Alright, y'all. The end of year update you've been waiting for. I have so many things completing themselves this month!
Completed:
15. Wilkes Weekly newsletter
- The Wilkes Weekly (delivered monthly) has been sent for a full year, so I'm calling this good. It's fun to put together, but I'm not sure it's entirely appreciated, haha. I haven't heard from a lot of my family that I send it to, but I guess it doesn't hurt to add their email on. I guess if they really didn't want to read it, they would let me know. But it also makes me think maybe email isn't the best venue for it? I don't even know. I want to have better relationships with them, so maybe I need to try to do it more on their terms? I'm not sure what those are. This is me complaining. I'll stop now. In conclusion, I completed this goal.
32. go to Japan with Garrett visit Michigan not in winter
- So Japan is obviously not happening, but we did make a trip to Michigan! I have been wanting to go when there's not snow on the ground, so I'll change to that. We visited in August for Garrett's high school friend's wedding, and we were able to spend time with family, as well. It was a big enough trip that it needs to count for something! We visited Frankenmuth, a delightful Bavarian town, and saw lots of Michigan on the way there and back. I got Steak N Shake and we saw lightning bugs! A successful visit. :) I'd still like to visit in the fall sometime, but that can wait for another list!
33. attend ECCC or another major con with Garrett
- We finally made it to ECCC! We just went one day, but it was good enough! Highlights include so many good artists and cute things to buy, finding all the other Kikis, and the Avatar: The Last Airbender panel with voice actors Dante Basco (Zuko), Janet Varney (Korra), and Dee Bradley Baker (basically every animal, including Appa and Momo [and Waddles from Gravity Falls!!]). We had a lot of fun!
40. knit a year-long line-a-day scarf
- The scarves are done! I need to finish them off technically - I need to take care of all these loose ends and maybe add some tassels, but I'm gonna call it already! This has been a lot of work, but I'm really pleased with the results and they are just such a neat record of the past year.
Fries on the left, distance from home on the right
(it's opposite for this collage)
42. complete 10 unfinished series (reading, watching, etc.)
- All done! I realized I was holding myself to impossible standards on this one, making myself go past what I intended, so I have retconned a few series - Thursday Next (but I just finished the first series and didn't make myself do the second) and The Adventure Zone: Amnesty and Graduation (I was trying to make myself do Ethersea, as well, but it was enough work to push through Grad, haha). And then I finished catching up on Welcome to Night Vale! So I am all done now. It's nice to finish things I've started already. But also it's nice to call it good when I feel I'm done with them.
- The third best of of the list is complete and has been delivered! I'mma post it on my Facebook page, too, if you didn't get one in the mail. :) I really love doing these. It's so fun to look back over the year and come up with our favorite things and remember all the fun things we did.
70. attend IAMPETH or other large calligraphy convention
- I wasn't able to attend IAMPETH this year, but I did a lot of other big calligraphy things (including a whole freaking public art piece!). I've joined new guilds and taken many online classes, so I'm going to call this one good. I did as much as I was comfortable with during a COVID time.
- I have created 95 lettering pieces, one for every book over 50 pages I read this year (so I didn't have to letter all those Caldecott picture books, haha). I fell way behind on this so I've had to do 2 pieces a day for the past 11 days to catch them all up. It served its purpose, though! I wanted material so I could take the decision of what to write out of the equation when it was time to make something or practice a skill. It will be a cool record of everything I've read this year, too! You can see them all on instagram.
77. create an etsy shop
- Here it is! https://www.etsy.com/shop/brightlexicon
Gosh, I drug my feet on this. I'm glad it's finally done. But now it's full of Christmas items because that's what I had on hand already, so it'll need updating soon, haha. But having the initial work done is helpful! I hope it'll be motivating and easier to keep it updated now that I have launched.
84. make hotpot
- Staying home for Christmas was making us sad, so we cheered ourselves up with some festive hotpot! A bonus of our move is we have so many types of food available to us, so we were able to easily get all the needed ingredients and we've had hotpot for 3 meals already, hahaha. I just love to get the really thinly sliced beef and swish it in the boiling water until it's just cooked and delicious. So great! (Don't worry we had veg, too) It was all pretty easy once we had everything set up, so we'll probably have it again soon!
- All done! We decided to budget for fun money, and gave ourselves a set amount per month. I think it helped! It made me feel less guilty about buying treats, and it kept our fun spending at a limit. The other categories of spending haven't been too much of an issue for us, so I feel like this was good enough for this goal.
96. wikipedia cooking challenge
- I have made every dumpling! It feels like I've made every dumpling in the world, hahahhaa. I wrapped it up this month with Yomari (Nepal) and Zilltertaler Krapfen (Austria). Woooooo! Now I'm going to not make dumplings for a while. This has been a delicious challenge, but also super labor-intensive.
Updates:
11. study 12 famous chefs and cook 5 of their recipes each (9/12)
- This month we cooked along with Antonia Lofaso and Antoni Porowski. Yum! Highlights include oven roasted broccoli from Antonia, and prosciutto chips and lemon brussels sprouts, pulled chicken with cilantro and lime, and masala nuts from Antoni. I expected to like Antonia's food more and Antoni's food less - he always seems to have high expectations for the Queer Eye participants - but it ended up being opposite for me. I hope to cook more of Antoni's recipes now!
13. volunteer for 100+ hours (2/100)
- I should probably just change this one. We were able to go wrap gifts for a family in need through The Forgotten Children's Fund, but it was only 2 hours of work, haha. I know there have been options during COVID, but I haven't made any efforts to do anything. It still felt very difficult. I only did this service because a friend was setting it up and invited us along. Maybe I should call this good after just the 2, but that seems really underwhelming and cheaty, haha.
30. see 30 new international films (22/30)
- I got 4 films in this month! Honeyland (Macedonia), Shoplifters (Japan), Sing Street (Ireland), and The Mole Agent (Chile). The Mole Agent was def my favorite - a senior citizen spy investigating a nursing home undercover, hahaha.
So, woof! There you go! With these, I now have 68 items finished which is a much more respectable number than 56, haha. We're almost to a passing grade! It also happens to be the number I hit on my first list, so I'm bound to surpass that, at least, so I'll be happy. :) I love the end of the year wrap up, but all of these came so close to the final deadline that it's a been a bit concerning up until now. But I can deal with 68!
