♡ 22. Bake an apple pie and a pecan pie.
♡ 23. Learn to drive or swim.
♡ 24. Complete at least one zine. 
♡ 25. Catch up with ordering photos. 
♡ 26. Go to the Chicago Cultural Center and read in the big reading room.  Technically, I did not read. I worked on my zine.
♡ 27. Do something with my seashells and glass. 
♡ 28. Bake bread again. My first attempt at baking bread again resulted in a foul smelling "mother." You haven't seen the end of me!
♡ 29. Celebrate NYE with B and E--noisemakers and all. 
♡ 30. Learn to crochet. 
♡ 31. Try the recipes I’ve clipped out of magazines. (ongoing)
♡ 32. Add more color to my life / environment. (ongoing)
♡ 33. Start an art journal. 
♡ 34. Take the Empire Builder west. 
♡ 35. Write thank you notes. 
♡ 36. Show more love and compassion toward myself and others. 
♡ 37. Weed books at home. 
♡ 38. Wear red lipstick. 
♡ 39. Get a new winter coat. 
♡ 40. Volunteer with E. 
♡ 41. Write two blog posts per month. 
♡ 42. Create an internet schedule to cut back on time wasted online (and yet, here I am, creating a blog....) 
♡ 43. Get frames for prints and hang all the new art I got for Christmas. Some of it is up.
♡ 44. Go to the movies with Karen.  (3/2 "Beautiful Creatures;" 11/30 "Catching Fire")
♡ 45. Go to the Art Institute and the Field Museum. 
♡ 46. Read Treasure Island. (in progress) It got kind of boring after the first few chapters. I will give it another shot next year.
♡ 47. Write for 30 minutes every day. 
♡ 48. Make birthday cascarones for E. 
♡ 49. Get rid of clutter! 
♡ 50. Wear something leopard print. 
♡ 51. Take Doc Martens to a shoe repair place to see if they can be fixed up. Took them to the Doc Marten story and got new insoles and waterproofing cream and new laces so they're practically good as new except worn in.
♡ 52. Watch “Hecho en Mexico,” “Lincoln,” (1/19) “Hitchcock,” Ken Burns’ Dust Bowl documentary (12/2013), and “Twin Peaks” (again) [pilot 2/15]. 
♡ 53. Discover one new musician / band. (Best Coast; Waxahatchee; Mati Zundel; Las Cafeteras; A Tribe Called Red; Lemuria)
♡ 54. Read the Mexican Vogue special issue on Frida Kahlo in Spanish. 
♡ 55. Listen to twelve episodes of “This American Life.” (1/16 Doppelgangers; 1/30 surrogates; 2/11 Kid Logic; 2/12 Valentine's Day 2013; 2/16 Little War on the Prairie; 2/19 Frenemies; 2/20 See No Evil; 3/23 No Coincidence, No Story; The Seven Things You're Not Supposed to Talk About; It Says So Right Here; How I Got Into College; Use Only As Directed) I listened to more than twelve, but that was easy.
♡ 56. Go to Dance Dance Party Party. 
♡ 57. Go dancing at Mary’s Attic. 
♡ 58. Take E to Gainesville. 
♡ 59. Make two issues of “roots & wings.” 
♡ 60. Redo the kitchen. 
♡ 61. Make tamales. 
♡ 62. Go to the top of the Space Needle. 
♡ 63. Go to Oaxaca. 
♡ 64. Submit writing for publication / enter a writing contest. 
♡ 65. Make that calendula skin balm already. 
♡ 66. Do projects #9, #15 (here)and #26 in Keri Smith’s How to Be an Explorer of the World. 
♡ 67. Do a cleanse. 
♡ 68. Become a member of the National Museum of Mexican Art. 
♡ 69. Make a mix CD. 
♡ 70. Wear my Doc Martens on my 41st birthday (their 20th anniversary). 
♡ 71. See live music at least once.  Yo La Tengo; Carla Molina; My Bloody Valentine; Superchunk (Hideout Block Party); Las Cafeteras
♡ 72. Work out at the Broadway Armory during the free week in January. 
♡ 73. Go to Hot Doug’s.  5/15/2013 I had the celebrity offering. I've already forgotten who it was named after. Eh. It was not all that. I should've gotten the plain old Elvis as I'd planned.
♡ 74. Read all the Pura Belpré winners. 
♡ 75. Make maki rolls with E. 
♡ 76. Play kickball. 
♡ 77. Write more letters (inspired by the Parcel Ghost!) 
♡ 78. Go to the Lunch Break music series at the Chicago Cultural Center. 
♡ 79. Take a tour of the Chicago Cultural Center. 
♡ 80. Light a candle on the feast day of the Virgen de Guadalupe. 
♡ 81. Make lanterns. 
♡ 82. Do a lantern walk for the winter solstice. 
♡ 83. Make hanky panks a la Pop Z for the Super Bowl. 
♡ 84. Attempt to meditate. 
♡ 85. Make poached eggs. 
♡ 86. Have birthday dinner at Frontera Grill. 
♡ 87. Take another stab at growing a pumpkin. I did, but then neglected the poor thing. I am a horrible gardener.
♡ 88. Do more crossword puzzles. 
♡ 89. Do something with bottle caps. 
♡ 90. Try a new food.  Chapulines (grasshoppers) in Oaxaca!
♡ 91. Send surprise mail. 
♡ 92. Explore Miami with Gina. 
♡ 93. Get a sandwich at la lechonera. 
♡ 94. Dress up. 
♡ 95. Read and watch East of Eden. 
♡ 96. Pushups!
♡ 97. Try all the fare offered by the street vendor that sets up shop outside of E's school.
♡ 98. Read the entire Love and Rockets (or as much as I can get my hand on). Realistically, not something I will likely do (or even get to) this year, but a roll over to 2014.
♡ 99. Do some guerrilla art projects. 
♡ 100. Writer's retreat. Alone.