56 - Try a New Physical Activity

I've been wanting to try jiu-jitsu for awhile. I've always been curious about martial arts, but I've never tried one. I think maybe watching my brother's tae kwon do classes as kids made me feel like, cool, you broke a board and did a fun little kick. And I really like the mental/emotional aspects of them, though the focus on discipline doesn't really appeal to me.

But then I learned about jiu-jitsu. I don't remember where I first learned about it, but I do remember watching and reading about how impactful it was for Anthony Bourdain. Also, while I was running the club sport program at DePaul, a student asked to start a jiu-jitsu club, so I had to learn a bit more about it to see if it fit within our insurance. That's when I learned it's a lot of grappling, body weight distribution, etc. And that made me want to try it.

When I sent a message to my friends, I wasn't sure who might be down to try jiu-jitsu with me, but I got quick responses from Laura and Missy, who are usually down to try new things, especially when they're free! 

Redzovic Jiu-Jitsu offers a free trial class, and none of us really knew what to expect... especially because we were late. One staff member took us around, got us gis, got us water, etc. And then we showed up late to class (probably not great for the discipline thing). After watching a demo, we turned to each other, ready to practice the first postures and moves, but two large men came up to Laura and me, and gave us some one-on-one coaching. It was quite awkward at first, as we were practicing grappling from either lying down on our backs or straddling the other person. And it was a little weird to be straddling or straddled by these total strangers. 

But then, I got really sucked into the sport of it. It was really cool to learn grips and moves and strategies to throw someone off balance. It felt very empowering, honestly.

I would like to go again, though I can't quite make their course offerings work with my current schedule. And I wish I had a buddy to go with regularly because it was more fun to practice with my friends at the end. But I really enjoyed Redzovic. Great facility and super friendly and helpful staff and instructors.

And yay for trying something new and liking it and having friends who are up for new things!

18 - Make 3 New Breads

1 - No Knead Bread

7/20/26

I was researching some bread recipes on Serious Eats, my favorite cooking website, and came across this no-knead bread recipe by Kenji Lopez-Alt, who is one of my favorite... recipe testers / cooks? I don't know what to call him, but he basically approaches cooking like a science, tweaking and tweaking and tweaking a recipe in all kinds of ways until he gets the "best" result. 

This bread was wildly easy, though I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing a couple times and had to make it twice... and still messed up both times. The first time, I didn't realize it was supposed to stay in the fridge for 3-5 days, so I'd only given it 24 hours by the time I took it out. It was still a great result though and actually better than my second attempt. I forgot to take the lid off after scoring, and I have no idea if that's why the loaf was stuck stuck stuck to the bottom of the dutch oven. I could not pry it off. so the pieces I did pull off were good, but they were just hunks, not a full loaf sliced nicely. 

I'm definitely going to try it again though because the first result was a nice, crusty bread, and I know exactly what was in it. I always love to make things from scratch, so I can avoid preservatives and all kinds of other things in store-bought food. I need to add this to a more regular routine and learn some more breads though!

2 - Basic New York Style Pizza Dough

8/25/26

So... I'm counting this as bread because it has the same basis of bread, even though I don't think people usually refer to pizza crust as bread. It's pizza crust. But whatevs. They both come from dough. Similar process. Close enough.

I used Kenji's recipe for a basic New York style pizza dough from Serious Eats.  Honestly, may this man live a long and happy life free from pain because his relentless testing of recipes to come up with one a home cook can do is a blessing to us all. 

This pizza crust didn't come out perfect, but I also had to finagle some things. I don't have a food processer, so I used a mixer, and it came together eventually. I think that part went just fine. It was definitely glutenous, so much so that it was a bit hard to clean the mixer after because it was such sticky, dense dough. Also, I don't have a pizza oven. I tried it in both my air fryer, which maxes out at 400, and my oven, at 500, with a pre-heated pizza stone. I think the air fryer actually went better, possibly because the hot air was circulating in fryer mode, but I'm going to try it again.

I also only used mozzarella, garlic, olive oil, and some pizza spices (thank you, K Rob & Amy) to really get a sense of the result. It was a nice little snack. The dough cooked through and browned to a crisp. It didn't quite have a New York style chew and not a ton of flavor, so it would probably be better with some more flavorful toppings. I have two more (larger) hunks of dough left, so I'll keep playing with it!

3 - Focaccia

9/27/26

So, I'm not doing great with other types of bread, so I went back to focaccia, as that's been the best bread I've ever made. I used a plain recipe, rather than the garlicky one I did last time. It was pretty good, but I think I needed to sprinkle more salt on top or something because there isn't a ton of flavor. But everything rose and baked and did everything as expected!

#40 - Pay Something Off

I paid off my Care Credit credit card, which I only really use for vet expenses. It wasn't a huge sum, but I'm excited to have one less payment to make every month!

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

We didn't take a picture, so I have no evidence this happened, but Karlo popped over to Bourdain Day this year! So much fun to see my buddy after very many years! Hopefully it won't be another 3 years before we see each other again.

#6 - Publish a Book

 Y'all:

I'M A PUBLISHED AUTHOR!

I'm so so so stoked about this.

In my years of being an academic editor, I found myself repeating the same ideas and recommendations over and over to students working on their doctoral dissertations.

So...

I took those ideas and recommendations and made them into a book!

Navigating the Dissertation Writing Process: Finding Your Path From First Drafts to Submission

Then, I took a class on developmental editing, and in that class, we learned a lot about book proposals and identifying possible publishers. I even learned that I should have done that before writing the book itself. (Oops.)

After that, I used Writer's Market to identify publishers.

I received two "maybe later"s and nineteen rejections.

But then, Bloomsbury reached out to let me know they were interested. Since then, it's been a pretty smooth couple months prepping my book for publication, and it's finally up on the website and available for purchase!

It's really cool, and I'm SO thankful to all of my friends and colleagues who helped me with reviews, endorsements, and support.

Yay!

#1 - Watch 3 Hitchcock Movies

I'm not quite sure why I didn't finish this one, but I didn't.

1 - Psycho

I took a class in horror writing and learned about a pattern in the horror genre that has kinda blown my mind. Usually, in stories, there are three acts. Horror is generally a little different though, in that it has a major twist about a third of the way through the narrative. The first third creates the world, and then bam, something happens and then things rocket from there. When I think about all of my most beloved horror films, that pattern checks out: 

• Midsommar: The visitors witness the cliff ritual.
• Get Out: Chris discovers photos of missing Black men with Rose.
• Ready or Not: Grace realizes they're not playing a silly game.
• Scream: Ghostface calls Sidney, taunts her about her mother, then attacks her, leaving Billy Loomis as a major suspect but with no clear motive.
• The Lost Boys: Vampire reveal.
• Jurassic Park (horror adjacent): Nedry turns the power off, and the dinos are now loose.

The most iconic example of this pattern is Psycho, which did something unique: A third of the way into the film, the main character dies. It also gave us a handsome, likeable new main character, someone the viewer immediately wants to trust because he seems so wholesome and kind. 

While aspects of the film are dated, and I've long known the ultimate twist, I enjoyed it. I bet it was so wild going into that movie not knowing who the real villain is. 

I definitely understand why it's #5 on Rotten Tomato's list of the 200 best horror films.

#6 - Swim 10 Miles

Again, I didn't quite get there due to injury, but I'm hopeful I will this year!

January (2 swims, average: 410 yards, total: 0.46 mile)

1 - 1/9/25: 410 yards (0.23 miles total)

2 - 1/16/25: 410 yards (0.46 miles total)

April (4 swims, average: 244 yards, total: 0.55 mile)

3 - 4/1/25 - 150 yards (0.53 miles total)

4 - 4/8/25 - 275 yards (0.69 miles total)

5 - 4/15/25 - 225 yards (0.82 miles total)

6 - 4/17/25 - 325 yards (1.00 mile total)

July (1 swim, average: 250 yards, total: 0.14 mile)

7 - 7/10/25 - about 250 yards (1.14 mile total)

August (1 swim, average: 350 yards, total: 0.20 mile)

8 - 8/8/25: about 350 yards (1.34 mile total)

September (5 swims, average: 381.6 yards, total: 1.08 mile)

9 - 9/5/25: about 350 yards (1.54 mile total)

10 - 9/8/25: about 400 yards (1.77 mile total)

11 - 9/15/25: 601 yards (2.11 miles total)

12 - 9/22/25: 550 yards (2.42 miles total)

13 - 9/29/25: 437 yards (2.67 miles total)

October (5 swims, average: 707.8 yards, total: 2.01 mile)

14 - 10/1/25: 164 yards (2.76 miles total)

15 - 10/7/15: 750 yards (3.19 miles total)

16 - 10/13/25: 984 yards (3.75 miles total)

17 - 10/23/25: 625 meters (4.14 miles total)

18 - 10/27/25: 875 meters (4.68 miles total)

November (3 swims, average: 6,00 meters, total: 3.13 mile)

19 - 11/3/25: 625 meters (5.07 miles total)

20 - 11/4/25: 450 meters (5.35 miles total)

21 - 11/12/25: 725 meters (5.80 miles total)

December (1 swim, average: 325 meters, total: 3.33 mile)

22- 12/29/25

I also did more than this during my lifeguarding class, but my watch didn't log it because I had it set to 30 minutes minimum, and we swam on and off for hours for a few days.