I haven’t had much to blog about yet this year (as each days just runs monotonously into the next) but that does not mean I haven’t been working on my 2021 bucket list.
First off, I got my lips tattooed, but that post will be coming later this week. In the meantime, many of my goals are more of a long-haul, grind it out kind of thing.
#16 – Do 10,000 push-ups: As of January 1st, I joined a teacher Twitter group where we all log our daily push-ups in a group spreadsheet with the goal of each completing 10,000 push-ups by the end of the year This equates to about 28 push-ups a day. As of this moment, I have completed 1,564 push-ups.
#22 – Read one classic book a month: Ughhhh this stupid goal. I already hate it. Once again, I prefer to read for pleasure and not as a goal; it takes the fun away (so if you’re assigning reading logs to students, think about that for a second). In January, I re-read Vintage Murakami — which might not officially be a “classic” to y’all, but it is for me. Barn Burning is one of my all time favorite short stories that I’ve read at least ten times, and Lieutenant Mamiya’s Long Story: Parts I and II still boggles my mind.
In February, I re-read some DH Lawrence. In college, I analyzed St Mawr for an entire semester and wrote something like a 30-page analysis that my professor recommended for publication. Twenty years later, I feel like an idiot rereading it. Wasn’t this book supposed to be about a horse? What happened to the horse? What’s with the 20 pages philosophical stream-of-consciousness at the end? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HORSE?
I might take a break from this goal. We shall see…
#13 – Run (virtually) across Europe: Since we still can’t travel, I thought it might be entertaining to run all of the scenic options on our Peloton treadmill (yes, we have the bike and the tread). Instead of an instructor-led class, these are usually a nice alternative and it’s fun to say, “I’ve been there.” So far, I’ve run my way through the cities and country-sides of France and have now moved onto the mountain villages of Switzerland.
That being said, this was also a terrible goal. Right now, running virtually through Paris is a painful reminder that we STILL can’t travel. All those people sitting outside a Notre Dame cafe? Assholes. All those people lounging in Jardin du Luxembourg? Assholes. But it gets me out there on the treadmill so I’ll keep going. Next stop: Germany.
#21 – Get a COVID vaccine: I have a lot of opinions about — this mostly that a lot of other people should be able to get their vaccine before teachers such as myself. But that’s not how the system works and I have an appointment for my first dose next week.
#5 – Catalog our record collection: This one will take awhile, so I’m going to start today. The most important thing to know is that there is an app called Discogs where you can pretty easily scan the barcode on the back of a vinyl record sleeve and instantly save it to your own library, get a current value, list it for sale if you want, and discover interesting facts about your vinyl’s specific press/release/etc. We’ve got A LOT of records and I’ve always been curious if any of them are worth anything.
As I write this, it appears that I’m actually filling my time with a variety of interesting activities. Don’t be fooled. Mostly I just fold laundry while rewatching The Sopranos and vacuum a lot. Will this pandemic ever end?? 💀
On the plus side, yesterday I booked a trip to Hawaii in the summer.
couponbomb 