This is my next 1001 days.

Dear Weblog Superfans,

I am officially on the bandwagon. As it were.

This is where I will (incredibly privately) document my progress as I work to complete my list of 101 goals in 1001 days, beginning January 1, 2008. Or Jan 1 2008, depending on how you write your dates. Hopefully everything will be completed by September 27, 2010. Or 28 Sept 2010, depending on whether you count leap days as actual days.

Here, in all its glory, is my list:

1. Get murried
2. Finish a book by Ernest Hemingway
3. Go to the gym 3 days a week for 3 months (allow breaks when not in Richmond)
4. Learn 5 new fingerpicking songs on the guitar and have a mini-recital for Keds
5. Drink the engagement wine
6. Watch all of the Macgyvers
7. Finish the 101 movies
8. Help Keds find a job
9. Submit 10 stories to magazines
10. Get a story published
11. Find 3 new poets whose work I can say I know and like
12. Have breakfast in bed with Keds
13. Use all of our wedding gifts
14. Discover a restaurant in Richmond that Keds and I both like
15. Read one of my unread books for fun every semester
16. Finish 15 of my unread books
17. Buy a book on trees and learn to identify ten of them
18. Visit Nonna on a long weekend
19. Go on a hike
20. Attempt to make roast beef and Yorkshire pudding
21. Buy something frivolous
22. Take a mini road trip
23. See Niagara Falls (on the Canada side)
24. Have school friends over for dinner or something
25. Go to a baseball game with the guys
26. Get season tickets to a theater in Richmond
27. Take a ghost tour of Richmond
28. Finish a school assignment a week ahead of time
29. Find prints of Richmond to hang
30. Make root beer
31. Finish a cryptic crossword without cheating
32. Learn five good crockpot recipes
33. Walk dogs at an animal shelter
34. Truly help a student
35. Subscribe to two different literary magazines
36. Visit my brother and sister-in-law
37. Learn how to buy a house
38. Write a poem
39. Backup all existing stories onto an external thing (Google Docs, eg)
40. Play catch with dad
41. Swim in a lake
42. Keep a journal regularly for 6 months
43. Hit a bulls-eye in darts
44. Watch a foreign film
45. Go to the Byrd Theatre
46. Visit an art gallery
47. Read in the Moveable Feast
48. Write three more book reviews
49. Visit my friend and his girlfriend in Blacksburg
50. Still be in touch with my college adviser by the time this list is finished
51. Change my oil on time for a year
52. Teach a class on my own
53. Go to a Nationals game in the new park
54. Go on a picnic
55. Discover a photographer
56. Do ten hours of community service (Just ten! That’s nothing!)
57. Teach my near-niece a new word
58. Try contact lenses again
59. Read the Book of Mormon
60. Read the Koran
61. Finish reading the Bible
62. Take a ballroom dance class (preferably before the wedding)
63. Learn to juggle
64. Still be in touch with the third part of the Troika by the time this list is finished
65. Read a second book by Chris Ware
66. Write fan letters to Michael Chabon and Edward P. Jones
67. Get a Ryan Zimmerman baseball card
68. Get an Albert Pujols baseball card
69. Visit Mount Vernon
70. Visit a Civil War battlefield I’ve never been to before
71. Learn three constellations (not including Orion or either of the dippers)
72. Learn about five Negro League players
73. Research grandpa’s semi-pro team some more
74. Get grandpa’s semi-pro uniform preserved/framed
75. Make mom’s fettucine alfredo recipe
76. Have my brother and sister-in-law come visit
77. Finish a Sunday NYT crossword puzzle
78. Go to a VCU sporting event
79. Go to a different doctor about my exercise-sick-thing
80. Work at learning Spanish
81. Learn what tax rules apply to writers and use them on a return
82. Get a head shot to use as a contributor photograph
83. Whiten my teeth
84. Learn to make a Chinese food recipe amazingly well
85. Complete a Rubik’s Cube
86. Get my allergies under control
87. Build something out of wood that I would be proud to display at home
88. Go wine tasting again
89. Take a ferry across the Chesapeake
90. Go horseback riding
91. Find an old map of Richmond, frame it, and hang it in the apartment
92. Call mom twice a month (at least) for three months (while she’s in Italy)
93. Go on a date with Keds at least once a month for six months straight
94. Max out my IRA contribution one year while still in school
95. Go to a batting cage
96. Get and keep the book database up to date
97. Bake a cake for no reason
98. Donate blood
99. Find a job after I graduate
100. Get to know the guys’ girlfriends
101. Grow a goatee

As I make progress on any of these items, I will (hopefully) update this weblog with stories and photos, thereby keeping my millions of fans satisfied. I include you in this number.

Love,
MSB