28 Things By 28 Revisited

A year ago, I wrote '28 Things by 28' and now, I am 28.  So let's see what I checked off my list!!

1.  Have a successful first year of teaching Art... leading to a 2nd.  I got asked to come back full time!

2.  Become a hip hop dance master.  Hip hop classes were a major success.  I really enjoyed them!

3.  Run Carlsbad Half Marathon.  January 22, 2012

4.  Run La Jolla Half Marathon.  April 29, 2012

5.  Run America's Finest City Half Marathon.  August 19, 2012

6.  Get my studio apartment in order for company.  Done and Done.  Wendy, Tamara, Rebecca, and Nicki have come over.  But... then I moved again and had to start all over.

7.  Be on top of my grading (I really do not like grading... at all... ever!)  I'd like to say that I have been really good at grading this year.  I even turned grades in early!  Woo hoo.  Grading really gets me, so this is a huge accomplishment!

8.  Go on dates.  Cough *speed dating* Cough.

9.  Blog regularly, without giving up on journaling.  Keeping up on both nicely.

10. Invest a lot of time in my friendships.  This is hard when it seems friends don't want to spend time with you.

11.  Do something unique.  Chippendales for Tamara's Bachelorette party... I have never been to anything like that in my life!

12.  Meet new people.  Hip hop, church, BTSA Support Provider (teaching mentor)

13.  Keep up with Baking GALS and Tell Them Thanks.  Still send cookies and letters monthly, when a military person is in need.

14.  Manage my time wisely.  Trying to do more in a day... not just sitting around.

15.  Focus on my art (phtography, painting, sewing, scrapbooking).  Took three rolls of film to Czech Republic.  Scrapbooked last years events... working on getting stuff together for 2012.

16.  Lead by example.  This has ended up being more apparent in my classroom than anywhere else.

17.  Become more involved ar church.  Became a leader for the greeting team and co-lead a team to the Czech Republic over the summer.

18.  Stay on Budget and save what I don't spend.  I have been doing the best I can.  I moved and this set me back a bit, but I am on track now!

19.  Start saving for Greece cruise.  I do not know if this is actually happening now.

20.  Have more fun.  Dance night with church friends.  Karaoke.  New Year's Eve with and old friend and her family.  Free Gavin DeGraw concert at Jimmy Kimmel Live.

21.  Read 30 books, without buying any of them (unless for book club).

I didn't make this one, but I will be at 30 by the end of the year, which will technically be a year since I first started reading the books on my list.

1.  The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
2.  The Heart of Christmas by Mary Balogh, Nicola Cornick, Courtney Milan
3.  The Girl With The Dragon tattoo by Steig Larsson
4.  Gone with a Handsomer Man by Michael Lee West
5.  Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented by Matt Lewis & Renato Poliafito
6.  Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
7.  Zen and the Art f Murder by Elizabeth M. Cosin
8.  Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
9.  My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
10.  This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
11.  Little Bee by Chris Cleave
12.  Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
13.  Bridget Jones The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding
14.  The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
15.  Bossypants by Tina Fey
16.  Coraline by Neil Gaiman
17.  The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
18.  The Fallen (The Nine Lives of Chloe King #1) by Liz braswell
19.  The Stolen (The Nine Live of Chloe King #2) by Liz Braswell
20.  The Chosen (The Nine Lives of Chloe King #3) by Liz Braswell
21.  Naked by David Sedaris
22.  Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Lewis and Poliafito
23.  Baked: Elements by Lewis and Poliafito
24.  Always Home: 50 years of the USO by Coffey
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22.  See the Cabazon Dinosaurs. I took my mom here for part of her birthday night. (That was before I  published this list, but I has already written it, so I am counting it.)

23.  Eat another date shake (Hadley would be nice).  I ate an amazing date shake at the riverside county fair and it was way better than Hadley... believe it!  I also stopped by Hadley for a shake one day during the summer... I was falling asleep at the wheel and Hadley proved to be a life saver, literally!

24.  Meet my 'mean' neighbor and bring cookies.  I met my neighbor and brought her Christmas goodies... my downstairs neighbors as well.  (Fallbrook) But, then I moved...

25.  Go to the gym more. Not only have I gone to the gym more, but I started running 3 times a week, again!  Woo!

26.  Get my students into art competitions (statewide/ national).  Entered student work in to the National Date Festival/ Riverside Fair Art Exhibit/ Contest.

27.  Use time alone to better understand myself and where I want to go in life.  I have had plenty of time to think about where I am and where I want to be.  I am happy with the choices I have made and I like teaching Art, but I do realize that I am interested in many things and perhaps I will try my hand at many other things as the years pass.  I know that I do want to be married someday and have a family of my own.  I am not going to devote a lot of time to searching this avenue, but shall be open to the movement of love in my life.

28.  Loose 10 pounds (or more).  Hey!  A girl can dream!  A girl sure can dream.  I can say that I have not lost 10 pounds, but I did lose what I gained from eating all of that ice cream in the Czech Republic.  So, it may not have been the 10 pounds I was originally after, but at least I am back where I started for the coming year.