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Once upon a time, I made a 101 in 1001 list. For those of you not in the know, it means 101 things to accomplish before 1001 days are up, a little less than three years. Three years seems like plenty of time to accomplish 101 goals, but since a couple of the goals were things I put on there because it seemed like the right college-aged thing to do (i.e. go white-water rafting. WHAT? When have I ever done anything similar in my LIFE?) Another item on the task list was to take 21 shots for my 21st birthday, which my friend Natalya told me NO, DON'T DO so that kind of got crossed off too.

Anyway, the point is that I have recently heard about making a task list as long as your age, so for me it would be 23 items, to accomplish before your next birthday. This sounded a lot more doable, and since it is a year it's less time for me to completely forget about the list and it might make me more accountable. Also it sounded like fun to do, so I made it while watching Bones last night.

Without further ado, here is my list! Along with reasons why I decided on each task.

23 b4 24

1) Go beach camping (I have ALWAYS wanted to go beach camping! It is everything I love combined.)
2) Take self defense (I want to be more confident about my safety, especially since I want to travel out of country which kind of scares me, so I think self defense would help me out)
3) Redesign Etsy shop and re-list items. Make it real again
4) Read 10 books (already crossed one off the list, 9/10 left)
5) Write and illustrate a children's book
6) Lose 25 lbs (seems like a reasonable goal, the alternative is be active for 30 minutes everyday)
7) Go to a big Halloween party
8) Handle an eagle
9) Travel to another country
10) Get a job
11) Make a rainbow cake
12) Create a video about a trip (big or small)
13) Learn or choreograph a dance routine
14) Get a tattoo
15) Visit San Francisco
16) Go on a date (this seems dumb, but it's NOT. I don't "date", I "hang out" instead. I want to go on a REAL DATE, terrible or not)
17) Get a cartilage piercing
18) Make a comic montage about my experiences with birds
19) Watch the sunrise on New Year's Day OR pull an all nighter to watch the sunrise
20) Ride a horse
21) Start a blog series and be consistent with it
22) Train Maeby to play dead
23) Send a postcard to Postsecret

The rules for this list are that I have to have proof of each task (photograph or video, though probably photographs since I'm obsessed) and I should probably do them all. Unless I chicken out (like #14...yikes). But I WON'T. I won't do it! I'll persevere! Plus I didn't put white-water rafting on this time, which was a good call.

“Sometimes she has imagined what it would be like to fly, to live in the river, to run like a horse. She has dreamed of that freedom, that power, and fears the wildness in herself that wants to live as beasts live, moved purely by need and desire. She has felt torn between the heat of her limbs and the thoughts in her mind telling her to be careful and good and always calm. Don’t scream or cry, don’t run to him and throw yourself at his feet, pleading for him to take you in his arms, don’t strip off your clothes and run naked to the water, wild with wanting.” ― Francesca Lia Block

i'm here

I'm alive!

I'm alive and doing a w e s o m e (except for that COUGHspeedingticketCOUGH)

I just started working at a raptor education and rehabilitation center that's only a couple of hours away from where I was living and working last year, so I took this weekend to come up and visit BFFL Megan and to see the creatures and feel the woods. I am still so in love with these woods.

I have so many things to share, but unfortunately my new place doesn't have enough internet for blogging, really (boo), so I'll just share some of the coolest things:

-I am now friends with a Sandhill Crane named Decimator, named such because he has a casual hobby of murdering House Sparrows

-I helped tube-feed a Red-Tailed Hawk

-I've handled so many different species of raptors in the past week: turkey vulture, eastern screech, great horned, red-tailed hawk, american kestrel, european barn owl, peregrine falcon, merlin, and a broad-winged hawk. It's amazing and I love it

-I will start training a female snowy owl soon and I weep with joy in my heart at the thought of it

-A polite parrot keeps asking me, "Cracker, please?" so I'll feed her BBQ chips

-I did a three day, 24 hour road trip by myself and I made it. I also talked to myself a lot along the way

-Fall is in the air, and it makes me giddy with electrified excitement

Being at this new job and talking to my supervisor about what I want to learn and what I know how to do has helped me grow even more professionally. This will be a great experience and I believe I will get a lot out of it. Watching groups laugh or grow excited about different raptor facts make me realize that this is what I want to do. This is my passion.