07.15 Goals Roundup

A few weeks ago I discussed my efforts in finishing my 24 goals as part of my 24th birthday challenge. Last year when I first came up with this list of 24 items to accomplish, I made a separate list of 10 tasks each month, hoping these smaller goals would make my larger goals list seem much more manageable. Long story short, coming up with just a few things to focus on each month really did help me tackle most items on my big yearlong list.

Even though I already posted about my successes and shortcomings regarding my 24 goals, I still wanted to talk about my progress during the final month of this yearlong challenge. So without further ado, let's discus my July goals!

1. Read a book: I read several books this past month. First, I completed Z: Zelda Fitzgerald by Fowler. A few years ago I randomly picked up a biography about the Fitzgeralds, and I surprised myself by being so interested in the dynamics of the duo and their relationships with their peers. I've read a few other novels based on them, and just like those, this loosely based biography of Zelda kept me hooked the whole way through. I also quickly finished Autobiography of Us by Sloss. I found this novel very entertaining, although thinking about it now, very cliche. This is a story of two high school best friends and how the choices they made in college changed their futures and relationships. Lastly, I brought Banished by Drain along with me on my trip to California. The theme of this memoir was the only thing that kept me from quitting after the first chapter. This book was on my "must read" list because it's written by an ex-member of the Westboro Baptist Church and details her firsthand experience with this radical group. Drain had a lot of great insight into the cult-like nature of this church, but the writing wasn't as great.

2. Ride my bike: I had big plans to ride my bike while I was home in California, but those grand ideas never took off. I did manage to bring my helmet back to Philadelphia with me, so I'm hoping to try out Philly's new bike share program, Indego soon.

3. Use my big camera a lot while I'm in California to capture "people pictures": I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't take a single photo with my big camera the entire month I was home. I lugged my camera with me (carry on, of course) with the intention of taking hundreds of photos. It was pure laziness that held me back.

4. Go through all of my clothes back home: As always, there's still a lot more items I could've gone through. But since I did go through a large portion of my boxed clothes, I'm considering this goal complete. When we moved to Philadelphia last year, Lauren and I stored a bunch of clothing that we hardly wore in cardboard boxes at her dad's house. Going through the boxes this past month, I'm not sure why I needed to keep all of those items. I obviously haven't worn them in over a year and I actually forgot I owned a lot of them. Together we filled several large bags full of clothes to donate. I still have a long ways to go, but surely I'll have a normal sized wardrobe one day!

5. Take a day trip to somewhere fun: Lauren, Marissa, Heather, Leti, and I drove to San Francisco one weekend and had tons of fun. However, the entire purpose of the trip was to run the SF Marathon. So, I'm going to be strict and not allow this trip to count. I was planning on taking a trip to the beach and a separate day trip to the Bay area to visit my brother, but those plans changed.

6. Make lots of progress on my knit sweater: Basically, in July I started my sweater, and that's about it. The whole sweater knitting really didn't take off until August when I returned to Philadelphia. Although I didn't get much knitting done in July, I'm flying now and will most likely meet the September deadline!

7. Set up my new iPod: Again out of laziness, I didn't set up my iPod. I just need to make myself sit down in front of my computer and do this one afternoon so that I can have some good tunes to listen to while I exercise. The whole "why do today what you can do tomorrow?" mantra has really taken over my productivity.

8. Tie Dye: My siblings, Lauren, Heather, and I tie dyed twice while I was home! We had so much fun the first round that everyone wanted to tie dye again the following week. Because I trying to get rid of clothes, I decided to tie dye several yards of cotton fabric. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to make with the fabric, but I'm so glad I opted to dye fabric instead of clothes.

9. Make something with beads: I brought my little bag of beads home with me, hoping to use pliers and other tools that I don't have in Philadelphia. But spending time with friends and family was way more important, so I didn't make any jewelry. There's always next time though.

10. Make two dresses: YES! I mentioned a few weeks ago, but I'll happily say it again. I sewed a knit dress and a woven one. Both have been worn several times already. Although neither are near perfect, I've learned what I need to change to sew more-perfect dresses in the future.

Score for July: 4 out of 10.

Well, my 24 birthday goals are really complete now. I still haven't come up with the perfect birthday challenge for this year, but I have a few ideas stewing around in my head!