Happy Birthday to ME!!!!
Just in case you were wondering who else I share my birthday with, these are some famous October 7th babies (in no particular order)
- Rachel McAdams
- Taylor Hicks
- Thom Yorke
- Toni Braxton
- John Cougar Mellencamp
- Vladimir Putin
- Simon Cowell (iiiiinteresting)
- Yo-Yo Ma
- Evan Longoria
- Desmond Tutu
- Elijah Muhammed
Some of those are pretty awesome, and some are pretty not awesome.
Every year, I write a "bucket list" of sorts. Things that I want to practice/do/accomplish for the year to come. Each year, the list gets one item longer...last year there was 25 things on that list, this year - 26. Last year's went something like this (my comments are in blue italics):
Bucket List
Age 25
1. Spend time with my baby sister, face-to-face
2. Eat something new I've never had before
3. Full expression of Visvamitrasana (and maybe Hanumanasana?) MY full expression of these poses
4. See a game at Wrigley
5. Discover new wines
6. Run a great urban race/adventure race...OR another relay!
7. explore other types of hatha yoga and go to different studios
8. read more about yogic history/yogic texts
9. learn a new sport
10. Becca time, at least once a week...just rest debatable
11. reiki
12. massage school
13. run another marathon
14. compete in a sprint triathlon or longer bi/duathlon
15. plant a tree does it count if Brandon did it?
16. shovel snow
17. mow the lawn
18. ORGANIZE MY RECIPES!!!
19. make sure Brandon knows, everyday, how much I love and appreciate him
20. rock climbing (real or wall)
21. Run 2 "destination" races (races I've never run, or places I've never been!) gonna say I didn’t do this one, even though I ran several races in CLE that I’ve never run before
22. learn "where the boat leaves from" on my uke
23. make progress on our urban farm (not necessarily selling our own produce but do something that will help move us toward that goal)
24. blog more often (Becca, you have a LOT of recipes and thoughts to share with the world)
25. take more pictures
2. Eat something new I've never had before
3. Full expression of Visvamitrasana (and maybe Hanumanasana?) MY full expression of these poses
4. See a game at Wrigley
5. Discover new wines
6. Run a great urban race/adventure race...OR another relay!
7. explore other types of hatha yoga and go to different studios
8. read more about yogic history/yogic texts
9. learn a new sport
10. Becca time, at least once a week...just rest debatable
11. reiki
12. massage school
13. run another marathon
14. compete in a sprint triathlon or longer bi/duathlon
15. plant a tree does it count if Brandon did it?
16. shovel snow
17. mow the lawn
18. ORGANIZE MY RECIPES!!!
19. make sure Brandon knows, everyday, how much I love and appreciate him
20. rock climbing (real or wall)
21. Run 2 "destination" races (races I've never run, or places I've never been!) gonna say I didn’t do this one, even though I ran several races in CLE that I’ve never run before
22. learn "where the boat leaves from" on my uke
23. make progress on our urban farm (not necessarily selling our own produce but do something that will help move us toward that goal)
24. blog more often (Becca, you have a LOT of recipes and thoughts to share with the world)
25. take more pictures
Not to shabby, right? I consider all but eight of those things achieved. What's up for me this year? Let's see...
2. run a destination race
3. practice photography by taking pictures of EVERYTHING! and hopefully this will result in more blog posts
4. reconnect with a friend that I haven’t spoken to in a while, and keep that connection open
5. practice finding peace in uncomfortable situations, by staying in them instead of running away from them
6. take a day off of work for no reason in particular
7. play an instrument once a month
8. be a part of brandon’s music; whether it’s recording, promoting, album art, hanging out at the studio, whatever it may be
9. see a game at wrigley field (yep, still on the list)
10. go to pittsburgh
11. make these cookie sandwiches again
12. get together with someone I haven’t seen in a while
13. try out a few restaurants in Cleveland that I haven’t been to
14. make up my own beer recipe
15. watch all THREE Star Wars movies (the old ones - a new hope, the empire strikes back, return of the jedi - love me some Han Solo)
16. Keep running OUTSIDE through the winter, even though I may not be training
17. keep our lemon tree alive through the winter
18. make a recipe from one of my cookbooks (NOT a blog/website) once a month
19. get my next tattoo
20. do a big filtering of everything in the basement
21. for every item of clothing I buy, donate two items
23. purchase (or acquire, pilfer, whatever) a food processor
24. make my own pasta (gluten free, perhaps)
25. PR in any distance that I have already run
26. be confident in expressing my beliefs and values (not that I’m not confident in them. This is specifically about standing up for myself at work - “do you really stand all day?” “I thought you were a vegetarian, why are you eating meat?” “Becca’s recycling paper again, I’m going to go burn 5 tires when I get home” - instead of just shrugging it off.)
Bucket List
Age 26
1. plan my wedding with the least amount of stress possible (by practicing santosha)2. run a destination race
3. practice photography by taking pictures of EVERYTHING! and hopefully this will result in more blog posts
4. reconnect with a friend that I haven’t spoken to in a while, and keep that connection open
5. practice finding peace in uncomfortable situations, by staying in them instead of running away from them
6. take a day off of work for no reason in particular
7. play an instrument once a month
8. be a part of brandon’s music; whether it’s recording, promoting, album art, hanging out at the studio, whatever it may be
9. see a game at wrigley field (yep, still on the list)
10. go to pittsburgh
11. make these cookie sandwiches again
12. get together with someone I haven’t seen in a while
13. try out a few restaurants in Cleveland that I haven’t been to
14. make up my own beer recipe
15. watch all THREE Star Wars movies (the old ones - a new hope, the empire strikes back, return of the jedi - love me some Han Solo)
16. Keep running OUTSIDE through the winter, even though I may not be training
17. keep our lemon tree alive through the winter
18. make a recipe from one of my cookbooks (NOT a blog/website) once a month
19. get my next tattoo
20. do a big filtering of everything in the basement
21. for every item of clothing I buy, donate two items
23. purchase (or acquire, pilfer, whatever) a food processor
24. make my own pasta (gluten free, perhaps)
25. PR in any distance that I have already run
26. be confident in expressing my beliefs and values (not that I’m not confident in them. This is specifically about standing up for myself at work - “do you really stand all day?” “I thought you were a vegetarian, why are you eating meat?” “Becca’s recycling paper again, I’m going to go burn 5 tires when I get home” - instead of just shrugging it off.)
Today, I'm going to celebrate my birthday with a schweddy balls ice cream cake, a glass of wine and a half marathon on Sunday! And just for fun, I'll leave you with a completely uncharacteristically unhealthy PL&B recipe: funfetti cookies!! As long as they're not an everyday cookie, I'm totally okay with an uber processed food recipe once in a while. Plus, funetti is delicious. 'Nuff said.
Funfetti Cookies
makes about 30 cookies
ingredients:
- 1 package funfetti cake mix
- 1/3 cup oil
- 2 eggs
directions:
- preheat your oven to 375 deg(F) and cover cookie sheets with parchment
- mix all the ingredients in a medium sized mixing bowl until thoroughly mixed (you'll probably have one big ball of cookie dough)
- roll about 1 tbsp of dough into 1" balls (haha, balls) and place them about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet
- place a small piece of parchment on top of a cookie dough ball and, using the bottom of a glass, press the cookie down until they are about a quarter inch thick (actually, I just pressed until the cookie was the same diameter of the glass...who can really tell if it's a quarter inch thick just by looking/feeling anyway?!)
- bake for 6-8 minutes, or until the cookies are browned around the edges.
- let cool on a cooling rack and en-freaking-joy!
happy birthday to all those other October birthdays out there!!
