A While back, I was given multiple signs that I needed to construct some sort of motivational life “to-do” list for myself. Some call it a “bucket list,” or think that putting goals out there makes the world pay attention a la “The Secret. The spirit of the exercise, regardless of what you call it, is to think and dream in the future. Because I am in the prime of my youth and able to travel freely, it’s now or never as far as I see it.

The list officially went into effect on January 1st, 2009.

The only long-term goal I’ve repeated to myself in the past few years is that I’d like to buy myself a house on my 30th birthday. What I’d like to do between now and then usually gets clouded in my head as I try to make big decisions based on the uncertain future. I don’t think it’s healthy. And I don’t think it’s healthy to make goals that rely on someone else like “Have Someone Interrupt me mid-sentence with a kiss.” I saw this on someone else’s bucket list and felt compelled to contact the author and provide a complimentary definition of “personal goal.” Don’t worry, I refrained.

Instead, my list of resolutions includes specific goals I’d like to accomplish in the next five years. I’m constantly adding goals, so feel free to leave me suggestions.

1. Send hand-written cards to those I love
2. Travel to Africa
3. Hike on a trail outside CA June 24, 2009
4. Frame my grandmother’s world map
5. Get paid to blog June 12, 2009
6. Get paid to take photographs January 25, 2009
7. Buy an international stock
8. Transfer all of my music CD’s onto external harddrive
9. Run 5 miles without stopping
10. Have business cards made
11. Beat Dr. Fowler in a game of Scrabble. Without cheating. February 17, 2009
12. Wipe old PC harddrive, convert to my MAC, and sell the oldie September 2009
13. Go Wine Tasting August 13, 2009
14. Visit the family farm in Canada during garlic harvest July 27, 2009
15. Attend Sundance again
16. Volunteer for a non-LGBT non-profit
17. Take a road-trip by myself January 7, 2009
18. Do not smoke a cigarette, not even one, for at least 90 days. (90/90) February 3, 2010
19. Save at least $25,000
20. Return to Paris (Scale the Eiffel Tower & replace Broken Hard Rock glass) November 30, 2009
21. Serenade someone
22. Ride Los Angeles Public Transportation
23. Sublet a New York apartment for at least a month
24. Take formal singing lessons
25. Start a tradition January 18, 2009
26. Purchase an emerging artists’ work
27. Produce a cabaret
28. Have a $0.00 Balance on all my credit cards
29. Host an inauguration party for Obama January 20, 2009
30. Take 100 Photographs I like enough to print, and store in a photo album
31. Take a dance class
32. Read 15 of the books on the “50 Essential Reads by Contemporary Authors”
33. Watch 25 of the last 10 years’ Academy-nominated Documentary Feature Films (15/25)
34. Host a roommate discussion about how we can be more environmentally mindful in our apartmentJanuary 12, 2009
35. Set up an email signature September 2009
36. Choose to drink Fair Trade coffee when available July 10, 2009
37. Cook my parents a feast
38. Babysit for free
39. Take a self-portrait
40. Attend Shabbat services outside of my home town
41. Host a Shabbat Dinner Potluck March 27, 2009
42. Have my name listed on IMDB July 21, 2009
43. Open an IRA, contribute to it January 26, 2009
44. Travel with my mother on the trip of her choice
45. Collaborate on an original project with a mentor
46. Archive and organize childhood pictures
47. Send copies of old pictures to my childhood friends
48. Get instruction to develop my graphic design/computer skills
49. Get a bike, ride with my cousin in the AIDSRide
50. Buy vegetables at a Farmer’s Market
51. Do a nude photoshoot March 28, 2009
52. Shop at a Flea Market
53. Donate unused clothes/items to Out of the Closet
54. Visit the Griffith Observatory
55. Take a San Francisco Museum tour
56. Drive across the country
57. Attend a major motion picture awards ceremony
58. Be a mentor to someone
59. Host a gallery presentation of my artistic projects
60. Perform for an audience (not in karaoke or cheerleading)
61. Go skydiving and/or bungee jumping
62. Have a reunion with Cousin Jacque and Cousin Elaine
63. Meet my cousin Joe for the first time
64. Be the featured subject of an article in a printed publication
65. Cook a pastry from scratch
66. Take my godson out on a play date, just the two of us
67. Read 15 of the “Big Reads”(4/15)
68. Attend a professional sports event (not baseball)
69. Attend a fashion week fashion show
70. Revisit Israel
71. Travel somewhere on a boat July 26, 2009
72. Calculate my carbon footprint, reduce it. January 23, 2009
73. Bake a Challah February 26, 2009
74. Celebrate 4 consecutive Shabbats (0/4)
75. Attend Muslim Services
76. Go the Lower East Side of NYC and have a kosher pickle
77. Ask someone for their phone number, call it, and ask for a date
78. Travel to a Spanish-speaking country, converse “solamente en Español.”
79. Learn to drive Stick-shift
80. Sleep outdoors under the stars (i.e. camping)
81. Make something out of clay, in honor of Gramoo
82. Fix one of a multitude of broken things in my apartment- by myself!!
83. Go Skinny Dipping in an Ocean other than the Pacific!
84. Be in Times Square for New Year’s
85. Visit a midwest state that I’ve never been to