Fiscal Year 2009

Do you catch a vision the way you catch a cold?

This will be the best year of my life-to-date, so I've decided. I'm going to catalyze by conceptualizing things I want to happen. I have a success story that leads me to do this:

In June 2005, I made a list of things I want to do before I die. I recorded the desire to see Beethoven's 9th Symphony performed live, as well as the aspiration to sing the national anthem at a sporting event. Scarcely a week passed and news of opportunities to do both arrived by email. I found out that the Utah Symphony would be playing the 9th Symphony that September. I bought tickets. Isaiah came with me. Check that off the list. I also got an invitation to audition to sing the Star-Spangled Banner at a minor league baseball game. I'm not a performer; I just wanted to do it. I auditioned, they liked me, and I sang to open the Orem Owlz game on June 24.

May the dream-defining magic still be in force.

What I want during Fiscal Year 2009, in no particular order but divided into time frames according to how much I need to prepare and practice.

This week
-There's an especial amount of uncertainty in my life. I need direction. And comfort. I want to be astounded by General Conference.
-I want to do all the things I've been meaning to do, especially write thank-you notes, mail Bostonasaurus to my little brother, mail letters, organize my room, apply for health insurance

This month
-Get a career-type job
-See Cinderella at the Boston Ballet
-Get a haircut
-Find jeans that actually fit me. This is harder than you might think.
-Get some winter clothes (cold! scary! scary! scary! Do you know how long it's been since I've seen snow?)

Three months
-Buy a computer, more specifically a ThinkPad
-Get an eye exam and more contacts
-Visit Waterbury and see my old house and elementary schools

Six months
-I want a decorated bedroom that somehow incorporates both orange and green in a spirited, classy, pizazzed, Sav-style way.
-Take the GRE
-Learn Spanish
-I want a subscription to the Economist
-Take a [ideally, Harvard Extension School] class in micro- or macroeconomics and maybe Chinese (this is absolutely dependent on getting a real job at Harvard or another job that offers tuition reimbursement)
-Get better at math
-Be a vibrant visiting teacher
-I want a spark of organizational genius

Twelve months
-Save enough money to solidly apply to grad school in 2009, from a test prep class if it's the LSAT to testing through to applications. Oh, and actually apply.
-Fitness goals: this is as of yet undefined, but it incorporates the Charles, Walden Pond, the Massachusetts Bay, my new running shoes, my tennis tennis shoes, the tennis rackets I must replace, the Bunker Hill monument, a jumprope, snowshoes, dancing (ooh! good way to survive the winter!), and living on the fourth floor of a building with no elevator.

Ready for it when you are
-Increased social stability. ha ha ha. This is a euphemism. People usually euphemize to avoid talking about bad things, but by social stability I mean a good thing.
-Missionary opportunities leading to events involving water
-A visit from my sister(s)
-A best friend in New England, or a few
-Monthly road trips (this is actually going pretty well)
-I want to be the most considerate, responsible roommate I have ever been, which shouldn't be that hard because I'm not consumed by school as I usually have been.
-I want to be a better writer. This requires reading great books. Suggestions?
-Okay, I've always wanted a love note on my car. Please?
-I want to experience financial independence.
-Be a better sister/daughter even from far away
-Learn to integrate fruits and vegetables more regularly and creatively in cooking and meals
-Show some appreciation for the legacy and traits inherited from the ancestors by getting to know them
-REALLY settle in. "Bloom where you are planted." Continue to learn to enjoy every moment. Become New England while I'm here.
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And these are more lifelong goals
-Find what I call "my thing." Most people have a "my thing," what they're REALLY good at and love doing. I don't have one yet.
-Live with happy, responsible, creative, confident little people that look a bit like me
-Develop spiritual sensitivity
-Be reaaaaaally deliberate about life; take control. I am somewhat good at this. I want to be fabulous at it.
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Trips I want to take this year
-Norway for family history. Okay maybe that won't happen this year because I want to learn some Norwegian first.
-Prince Edward Island/Nova Scotia. Already slated for next spring.
-Florida. I promised.
-Seattle
-D.C.
-Louisiana

Trips I want to take someday
-Sicilia: circuit in convertible when the almond trees are blooming
-Eastern Europe/Russia. Reflect on history, humanity, progress.
-Australia for like a month
-China, Thailand
-Something on every continent. I think the African Savanna would be appropriate.

I know the items on my list are not stylistically consistent. I'm sorry, except not really enough to fix it. :)