#8 Find the perfect boots

Task completed: March 2007

This is probably the best item to check off ever! I am by nature a shoe-lover. I am also a purse-lover. I love any and all matching purse and shoe combos, I also love weirdly coloured shoes and purses. But mostly my love has brought me nothing but emptiness because I have been pining over a sacred pair of boots since 2003.

When I first moved to Fredericton I walked by a shoe store on Queen Street quite regularly for work. In the window were the most gorgeous pair of camel, mid-calf boots I have ever seen. The reason for my love is simple. These boots had a slight, one-inch heel, so they looked more like motorcycle boots than out-on-the-town boots. I loved these boots. But alas they cost $260 and I refused to shell out that much cash for a pair of shoes I would wear only two seasons each year.

Instead, I chose to visit these boots regularly, much to the dismay of the clerk who was constantly pulling them of the back room and letting me try them on. One day I got bold and talked the man down to paying $220 taxes in. But still I could not do it. I continued to visit the boots until I moved out of Fredericton in October 2005.

I thought that was it. I had forgotten about the boots, knowing they would be out of season, even though they're Hush Puppies, and classic-looking (and would remain stylish forever!).

Until... I ran into the same pair of boots in March 2007 at a clearing out sale in an out of the way family shoe store. And lo and behold... THEY WERE ON SALE! I'm not talking half price either. The boots of my dreams were on sale for the low price of $99 since the line was finally being discontinued. Imagine my glee. Imagine my friends laughing as I walked around the store in these boots proudly professing my long-standing love for the boots that got away.

To parse Emily Carr's famouse quote:

These are my boots. What I want to express is in them. I love them. Amen!

#20 Host a brunch

Task completed: Sunday Jan. 21, 2007.

This one was planned before the Life List was concocted. I was thinking of a good way to make better friends with the girls in my professional/personal community, bust the Winter blahs and eat delicious quiche. So a brunch seemed like a good idea.

In total, five girls attended, plus myself. We dined on two kinds of quiches (one vegetarian), bacon, hash browns, green salad, fruit salad, lentil salad, bagels and cream cheese, bagels and lox, carrot and pineapple muffins (care of Christina R!), and cereal and milk.

It was so good! We relaxed, talked about books and life lists, work and our nutty families. I think I'm going to make this a semi-annual thing (that means twice a year right?). And the best part of it was that The Boyfriend did all the dishes and clean-up afterward. How spectacular!

Yay me!

#65 Make soup for someone sick

Task completed: Jan. 17, 2007

So, my boyfriend was pretty sick last week. He actually went away to Ottawa and picked up a nasty bout of the flu. It just goes to show you that getting a flu shot (as I did, but he did not) really pays. He was sniffly and snotty, and achy and cylcing between the chills and overheating. I was fine as can be.

Anyway, on Monday, when he got back home I really didn't think he was sick, I just thought he was feeling the effects from his weekend away partying. Plus, I have little sympathy for men when they're sick since they, as a species, tend to be sucky. But by Tuesday, he really was feeling terrible and ended up going home from work early in the afternoon.

By Wednesday, with his melodrama up a whole percentage point, I knew he was truly sick and I had to do something.

ADMISSION: Soup is my favourite food and I love to have it for supper. Not true of The Boyfriend.

So, here was essentially the perfect excuse to make us both feel better. I cooked up chicken noodle soup, extra noodles, with celery and carrots and onions. It was quite delicious, even though I ate more than he did. I was also pretty excited to be knocking another task off the list.

My friend K says this list gives my life a bit of purpose since you're always trying to accomplish something, and celebrating when you finally do. I also love lists, so it's a perfect fit.

Yay me!

# 4- Find my journals

Task completed: Jan. 14, 2007

Yay! I accomplished the first task on what seems a never-ending list. This one has been bugging me for some time. I couldn't track down what I knew were five items, all likely stashed in the same place. It's really just a matter of me not unpacking all my boxes every time I move, and having moved three times in the last 18 months. The boxes thing was so pressing, in fact, it has made it onto the list, somewhere down at the bottom.

Anyway, I went into the basement, and found a stash of boxes, most labelled "Nat Geos" tucked in a corner. Opening them all I found my painting/art supplies, the junk I used to keep in my night table, a bunch of books I thought I had lost, the stuff I used to keep in my desk in Fredericton, and 'lo and behold... my stash of journals! It was awesome! Unfortunately, I didn't put anything I found in the other boxes away. Rather I repacked them and hoped that I would move again before I needed anything in them.

I restarted my journals too, after rereading all my previous entries. It was great. And frankly the sense of accomplishment - both in finding them and checking something off this list - was great.

Yay me!