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It all started when trying to pick a quote for my high school yearbook senior year. I could not pick just one quote I liked… so I started to compile the few that I had at that point. Ever since, I (sometimes obsessively) horde quotes that I love – wherever they come from and record them in a blank journal. I now have 3+ journals filled. I have also created an electronic version and, arguably, could continue with JUST this version, but there’s something necessary to me in the hand-written step. At first, I did not keep track of the quote sources, but righted myself there fairly quickly and have gone back to research as many pre-recorded quote sources as possible. My quote collection is one of my most prized possessions and I love any excuse to go on a search for the perfect quote for any given situation. This is absolutely worth doing!

See more progress on: make a list of 365 quotes that inspire me

State List

I would like to take a moment to thank my 3rd grade music teacher for teaching the song “Fifty Nifty United States”

Alabama – Visited
Alaska
Arizona – Passed through
Arkansas
California – Lived here
Colorado
Connecticut – Visited
Delaware – Passed through
Florida – Lived here
Georgia – Passed through
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky – Passed through
Louisiana – Visited
Maine
Maryland – Passed through
Massachusetts – Lived here
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi – Visited
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada – Visited
New Hampshire
New Jersey – Passed through
New Mexico – Passed through
New York – Visited
North Carolina – Visited
North Dakota
Ohio – Lived here
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania – Visited
Rhode Island – Visited
South Carolina – Visited
South Dakota
Tennessee – Passed through
Texas – Passed through
Utah – Passed through
Vermont
Virginia – Passed through
Washington – Visited
West Virginia – Passed through
Wisconsin
Wyoming

There are 23 states I have never set foot in (if I counted correctly) so I have “touched down” in over half the states! Still have quite a ways to go…

See more progress on: Visit every state in the USA

Brilliant!

Seriously, this bag is pure genius! I am just mad I did not think of it first!

Miche Bag

Read a book a week

With my new Kindle, this should be much easier since half of the reason I do not read as much as possible is that I do not always carry books. I am well on my way to finishing “Twilight” and have about 10 other books I downloaded for free that I’m itching to get to.

See more progress on: read a book a week

Here I Go Again...

Now that I have Whitesnake lyrics running through my head...

The fact that it is a new year has not escaped my notice. It's a bit hard to ignore, of course. My renewed determination naturally extends to blogging, among other things. I discovered 43 Things at just the right time so that my "things" will essentially consist of my resolutions. I have always been one of those poor souls who become invigorated by the achievement of slashing through items on a list and somehow I am even more excited by the idea that I get to click on a button to proclaim "I'M DONE!" Plus the notion that making this list of "things" public will make me more likely to complete them somehow makes perfect sense to me. I'm actually excited to get started! Oh, the first week of January...

Too cute

I miss fall

love that dirty water...

I want to be back in Boston so bad I feel like I'm going to explode, or implode, or something equally destructive...

strong reactions

I was FINALLY able to start reading "Eat, Pray, Love" which Mere has been telling me to read for about a year now. I'm exactly 44 pages in so far and it's almost overwhelming (in a good way) all that I think I will be able to take from Elizabeth Gilbert's insights. For those who don't know, I underline passages I want to go back and add to my quote book later on. Suffice to say that I think I have more text underlined than not so far...

In any case, after my first 30 pages yesterday, I read reviews of the book on Amazon and was taken aback by the incredibly strong reactions - people either swear by the text or want to burn Gilbert at the stake for daring to write a memoir about **gasp** herself. Many were disgusted by the fact that she signed the book deal for "Eat, Pray, Love" before she even went on her Italy-India-Indonesia journey. So freakin what? She comes clean and admits to this from almost the very beginning and I say more power to her!

Gilbert has a humorously human and accessible style. She was able to take the depressed walking-disaster that she was at the time and turn her experience into something that can, and does help (and even entertains) others. Speaking from experience, when the shit hits the fan, you struggle to wake up, GET UP, eat, breathe, and go back to bed at night. You can't even take one day at a time - more like one nanosecond at a time. I can only admire that she could have the foresight and ability to find a way to heal and grow and support herself all in one fell swoop (granted a year of traveling and soul-searching does not really count as "one fell swoop").

There also seems to be a group of reviewers angry that Gilbert talks about herself and thinks about herself - they throw around "selfish" so much that it's more or less lost its powerful connotations. I pose a challenge to each of those reviewers: write your memoir and see if you can avoid thinking and referring to yourself, your thoughts, your feelings, your experiences.

Whew! Glad that's done so I can get back to my book...

i want these

www.wishingfish.com