Yeah, that’s right! Two list items in one weekend!

Saturday night me, Dana, Wesley and Rob headed to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. There are touristy things to do in New York City that are way overrated, but going to the top of the Empire State Building is not one of them, especially at night when all the lights on the ground are twinkling and you can see three states worth of view. The observation deck is open until 2 am and the last elevator up is at 1:15. We walked through the lobby doors at 1 and sailed through the empty maze of velvet ropes that usually are jammed with tourists. From lobby to observation deck was about 5 minutes.

At the top, I got good and kissed.

My friend Emily asked on Facebook, “Is the one you’ve been talking about for the last 10 years???” It is one and the same; actually I think it’s been longer.

The artist worked off of an inspiration picture I found, plus some old nature drawings, and came up with just the right design for me after a few revisions.

I think it is very beautiful.

I believe you can click to see the photo larger and see my foot in all of it’s wrinkly glory.

It’s not what I had in mind when I set this goal, and it wasn’t something I was aiming for… it just sort of happened (but don’t think that I’m not busting with pride just the same. I’m stoked!) Anna Jane Grossman, author of the book Obsolete, was a recent Hey Brooklyn interviewee, and I take portraits of all my guests. When Gizmodo needed a photo for her for an article she wrote, they asked to use mine, and of course I said yes.

It was front page for a while, with her cute face – my handiwork – front and center. And it was huge!

Half the comments were about how hot she is, and one compared her to a pug! Anna Jane, you are way hotter than a smooshed-face dog.

So, mission unwittingly accomplished. I don’t think this is what I had in mind, but if my photograph was on the front page of one of the biggest blogs in the world, I’m calling it done and done.  Rock!

p.s. you can go here to read the article.

I’m crossing number 43, “Have my own weekly or daily radio show”, off my life list as done. It hasn’t made me any money, but it COULD, and this past week was the first time I could see that it could, but more to the point, who wants to define “success” solely as “making money”? It makes me happy, which is infinitely more valuable, and I’ve stuck with it for six months, and built it from the ground up, from nothing, into something that is listened to and enjoyed by hundreds of people each week. It is the most successful project I’ve ever worked on, and I am very, very proud.

Cheers to me!

“You probably could have written this song! Its one of Jack’s favorites and i think about you whenever I hear it.”

I love this! My friend Emily – mom to one year old Jack – sent me this video with that note, which made me realize I haven’t written anything in ages. It’s sad; I used to have a box full of potential little kid songs that was added to weekly, although none of them got far.

One of the best things ever is when old friends remind you of parts of yourself you haven’t thought about in a while. I’ve spent the past few days writing a ton of extra lines to this song, although none of them are appropriate! Way fun, though.

I’m going to add “Sell a kid’s song” to my life list.

Thanks, Emily!

Enjoy having this stuck in your head ALL WEEKEND!

When I was 15 I wrote a small list of things to do before I die. When I was 23 I found it and added to it. Two years ago I got my first (and current) laptop and typed the list into it, saved it, and forgot about it until a few weeks ago. That makes this list is about 12 years in the making and officially the longest running creative project I have ever endeavored.

I’ve been changing it these few weeks and still might in the future, but for now, this is it. Some of the things were outdated, so they got cut: I don’t need to be on Oprah anymore, and even though it would feel awesome, I don’t need to climb Mt. Everest, either. After adding and subtracting, I scrambled everything so they wouldn’t be all childish dreams on top and serious, grown-up lady dreams on the bottom. (Hehehe!)

Surprisingly, a lot of them revolve around travel and athletic endeavors, two things that I don’t normally associate with myself.

Have you done one? Has it inspired you? Think you’ll finish it before you kick it? What’s on yours?

Save a life.
Buy my grandparent’s house.
Hike through a rain forest.
Learn to take great photos.
Write a book and have it published.
Learn to throw pottery.
Visit Ireland and drink a pint in a pub while singing an Irish bar song.
Get good and kissed on top of the Empire State Building.
Walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Do really expensive tequila shots on a beach in Mexico at sunset.
Visit Argentina and eat dulce de leche.
Visit Australia to see the bush and the great barrier reef, pet a koala.
Make a blueberry pie from blueberries I picked.
Go “real camping”, with no showers, and bathe in a river.
Learn to drive stick.
Own an old Volkswagen bug. (close enough!)
Make a bed-size quilt out of re-purposed fabric.
Run a marathon.
Float on a row boat in the middle of a lake and star-gaze.
Road trip from New York City to San Diego.
Spend Christmas on the beach in a bikini.
Ride in a hot air balloon.
Fall madly, hopelessly in love.
Witness the Northern Lights.
Catch fireflies in a jar on a summer night.
Play in the ocean until I am completely exhausted.
Adopt a dog from a shelter.
Visit a redwood forest and hug a sequoia.
Yell a secret into Niagara Falls.
Get a tattoo.
Learn to play a song on guitar.
Sponsor a child in a third world country.
Visit Nelson, British Columbia.
See the bioluminescent waters in Puerto Rico.
Backpack through Europe.
Visit Canada.
Gallop a horse.
Have a vegetable garden.
Speak fluent Spanish.
Swim with dolphins.
Have a picture of me taken while standing underneath the Eiffel Tower.
Live in New York City.
Be a really snappy dresser.
Snuggle a manatee.
Go whale watching.
Have my own weekly or daily radio show. (I’ll cross this off if my podcast is even a tiny bit successful.)
Help build a house in a third world country.
Fly a plane.
Learn to make a really great cake from scratch (with homemade frosting).
Hike in Hawaii and jump of a cliff while yelling “Geronimo!”
Eat a bowl of fish stew in an outdoor restaurant on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean.
Smoke a joint in an Amsterdam coffee house.
Drive through the Tuscan countryside in a tiny two-seater car.
Own a 100% sustainable, zero-impact beach house, with room for a dozen friends.
Be independently wealthy.
Ice skate on a frozen-over lake.
Dance in Brazil.
Shake Barack Obama’s hand.
Crochet an Afghan.
Do something I absolutely LOVE for a living.