My Blog Goal

So, here I am on Day 1 of my blog and Day 136 of 1001 towards completing my list of 101 activities!

After a little encouragement from a friend, I decided to record the activities of my 101 in 1001 list on this blogspot. So far it's been VERY easy and quite fun! I highly recommend it!

So, the idea of the 101 in 1001 list is to make a list of 101 things you want to do, see or accomplish in 1001 days. Why 1001 days? Well, there is a quote by the motivational speaker, Tony Robbins, that says something about how people OVERestimate what they can accomplish in 1 year, but UNDERestimate what they can accomplish in 10 years. So 1001, which is just about 2 3/4 years seems like a good amount of time. It's long enough to make some real progress and short enough to keep you focused and motivated.

So far my 101 items have been a great adventure! I've found it so great to make a list of things that I want to do because I want to do them. Not because other people think I should or that there are consequences imposed by others if I fail. This is MY list. I make the rules. I think I like it that way!

As of today, I have been able to cross 9 things off the list. This last week, in particular, has been quite productive. I've finished 3 things in just that amount of time!

The things I've done so far:

#22. Get my cholesterol checked. Completed January 13, 2007. While I had every intention of completing this one before July 15, 2009, this one wasn't done according to my time schedule. I was going in for my annual checkup and had to see a new set of doctors because my old doctor isn't practicing anymore. The new doctor was not exactly what I had in mind. From the moment she walked into the examining room, she simply had an air about her that I didn't like. I think she decided that because I'm overweight I must be completely unhealthy even though I exercise on a regular basis, try to eat right and don't smoke. Apparently that was just not enough for her. She ordered me to go and have a series of blood work tests done including a cholesterol screening and insulin resistence test.

I had the work done and when the results came back perfectly normal for my insulin/glucose numbers and my cholesterol was under 200, I promptly called the office and had my next office visit, which was to be with that same Dr. changed so that I would be seeing a different doctor instead. I pay attention to my health and if these tests would have been warranted, I would completely understand, but she had absolutely no bedside manner and as a diagnostician, this doctor leaves a LOT to be desired.

#29. Bowl a 200 game. Completed February 21, 2007. I have been bowling on a regular league for about 4 years as an adult and I also bowled on a teenagers' league when I was in high school. In that amount of time I have been getting consistently better, but I VERY rarely break a 200. My average is only a 133, so bowling a 200 is quite a feat for me!

#43. See a musical: Completed October 29, 2006. Troy and I went to see "The Putnam County Spelling Bee" at the Murat Theater in Indianapolis on October 29, 2006. I am a big fan of musical theater and actually participated in it quite a bit in high school.

It was great fun and they actually had some audience participation in the form of some additional spellers on the stage that had been taken from the audience. They were great sports and actually a few of them were quite good spellers!

#99. Play bingo at a real bingo hall. Completed February 23, 2007. I think part of the purpose of this 101 list is to step out of my comfort zone. Well, Troy and I definitely did that on this one. We walked into that bingo hall like two deer caught in the headlights. Who knew there were so many ways to play bingo?!?

Before we arrived at the bingo hall I had called to confirm their hours and what we had to bring. The woman on the phone spoke a sort of "bingo lingo" that I had never heard, so I told her I was completely new to this and asked her to slow down. Eventually, I found out that money was basically the only reqirement. All other items could be purchased at the bingo hall, including our daubers (mine was pink and Troy's was blue).

When we walked into the bingo hall (a shell of a building holding row after row of empty 6 foot tables, floors strewn with discarded pull-tab "lottery" tickets and NUMEROUS lit up bingo boards), we were like two deer caught in the headlights. When I had called, I was told that it would cost $13 for a set of 24 cards. Being beginners, Troy and I thought 24 seemed like a lot and thought we would just split the set. But, NO! We were informed that each person had to have a pack of 24 tickets in order to be in the building.

So, after shelling out $29 for bingo cards and 2 daubers, we made our way to one of the empty tables. Now what? There was a flurry of activity around us. Numbers were being called QUITE rapidly (we later found out that was a quickie game), men and women wearing money aprons were walking around yelling random things (the names of the pull-tab lottery tickets they were selling) and there were people with at least 10 or 12 daubers of every color under the sun sitting in front of them.

After staring at each other and all of the activity around us simply agog for a few minutes, we decided to flag down one of the "runners" who were selling additional cards. The runner assigned to our table was named Rhonda and she was a godsend! We explained that this was our first time and that we were desperately in need of some explanation. She explained that these were just warm-up games and that the regular games would begin at 7:00 PM and that things would slow down considerably at that point. She gave us the "line-up" for the evening's games and showed us what was meant by a "winner's choice" (two bingos including a standard straight-line bingo, a cluster of 4 numbers or the 4 corners). They even had a special "Smoker's game" where nearly 80% of the hall would get up and go out for a smoke while the rest of us stayed to play.

The evening went pretty smoothly after that, but the games went on for over 5 hours and once you get the hang of what you're doing, it's actually mind-numbingly boring. Maybe it's more exciting if you actually win. I guess that's why you see people playing cards on the side.

In addition to the bingo games, there are pull-tab lottery tickets for sale and the discarded losing tickets COVER the floor! The tickets sell for $1 a piece and there was one woman sitting in front of us that bought nearly $300 worth $20 at a time! She could rip those things open and throw them on the floor (missing all of the MANY trash bags provided) at lightening speed!

It was great fun once and I'm glad we did it, but I don't know if I'd do it again. A nice movie and some chinese food ordered in is more my speed, thank you.