30 things in 90 days | April 2020

Anyone who knows me knows that I love a good list. Inspired by a friend who gave me this idea, my 101 things in 1,001 days list that I made a few years ago, and realizing that I have already been (mentally) been keeping a list of things I want to do during this quarantine period, I crowdsourced and then created a list of 30 things in 90 days as a start. Here is what I’ll be doing (although some I have already completed). Join me in making and sharing your quarantine list! 

Be healthy + stay active (body + mind).

• Take 10 live digital workout classes
• Complete a week-long athletic challenge 
• Keep (at least) a week-long gratitude journal
• Support my cousin in a digital cookbook project engaging fam across the country 
• Learn a TikTok dance
• Engage in a recipe exchange 
• Read 10 books
• Learn a new skill/take an online class
• Each day, share what I’m grateful for
• Do a day-long digital detox (no screens)

Do Good/Pay it Forward.

• Write and mail letters to my grandparents in isolation
• Put together giving plan for the year
• Donate $$ to impacted/vulnerable communities amidst this crisis
• Donate items to impacted/vulnerable communities amidst this crisis
• Support local RVA restaurants by buying gift cards/merchandise
• Find an opportunity to virtually volunteer
• Donate clothes during spring cleaning

Stay social(ly distanced).

• Convene a virtual happy hour with quarantine-style cocktails
• Host a birthday party
• Attend a virtual seder to celebrate Passover
• Pay cleaning people even though they are not coming 
• Play a Kahoot
• Watch 5 tv series 
• Listen to all episodes of a podcast
• Play 5 different virtual games with friends and family 
• Go on a “walk” with friends (each of us walk in our own neighborhoods while talking to each other)

Check things off my “someday” list

• Make a wedding photo album (finally)
• Create a photo book for my parents from our recent trip celebrating their 30th anniversary (if you can’t travel, at least get to look at travel pictures, right?!)
• Clean out a part of my house I’ve been meaning to clean
• Go through my cookbooks and cook 5 new recipes

#28 - Try a winter sport (97/101).

Inspired by the olympics on a weekend getaway to Vermont, we tried cross country skiing and it was so much fun! After a twenty minute lesson, bundling up, putting on some nordic skis and holding poles, we started moving across the snow and ice. We were lucky that it had snowed a few inches the night before so there was some fresh snow and fresh tracks on the trails. As we started moving, we quickly realized it was a much heavier cardio workout than we had expected and began to peel off layers of our warm clothing. We ended up going for a couple hours and it was full of lots of laughing, lots of falls and some fun mini slopes downhill. I have never tried a winter sport so it was a fun way to start and I hope to be able to go again!

1,001 days - 5 left to complete.

On May 19, 2015, I started on this 1,001 day journey. On that day, I wrote:

"I'm a natural multi-tasker, love a good adventure, extremely curious and believe in lifelong learning. After graduating from the University of Virginia (Go Hoos!), I spent a year in Argentina and now live in Atlanta working for an amazing organization. I've always been one to make lists, whether it is what I need to get at the grocery store or where I want to travel, and love a good challenge. I came across the 101 in 1,001 days challenge and immediately starting creating my list ("If not now, when?" right?). I decided to write this blog to hold myself accountable and hopefully share a few good stories along the way. Whether you are here to join me in the adventure or just find ideas for a list of your own, I look forward to sharing with you."

Since then, I have learned, cultivated healthy habits, traveled, paid it forward, and enjoyed a lot of life. I have also experienced a lot of life changes - I moved to a new state, switched jobs, lost loved ones, got engaged and more. So I have to be honest - this list is not the exact same as when I started. It still has the same categories but I have adapted certain items over time to be more realistically achievable in the time allotted. That being said, I have completed 96 items fully of my original 101 list. I am proud to say that I will finish my 1,001 days with 96 items fully completed and the other five in progress. So what do I have left?!

• #15 - Read 3 classics: I have read 1984 and Lord of the Flies but not a third yet. I had a friend suggest Moby Dick, I need to ask her if I can borrow it.
• #18 - Refurbish a piece of furniture: We want to refurbish our nightstands. We have bought the materials and are waiting for a weekend with no precipitation, when we are in town and not too cold of weather to finish this DIY project.
• #28 - Try a winter sport: This weekend, we are heading up to Vermont and going to try cross country skiing. Looking forward to reporting back.
• #48 - Travel to a new continent: This is a big one and takes time and money to complete. We have tickets booked to Thailand & Vietnam for later this year so I consider this item in progress.
• #101 - Put $10 in savings each time I complete a task on the list for a reward at the end: What will I do? Guess we will have to wait and see...

More reflections to come, as well as a post on each of these five items I still have left to complete. Here I go!

#99 - Celebrate a cultural holiday that is not one of my own (96/101).

Disclaimer: I had forgotten to write a post about this item on my list so this actually happened in November 2016.

In November 2016 when I was in Vienna for work, I visited a magical Christmas Town, the Weiner Christkindlmarket am Rathausplatz. I did not realize that Vienna is often called the magical Christmas town and home of Christmas markets in Europe. I did not grow up with a tradition of having or visiting a Christmas town and was blown away by the mulled wine, twinkling lights, endless decorations, and more. Here I am drinking some mulled wine out of a little boot.

p.s. My hair used to be so long! Remember when I donated my hair a year ago?

#20 - Listen to all episodes of a podcast (95/101).

I enjoy listening to podcasts. I told my grandmother I was listening to a podcast the other day and she didn't know what it was, so for those who do not know what podcasts are, Wikipedia says they are "episodic series of digital audio or video files which a user can download and listen to". I have found podcasts to be a great source of content to listen to when in transit - in the car, on the subway, on a plane, on a walk, etc. Over the last months, I have been listening to every episode of a podcast called How I Built This with Guy Raz, a NPR podcast that "dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies -- weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the movements they built". There have been about seventy episodes of the podcast so far (as of February 2018), which began in Fall 2016.

It was so interesting to listen to the stories behind many companies I am familiar with, some I use daily (like Instagram), some I had never heard of (like Radio One) and many that have great stories about resilience, grit, discipline, risk, entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, phases of growth (startup, scale, etc.), luck, and more. I definitely suggest picking a few to listen to when you have time.

Some of my favorite episodes (and a memorable quote from each) include:

• Edible Arrangements: Tariq Farid: "Well if no one else does it, why do you think you will be successful? So I would encourage you to stick to your daytime job"
• Spanx: Sara Blakely: “In the middle of my meeting with her, I could tell I was losing her…so I said, “You know what, will you come with me to the bathroom?”
• Real Estate Mogul Barbara Corcoran: “we are going to have to make a lot of changes…and the hardest change of all is me firing my mother."
• Radio One: Cathy Hughes: "you have to be so very careful about who you discuss your hard times with because those who love you and care for you the most, like your mother, like your best friend, they'll give you the worst damn advice in the world"
• Zumba: Beto Perez & Alberto Perlman: "We had zero in the bank, we created this beautiful email, we pressed send and were praying, please, please, and suddenly four hundred and fifty instructors joined"
• TOMS: Blake Mycoskie: "Muchas zapatos rapido!" 

#31 - Start Invisalign (94/101).

Many teens have memories of braces, retainers, brackets, and more. I do not have memories of my own as I did not have braces when I was growing up, I have never even been to see an orthodontist. This was something I was grateful for growing up and have found it to be something that currently surprises most people I tell.

Over the last couple years, my teeth have started to shift a bit. About six months ago, my dentist mentioned to me that if I wanted to consider some orthodontics work such as Invisalign, this might be a good time to do it as it would be a lighter case and wouldn't take as much time as a "normal" case. I recently decided to go ahead with it and will be starting Invisalign tomorrow.

To prepare, I have been doing some research. Here are a few tips I have compiled so far, anyone else have ideas?

• Switch to a new aligner before bedtime -- to sleep through some of the initial discomfort while sleeping
• Travel with a travel toothbrush, floss and mouthwash (for after every meal)
• While wearing, only drink water or clear sparkling water without sugar (La Croix is approved - yay!)

I'm a bit nervous but am looking forward to the results. I am hoping fourteen weeks from now I'll have a straighter smile!

#97 - Celebrate with a friend (93/101).

A couple weekends ago, we flew down to Atlanta to celebrate the upcoming wedding of our friends Katie and Spencer! They had an engagement shower and many of our friends ended up joining for all the festivities. We built a great weekend around it, including good food, breweries, visiting with friends and family and more. As we get further away from our days at UVa, it is so precious to find time to see our friends in bigger groups. It was a great added bonus that we also have many other friends and family to visit in Atlanta as well. We can't wait to celebrate their wedding later this year!

p.s. My friend Katie started Happy Camper, a wholesome, vibrant breakfast with a healthful spin on the classics. If you are in the Greater Atlanta area and looking for a caterer for your upcoming event, check out Happy Camper!