#7 - Read War and Peace (Fail)

So... I never posted this amazing post last year. But I failed last year. I succeeded this year.
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Starting in October, my goal was to read at least 3 chapters a day. I met that goal many days and exceeded it on a few. I'm still only half way through.

I'll attempt a more entertaining post when I actually finish... in 2020.

#6 - Read 3 More Books From the Top 100 of the 20th Century List

#7 - Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
12/9/18

This was a reread. I'd read Catch-22 maybe 15 years ago. I remember being impressed by the cruel wittiness and ironies throughout. I was struck by the same again this time around. What struck me even more this time was that though this book is laced with genuinely funny scenes, situations, and characters, it does not pull punches when it comes to the realit
ies of the inevitable pains of war. The annoyances are actually annoying to read, the heartbreak visceral and sudden. And it's so full of toxic masculinity that I suspect Heller wrote misogyny purposefully, reflective of his wartime experiences and the extreme objectification of women of the time. But now that I'm reading another one of his books, I'm less sure how much self-awareness about the treatment of women in his books is present. Regardless, I'm glad I read this again and highly recommend it to anyone who has not yet.

#15 - To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
1/5/18

This book didn't make a huge impression on me. When I think of it, I think of a romantic yet melancholy feeling and brooding men and women, but it's tough to remember anything about the story except standing on the beach. I'm curious why this book didn't really strike me more than that.

Also, I find the cover on the version that is linked to be upsetting. I'm glad my copy is just an old timey hardcover.

#90 - Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
6/9/18

It took me a long time to finish this book, yet it was really, really good. It's incredible how Rushdie can write so complexly yet his poetic turns of plot are so clear. It's clear that Rushdie has continued to hone his craft since this first major novel, and I look forward to reading more of the work of this literary and political celebrity.

#7 - Read 36 Books (Fail)

Well, I know there's still time left, so this list might get slightly longer, but there's no way I'm reading 24 more books in the next 2 weeks, so here it is. (To be fair, I should probably get credit for at least 20 books for making it through War and Peace.)

I mean, dang, I took on some serious stuff this year. Maybe a little lighter next year!

1 - To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
1/5/18

*2 - The Tales of Beetle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
1/7/18, gifted to me by Rebeca Matus

*3 - The Hobbit by J.R. Tolkien
I'm not sure

4 - The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo
4/14/18, gifted to me by Kevin Robitaille

5 - Little Fires Everywhere
4/29/18 (audiobook)

6 - Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
5/30/18 (audiobook)

7 - War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
6/9/18, recommended by Maureen McGonagle and read with me by Alicia De La Pena

8 - Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
6/9/18

***9 - Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
7/1/18, gifted to me by Casey Jordan

10 - Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
7/28/18, given to me at the DePaul Campus Rec Elf Ceremony

11 - Babbit by Sinclair Lewis
10/30/18

*12 - Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
12/9/18, read for the second time

*Recommend

#9 - Go to 50 Group Fitness Classes

1 - Primary Crossfit
1/15/18
It was also on my list to try Crossfit. So I figured I'd start this list item with that one. Since that one is a stand-alone list item, I'll leave the in-depth description for that post.

2 - Sound Healing
1/26/18
The DePaul Women's Network offers a wide variety of workshops on campus. When the one for Sound Healing came out, I was taken back to some emotional yoga classes that ended with the singing of crystal bowls. Yeah, it's super hippy/new age, and I'm into it. It's so helpful for me to take time in my day to check in with my body and mind, to notice what I'm feeling. A full hour of Sound Healing felt like exactly what I needed at the moment, three weeks into a busy quarter where I hadn't been still often. Unfortunately, the people coordinating the event didn't pass on yoga etiquette to the attendees, so one person came 35 minutes late and then negotiated with the instructor to stay while the rest of us were taken out of the moment. Then, during the sound bath at the end, it was apparent the person checking the second class in told them to wait outside the studio, so there were 15-20 women chatting loudly just outside the door. I tried to let the distraction go and be in the moment, but I just couldn't do it. I've been battling some anxiety where my thoughts race and I can't focus, and that moment felt like a metaphor for it: the chattering distracting me from being present in the things I wanted to do. But, overall, the instructor was delightful and I would totally go again if offered the opportunity.

3 - Yoga
1/29/18
I have 3 instructors at DePaul that I like so far. I've put their classes on my schedule with the intention to go twice a week. Here's a start!

4 - Yoga
3/12/18

5 - ?
?

6 - ?
?

7 - Yoga
4/12/18

8 - Yoga
4/19/18

9 - Yoga
4/23/18

10 - Yoga
6/1/18

#5 - Complete the 2018 Book Riot Reading Challenge (Fail)

Each year, Book Riot releases a challenge to read books that fit the description of 24 different tasks. I've seen my reader friends post about this year after year, and I decided to add it to my list this year. I didn't make it very far, and in fact, only met 3 of the challenges (listed below). In one of the challenges, I read 3 books that fit that description, but of course, I only got to cross one task off the list. I'm going to guess my biggest obstacle here was that I decided to read War and Peace, which did fit one of the tasks, but I surely could have read 24 complete books in the time it took me to get through that one :)

5. A book set in or about one of the five BRICS countires (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa): War and Peace, Midnight's Children, and Love in the Time of Cholera
6/9/18, read with me by Alicia De La Pena and recommended by Maureen McGonagle; 6/9/18, and 7/28/18

9. A book of colonial or post-colonial literature: Midnight's Children
6/9/18

15. A one-sitting book: The Tales of Beetle the Bard 
1/7/18, gifted to me by Rebeca Matus

#61 - See a Friend I Haven't Seen in at Least 3 Years

I have this one on my list every year, but this year, this was handed to me as it was my 20-year high school reunion.

Dude, I love high school reunions. They're just so... awkward. If you see me in person, ask me to tell you some stories from my 10 year. As a teaser, it was $35/person at a hunting club. A lot of us assumed that meant dinner was included. It was not. There were some apps and then unlimited beer and wine. People got toasted.

I was really looking foward to more weirdness at my 20, but really, it was just kinda pleasant. I mean, there were only like 30 of the 350 of us, but I really enjoyed catching up with some people I hadn't seen in a long time. I think the weirdest thing that happened was that many of us admitted that our class really didn't like each other--like we were always in last place at spirit week--yet this group seemed perfectly content to talk to whoever was around them.

I could tag like 20 people, but I'm just going to tag Jason Rogers since I treated him like I did in high school (as a little brother), and we had a great night with other Salinians. If anyone else in this photo wants to get a blog tag, I'm happy to add you :)

#27 - See One of My Favorite Comedians

For about the past year and a half, I have been SO into the podcast My Favorite Murder. It's two women who are into true crime, so most episodes, they each (casually) research a story of a murder and then tell those stories to each other. I love it because Karen Kilgariff is smart, funny, and real, and Georgia Hardstark drinks wine from a can, has super great cats, and seems so kind. Together, they're my favorite kind of pair: the kind of pair who complements each other and seems to see in the other an inspirational piece of themselves. Plus, I appreciate that when they say problematic things (out of ignorance), they immediately admit those mistakes, apologize, and often, make a gesture of their commitment to do better moving forward. At least on the air, they never lose themselves in defensiveness and denial, and I enjoy how they model that behavior, particularly for other white women.

So, after a year and a half of fandom, I was SO stoked that Karen and Georgia were coming to Chicago on their tour. And then, when it came to buy tickets... I realized I couldn't go.

So, there went that.

But, in one of my Murderino groups, someone said, hey, I didn't get tickets to MFM, but The Dollop is coming, does anyone want to to go that? And I was like, YES!

Maybe not an all-time favorite comedian, but I got to go to a live taping of The Dollop, a podcast I started listening to pretty religiously this year. It's an American history podcast where one comedian (Dave Anthony) tells a story from American history to his friend (Gareth Reynolds), who has no idea what the topic is... about. Sometimes, the podcasts are cry-alone-on-the-train-from-laughing funny while others expose our country's deeply problematic and really, shameful past. You never really know which one you're going to get, but I think that's partly why I like it.

Luckily, a new-ish friend and I are both into The Dollop, so even though there were not seats together, we managed to find seats 2 rows apart, met briefly before the show, and laughed about it after. It was a deeee-light. Attending live podcast tapings are now a thing I'm into.

Later that night I went to a bar that was taken over by pirates.