101. Set up a meeting with K. to review our success

Less than a month to go in the 1001, where did the time go! The best friend, K., and I have blocked off our calendar for a fabulous 101 recap weekend in September. Not only, will we start setting up our 101 memory books but we are also going to start planning our next 101 which I am soooo excited about. And, we have pulled in Katie W. and Katie H. for the weekend and the next 101. Definitely excited to recap this adventure and start gearing up for the next!

23. Hail a taxi

Two years ago when I was living the country life, I'm not sure there even were taxis in my town. Now, however, living in the D.C. metro area, I have taken my fair share of taxi rides. But, they are always schedule rides, with the little yellow cab waiting out front for me at my specified time of arrival. I had never actually hailed a taxi.

There is something about the actually hailing of the cab that makes me smile. Stepping out into the street, hand held high, face forward looking as confident as possible. I mean, how Sex and the City is that? This week, I spent a few days in New Orleans for work. My boss took me down to the French Quarter so that I could fully experience all that New Orleans had to offer. And man was it an experience! As we started to wind down and were ready to head back to the hotel she asked if I wanted to call or just flag down a cab. It was the moment of truth... how much of my nerdy self could I reveal to my boss? But, then again, there are only 60 days left in the 101, and who knows when the taxi opportunity will present itself again. So, I asked her, if she would mind if I not only hailed the cab, but if she would take a picture of me doing it. She fully obliged and we set out.


It was quite the moment. I had no trouble hailing the taxi, but I also seemed to be cheesing it up more than my normal smiley self. Ah well. It worked. And our friendly taxi driver even commented on my zealous hailing skills. A pro already.

83. Buy myself a nice piece of jewelry

Sometimes a girl just needs a nice piece of jewelry. My trip to San Francisco was a momentous occasion for many reasons. It was my first time on the west coast, it was my first time venturing out on my own in a completely unknown area, and it was my first business trip. My boss and I decided to do a little shopping which included a trip to Tiffany & Co., during which I found this beautiful necklace. I thought of this "task" and how this would be a great way to commemorate my new career. But, I figured I should sleep on it. The next day I knew I had to have the necklace, but when I went back, they were closed. So sad, but it will take more than that to keep us down. My boss thought it was a wonderful idea to get the necklace to remember my first big trip, so as a consolation, on my second big trip (to Chicago, just last week), we emerged from our meeting and trekked straight down the Magnificent Mile to the nearest Tiffany's.

I am now the happy owner of this beautiful necklace. I love it. It is simple enough to wear often, but yet unique. I love that the symbol resembles a "infinity" sign (yes, I am that much of a nerd) and that I was able to buy it on one of my early business trips. Success!

76. Go to the zoo

There is just something about the zoo that makes me smile. I just can't walk through the zoo without feeling about 8 years old again. And with the National Zoo practically in my backyard I had no reason to go. So on my long Memorial Day weekend, I set out with a friend into one of the first sweltering hot days of the year and headed to the zoo.

The animals seemed to be taking the hot day as a cue to stretch out and nap. It was so fun to see all the animals being lazy. I wish I had gotten a picture of the elephant who was comically rolling around in the huge pool, cooling off. He seemed to be having so much fun.


It is so interesting and amazing to be able to walk around the zoo and see animals from all different areas of the world. We walked through the rain forest, almost literally, and birds flew around us, monkeys scattered about, and beautiful sting rays floated in the pool below. I am so glad that I took a few hours and walked around the zoo (and through the "misters" ahhhh), sort of escaping the reality of hustle and bustle city life to enjoy some time near the animals.

15. Go on a picnic

After kayaking for a few hours, I was ready for some sustenance. Enter, picnic time! So this might not be the most glamorous picnic feast, but it has a bit more character. Except for a couple obvious items (Laughing Cow Cheese and peanut butter), everything was bought that morning at the local farmers' market. We had lots of fruit, some veggies, and a delicious loaf of bread that was all fresh and delicious. Happy Memorial Day, weekend!

45. Float the river

When I started this list "the river" was the Shenandoah. Now, around two and a half years later, I've had some big changes in my life, including a move to another part of the state. Now, "the river" is the Potomac, so when I set off with a friend to have some Memorial Day weekend fun, I thought why not check this off the list!

During some exploring several weeks ago, I came across a marina that rented canoes and kayaks that you could take out into the marshy areas on the Potomac River just north of Mt. Vernon. And so, we set out with plenty of sunscreen and a picnic lunch (gotta love combining 101 tasks, see next post!), and off we went.


It was very relaxing and lot of fun, and the weather was lovely (though a bit more overcast than I had hoped). The marsh lands were not something I had ever been familiar with before, and so paddling around was really interesting. We saw all sorts of beautiful birds, including a crane and a hawk doing some fishing, as well as some turtles sunning themselves (unfortunately, my camera skills were not as swift as my rowing skills). The foliage was very different and had a sort of calming influence. It was hard to believe that we were only minutes away from the hustle and bustle of D.C.

59. Go to California

This list has been about broadening my horizons, but figuratively and literally. When I visited my friend K. in Houston, Texas, I traveled further west than I had ever been. Almost a year later, I flew to Colorado, branching out even further west. And, then, at the beginning of May, I traveled as far west as possible while staying in the continental United States... hello, San Francisco!

View from the street car

When I accepted the position that I currently hold, I was informed that there would be some traveling. I couldn't wait! So, when my first trip was scheduled for San Francisco, California on May 3, I was so excited. In addition to being a successful trip work-wise, I was able to tour the city and see some sites on my own.


This was a new experience all the way around. A new place, a new time zone, and a new feel. Never before, I had I traveled for work, or gone off exploring in a completely unfamiliar area all by myself. It was sort of empowering and made me realize that I am officially a grown up now. And I think I can handle it.

Visiting San Francisco got me excited for more traveling, both for work and for play.

84. Give a friend a fabulous surprise gift

So Harry Potter book club day with the girls was just full of fabulousness! First the cake, and then the presents. It did happen to be KW and KB's birthdays, but, for the record, I am still counting these as surprise gifts. KB and I have known each other for almost 20 years now (haha wow, that is just scary), and have never really done the birthday gift thing. KW and I have just become friends (yay new friends!) so I'm not sure there was any sort of gift giving expectation. Therefore, surprise gifts. Now on to the fabulousness.

I am a huge fan of Etsy.com. While reading a blog one day I came across these awesome prints available on Etsy. I knew KW had to have them! And what a perfect time to give them to her. Just a couple days later, I remembered a conversation I had with KB about aprons. I really wanted to make her one, but didn't think my sewing skills were quite up to par with what I had in mind. Enter Etsy yet again to save the day.


All in all, I think both ladies were surprised and I was happy to give them something that I hope they both enjoy. It was also nice to celebrate the coming together of friends both new and old!

65. Bake and decorate a fabulous non-birthday cake

This list has really allowed me to stretch myself and try a lot of new things. It has really opened me up to some creative endeavors that I have fully enjoyed. Cake decorating seemed like it could be a fun and useful skill to have, so I added it to the list oh so long ago. When I had the girls over for our fifth Harry Potter book club meeting, I figured it would be the perfect time to try out this task. After a trip to Michaels and Walmart I realized that cake decorating tools did not come cheap and this was not an art form one simply dabbled in. So I bought some food coloring and a few icing tips and headed home, hoping that my lack of tools would not lead to a lacking cake.


After a few disastrous moments in the beginning (the first of which was one layer of the cake coming out of the pan in about twelve pieces), things started to look up and I really got into it.



I was pretty proud of the final product. And most importantly, it was quite yummy. I don't believe I will ever venture into full fledged cake decorating, but I think this may be something I try again. Perhaps in the form of cute cupcakes.

92. Organize all my printed pictures in photo albums and/or scrapbooks

Well, the plows have finally found my street, so this morning I ventured out and picked up a few supplies to finish yet another task on my list. This one ended up being much more daunting than I had anticipated. I had a ton of pictures that were in no order at all, and then some that were actually already in albums. Problem was, that to get things in order, I had to start from scratch, taking entire albums apart so that the new pictures would fit into them. Yikes. I have learned my lesson, and from now on, will work as I go, and keep my pictures much more organized.

Thank you, Blizzard 2010!

I am 25 years old, and I have never in my life seen so much snow. This is Virginia, people, but a few pictures would make you think it was more like Alaska. I have not been to work in 5 days, mostly due to the fact that my car looks something like this (note: we have gotten about a foot more snow since the picture was taken):


But thankfully, during these few days I have had a chance to fling aside all of my excuses and finally get some tasks out of the way. I have completed three items of the 101 list this week and have set myself up to finish another as soon as I can get out to a Target. I have also started a few of the longer goals so hopefully with a bit a of perseverance and remembering to take note of when I do things, I will be able to cross off a few others in the next week or month.

All in all, the "Blizzard of 2010" as it has been so uniquely dubbed, has been a pretty decent event. I plan on keeping this momentum going through the next 200 days!

96. Start and finish a scrapbook

I love scrapbooks. When the scrapbooking craze hit several years ago, I oohed and ahhed over my friends' wonderful creations. I even went to a few "scrapbooking parties" and stocked up cute paper and all sorts of cutters and stickers and whatever else a scrapbooker would need.

And then it hit. I hate scrapbooking. That's right, I love the noun, hate the verb.

But, I had all this stuff, and I really thought that possibly, if I put down this task and forced myself to really work at it, maybe the finished product would help me over my aversion. Unfortunately, this was not so. I do, however, now have a scrapbook of my senior year of college. I also have found some ways around my dilemma of loving the product, hating the creation. More on this to come. For now... WALA!

78. Go through and clean out all my hair and makeup products

Thank you, "Blizzard of 2010", for finally giving me no excuse but to finish these projects. This project was actually started back in the beginning of the 101, which for those of you who know me, was over two years and three houses ago.

Before:

I had makeup that had gone out of style with stirrup pants. My hair accessories were so jumbled, finding a bobby pin was literal "needle in a haystack" search. Something had to change. In house one, I came up with a pretty decent system in my bathroom due to built in shelving and not one, but two medicine cabinets. At house number two, I did yet another necessary purge. I have about two products that I use, so keeping all the excess that I had most likely inherited from cousins at Christmas time was just silly. I also took a little trip to the Container Store and purchased a nifty little holder for my make up.

And this weekend, at house number three I have finally gotten things in enough order that I feel I can declare this task complete. Yay!

After:

79. Organize my jewelry

It was so bad I don't even have a before picture. In fact, I'm not even sure what I would have taken pictures of to be honest. My jewelry was in such a state of disarray. I had no real place to keep any of it, so it was just everywhere. There was some on my dresser, some in the drawers, some in the bathroom. It was a disaster.

When the "Blizzard of 2010" hit last night, and dumped roughly two feet of snow on the area, I decided it would be a great time to not only clean my apartment but to tackle some of these project that had been alluding me. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I bring you, the new and improved jewelry stash. Not only can I actually find things when I want them, but it is pretty pleasing to look at as well.


I will need to get something else to hang some excess earring on, but for the most part I am quite pleased with the outcome. Now, on to the hair and makeup products!