I’ve made some
progress on my 101 list.
20. Sign up for a 5K race - then do it
Last Saturday, I
ran my first 5k. I’m still not finished my C25k program, but I’ll be finished
in the next week. My goal was to run the race in 40 minutes, and I pretty much
hit that mark. There was a big bottleneck at the start of the race where we
were stopped for a good 30 seconds. Judging by my Endomondo tracker, I was held
up for a minute and a half. My time was 40:46, so if it weren’t for the hold-up
at the beginning, I definitely would have been finished in 40 minutes or under.
I’m planning to run the Sea Witch next month. Hopefully I’ll be faster then. I don’t expect to ever be truly
competitive, but it will be fun to beat myself.
26. Figure out what I want to be when I grow up or figure out my
degree path
I'm not sure if I'll ever figure out what I want to be when I grow up. However, I have at least determined my degree path - to
get my bachelors in social work. Eventually I also hope to get my masters. I’m planning
to begin taking classes at Chesapeake in the spring. It’s going to be slow
going, as I plan to only take one or two classes a semester. “You have to eat
that elephant one bite at a time,” as my buddy TK used to say. It’s not going to
happen overnight, but I have to start somewhere. Fortunately for me, I already
have a 2 year degree so I’m not starting from scratch. One of my greatest
friends and mentors didn’t get her bachelor’s degree until she was in her 50s.
If she can do it, so can I.
54. Find a cool glass bottle to display my Whitehaven Beach sand
This was one of the easier things on my list. More difficult was
to put the sand in it. However, I managed and it is now sitting on the mantle
of our fireplace in the chocolate room.
71. Decide if finishing my
degree in OZ is a viable option
If I were unmarried and five years younger, it would be. But I’m
married and 33 now. One of our physicians is planning a move to OZ and promised
to keep an eye out for jobs for me. I’m also on New Zealand’s immigration email
list. They have something called a Silver Fern Visa that I would qualify for if I had a 4 year degree. But alas, I have no 4 year degree.
I’m afraid that Down Under will only be a place that I visit. Maybe one
day I’ll be able to take an entire month off to stay in OZ. I don’t know what
the cure for wanderlust is. Most times that I yearn for being somewhere else is
usually when I’m at work.
It seems that the best cure for wanderlust would be to compete in the Amazing Race.
In the next month,
I plan to:
Buy a map and put
pins in the locations where I've left a little of Dad
Complete the Couch
25K program
Swim 1000 yards
PADI Open Water
SCUBA diver certification
Make a photobook of
Australia and New Zealand trip
Frame and hang one
or more of my own photos
Fence in entire
backyard
Write up
TripAdvisor reviews for 5 places/things in OZ and/or NZ
Spread some of Dad
at Martinak State Park
Eat a rooster that
wakes me up too early
Sell eggs from our
flock (hopefully enough to sustain price of feed)
Finish painting privacy fence
Another update once a few of these are checked off!
