Results of the 24 of 24...

A year ago, I set 24 goals for myself - just to see what would happen.  I'm not sure I thought I would be able to do all of them, but at least with 24 I was bound to get one or two done within the course of the year.  Now that I'm 25, let's see how things shook out...

The 24 of 24

1. Blog at least once a week

      Hahahahaha - well, this DEFINITELY didn't happen.  At all.  I got a little better at the beginning of 2012, but there was so much going on, blogging didn't make the cut of important things (ya know, like finding a job in North Carolina and having enough money to pay for groceries)...

2. Do some kind of exercise at least 20 minutes a day

    Also no - although I did run a 10 mile race in May, and am currently training for a sprint Tri in August.

3. Learn how to sew well enough to make a (cute) skirt

    Nope.  Wow, I'm not doing to well here, am I?

4. Win a game of Settlers of Catan

      0/4.  Although, honestly, after I moved away from Bethel, Chris and I didn't have access to the game at all, so....ok, yeah, still didn't do it.  

5. Successfully craft something and sell it

    YES!  Over the fall I turned my depression over being unemployed with no money and Gus just dying into making earrings until my fingers bled and watching the entire series of Frasier on Netflix - I went to one craft fair in December of 2011, and sold almost $200 worth of earrings.  It was so amazing to see people look at something that I had made and then PAY me for it!  I'm considering opening an etsy shop...I've still got hundreds of pairs already made and ready for you to wear!  :)

6. Allow Chris to teach me one outdoor activity and do it with him on some sort of consistent basis

    I feel like this one is a yes and a no.  There wasn't much consistency going on in Boone - mostly because I had a wack schedule that I had no control over, and Chris had a school schedule that couldn't have been any more full.  However - we did go on hikes as much as we could, and I do actually feel like I have a new and better appreciation for hiking than I did before...so this one's not a complete bust, haha.

7. Make a batch of homemade cheese

    You know, I totally forgot about this one - and completely coincidentally about 3 weeks ago, I made homemade ricotta just because I found the recipe and it looked fun.  Turns out, it was heaven in a bowl - so I spiced it up and made lasagna the next week.  Best.  Ever.  

8. Brew my own beer

    Didn't get to this one.  And honestly, I doubt that I'll be able to for a while while I'm in Boston...but you never know...

9. Purchase a pig and kill it myself

     I would have gotten this one if it wasn't so damn expensive.  But I'm not giving up.  This is getting directly translated to my 25 of 25.

10. Successfully grow a garden

    Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.  no.

11. Make homemade powdered hot chocolate packets

    I did do this one.  Once.  Turns out, I couldn't find any powdered milk that wasn't nonfat.  And that while it did make hot cocoa, the milk wouldn't melt right, and it just didn't work the way I wanted it to - so did do it, but won't be doing it again.

12. Live with a dog

     I got to do this one for a month...the last week of which was the hardest week ever.  Gus died in September, so our time together was sweet, but way way WAY too short...

13. Visit the Four Corners

       Yes!  When Chris and I took the big trek out to Boone, I had a laundry list of places I wanted to see and the Four Corners (where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico all meet) was on there.  I took my jumprope, and jumped in every state and then over all the state lines.  It.  Was.  Awesome.

14. Make a rug out of knotted T-shirt remnants
     Nope.  No details, just nope.

15. Reunite with my four Newark JVC roommates
     I did do this - Kelli got married in November, so we all got together and spent 3 days of absolute madness all over NYC/NJ.  It was a very Newark trip, complete with suits two sizes too small, hangovers that were almost killed us, and exposed boobs in the church parking lot.  Oh dear.  It was the best.

16. Do an overnight backpacking trip with Chris
     We didn't get a chance to do this one - we tried, but with his schedule and my schedule, it just never happened.  I'm still hoping that we can sometime, but life just gets too damn busy...we'll see...

17. Get fitted for a bra that actually fits me
     Yeah right...this probably still needs to be a goal....

18. Make a homemade facial mask
     Honestly, I'm a little surprised that I didn't get to this one - I have been doing a lot more of this kind of stuff, so really, if I had remembered, I probably would have done it, but I didn't.  Oh well.

19. Perfect my braided challah recipe
     Nope.

20. Hug at least one person everyday
     I tried on this one - living in Boone, it was pretty hard, so probably I didn't get one EVERYday, but I go a little nuts if I don't get enough hugs, so...

21. Own (and actually use) a Neti-Pot
      No.

22. Run another half marathon in less time than 2:11
     I didn't get to one this summer - I did a 10 mile in May, but no half.  :(

23. Take a picture that gets published somewhere
     Nope.

24. Never go to bed angry
     HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  Yeah right.  Honorable effort on that one, but let's be real...

How I did:  8/24.  
How I might have done if I had actually looked at this list at some point during the year and tried to do some of the things: probably around 15 or 16...

Basically, I just need to remember that things like this are here - otherwise it's just pretty random what I'm crossing off and what I'm not...

Ehh...shall I make a 25 list??

Love, Bethy

From winter to summer...

It's been forever.  Well...if not forever, then at least two seasons.  In these two seasons, I have...

1.  Been accepted to graduate school, and chosen to attend Boston University for a Master of Liberal Arts in Gastronomy with a concentration in Food Policy!

2.  Mastered making a cappuccino.

3.  Quit my job at Earth Fare, and said goodbye to Boone, NC.

4.  Moved back in with my parents in Lacey, WA.

5.  Undertaken my parents' 1 acre absolute mess of a backyard as my "summer job".

6.  Made homemade ricotta (it's easier than you think it is, and tastes like heaven!)

...I'm sure there's more, but that's for another post.  (Along with my results of 24 of 24 that I posted last year as I was turning 24.  I'll be 25 in about a week and a half - probably I'll come up with another list of things to do, haha.)

Love, Bethy

a list

1. Friends are awesome and I would never want to go without them.

2. The older I get, the more I feel like I need my mother when things actually get difficult.

3. Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" absolutely informed my childhood in a huge way, and I will always love it better than the Dolly Parton version.

4. I never thought, in my wildest dreams that I would walk into a Panera, order a bagel plain and a cup of hot water because 2oz. of cream cheese and a cup of coffee were too expensive.

5. Montana State University application is IN!

6. Gotta go, or I'll be late for work!

Love, Bethy

Roller Derby

These are the reasons I want to be involved in Roller Derby:

1. It looks so amazingly kick ass I want to scream.

2. You get to knock people down.

3. Yelling and intimidation are part of the sport, and I'm already good at those things.

4. Your own roller derby name...and double entendre names are double as good.

5. The women who do roller derby are of all shapes and of all sizes. Like, for reals. None of that "athletic body type" bullcrap.

6. ANY REASON TO WEAR FISHNETS AND SHORTY-SHORTS. AND GARISH MAKEUP. WHILE EXERCISING.

These are the reasons why I have not yet joined a team:

1. I don't have any local and consistent health insurance.

My friend Matt is a roller derby ref in Juneau, AK. Check out this video and tell me that you can't just SEE me out there knocking girls to the ground...

Mornings

I can hear the birds chirping. Loudly. And honestly, as anyone who has ever lived with me knows, that is absolutely not normal. I am as big of a tried and true night owl as anyone has ever been, and damn proud of it. But this morning, despite falling into bed at 2am, I awoke early, with Chris as he was running out the door to an early class. And I will admit there is something to seeing the sun crest over the mountains, coloring the lawn to ready the world for the day. And it wasn't until I heard the birds singing that I realized how I so rarely hear them.

The application to NYU is due Wednesday. I suppose I'm freaking out about it enough that I don't even know what to do with myself. I've freaked myself out into a calm-like state of perpetual anxiety. That sounds like an oxymoron, but I promise you - it's not. It just leads to completely random screaming and crying in some attempt to let out a volcano of pent up emotions somewhat akin to pouring boiling vinegar into a bottle of baking soda. BOOM. Random and explosive...just ask Chris.

Of course, everything that should have been done weeks ago isn't completely finished. I pray that my Canadian transcripts get here soon, and that NYU has a third-person grace period. Other than that, I'm relying on lots of prayer. (Hey - I'm at least super-proud of myself that I managed to ask for letters of recommendation in a timely manner - if that's not a bonus, I don't know what is!) But seriously folks - if actually going to grad school is half as hard as applying to grad school, I might just do ok. :)

Of course, after Wednesday, the work isn't over. Montana State's deadline is Feb. 15th, and Boston's is March 1. Antioch accepts applications on a rolling basis, but I'd like to get them all done roughly the same time so I'm not dragging it out, so I've given myself a deadline of March 15th for Antioch.

I started my new Canadian class too, and HOO-BOY, it's a doozey! I'm not sure that I've had to read anything that dense since college, and, because I was a Performing Arts and Theology major, possibly not even then. I opened my assigned chapter on Food Policy, and found myself having to look up economics terms on Wikipedia to make it through the introduction to the chapter. Wikipedia was a little bit of help...until under the definition of the word, I found a math problem. WHAT?!?!?! A math problem?!?!?! WTF is going on here? Ugh. It was a rough night last night.

In other news, Chris got accepted to an internship in Anchorage this summer. He'll be leaving probably early May, and may not be back until right before school starts in August. That leaves me with more possibilities than I thought for the summer. And, as of right now, that what it all is - with nothing set in stone, all I have is possibility. It's terrifying. Just as it's been every. time. Every year, every change, every time. It's exciting, yes. It's scary, yes. And though I grow weary of it, I wouldn't deny my callings just to stay put. And I hope and pray that I will know when that time presents itself to stay somewhere. I hope I recognize it. Because I'm not really sure I've experienced it before. Ever.

blogging (and other things)

I get annoyed when people don't update their blogs.

...yes, I know. I don't update my blog very often. I actually think about blogging more than I do it. It's a problem. But, I like...scratch that...LOVE reading other people's blogs. (Mostly people I know, I don't know, it makes it feel a little less voyeuristic to me). And if I check, and you haven't updated your blog, there's a tiny little piece of me that feels sad. Lame, but true.

ANYWAY, the key to that whole piece there is that I will try to make a concerted effort to blog a little more consistently, just in case there's another wacko like me out there who really feels the need to read my ramblings on a semi-regular basis.

So, recently life has been crazy (no surprise there). Really crazy. I did take the GRE a few days ago. It went ok actually. I mean, I threw myself into a test designed to evaluate one's readiness for graduate studies asking questions about formulas that I haven't even given a second thought about since my senior year of high school. I studied math I haven't seen for 6 years for 6 days before the test. I didn't blow it out of the water, but I was pretty impressed with my score, considering. (Who remembers that one of the "special" right triangles has a ratio of 5:12:13 and has two thumbs??)

THIS GUY!

I also have worn red lipstick 3 times already in the new year! I completely love it, and am so excited that I made that one of my new year's resolutions!!

I also have signed up for another class in my Canadian certificate program. Initially, I wasn't going to - last semester turned out to be a little bit of a clusterfuck in terms of getting everything in, and I definitely wasn't as prepared or present for the class as I should have been. However, I made a little bit of a last minute decision, and signed up on Friday. The class started today, and after reading all the course materials, I know that it's going to be more difficult than the others have been. However, I think that it could be very rewarding as well. And, all in all, it's good preparation for...

Grad school.

Yes, I'm applying to grad school (which is a big part of the "life is crazy" bit). In between working, taking my class, trying to train, and attempting to keep my house warm (and that's the subject of another post entirely) I'm contacting references, ordering transcripts, and working on personal statements for four different grad programs. Now, applying to one grad school is tough. There's a lot that goes into the application, and working with other people's recommendations, and deadlines, and essays...it's a lot. With four, I want to smash my head into a brick wall. Of course, with four different applications comes four different essays, ordering enough transcripts from both USF and St. Lawrence (my Canadian classes), and a dazzling 10 recommendations (3 each for 2 schools, 2 each for the other two). Now, I'd like to think that I would be able to handle that, but here's the rub: every single program has a different format for their recommendations. There's the one with the online form that can only be accessed by registering my recommenders into a website. There's the two schools that have forms that have to be printed and sent in by paper copy, but have completely. different. questions. And then there's the school that just asks for a "letter of recommendation". That's it. No requirements, no guidelines, no nothing. Just a letter.

Trying to work out who I should ask for each school, in each format, by each due date is dizzying. And I really hope that I can get it all done in time. I'll have to write another blog about the programs I'm applying to another time.

And with that, I'm going to go get on that. Because it's almost 10pm, I'm exhausted, my house is a mess, and I have a personal statement to write, haha.

Until next time, (hopefully not too long!)

Bethy

What up GRE?

Ok. I did it. Because if now now, then I would put it off forever. GRE is scheduled! ...in a week. Holy shit, time to get cracking! :)