Monday, October 14, 2013

Second Month Update. Haven't given up yet!

This is the second update in the grand 30 by 30 list. This was a busy month! Both personally and list wise.
(2) Healthy Eating – better at this, but still not perfect! I am eating a lot more fruits and veggies and cooking actual meals at home! (Did I have chips and queso last night for dinner? MAYBE I DID)
(3) Save money – I am doing very well at this! I must say. I’m still *spending* money though, so I should work on that next? Spending less? I managed to reduce to price of my cable bill though, so there’s that.
(6) Watch every movie on the AFI Top 100 list. – Two more movies down! Double Indemnity and Do The Right Thing. I posted reviews on the blog. I need to start watching more than just two a month.
(7) Finish my duolingo French lessons - I started this up again, though progress is slow! It also (apparently) takes away points as you stop using it so I am backtracking quite a bit! Which is good because I forgot a lot of things, again.
(8) Watch The X-Files. – Finished Season 1! I had to slow down a fair amount due to the fall tv season starting up again, but I was able to catch up over the weekend. I’ll be taking another break to watch Season 2 of Supernatural (I’m alternating) but hopefully I’ll at least get started on S2. (9) Cook one semi elaborate meal a week – I’ve been cooking a LOT more. Nothing really elaborate, but I’ve been creating meals more and I’m going to count that as a win.
(11) Start doing writing exercises. – I’ve been writing on the blog pretty regularly. I missed last week but other than that have been fairly consistent!
(13) Volunteer – This isn’t a monthly goal but I did donate blood this month, help out some dirty hippies with building things/painting things, and have been doing a lot of research into volunteer organizations.
(15) Do one new thing a month – This I covered in spades (what does that mean??? I should look it up.) Tried three new restaurants (Jasmine’s, Texadelphia, and Norma’s Café), went to an Amanda Palmer concert, and participated in a build day for French Camp. More on the blog later!
(18) Talk to my family more – talked to my brother!
(20) Learn a lot about one thing (Presidents!) - This month was Milliard Fillmore. I’ll be putting something up here at the end of the week, likely!
(21) Read more – My goal was 2 books a month and I have been successful so far! (That’s in addition to whatever we’re reading for book club, so it’s really 3/month.) This month I read The Kid by Dan Savage and Dr. Sleep by Stephen King. I’ll be putting up a post on the blog about these both later!
(22) Book club – still going strong! Figured out my groove and am enjoying it so far
(26) Send letters of thanks – I wrote a letter to my dad, but I need to mail it. Oops!

Overall I think I’m doing pretty well. I did lose a little bit of focus, but honestly not nearly as much as I expected. I’m doing pretty well at keeping my monthly goals up, but I need to start focusing on the more nebulous ones as well. That’s something to improve on for my next update! I’m finding this to be a pretty positive experience so far. It’s making me make more decisions consciously, with purpose. I don’t also think “is this something that fulfils a list item?” and it’s not something that I obsess over in my day to day, but I do think about it. If I’m bored at home and about to turn on Netflix I consider (though sometimes reject!) whether I want to watch Random B Movie #458985 or an AFI movie. When hungry and picking out a place to eat I consider whether I want to eat somewhere I’ve been a thousand times or go somewhere new. I’m thinking a lot more before doing.

Next month I would like to do a couple of things in addition to the regular monthly stuff I’ve been doing: Get back to the where I was before in Duolingo. I lost a lot of ground and I’d like to get back to my previous level. Doing at least one lesson a few times a week should get me there. Jump into researching Amsterdam trip. I need to at least lock in the month (likely April) and figure out a rough plan of action. Is there going to be travel to additional cities or countries? Is there a general area that’s preferable? Are there any specific touristy things I want to try to visit? What do I want my overall budget to be? (I’m hoping for $2,000, so I can put it all on my discover and have it paid off by trip time, minus food and incidentals, of course! No clue if that’s realistic, but hey, research!) I’ll probably throw out a post at some point soliciting ideas, so if you have any save it for later!

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