Tag: Garrison Keillor

What a Difference…

Only a few weeks left in 2012.

Tonight I was looking back in my computer to see if I wrote any kind of “end of year wrap up” for 2011 and found nothing but revisions of resumes and cover letters dated 2011.  I guess that’s where my mind was last year at this time!  What a difference a year makes.

It was fun to go back and read my December 2011 and January 2012 blogs – the books and movies that I indulged in during unemployment and my blogs about what I will and won’t miss about unemployment.  Ah.

Pretty good stuff.  I think I was the most creative during that time!  Blogs in early 2012 were pretty ‘meh.”  I guess brain power was going elsewhere for a while… rightly so!

Anyway, found this list again:

US passport
US passport (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

12 Things to Get Done in 2012

  1. See Garrison Keillor at the Fitzgerald Theatre
  2. Visit the Four Daughters Vineyard in Spring Valley (maybe more than once!). Doesn’t it look lovely?
  3. Get my passport – so I’m ready!  This was on my list of 40 Things and it didn’t happen.  It will happen – soon.
  4. Write – at least weekly blogs
  5. Write – more letters. It’s so fun to get mail.
  6. Eat healthy and REAL food
  7. Watch for and attend more Table Trivia Nights
  8. Seek out author and book events, especially for authors and books I love!
  9. Go to New York City to see “Once – the Musical” – you see that, Troy
  10. While in NYC maybe go on a Greenwich Village walking tour with Adriana Trigiani (love her!)
  11. Read at least one GOOD book per month.  Easily achievable.
  12. Try new recipes and cook for myself (or invite others!)
Garrison Keillor
Garrison Keillor (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Still no passport (eeek!) and no Garrison yet, but NYC twice in a year?  A dream come true.

Seeing “Once” twice?  Amazing.

Even on Facebook in January 2011 I was posting links for the musical and dreaming of getting there.

Fun to start my dream list for 2013!  What do I want to come true this coming year???

I have to review my birthday list of 11 Things to do in the Fall, as the Winter Solstice is coming up soon and it’ll be time for a new list!  Yikes!

More later on that!

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Lists

Goals for 2012

I love lists, as I believe I’ve said before.  The above is a list that I made in January of this year of things that I want to accomplish in 2012.  Not big lofty goals, not life-changing goals, really, but a list of things that I want to work on being able to do.

  • Garrison Keillor at the Fitz: I would love to see Garrison Keillor in his home territory of the Fitzgerald Theatre before he retires.  If I can’t do that, I want to get to a stage show of The Wits at the Fitz sometime soon.  I have been a John Moe fan for years – since his podcast Weekend America (which has been off the air since 2009) – and his stage/radio show sounds delightfully fun.
  • Four Daughters Vineyard & Winery: A new winery opened up in our area and it looks beautiful.  Four Daughters Vineyard and Winery has a beautiful building with what appears to be delicious food and wonderful local wine. I need to get there!
  • NYC: “Once” Musical: This is an item that can be crossed off the list this week!  I fly out early tomorrow and have tickets for this show on Tuesday!  If you’ve talked to me at all lately, you know that I’m over-the-moon excited about the entire trip, so I won’t go on and on… but it’s happening, and all because I wrote it on a list in January!  🙂
  • Maybe: You can see off to the side that I also wrote “Maybe a Greenwich Village walking tour with Adriana.”  I love all things Adriana Trigiani and so I checked into this.  No weekday tour groups but they would do a private walking tour – with or without food – for $95-$130.  Well, I can walk around and see a lot and eat a lot of food for that money.  So, not this time.  But I subscribed to the newsletter about her tours in NYC and in Italy… so it’ll continue to be something I look out for!
  • Passport: I still haven’t gotten a passport.  Must do that next!  No trips out of the country planned, but they are not possible until I have the passport!  🙂  Must. Be. Ready.
  • Write, at least weekly:  I haven’t been blogging weekly but feel pretty good about the amount that I am doing right now.  Starting the new job required mucho brain power and I am finally feeling like I can use a little for other things, like reading a novel.  🙂  So I’ll still aspire to weekly writing.
  • Write letters: I don’t do too badly at this.  I can do better, for sure.  But it is something I enjoy doing – writing and getting letters in return.  So fun.
  • Eat healthy and real food: The continual quest.  I thought that getting sleep would be the hardest thing about the crazy shift schedule we work in the Emergency Department, but it turns out that eating meals has been harder.  Working 12 hour shifts is easy when you’re there – it flies by – but so does the 12 hours you’re off!  I don’t cook meals for myself, aside from a cold meat sandwich, and have been eating out a LOT!  I try to make good choices while out.  A few weeks ago I realized that every time I went out I ate a delicious burger and my rationale was that I never make burgers for myself at home; but the truth is, i never make anything for myself at home, so I started making different choices!  That night I ordered Indian carryout and was blissfully happy about that.  I’ll have to keep working on this…
  • Trivia night: I had so much fun at Trivia Night in November with Kristine that I must find other venues for this.  Marissa found a bar in LaCrosse that has trivia on Monday nights and she has gone with a group and kicked butt – 1st place last week! – but I think it would dampen her image if her mom came along. 🙂  So I’ll keep looking!
  • Seek out author/book events: I scoured the web looking for author events while I’m in NYC next week, as I’ll have a few days to myself to wander, but was unsuccessful in finding anything that jumped out at me (by anyone I knew).  I went to B&N today and saw that tomorrow Jesse Ventura is going to be here for a reading and book signing.  I wondered if I would go, if I wasn’t winging it to NYC tomorrow.  🙂  I’ll keep my eyes open for fun opportunities.

What about you?  What’s on your list of things to do in 2012?  Or this summer?  Holler if you want to help me check off anything else on my list!

Related articles

Things to Do in 2012

Now that I have some ‘certainty’ in my life, I have been able to think about the things that I would like to do in 2012.  Not really New Year’s Resolutions, but more of a To Do list. I’m sure I’ll add to it, but right now I have:

Garrison Keillor
Image via Wikipedia
  1. See Garrison Keillor at the Fitzgerald Theatre
  2. Visit the Four Daughters Vineyard in Spring Valley (maybe more than once!). Doesn’t it look lovely?
  3. Get my passport – so I’m ready!  This was on my list of 40 Things and it didn’t happen.  It will happen – soon.
  4. Write – at least weekly blogs
  5. Write – more letters. It’s so fun to get mail.
  6. Eat healthy and REAL food
  7. Watch for and attend more Table Trivia Nights
  8. Seek out author and book events, especially for authors and books I love!
  9. Go to New York City to see “Once – the Musical” – you see that, Troy?

    New York City
    Image by kaysha via Flickr
  10. While in NYC maybe go on a Greenwich Village walking tour with Adriana Trigiani (love her!)
  11. Read at least one GOOD book per month.  Easily achievable.
  12. Try new recipes and cook for myself (or invite others!)

That’s all for now!  If I think of more, I’ll add on… but a Dozen Things to do in Twenty-Twelve List suits me fine, too!

Off to read!

 

40 Things (29)

Garrison Keillor and cast members of A Prairie...
Keillor and cast in Lanesboro, MN Image via Wikipedia

Following along with Boof’s 40 Day Challenge leading up to her 40th birthday, day 29 –

29) A favourite book with animals in

When I was young (5th grade? 6th grade?) I loved “Where the Red Fern Grows,” but I haven’t read it since then, so  it’s hard to say it’s a favorite, because when I think of books with animals in it, my mind goes immediately to “Life of Pi.”  I listened to that book on audio first and simply fell in love with the story.  I loved the cadence of the reader, the description of the animals in the life boat, the floating island, and the horror of the story.  A few years later I read the book for book club (at my insistence) and I enjoyed the story just as much and loved talking about it with everyone (although most didn’t share my love for the book).

#29 on my list of 40 things was: Go to Michael Feldman or Garrison Keillor.  Michael Feldman and Garrison Keillor have weekly entertainment radio shows on public radio.  I have listened to Garrison Keillor since I was introduced to the show when I was about 12 by my aunt and uncle.  I don’t listen religiously, but whenever I am in the car or at home and remember, I will turn on The Prairie Home Companion,which is taped in St. Paul, MN or NYC.  Michael Feldman’s show, “Whad’ya Know?” was introduced to me much later – in the late 90s – and it is less musical and more interview/comedy based with local color.  It is taped in Madison, Wisconsin.

On May 31, 2007 Garrison Keillor came to a small artsy town about 20 miles from where I lived, so I got tickets and went with a bunch of friends.  He recorded the show on a baseball field outside and the weather was perfect, the guests were colorful and fun, and his show was fantastic.  It would be fun to see him at the Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul sometime and I hear he’s going to retire soon, so I’ll have to get on that.

Off to read!