things i want to do in life.

1. Set aside time every week to write letters. I am a Snail Mail Responder of epically snail-like proportions. Yesterday's mail yielded not one, but TWO letters addressed to me, both from Twin-Cities-based friends named Timothy (or some variation). One of the Timothys, typically a quick responder, apologized for leaving two months in between letters due to moving and other major life transitions. I felt a bit guilty about this seeing as 2 months is a pretty standard response time for yours truly. Plus getting letters is so great, every time I get one I am inspired to write letters and send them to all the corners of the globe. This epistolic inspiration leaked into the ambition centers of my brain and set it to churning out the following list of oft-repressed life ambitions.
2. Be a writing tutor. Why isn't there a writing center in this city?! If I could coach essay writers every Saturday I would be a happy woman.
3. Be the real-life equivalent of a CEL peer advisor. That is, I have a constant nagging urge to critique resumes and cover letters, to coach job search processes, share interviewing tips, give career advice, and administer personality tests like the Myers-Briggs. That being said, I have no real desire to actually work for the CEL. #CELyourself? Puh-lease.
4. Become a communication and team management coach. Probably a prerequisite of this is getting some serious communication and team management experience. I'm sure many CEOs and team leaders are dying to be bossed around by a 22-year-old lib arts grad with a nose ring.
5. Spend more time at the library. Like, go to book clubs and (nonexistent) writing groups and write a blog post on the library computers once a week and do research and tutor people in reading, writing, or English... Or just curl up in a chair and read something easy every now and then.
6. Find a grown-up poetry open mic, and get up the guts (and the memory) to perform.
7. Bring my exercise ball to work. I got a (blue) exercise ball for my birthday, and back in December I asked my bosses if I could replace my office chair with it as long as we didn't have any visitors in the office. They reluctantly agreed, if I could find a black one, and the issue kind of went to rest -- except for them making fun of me for trying to make our firm into a mini Delawarean Google/Facebook, wearing a nose ring, and eating organic unprocessed foods. But I did actually find a black ball, and just haven't got up the guts to bring up the issue again. My body cries about sitting in a desk chair 40 hours a week.
8. Spend time outside every day. Even if it's just 15 minutes. Vitamin D, baby.
9. Save more each pay period. (Translation: Be more frugal about entertaining myself and my people.)
10. Know how much moolah I have in my bank account at any given moment. I am infamously bad at this. One time (in college) I tried to buy a Subway sandwich on my debit card and it was declined. Punch line: When I went home and checked my checking account balance, I had just over $2.00 in there. #winning...
11. Go swimming once a week. I LOVE swimming. And it's SO good for the bod. And I used to do it every week, without fail. So why don't I do it more? I have to fight the community swim team and the little kids in water wings for a lane at the Y.
12. Get wild roses...and not kill them. This is pretty much futile since I have probably killed most plants I come into contact with, but they really make my heart beat faster. If I had them in my place of residence it would be impossible not to be content at any given time.

13. Dress up like a pirate for the Wilmington Pirate Festival this weekend. I haven't played dress up maybe in over a year. Have you seen my childhood?
14. Visit the Dogfish Head brewery and the brewpub in Rehoboth. It feels blasphemous to live in Delaware, be a craft brew afficionado, and not have been to Dogfish Head. Especially since I wear their earrings, but even though I dislike IPA, which is pretty much the specialty.
15. That being said, Get noticed for my Dogfish Head earrings when I go to the brewery. Fortune and fame, baby.
16. Get up from my desk a few times per day. I've been getting kinks in my hips, quads, obliques... Too much sitting. Too much switching between the gas and the brake pedals every day of my life.
17. Learn how to do basic maintenance on my own car. When I was little, I dreamed of growing up to be the woman who could fix the VCR by herself, without resorting to the help of a man. (Can that still be an allegory...?)
18. Watch Back to the Future. Yeah. Somehow haven't seen it yet. Happy (Faux) Future Day, by the way.
19. Write my own rap, instead of bumming of Luda's rhymes for the rest of my life.
20. Finish my girl talk research. Like...write the book about it.
21. Publish a book. Maybe girl talk. Maybe a novel. Maybe a children's book. Maybe poetry. Maybe a collection of essays. Who knows.
22. Get over my serious apiphobia. Fear of bees and wasps. 'Nuff said.
23. Visit the Pacific Northwest in October. Full itinerary over there, man. Wow. Portland, Seattle, Vancouver... Friends of all stripes.
24. Go to ALL the weddings. Already dropped the ball on this one. #KansasCity
25. Live in a small town or at least a city with public transit.
26. DO something about public health, instead of just writing angry blog posts/crying about it.
27. Visit the ocean at least once a year.
28. Be part of an active community. Again. Like St. Olaf, but...not.
29. Never stop learning new things and meeting new people.