101 Things I Mostly Want to Do

It's been a long time since I've gone back to The List. Before launching into the vacation stories, I thought it would be fitting to knock a few items off, since so many happened in Thailand. But at the same time, I'm conscious of the fact that there are many things on this list that - half way through the 1001 days - don't make a lot of sense for me to do anymore. I guess it shows how much your life can change in a year and a half and how much your priorities can shift in such a short time. But here goes:

• I finally took care of #1, although they were listed in no particular order. As posted, Mom got her painting in March, and she loved it.
• #10, the winter shots, happened up at Mont Tremblant. I took the roll and then promptly forgot about it. Since then, it's been printed and the shots are fantastic. Look for them sometime in the future when I run out of cool Thailand photos to post.
• #25, visiting Europe. Well, it probably will happen in the next year and a half. But at the same time, the idea was just to go *somewhere* outside of North America, and Europe seemed to be the most likely at the time. I think Thailand is quite a big step up, so I'll scratch this one and say mission accomplished.
• #27 was a huge one for me, to swim in a new, big body of water. The Gulf of Thailand fits the bill nicely. Turquoise water and white sand...
• #55, take some new pics of myself. As you can see with the blog photo right here, I have a few that I'm happy with now.
• #61, go snorkeling. Another one I scratched in Thailand. But the bonus was that I actually got to snorkel over coral reefs.
• #62 happened a LONG time ago, sometime vaguely last fall. Let's just say it was before November. All three Lord of the Rings movies is a long haul....but worth it. I'm sure this fall, it'll be all 6 Star Wars movies. Gah.
• #63 was scratched. I'm not saying anything about that.
• #68 happened too. Yup, they're step-brothers.
• #69, get a job I like. I've got it. It may not be as creative as I had hoped, but it's challenging and fun.
• #70's been happening since I made the decision to add photos to more of my posts.
• #74, getting paid to be a designer. Accomplished several times over, but really, it wasn't that big of a deal. I think I added this one to flesh things out a bit on the list.
• #80, spend more time outdoors. That's pretty vague, isn't it? Let's say I did this one, we spent most of our time outdoors while we were in Thailand.
• #85 happened courtesy of my new job, I was re-trained as a first aider a few months back. I think I may already need a refresher.
• #87, try a new chain restaurant. Suuuuuuure, let's call this one done, too. I couldn't tell you which one it was, but I'm sure it happened.
• And finally, # 101, bookending this nicely, I managed to get to see Revenge of the Sith with wide-eyed wonder, a little savvier than if I was living in a cave for the last three years, but still able to say I was much stronger in resisting the dark side of spoilers this time around. And man, was it ever a great movie.

Still a long way to go, but I'm slowly getting through the big ones. Maybe I should rechristen it "71 Things That I Still Want to do 501 Days Later?"

Up next: Thailand, Part 1: Three Hours in Japan, Rooftops, and Millions of Cellphones