Life is all about trying new things and connecting with different people. To put this mantra into practice, I learn a new skill(s) every month. Learn with me!
2021
Jan: Learned everything about tree pruning
Feb: Learned everything about brown rot
March: Learned how to take care of guinea pigs and bunnies
April:
May:
June:
July:
Aug:
Sept:
Oct:
Nov:
Dec:
End of the Year Wrap-Up
- Carried all the groceries from the car to the kitchen IN ONE TRIP.
- Started a virtual support group.
- Learned how to take care of the following plants: prayer plant, hosta, creeping jenny, corn plant, parlor palm, monstera, song of india, pilea, philodendron, christmas fern, aluminum plant, wandering jew, zz plant, snake plant, fiddle leaf fig,
- Finished: Heroes
- BECAME AN AUNT to the most adorable baby boy ever!!!!!!
2020
Jan: K-pop dance
Feb: Taking care of neonatal kittens
March: Jazz dance
April: Cat first aid
May: Stop motion animation
June: Quechua
July: Fabric painting
Aug: Spanish
Sept: Airbrush painting
Oct: Learned about mortgages
Nov: Learned how to play chess
Dec: Learned how to use a compass
End of the Year Wrap-Up
- PLANNED A BADASS WEDDING!
- Rescheduled said badass wedding.
- Planned a SECOND (and hot air balloon!) wedding.
- Married the most amazing person in the multiverse.
- Learned useless information about eyelash styles and wedding train variations.
- Featured in TWO podcasts (along with the fiancé).
- Interviewed by Montreal’s biggest radio station.
- Achieved INBOX ZERO!!!!!
- Completed a stress test and passed with flying colors.
- Worked out 302 times.
- Averaged 62 pushups per week.
- Hardcore social-distanced for 206 days straight (March 7-Sept. 29). And then regular social distanced.
- Did not plummet into a hole of despair (mostly).
- Took dance classes and LOVED it (before the crazy).
- Learned how to play chess and use a compass.
- Painted wedding dresses.
- Studied Quechua (a language native to Peru, Bolivia and Argentina).
- Learned how to navigate the healthcare system in Spanish.
- Practiced macro photography.
- Invested $$ for retirement and felt AWESOME about it.
- Fostered cutie cute kittens!
- Amended my taxes.
- Read 41 books.
- Bought the best bike ever and named her Lark.
- Created a podcast logo.
- Baked cakes. Lots of pretty cakes!
- Practiced being more patient with myself.
- Sunset-ified my hair.
- Wrote a catchy tune.
- Finished: Man in the High Castle, The 100, Lost, The Queen’s Gambit, Agents of Shield, The Good Place, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
- Tried hypnotism.
- Learned how to cut hair.
- Built a cat tree… out of a tree.
- Held two photo shoots for milk bath photographs.
- Made a 5-minute stop motion animation with Greg.
- Learned how to give cats their shots.
- Had an awesome photo shoot for smoke photography!
- Set up a green screen and had a powder portrait shoot.
- BOUGHT A HOUSE!
- Thrifted stuff online for said house LIKE A BOSS.
- Hardcore appreciated my friend family who supported me through all the awful. They are amazing.
2019
Jan: financial planning
Feb: middle splits
March: wood carving
April: paper making
May: Adobe Premiere
June: hula hooping
July: tying a tie
Aug: bike riding
Sept: roller skating
Oct: bound lotus pose
Nov: grant application writing
Dec: teaching cake decorating
End of the Year Wrap-Up
- Ate barracuda (while singing the song, of course!).
- Drank freshly made piña coladas in Belize.
- Howled at the super blood wolf moon eclipse.
- Trained with a parkour master.
- Spoke at three journalism conferences.
- Finished a crossword puzzle.
- Learned how to tie a tie.
- Mastered the bound lotus pose.
- Cuddled a koala.
- Poked a wallaby.
- Bear-hugged a kangaroo.
- Photographed a kookaburra AND the endangered cassowary.
- Survived moving apartments.
- Ate baby bees (they taste like teriyaki chicken!).
- Visited my final continent—I’ve been to all seven now! BOOYA!
- Met my dog niece, Mia, for the first time.
- Taught Lexie how to ice skate.
- Rescued a hawk in Florida.
- Penned my first articles for the New York Times and The Washington Post.
- Sold my first custom-made cake!
- Taught my first cake decorating class!
- Sweated (a lot) at my first hot yoga class.
- Pied the Significant Other in the face in front of the Sydney Opera House.
- Ate camel, crocodile, black ants, Balmain bugs, quandong, barramundi and wallaby.
- Donated platelets to help cancer patients.
- Founded a support group for people with anxiety.
- Was profiled (along with the SO) in The Washington Post.
- Walked across an entire country.
- Biked across a (different) country!
- Taught high school students how to ace the SATs.
- Volunteered at the Humane Society and loved every minute of it!
- Grew DiverseSources.org, expanded our outreach and made a difference.
- Practiced being more patient with myself.
- Read 69 books.
- Played the digeridoo.
- Fostered two adorable and eager kittens.
- Taught a Freelancing 101 class.
- Baked cakes. Lots of pretty cakes!
- Biked 40 miles down the WO&D Trail!
- Touched a giant clam and kept all 10 digits.
- Proposed to Greg on a zero-gravity flight.
- Did NOT vomit on the aforementioned zero-gravity flight.
- Explored SIX new-to-me countries.
- Asked my best friend to be my maid of honor.
- Survived the initial wedding planning horrors.
- Took an overnight train.
- Kissed on top of the Seattle Space Needle.
- Hit the bulls eye in axe throwing.
- Played archery dodge ball and didn’t lose an eye!
- Held a plank for 5 minutes.
- Was “discovered” as a hair model.
2018
Jan: pyrography
Feb: traveling by myself
March: songwriting
April: embroidery
May: archery
June: mosaics
July: blackout poetry
Aug: folded book art
Sept: textbook writing
Oct: pole vaulting
Nov: cement art, fashion photography, face paint
Dec: decorative pie baking
End of the Year Wrap-Up
- Took a class on Buddhism.
- Saw an elephant, giraffe, lion, leopard, buffalo and hippo in South Africa.
- Experienced Hamilton!
- Hosted a Friend Speed Dating for Women event.
- Created TWO public art installations.
- Watched for the first time: Die Hard, Jurassic Park, Terminator.
- Used CRISPR technology to alter butterfly DNA.
- Cut a bike in half.
- Ate Ethiopian food IN Ethiopia.
- Had my first artwork exhibition at Rhizome DC.
- Read 57 books.
- Taught a Freelancing 101 class.
- Ate springbok.
- Tasted zebra.
- Created a themed cat calendar.
- Cleared the bar in pole vaulting.
- Took a class on Hinduism.
- Co-wrote a college journalism textbook.
- Explored ancient Mayan ruins in Mexico.
- Wrote new songs.
- Drew 52 greeting cards.
- Rescued two stray kittens.
- Baked a BUNCH of creative cakes.
- Built a mannequin light.
- Hiked barefoot in Kauai.
- Filmed paint-throwing in slo mo.
- Dabbled in entropy photography.
- Taught our cats to high-five, push a shopping cart and play the piano.
- Volunteered with ECDC, helping immigrants get healthcare.
- Made HUGE progress on the middle splits.
2017
Jan: study Spanish
Feb: master the handstand
March: painting with water colors (here, here, here, here and here)
April: aerial silks
May: outdoor rock climbing
June: sew a quilt/acroyoga
July: aerial lyra
Aug: learn how to take care of kittens
Sept: teach kittens circus tricks
Oct: learn how to build bots
Nov: macro photography
Dec: night photography
End of the Year Wrap-Up
- Mastered a backbend.
- Learned to flip in aerial lyra.
- Punched a guy in muay thai.
- Hosted a jello wrestling match.
- Won a pie eating contest.
- Swam (aka floated) in the Dead Sea.
- Donated 25 units of blood/platelets to people in need (the maximum allowed!).
- Won an argument in Spanish while traveling in Cuba.
- Taught the Freelancing 101 class at a local community college.
- Saw the Northern Lights in Iceland.
- Learned what cold really is in Oslo.
- Took kittens on a plane ride!
- Visited all the (free) museums in D.C.
- Read 53 books.
- Invented a Zombie Apocalypse Survival Course.
- Ate sheep brain (tastes just like meatloaf!).
- Lost my appendix.
- Awarded the MJ Bear Fellowship.
- Visited five different countries.
- Ate putrid shark.
- Noshed on puffin.
- Tried whale (not endangered!).
- Snacked on fish jerky.
- Devoured monkfish skewers.
- Swam in a geothermal pool.
- Drove in the snow(storm) for the first time. *shudders
- Launched DiverseSources.org!
2016
Jan: study psychology
Feb: try improv
March: cake decorating
April: unicycling
May: learn Adobe Illustrator/master the splits
June: rock climbing/taxidermy
July: body marbling
Aug: glass blowing/bull riding
Sept: plane flying/cheese making
Oct: lock picking/hair dying
Nov: scuba diving
Dec: flying trapeze
End of the Year Wrap-Up
- Perfected my Monty Python silly walk.
- Learned to ride a unicycle for 35 feet without eating the pavement!
- Flew a plane AND conquered my fear of heights.
- Made cheese out of belly button yeast.
- Took a road trip to Intercourse, PA.
- Checked off all 50 states—I’ve seen America!
- Managed to do a flip AND a catch on the flying trapeze.
- Ran up the exorcist steps—twice.
- Ate fried duck heads. (They taste EXACTLY like fried duck heads.)
- Went glass blowing and didn’t melt off any appendages.
- Road a mechanical bull and took my first jello shot.
- Learned how to pick locks. (NOTHING IS SAFE!)
- Fell in love with scuba diving.
- Taught myself the fine art of body marbling.
- Went rock climbing and bouldering and have the calluses to prove it.
- Hosted a food fight.
- Taught myself how to draw with Adobe Illustrator!
- Poynter dubbed me “Cake Wizard.”
- Did the splits!
- Laughed my way through an improv class.
- Ate poutine in Montreal.
- Conquered the bound lotus yoga position!
- Visited the Menstruation Museum.
- Dressed up as a zombie and went grocery shopping.
- Cut a rug at square dancing night!
- Took a tour of the West Wing and the White House all decked out in its Christmas finery.
- Ate bull penis and turkey testicles.
- Escaped an escape room in record-breaking time!
- Went sledding on the Capitol Hill lawn.
- Saw Darth Vader at the National Cathedral.
- Served bugs at a dinner party.
- Taught a social media class to Medill grad students.
- Read 82 books.
- Hosted a NYE party celebrating with customs from two dozen countries!
Photo Credit: Casa Thomas Jefferson