it looks like we made it to the end or day 1001

holy shiznit. it's day 1001. who knew? i will admit that i got kind of slack about writing blogs in the last year, but that doesn't mean i wasn't still doing stuff. here's the end total:

63 items are finished
25 items were not finished or in some cases, even started
11 items i changed my mind about (that may sound like a co-out, but i think it's valid)
2 item could not be achieved because either the location was inaccessible (going to green mountain) or the even did not happen (blur reunion show...at least not in the US).

if i we being graded on this using a traditional scale, i'd get a D. but, i prefer to look at it as 63 things i did to improve myself, no matter how small or large of an accomplishment it was. here are some of the major highlights:

-i lost 10 lbs and kept it off

-i then lost 10 so more and am going to keep going

-i went to austin. twice.

-i addressed the issue of scott's future care with my parents and as a result, scott is on a waiting list for residential placement and day programs. plus he is also receiving his social security disability pay. in looking into this, my parents discovered that my mom was also eligible since she was the parent who retired and stayed home with scott. she is also receiving SSD payments now.

-i moved to an accessible apartment, applied for handicapped parking (which i haven't received yet, but it's coming), and in effort to achieve the goal of being on time to work more often than not, am now taking ADA paratransit to and from the library.

-i found a venue (or 2 or 3) to sell my art and it has been really successful.

-minus a few unexpected bumps, i've gotten my finances in better order. still not great, but far and away improved from 1001 days ago.

-i paid my car off. of course, i then bought a new one, but still.

i changed my mind about:

-cooking at home more regularly (physically, cooking is not that easy for me, so i'm focusing on making better choices when i eat out)

-reading more (i really could not be less interested right now)

-growing my hair out (it looks better short)

-doing something real with "fan of the banter" (i lost my partner, so no point)

-find a new band to get into every month (see "reading more")

-get drunk once (hadn't done it in the 37 or so years before i wrote this list, why do it now?)

-learn photoshop (i did try this. i hated it.)

-join a gym (not practical given my abilities and i have all the equipment i can use at home)

-advance a level in my job (whatever. at this point, i'm happy to have not been laid off)

-sit on my patio (really? i'm not that fond of the outdoors)

5 things that i haven't done that i'd like to continue to try to do are eat less fast food, put my pictures into photo albums, go to england, take an accessible yoga/pilates class, and visit a water park in winter.

so, there you have it. thanks to anyone who is reading this and may have read the blogs over the past 1001 days. this was a fun project.

big ones or day 796

holy smokes! some stuff has gotten done in the last month or so. lets' review.

#2. exerbycle 2-3x/week.
for the the last 5 weeks or so, i have been faithfully riding my bike at least twice a week. i find it relaxing and getting easier to fit in a couple days a week. enjoyable even. i've also started free weights again too.

#5. lose 10 lbs and keep it off.
i always lose 10 lbs. it's usually easy. and then, i gain it back. in the same 5 weeks that i've been exerbycling, i have also been journaling (honestly) about what i eat. and so far, i've lost 16 lbs. onto goal #6, which is to lose another 10-40 lbs. i'm not sure what my end goal is, but i know i'm not trying to be thin. just smaller.

#15. get the ball rolling on scott's future care.
wow. this one is so very huge and has been with me for such a long time. i never thought that it would end up coming together somewhat easily. long story short, i have always struggled with my parents in trying to talk about this topic. i know it's hard for them and that my relationship with my brother is much different than theirs. there were obstacles and set backs 16 years ago when they tried to get him placed in a group home the first time and they kind of gave up after being denied enough times. unfortunately, this put a lot of stress and worry on me, because the more time went on, the more it looked like one day, scott's care would fall on me. well, several events lead to this topic finally being addressed. all of the pieces aren't yet in place, but contacts have been made and at the very least, we are in a place where when my parents are gone, scott has a place to go. i can't explain how much better this knowledge makes me feel.

#16. discuss scott's care with my parents.
when i wrote this list, i assumed that i'd be doing all of the work to get in contact with facilities and lawyers and what have you. turns out, i was wrong. happily wrong.

#64. pay my overdue library fines.
seriously. what kind of librarian am i? i had a $36 fine on my card for 5 years. 5 years. it went on the list because i knew it would take that to finally pay them. and i did. i can actually check something out now. i don't even know where to start.

#83. pay car off.
this one is kind of funny. not really haha funny. i got into an accident and although my damage was not major, my insurance company decided that the car was totaled. i freaked out because i was fairly certain i couldn't get a loan and i really didn't want to start over with car payments. after getting my head around it, i realized it was a win/win. so, my old car is, in fact, paid off. i did get a loan and bought a 2008 scion xB, which is bigger and works much better for getting my walker in and out. in addition, i took some of my insurance settlement and got hand controls put in. i didn't think i'd need them this soon, but my foot slipping off the brake is how i got into the accident to being with. so, it was time.

vertigo-go or day 761

#75. apply to sell at renegade (or the like). last time, i mentioned that i had submitted work for consideration to art-o-mat (check them out: http://www.artomat.org). well, they accepted me! yay! i'm calling the series "vertigo-go" and it will be little collage pieces. i have to make 50 of them and i will get $2.50 for each one i sell. so, you know, not quitting my day job or anything, but that was never the point. i just wanted to put something creative into the world in a slightly more "official" capacity and i believe this is it. #86. get plates renewed on time. done. this is the last one for this list.

holy slacking off or day 733

wow. i haven't updated this since october. i think i am my only reader (except maybe when i also post on facebook), but i'm still a little ashamed of myself. on the other hand, heartbreak's a real bitch, so screw it.

because i am going to put this on facebook, i'll start with the more exciting stuff and leave the boring updates for later, ok? good. then i shall proceed.

#70. go to las vegas.

and how, i sure did. what started out as a spa trip for 2 to wisconsin, turned into a vegas trip for 4. after several weeks of planning and a facebook thread with at least 150 messages, therese, lorna, shelley, and i embarked on a 5 day trip to be filled with showgirls, sunshine, hot pink hotel rooms, guns, prince, and so much more.

thursday: we took cabs, almost lost lorna to not feeling well, ate questionable airport food, flew and landed.

therese got champagne on the plane and i was possessed to kiss it.

i was (thankfully) met at the ramp by a wheelchair once off the plane and escorted through the airport and on a tram to the car rental desk. we rented a much bigger car than expected, but it was roomier and i suspect all passengers were more comfortable than they would've been in a compact. we headed to the flamingo and checked out our rooms:

these are the newer "go rooms". i really wanted them because the bathrooms are hot pink. they are very cool and just slightly naughty. the headboards are padded white vinyl and the light fixtures above the bed are mirrored.

then went to peppermill for dinner:

i'm not sure what i'm so giddy about, except maybe the fact that i matched the peppermill.

i had never eaten there, i had only even been to the lounge. the food wasn't half bad actually. we intended to go to the lounge after, but we were pretty darn tired. so we returned to the flamingo and called it a night.

friday: croissants and juice were procured by therese and we got ready to check out the wicked spoon buffet at the cosmopolitan. this was easily the best food on the trip as well as the classiest, most elegant atmosphere.

they had so much food and most of it was amazing. the dessert looked beautiful, but was a little disappointing. the polish sausage and "pomme puree", aka mashed potatoes, were heavenly. they had mini el pastor tacos, creamy polenta, wine infused button mushrooms, several pastas, sushi, carving stations with prime rib, chicken, and, i believe, duck. so, so delicious. i'm making myself hungry now.

after a long and leisurely lunch, we stopped at the art-o-mat machines located outside the buffet. i had never seen one and was very excited to get a piece of art for $5. they look like old cigarette machines, like this:

i loved it so much, i was inspired to submit work to be sold in one of these, but more on that later.

we checked out the cosmopolitan a little more. so gorgeous. the lobby and elevators have changing video installations. it was jellyfish when we were there. the area where you drop your car off for valet has shiny silver flecks in the marble on the ground and light fixtures with crystals embedded in columns. stunning. we made our way back to our hotel, if not somewhat begrudgingly now that we were all in love with this place.

it really was quite stunning.

back at the hotel, i think therese went for a walk, lorna napped, shelley and i shopped for souvenirs. i actually came away with a bracelet to wear that night. we eventually made it back to our room and watched a show about what to do in vegas before getting ready for purple reign.

so then, purple reign. this is a prince impersonator show and it really is fantastic. musically, he and the band are incredibly talented and put on an amazing performance. shelley is not a huge prince fan and she was blown away. there was no photography allowed, but before i knew that, i took this picture:

so it's totally illegal.

after the show, we grabbed some food at the casino restaurant called mad onion. the casino was hooters, btw. not as awful as you'd expect, but they totally have a vince neil tattoo shop. once again, we had planned to go to peppermill that night, but we failed. we are librarians, not rock stars, apparently.

saturday: red rock day, though it turned out only to be the spa day. we postponed the canyon drive until sunday because we got sucked into the pearl shop outside the elevators at the flamingo. you wouldn't think it could happen, but it did. no matter. we all pretty much came away with something lovely for ourselves or our moms. once we had gotten ourselves together and away from pearls, we headed toward the canyon and stopped for lunch at schlotzsky's. this was all for me. and i got the biggest sandwich they have. delicious.

after, we made our way to the red rock spa for massages. this place was also gorgeous. i think i will come back and stay here, at least for a night. it was one of the better massages i've had. lovely steam room and dry sauna. they screwed lorna on a discount we all should've gotten, but she got that fixed relatively easily. that's probably my only complaint about this place. i wish i had some pictures of it, but i forgot to take any.

the plan had originally been to stay at the resort for bowling that night, but we all agreed that perhaps that was not the best post-massage activity. we decided instead on dinner at the bellagio buffet. sadly, i was fairly unimpressed. the food was fine, but the atmosphere was so disappointing compared to the buffet at cosmopolitan. in fact, the entire bellagio was a little bit of a let down after that. still, not an awful time at all. after dinner, it was already pretty late and although we had planned to go to bonanza for some tacky souvenirs, we were too late. again, we had also planned to go to the peppermill, which therese and i did on our own, after dropping a tired lorna and shelley off to get some sleep. the peppermill was pretty hopping and i forgot, as i do every time, that the virgin strawberry daiquiri is far inferior to the virgin pina colada. oh well. at least there was whipped cream. we left and it was actually pretty cold and drizzling. not too different from how we left chicago.

sunday: red rock canyon drive. very pretty. it was a good sunny day for it too.

this is me driving through the canyon.

these are the ladies in the canyon.

it had been a long time since i'd seen a sky that blue. much better than the overcast of the day before.

after we drove the scenic loop, we headed a little further up the mountains to see if we could find a place for lunch. we saw signs for bonnie springs resort and decided to have lunch at their sort of hilarious, fake western town restaurant. lots of wagon wheel fixtures, but a delicious hamburger for sure. plus, there were wild burros, who came right up to the car. very cute. also, our waiter was kinda hot. i kinda wish i had a picture of him.

after an afternoon of nature, we drove back to the neon and over-the-topness of the strip, passing a store called obama's pedicure and colonic, stopping at a 7-11 staffed by young meth-heads, and thru an area that could've been an arts district or a place to buy drugs. or both. we finally made it to bonanza, although i found it disappointing compared to past visits. still, i found a package of lucha libre action figures for richard, so that was worth it. i believe several magnets and other tacky trinkets were purchased by the ladies.

we had left sunday night open to see what we felt like doing and with the help of buy one, get one coupons, we decided to go see jubilee, a topless vegas showgirl extravaganza. oh my! so glitzy! so massive! so, um, topless! this was 90 minutes of glamour, entertainment, and some inadvertent laughs (seriously, how do you not laugh at a showgirl revue of the titanic?). plus, they had very delicious virgin pina coladas.

after so many naked boobs, we were winding down. it was our last night there and we wanted to go out with something good, so we had a quick drive thru dinner and headed to frankie's tiki room. sadly, once at frankie's we saw the fukuburger truck, which seems to be a weird marriage of burgers and sushi, like the tamago burger with egg. oh well, next time.

once inside, frankie's did not disappoint. except for the chairs that were basically whittled out of a log. those was a little disappointing. there was a love-o-meter type machine designed by shag that told you what your vice was for a quarter. mine was shopping, which isn't terribly accurate, but i was ok with that. the bartender made lorna and i very delicious non-alcoholic, fruity drinks, while therese had a polynesian piledriver and shelley had the lava letch. if we had gotten there earlier. we would've stayed and had many more drinks, i believe. the vibe was mellow and the clientele was much more male than i would've expected for a tiki bar. they were playing a great montage of video clips too, including some from ghoul-a-gogo (check it out: www.ghoulagogo.com) and sean connery era bond movies.

we said goodbye to frankie's and went back to the flamingo one last time to pack and sleep. we left vegas having accomplished almost all of our goals. the major thing that we had planned but did not get to do was shoot guns. when we lost track of time on saturday and missed out on the canyon, we decided to forgo the guns on sunday in favor of driving the scenic loop. we can shoot guns at home; however, we cannot see mountains here.

phew. that was a lot, so i'll briefly touch on the other accomplishments.

#69. sean tattoo

got it.

#24. start paying student loan again. doing it.

#78. stop incurring overdraft fees. not one since the new year.

#75. apply to sell and renegade of the like. i *may* have found a perfect fit for this, if i am accepted. in vegas, we saw art-o-mat machines, which sell little pieces of art for $5. when we got home, i checked out their website and found that they are always taking submissions. i am working on my prototype now and-fingers crossed-they like it and i can make many more. i'll keep you posted.

no one's ever watered me the way you do, revisited or day 580

#59 be open to affection/kiss more boys

remember when i said that i received heaping mounds of affection and that i kissed a boy and that, although the directive was to kiss boys plural, i'd stick with the one and thought he'd stick with me too? yeah, that didn't happen.

so, while i'm not going to give up on #59, i am probably going to stay away from it for a bit.

stupid daisun.

everyone who came before you or day 554

i have a few not very exciting updates. well, there are things on the list, so maybe they're a little exciting.

#24. start paying student loan again. paid it last month, fingers crossed, i'll do it again this month.

#31. pay off credit card. i've been sending $100 instead of minimum for a few months now. this might be accomplished by early 2011.

#48. get new boots. well, i got my old ones re-soled and dyed, so i think that counts. plus, it saved me roughly $100.

#65. water aerobics. i'm now signed up for my 7th and 8th sessions. go sandie and val. after not going for spring and summer, i NEED it.

#80. get manicures monthly. july, august, and september have been polished.

no one's ever watered me the way you do or day 544

#59, be open to affection/kiss more boys.

this one, which always seemed like work and i refused to force it, has suddenly come effortlessly. i've received heaping mounds of affection and lived to tell and have kissed a boy. i know the directive was to kiss boys, plural, but i'll stick with the one :). i think he's willing to stick with me too.