Sixteen Things I Want to Do Before I Die

. . . the alternative title of this post is: "I So Desperately Want to Avoid Studying for My Chemistry Exam that I am Horribly Unprepared for and Will Most Likely Fail That I am Finding Every Excuse on the Planet to Keep Myself from Putting my Ass in Gear and Getting to Work."

Anyways, given that I've not yet even reached the ripe old age of twenty, I don't think about my impending death very often. But every now and then I do, and I wonder what it would take to enable me to go quietly and contentedly to face whatever comes next knowing that I'd lived my life fully and well. So, in the interest of turning that line of thinking into something fun rather than just something morbid, I decided to make a list of things I wanted to do before I die. I wanted to do twenty-seven things, because that's my favorite number, but I could only come up with sixteen. Some are big things, and some are little, random things. Now, once again, I'm not even twenty yet, so this is by no means a final draft. It'll probably change. It'll probably change a lot. But here it is:

1. Become a doctor

2. Spend at least a year living in a foreign country.

3. Learn at least one foreign language fluently.

4. Ride in a hot air balloon.

5. Drive cross-country.

6. Have some writing of mine published somewhere of significance. A medical journal, magazine, newspaper, whatever. This is kind of a subjective goal; it's hard to really define "significance" but I suppose I'll recognize it when I've done it.

7. Get married (and stay married, happily).

8. Have a child (or, even better, children).

9. Become a good cook.

10. Be at my ideal body weight.

11. Participate in some big athletic event (e.g. a triathalon or the Seattle-to-Portland bike ride).

12. Have a blog that lots of people read. Quite a goal for the girl whose blog currently has one follower (yay Megan)! :)

13. Become an organized person.

14. Save someone's life. Again, this a subjective goal. I don't have to be the one holding the paddles yelling "Clear!" while intense television drama music plays in the background or whatever. But I'd like to know that I gave someone a chance to live who didn't have one otherwise. Obviously, this doesn't mean I'm in favor of people being sick or in danger . . . I'm not. But, for the foreseeable future, people are going to get sick, and people are going to be in danger, and I'd just like to know I've played a vital role in helping people in that situation.

15. Own at least one cat and at least one dog, not necessarily at the same time.

16. Teach my own class of something. Anything, really.

. . . and I think that's it. Have a good night, everyone, and wish me luck on my test tomorrow.

Even blogger isn't safe from memes, apparently

This sounds like it might be fun:

1) Go to "Pictures" on your computer.
2) Go to your sixth folder.
3) Find your sixth picture and post it with an explanation.





This is a picture of my friend Daisy. It's from November 1st, 2008, when she cooked our group of friends a big spaghetti dinner with pumpkin pie for dessert. It was a fun evening, and I think this is a really good picture of her.

You're supposed to tag people to do this after you, but I say whoever wants to do it, just go for it! :)

Pictures from Saturday's kayaking trip

I went kayaking on Saturday and, thanks to the dry bag my aunt got me for Christmas, I was able to take a few pictures! What's lame, though, is that even I went through the Arboretum, and it was beautiful, and I saw a blue heron up closer that I've ever seen one before, my stupid camera batteries died before I actually got into the Arboretum itself, so I missed some excellent photo opportunities. But anyways, these are pretty.

This is pretty damn cool

This artist made a giant portrait of Obama and Lincoln using 5,600 cupcakes. That's pretty badass, in my humble opinion. Here's a photo and a link to the article.

Kid-quotage

Conversations like this are a big part of why I love my job:

Little boy: Beatrice, cows make milk!

Me: Yes, they do.

Little boy: . . . and so do sea otters!

Me: Um . . . sure, okay.

It was just so random that it cracked me up. I mean, what do you say to that?

I've always wanted to do this to a sign . . .

. . . but it looks like someone beat me to it. This is the stop sign at 40th and Brooklyn in the U-District, near the UW Steven's court apartments, and it makes me smile every time I walk/drive by it.

Before and after photos of my haircut adventure

I love having short hair! It takes five minutes to blowdry, I don't have to spend half an hour combing out the tangles and snarls at the end of the day. It just rocks! Now I see why normal people cut their hair more than once every couple of years. I'm donating my chopped-off ten inches of hair to Locks of Love, too, which is exciting.