Where Did The Last 1001 Days Go?
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I was thinking about how I had “write a list of 100 things for which I’m grateful” on my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days *and* how that 1001 days was coming to an end soon, so maybe I should write that list for Thanksgiving. And then I looked at my list and saw that TODAY is the 1001st day! So I’ve put together my list of 100 things that I’m grateful for so that I can count it as having been done during the 1001 days. But I’m going to post that tomorrow, because it’s technically Thanksgiving tomorrow (even though we are having our Thanksgiving dinner tonight), and also because today I want to write a summary post about how many of my 101 things I did.
Spoiler alert: Not very many. 22 out of 1001, in fact.
I’d like to blame COVID for my lack of productivity – I mean, how could I have accomplished all my travel related goals when travel restrictions are in place due to the pandemic?? But the pandemic only feels like it’s been going on for 1001 days – in truth it’s been about 200 days, so I guess I could have accomplished them in those other 800ish days. But let’s not focus on the negative. Let’s look at those 22 things that I did get done:
1. Cage dive with sharks
Did this on our trip to Hawaii in 2018. Not going to lie – this was pretty awesome, even though I barfed from sea sickness. Sharks are beautiful. Next time, I want to swim with sharks without the cage.
Accomplished: March 1, 2018
4. Go Skydiving
I guess putting the “Adventure” category at the top of my list means all the best ones show up first. This was amazing and I want to do it again.
Accomplished: July 20, 2019
31. Deadlift more than my own body weight.
I went on to lift a lot more than that, including my second place finish in my gym’s deadlift competition, but I first managed to lift more than my body weight on Jan 30, 2018.
Accomplished: Jan 30, 2018
32. Do a chin up or a pull up without the assistance of a resistance band.
I did my first unassisted chin up on Nov 19, 2018 and then it took me a year to work up to my first unassisted pull up on Nov 21, 2019.
Accomplished: Nov 19, 2018
31. Make homemade marshmallows.
Pandemic life has lead to me doing a lot of more baking, including trying out a tonne more recipes ((I have sooo many blog posts to write about all the recipes!)). Homemade marshmallows were one of those things and once I’d done them and saw how ridiculously easy they were, I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t made them before.
Accomplished: Aug 8, 2020
38. Bake Sourdough Bread
Making sourdough has been something I’ve been wanting to do for ages and the mandatory work-from-home life imposed by the pandemic was the perfect opportunity to do so – I was home all the time to feed and monitor the starter to get it going, everything was shut down so it wasn’t like there was much else to do, and it gave me some structure in my life.
Looking through my blog I see I have been remiss in blogging about said sourdough. I blogged about starting to make the starter, but then I left y’all hanging about getting to the actual bread. Unless you follow me on Instagram, in which case you heard way more about my starter and my bread than anyone would ever want to.
Accomplished: April 20, 2020
39. Go to a Perogy Dinner at a Ukrainian Church
Went to the one in Vancouver with my friend Lianna in Feb 2018. It was delicious! Then I also went to the one in New West with my friend, Amy. It was also delicious.
Accomplished: Feb 2, 2018
43. Paint My Condo
I didn’t paint it myself, but I did pay someone to paint it, so close enough.
Accomplished: July 28, 2018
46. Install a Bicycle Wall Mount In My Storage Locker
Ended up installing these on the wall in my parking spot instead of my storage locker, which is even better because it leaves more room for other things in my storage locker and it’s easier to get the bikes into the parking spot than it would be the locker.
Accomplished: July 29, 2018
47. Install Shelves in My Storage Locker
Don’t remember the exact date, but it was sometime in the summer of 2018 that we did this.
Accomplished: summer 2018
48. Frame My New Westminster Map
Finally did this last month. Haven’t hung it up yet, so I don’t even have a photo. But hey, one step closer!
Accomplished: September 2020
51. Fix the Sliding Door in My Spare Room
Got a new door installed in 2018. It looks really nice in all my Zoom meetings that I have now.
Accomplished: August 20, 2018
52. Install My Lazy Susan in My Kitchen Cabinet
I ended up getting two and having them installed in both my kitchen corner cabinets. They make my life so much better, not having to dig through all the stuff piled on top of each other on regular shelves to find the bowl or pan I want. Especially helpful with all the pandemic baking I’ve been doing.
Accomplished: August 20, 2018
53. Learn a New Software Program
Had to give myself a crash course in Tableau for work. It’s pretty cool.
Accomplished: spring 2018
60. Read Lord of the Flies
Read it during my yearly December vacation reading blitz in 2018
Accomplished: December 22, 2018
61. Watch Salmon Spawning
Was pretty cool to see this.
Accomplished: November 28, 2018
62. Participate in 10 research studies (as a research “subject”)
Almost all of these have been survey research, and a fair few of them have been pandemic related. Every researcher under the sun is studying the effects of the pandemic on people. I am really excited about one that I just got invited to where they are going to mail me two testing kits: one is a spit test for current coronavirus infection and the other is a finger prick test for coronavirus antibodies. I’m dying to know whether or not it was COVID when I got sick in NYC in February.
For the record, I completed 13 studies during these 1001 days.
Accomplished: spring 2020
65. Make A List of 100 Things For Which I’m Grateful
As mentioned above, I’m going to publish that tomorrow.
Accomplished: October 11, 2020
71. Pay of 50% of My Remaining Mortgage
This was 50% of the amount I had remaining when I started the 1001 days (Jan 12, 2018) and I hit this milestone in Oct 2019. As of this writing, I’m down to just 29% of what I had remaining on that date.
Accomplished: October 21, 2019
80. Win an Award
I actually won two awards: (1) the Halloween costume contest at my office last year (they gave me a certificate that said “Best Costume Award”, so it totally counts and (2) second place in my gym’s deadlift competition (I got a trophy, so again, it totally counts)
Accomplished: October 31, 2019 and November 30, 2019
91. Go To Hawaii
Hawaii. Honestly, I don’t understand why anyone lives anywhere other than Hawaii.
Accomplished: February 25, 2018.
97. Go to the Scottish highlands (and see my 1 sq ft “estate”)
Scotland. Loved it. Would totally Scotland again. You know, once traveling is a thing that people can do.
Accomplished: October 19, 2018
101. Get a Nexus Card
Got it in Dec 2019. You know, just in time for a global pandemic to cause the borders to shut. Good thing it lasts for 10 years – maybe the border will be open again by then!
Accomplished: December 17, 2019
Usually I follow up one 101 things to do in 1001 days list with my next one, but honestly even the thought that I could predict what will be possible to do 10 days from now seems laughable, let alone 1001 days. And the thought of coming up with a list of things I want to do is inevitably going to include travel, and that will just make me sad. And also I’m way too exhausted to come up with any ideas for anything. So for now, I’m going to live life free of a 101 list!
Comments |3|
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Love reading your blogs….. wish I could remember all the things I do…… maybe my blog could just be pictures..but then I would still forget where they are…so I would have to write…..
Stay safe and have a great Thanksgiving
Hope you have a safe and happy Thanksgiving too, Aunty Eileen!
Thank you very much for sharing, I learned a lot from your article. Very cool. Thanks.