apropos of anything

I know there was a speech yesterday. If you’ve only heard the sound bytes, you should read it or watch it for yourself. I thought it was honest and intelligent and awesome, but I don’t want to write about it just yet. All my words on this subject are so scattered the only way I could write about it right now is with abstract poetry.

Me, not a poet so much. In the meantime, let’s talk about other things! Scattered things, but in prose.

I made the world peace cookies today. They’re yummy as always, but I think I am still a little scared of overworking the batter. I didn’t make the logs as tightly as I should have, so the cookies crumbled a little upon slicing. I haphazardly patched them back together, but they still made the ugliest cookies I have ever seen in my life, and that includes the time I watched somebody make chewy cocoa cookies with non-fat yogurt. I’m going to have to serve these with the lights dimmed.

There was a tornado on Friday. It looked like this:

After it was done, my office building looked like this:

By Monday, they’d boarded up all the broken windows as well as the holes in the roof. My desk is on another side of the building, so I didn’t get affected at all (except for the still spottily functioning elevators). In those first few post-tornado hours Friday night, I worried mostly for the people who worked the overnight shift and partly for the building itself. If I am perfectly honest, I probably spend more time in that building than in any other, and as much as we joke about business continuity, I never thought I’d actually see it with its windows blown out.

We got several hours of wind and rain today (which probably barely made a dent in our overall water shortage, which means our esteemed state government may be continuing with its plans to annex Tennessee and eventually steal its Jack Daniels). The APD blocked off all the streets surrounding the affected buildings so pedestrians wouldn’t get knocked unconscious by falling windowpanes. And inside our building… well, they did this:

It was raining outside… and inside, too. I am ready for my office to be whole again now. Also for my front window to stop leaking. I wonder whether the HOA would actually make fixing it a priority if I followed Alicia’s suggestion and borrowed one of those tarps to tackily cover the leaky window.

If not, I suppose I always have ugly cookies as a consolation prize.

I thought if I didn’t point it out, nobody would call me on my 101-in-1001 ending this past November. I got through forty-something items, which means I probably could have done better. Interestingly, one of the things I figured would never happen — #29, Get published — I did actually manage to do, and one of the things I figured would be easy peasy — #69, Spend a day at Stone Mountain and stay for the light show afterwards, regardless of how redneck it is or how much traffic there will be — I never got around to doing. Funny how things work out.

There were some things on the list — #57, #65, #71, #77, #101 — that weren’t easily quantifiable; and there were others — #10, #17, #34, #35, #77 — that I did partially but don’t feel comfortable crossing off because I didn’t do them completely or I didn’t do them consistently.

Still, I like the list. I love the idea. I’ve been tossing around the idea of starting a whole new list and doing it all over again for the next three years, but then I saw Lisa Schmeiser’s variation on the theme, and I can’t decide which is better. One of the things I loved about 101 in 1001 is that it let me add items that might take some time or planning, items that possibly can’t or won’t be done in the course of a year. One of the things I like about Lisa’s approach is that it’s more chunkable, and I won’t feel silly putting smaller things on the list. In fact, it’s meant for the smaller things.

So, here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to have my cake and eat it too. The timing couldn’t be better. After all, the new year is just moments away.

The 108 in 2008 are listed below. The second batch of 101 in 1001 will be on the same page as the first batch. I don’t think it’s cheating to have some duplicate items on the two lists, and of course some of the things I didn’t cross off the first 101 will show up in the second. I hope I have a higher completion rate this time around! And if you read The Rage Diaries, you’ll see I’ve borrowed a couple of things off Lisa’s lists too.

So, without further ado, in no particular order, the 108 in 2008:

1. Email my out-of-town friends at least once a week.
2. Update the blog at least three times a week.
3. Make all five of my daily prayers on time.
4. Exercise three times a week. Ideally, at least one of those times should be a pilates or yoga class.
5. Visit Maimunah and Alia in D.C. [Completed February 16-18, 2008.]
6. Visit Sameera and Maleeha in NYC.
7. Visit Dan and AM in the arctic north.
8. Make the world peace cookies. [Completed March 19, 2008.]
9. Read two new books in January. [Completed: One Sunday Morning and Atonement.]
10. Read two new books in February. [Completed: Thursday Next: First Among Sequels and Coraline.]
11. Read two new books in March. [Completed: Run and One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd.]
12. Read two new books in April. [Completed: Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony and Forever in Blue.]
13. Read two new books in May.
14. Read two new books in June.
15. Read two new books in July.
16. Read two new books in August.
17. Read two new books in September.
18. Read two new books in October.
19. Read two new books in November.
20. Read two new books in December.
21. Finish the Quran during Ramadan
22. Make all the taraweeh prayers during Ramadan.
23. Figure out the logistics of Aamir’s valima (and shaadi events) so that everything goes smoothly.
24. Figure out the logistics of Mansoor’s valima (and shaadi events) so that everything goes smoothly. [Nikkah only since the valima got pushed to May 2009.]
25. Be an Odyssey of the Mind judge again. Remember to go to training so I am not stuck keeping time. [Completed March 15, 2008 in the midst of tornadoes.]
26. Create an electronic address book so when my phone dies, I don’t have to email everyone to get their numbers again. [Completed 1/6/2008 and uploaded to Google docs.]
27. Learn to knit BETTER.
28. Try one new recipe a month. [In progress. January: Dorie Greenspan's Midnight Crackles. February: Dorie Greenspan's Sour Cream Cookies and Martha Stewart's Chicken Curry with Mustard Seeds. March: Thai-style chili beef, Best Cocoa Brownies, and World Peace Cookies. April: My mother's kadhi, David Lebovitz's Strawberry Ice Cream (seriously y'all, I am in love with The Perfect Scoop), and Ina Garten's Lemon Yogurt Cake.]
29. Buy canvas grocery bags and use them instead of the plastic bags the stores provide.
30. Switch to Seventh Generation detergent and dishwashing liquid. [Completed: Since the point of this was to switch to eco-friendly soaps, I'm going to count my switch to the eco-friendly Palmolive.]
31. Send Eid cards.
32. Participate in Buy a Friend a Book Week.
33. Write prompt thank-you notes.
34. Find photos to put on the walls and get the prints made.
35. Go to the masjid for prayer at least once a week.
36. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (January) [Completed. The cause? Kiva.org.]
37. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (February) [Completed. The cause? Change I can believe in.]
38. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (March) [Completed. The cause? The Children's Institute via Dewey.]
39. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (April)
40. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (May)
41. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (June)
42. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (July)
43. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (August)
44. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (September)
45. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (October)
46. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (November)
47. Donate a modest amount to one non-profit organization or cause I don’t already have on my annual donation list. (December)
48. Catch up on Battlestar Galactica. [Completed March 24, 2008. I have no idea how I waited so long to watch this show, or how I'm going to cope with the week-long separation between episodes, or (horror of horrors) the split season that won't resume again until 2009.]
49. Continue building an investment portfolio.
50. Drink 8 glasses of water a day.
51. Get Tivo, or a DVR at least.
52. Take a photography class.
53. Buy a camera to replace the one that broke in November.
54. See a show at the Fox.
55. Watch at least one movie at Screen on the Green.
56. Volunteer with Trees Atlanta once a month.
57. Take the GMATs.
58. Pack my lunch at least twice a week.
59. Go hiking.
60. In September, donate anything I haven’t worn in a year to Goodwill.
61. Buy new black boots.
62. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in January. [Completed. Phone books away!]
63. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in February.
64. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in March. [Completed. One brown Trader Joe's grocery bag full of milk cartons, cereal boxes, and juice bottles dropped off at the Sandy Springs Recycling Center.]
65. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in April. [Completed. One brown Trader Joe's grocery bag full of milk cartons, cereal boxes, and juice bottles dropped off at the Sandy Springs Recycling Center.]
66. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in May.
67. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in June.
68. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in July.
69. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in August.
70. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in September.
71. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in October.
72. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in November.
73. Reduce, reuse, recycle one item in December
74. Play Scrabble.
75. Participate in NaNoWriMo and actually finish the 50,000 words.
76. Go to bed by 11 every work night.
77. Floss.
78. Take a weekend off for myself and get out of town for a bit. Sometime in November might be best.
79. Get a Georgia Aquarium annual pass. Use it.
80. Make a quilt. Alicia has promised to help me with this one.
81. Go swimming.
82. See at least three of the Oscar nominees before the awards show.
83. Plan (with some help) the big 3-0 birthday parties. (You know who you are.) [Completed, with some unexpected results, on February 2.]
84. Send Rashaad my copy of A Thousand Splendid Suns.
85. Do at least one Three Beautiful Things Thursday a month.
86. Have a spring dessert party.
87. Have a summer dessert party.
88. Have a fall dessert party.
89. Have a winter dessert party.
90. Straighten my hair, just to see how long it takes.
91. Write a letter. An actual, physical letter to somebody.
92. Participate in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.
93. Send Sean and Adam Eid gifts.
94. Keep the house clean. How do I quantify this? The house is not clean if I am uncomfortable having somebody drop by at 30 minutes’ notice.
95. Learn to make pulao.
96. Vote.
97. Take hostess gifts whenever I am invited over for lunch or dinner.
98. Find a monthly halaqa. Attend and participate.
99. Go by the kabrastan to see Tariq, Imran, and Ebad.
100. Do something outside my comfort zone.
101. Have lunch with Aisha I.
102. Have lunch with Selma.
103. Have lunch with Aisha R. [Completed February 2008.]
104. Have dinner with Nausheen.
105. Maintain a regular skin care regimen.
106. Make somebody a birthday cake.
107. Stop eating like an eight-year old. After all, ice cream is not dinner.
108. Visit Dubai.

I’ll keep the list updated as I get things done, and then revisit in December to see just how much I managed to cross off. Anybody else want to join the party?