Happy August, everyone!

In honor of the start of this new month, I’ve decided to try something that’s been on my mind for a while now – creating a 101 Things in 1001 Days list inspired by Mackenzie Horan of Design Darling! She started her first list in 2011 and just began her fourth one on July 28. Her lists are a combination of must-dos, personal and professional goals, and fun aspirations she sets for herself for the next 2.75 years.

During this time of social distancing, social and political turmoil, and overall instability, I’ve definitely found my mental health in decline. I’m someone who loves planning and having events and trips to look forward to, but instead we’re all stuck inside without any idea of when some kind of normal or balanced life will resume. I’ve been feeling uninspired, unsocial, and unfocused the past few months, and I know I’m not alone. It’s been hard to set goals for the future, let alone stick to them. Seeing how Mackenzie’s list has given her future more structure and positivity has really inspired me to focus on all the things I want to do in the future, especially once this virus is hopefully soon behind us.

I also appreciate that 101 in 1001 is not meant to be a high-pressure, “you must complete all the tasks” list, but more of a way to grow as an individual. I’ve included professional and educational goals, personal goals, goals for this blog, health goals, creative goals, and a whole section devoted to purely fun activities. If I can get to all 101 that would be incredible, but I’m not going to feel bad if I only make it to 10. This list will help give me things to look forward to and includes challenges that encourage me to grow, and I’m very grateful to Mackenzie for sharing her journey through her previous lists.

Without further ado, here is my 101 in 1001 Days List!

Start Date: August 1, 2020

End Date: April 29, 2023

Personal Development (6/16)

1. Read at least 80 books (92/80) – Talking to my Daughter About the Economy; Mexican Gothic; When Life Gives You Lululemons; Beach Read; Big Summer; ATLA: The Promise; Sex and Vanity; How to Be an Antiracist; Love After Love, The Killings at Kingfisher Hill, Homebody, What Kind of Woman, Fangs, Murder in Bel-Air, The Hunting Party, The Governesses, Slade House, Take a Hint, Dani Brown, Too Much and Never Enough, Untamed, March: Books One, Two, and Three, Love Your Life, Karamo, White Fragility, Bombshells: United, vol. 1; The Dinner List; Honey Girl; How to be your own Best Friend; Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead; Humanity; The Bad Muslim Discount; Witches, Midwives, and Nurses; Act Your Age, Eve Brown; The Vietri project; The Kindred Spirits Supper Club; The Lost Apothecary; The Mystery of Mrs. Christie; The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions; Cemetery Boys; Bestiary: Poems; One Last Stop; On Tyranny; The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires; The Grande Odalisque; The Lending Library; People We Meet on Vacation; That Summer; How to Do Nothing; Last Summer at the Golden Hotel; A Woman of Intelligence; The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo; Scorpio: Harness the Power of Zodiac; Art Life; The Boy in the Red Dress; This Time Next Year; Lore Olympus 1; My Year of Rest and Relaxation; Millionaires for the Month; I Love You; The Love Con; Caste: The Origins of our Discontents; Miss Benson’s Beetle; Olive; The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post; Stuff Every Vegetarian Should Know; Woman, Eating; The Comfort Book; Book Lovers; The Midnight Library; Gender Queer; Payback’s a Witch; I Kissed Shara Wheeler; The Drowning Summer; Acts of Service; Cassandra Speaks; Mine!; How to Be a Woman Online; Malibu Rising; The Sign for Home; Heartstopper vol 1; Heartstopper vol 2; The Summer Place; A Man and His Cat vol 1; Love & Saffron; Hook, Line, and Sinker; Nora Goes Off Script; The Ex Talk; Hungry; Summer Darlings; My Killer Vacation;
2. Put $150 into my savings each month for six months
3. Vote in the 2020 elections – November 2020
4. Vote in the 2022 elections – August 2022
5. Try at least 10 new-to-me DC restaurants (10/10) – Emilie’s, Liberte Brassiere, Supra, Residents, dLena, Agora, Punjab Grille, Gatsby’s, Bistrot Lepic & Wine Bar, and Firefly
6. Have a no-spend month
7. Try out five new recipes from a cookbook (0/5)
8. Learn to make a signature cocktail
9. Watch at least five documentaries about topics I’m unfamiliar with (5/5) – Mucho Mucho Amor, Murder Among Mormons docuseries, Cecil Hotel docuseries, Operation Varsity Blues, and Audrey
10. Learn how to make pierogis on my own from my family’s recipe
11. Volunteer at least 10 hours for a cause I believe in
12. Write a letter to an author whose work I admire
13. Unplug completely for 24 hours – end of December 2022
14. Wake up at 7am every day for a week
15. Learn how to change a tire
16. Complete at least 50 of these 101 in 1001 goals

Professional and Academic Development (4/5)

1. Study for and take GREs – n/a (thankfully!)
2. Research top grad school choices and apply
3. Update my Resume – March 2022
4. Update my Linkedin – April 2021
5. Get a side job dog walking or babysitting

The Blog (7/15)

1. Launch my blog redesign
2. Design a new about me page – March 2021
3. Update my DC travel guide
4. Attend at least 5 blogger meetups (6/5) – Front Royal, VA – October 2020; Picnics&Peonies – February 2021; Float DC – May 2021; Lost Barrel Brewery – May 2021; Virginia United Polo – July 2021; 30A – September 2021
5. Host an Instagram Q&A
6. Consistently post at least 4 times a month to the blog for four months straight
7. Create a media kit – April 2022
8. Update my O&O Facebook page
9. Create a Pinterest for my blog – September 2020
10. Do a giveaway on my blog – Hikyoga Giveaway October 2022
11. Participate in a blogging challenge (Blogtober/Blogmas)
12. Partner with a brand I love for the blog – Margaux NY and Moroccan Magic (August 2020); South Block and Tori Radday (May 2021); Hydrate (July 2021); Panera (August?); Sarah Flint November 2021
13. Create a custom logo for the blog
14. Write at least five “how to” posts (0/5)
15. Reach 3,000 followers on Instagram – March 11, 2023

Health (3/8)

1. Not eat out or get takeout for a whole month
2. Do 30 pushups continuously
3. Take vitamins every day for at least one month – February 2023
4. Drink 8 glasses of water each day for a week – February 2023
5. Try a 2-day juice cleanse
6. Find a therapist or group therapy session in DC – joined group therapy February 2023
7. Try one-out-of-my-comfort-zone exercise class
8. Go vegan for 2 weeks

Friends and Family (2/11)

1. Mail care packages and send flowers to my mom and dad just because
2. Go apple picking – October 2020
3. Do a Virginia winery tour – October 2020/February 2021
4. Go to a sunflower field
5. Go leaf peeping in New England
6. Spend a weekend at a Getaway House
7. Spend a day golfing with my dad
8. Treat dad to a Yankee game (virus dependent)
9. Do a spa day with my mom
10. Treat mom to a Broadway show or musical (virus dependent)
11. Go on a cousins girl’s trip

Home (1/6)

1. Buy a bar cart and a clothes rack
2. Organize my bookshelf by color
3. Keep my bedroom clutter-free for three months
4. Get two herb plants and keep them alive//Begin an herb garden
5. Scrutinize my closet/beauty/wellness products and donate, organize/store, sell, or toss all the things I never wear or use
6. Take all clothing that requires tailoring to a professional tailor – including vintage pieces

Travel (7/14)

1. Finally get Global Entry and TSA pre-check – Clear in March 2023
2. Visit at least 6 new states
3. Travel to at least 3 new countries (1/3) – Israel in September 2022
4. Take a solo trip – Nantucket 2021
5. Plan a vacation with high school friends – Emma’s Bachlorette in Palm Beach, March 2022
6. Do a girls-only road trip
7. Visit Disney World for the 50th anniversary in 2021 – September 2021
8. Return to Nantucket at least twice (1/2) – September 2021
9. Go on one tropical vacation
10. Return to Newport, RI and visit the mansions
11. Go on Birthright – September 2022
12. Renew my passport in 2022 – Renewed by March 2022
13. Visit two more national parks
14. Visit a new continent – Asia (Israel – September 2022)

Art and Creativity (1/4)

1. Visit at least five new museums (5/5) – Dia:Beacon – March 2021; Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building – December 2021; Museum of the Bible – April 2022; Yav Hashem – September 2022; Steamboat Art Museum – March 2023
2. Take three art classes
3. Draft a comic, graphic novel, or book
4. Learn calligraphy/lettering

Just for Fun (8/22)

1. Go to at least three concerts (3/3) – Sir Chloe – March 2022; Jack Harlow – October 2022; Jake Blount – October 2022
2. Go to at least three after-hours museum events (3/3) – National Gallery of Art Trick or Treat – October 2022; Phillips Collection Italian Impressionism Opening – November 2022; Library of Congress Jake Blount Concert – February 2023
3. Leave a 100% tip for great service – Lemon Press on Nantucket on September 6, 2021
4. Pay for the person behind me at a coffee shop
5. Do DC restaurant week 2021 and 2022 – January RW 2021/August RW 2021 – January 2022
6. Do one form of the splits
7. Learn to style my hair (learn how to French braid)
8. Get better at doing my own makeup – continuous improvement, but better at cat eye, brows, and eyeshadow
9. Go on five romantic dates with strangers
10. Watch 10 classic movies I’ve never seen before (10/10) – The Snake Pit on 8/3/2020, My Fair Lady on 1/21/2021, Christmas in Connecticut on 12/22/2020, The Bishop’s Wife on 12/26/2020, The Lady Vanishes on 1/1/2021, Kill Bill 2 on 5/20/2021, Yankee Doodle Dandy on 7/4/2021, Space Jam (1 and 2) on 7/17/2021, In The Heat of the Night on 1/7/2022, Moulin Rouge on 1/29/2022
11. Have one professional photo shoot – 2 on Nantucket 2021 with Georgie and Emily; 2 each in DC/VA in 2021 and 2022 with Kathleen Marie Photography and Roberta and Igda
12. Take a cooking class
13. Take a wine tasting class – firm’s virtual holiday party December 2020
14. Host a tea party
15. Host a dinner party
16. Go horseback riding again
17. See Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway (virus dependent)
18. Have a Marvel Marathon in chronological order
19. Get a tattoo
20. Go to a murder mystery dinner party
21. Pickle my own food
22. Submit my DNA test

I hope this list inspires you to get excited about the future and I am very excited to take you along with me on this 2.75 year long journey!

XOXO

Parisa