I have significantly less time than I did the last time I updated, but here’s to putting the pressure on, I guess. I have completed many things on my list and have grand plans for many more, so don’t go thinking I’m useless just yet. Here is where I stand.
MAKE: A theme blog project
Nashvillest.com is all I have to say. Not quite what I had in mind when I said “theme blog project,” but Nashville is our theme, it’s a blog, and holy hell is it a project.
GO: To Seattle
I did this at the end of April, and it was incredible. I also made it down to Portland to visit a friend, so I can check off another city that I’ve always wanted to visit but didn’t put on my list for some reason. I can’t wait to go back, but I’m not sure that I’d want to live there like I’d always thought.
GO: To ten different coffee shops in Nashville
I have probably been to 20 by now, but I tried to hit up different chains. And no Starbucks allowed. Here’s where I ended up going… Sip Cafe, Crema, Cafe Coco, Portland Brew (Murphy Rd, East, 12 South), Bongo Java (East, West), Fido, Edgehill Studios Cafe, Caffeine (RIP), Sam & Zoe’s, and I don’t really remember where else. Pretty much anywhere that serves caffeine.
DO: Get promoted
Most people get promoted before they get laid off; I chose the alternate route. Got the axe at EMI in April, decided to be self employed, picked up a part time gig with a film company, got suckered into an awesome job with an artist-management-gone-booking-agency-gone-record-label, wherein I received a significant pay increase and better working situations, so I’ll consider that a promotion and count my blessings without getting hung up on the technicalities.
DO: Have an article published
Well, I publish approximately 2039820982 of my own articles every week on Nashvillest. Which I have decided to make count, because we are officially making money on the blog, which means I was paid to write those articles. Win, win.
DO: Put coins in expired parking meters
Had all the best intentions of doing this in one of the cool cities I visited this summer so I would have a better story. Ended up tossing some change in expired meters at Cummins Station where I get my hair cut in good ol’ Nashville, but at least I finally did it. A big middle finger to the cops at Cummins Station, if you will. Thanks for that completely illegitimate parking ticket you gave me last year that I paid anyway because I’m a peaceful, law abiding citizen.
DO: Take a rainy day off to curl up, read, and drink coffee
Unemployment makes this oh-so-easy. And with my new, flexible working schedule, I fully plan on doing this again. Maybe with the work computer at home so I can contribute to society while doing so.
DO: Plant a garden
I planted a garden this spring, but the jury’s still out on whether I will actually see anything grow. Like, you know, other than five-foot-tall leafy plants with no fruits. Whateva.
DO: Finish this list
I can’t really tell what I meant by “Finish this list,” if I meant finish everything on the list or if I meant finish making it. I’m interpreting that as “finish making this list,” because I did that, and I think it would be lame to have the last item completed on my list be “Finish this list.”
STOP: Drinking caffeine for one month
Ha ha ha, here’s a great story about irony. I decide to stop drinking caffeine for the month of April. I get laid off my job on April 2. I decide to go to Seattle at the end of April. Let’s all laugh at me again, okay? Okay. So I picked one of the days I was in Seattle to cheat because who goes to Seattle without drinking coffee, right? And I drank about six billion cups of coffee that day and then made up for it by going without caffeine on May 1.
STOP: Hitting snooze on my alarm
Another good story. I tried to do this for a long time. I tried to set the habit by doing it for 21 days. Nothing worked until I went through my bout of unemployment and suddenly started getting up at 7 solely on my body’s internal clock, and the need for a 7am blog post on Nashvillest. Now I don’t hit snooze. Bravo.
