My Big List of Goals for 2012

As I already began to mention it in my last post...let's establish some goals for the new year.

First, a review of my 2011 goals:

• Get a "real job"
  Success?  Though I'm not in my ideal career field, I was promoted from part-time hourly to a full-time, salaried position at work.
• Learn Spanish
  Obviously, this wouldn't be an overnight thing, but I bought the software, made the flashcards, bookmarked some educational websites...and never really did anything with them.  Fail.
• Finish reading War and Peace
  Fail.  I'm 136 pages into my brick-like copy.  I blame this mostly on the job situation—I transferred offices at the beginning of February, then the promotion, and busy, and not wanting to commit to it after work (I'm in the office by 5:30am and go to bed early)...  Plus my copy is truly the shape and size of a brick. Not very convenient or portable.
• Photo-A-Day
  Success, mostly.  I have the photos, but sometimes I'd get a week or two (or three) behind in uploading and organizing them by date.  But the daily images exist.

New goals for 2012:

• Really, actually finish reading War and Peace
  I do want to read it. I enjoyed Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. I think I just need to actually schedule time for myself and this book.
• Really, actually work on re-learning Spanish
  I did well in high school, and still remember a lot of grammar and verb conjugation rules...but I've forgotten most of the vocabulary. Seriously, I need to do this. I'm now a year behind where I should be now, had I actually been serious about this in the past year.
• Become a real adult.  Or at least act the part.
  Again, see this post.
• Continue my Photo-A-Day
  I really like having a visual reminder of each day. Sometimes it's an event, sometimes it's just food...but it's something tangible for every single day.
• Run a Half-Marathon
  Something big to mark my next birthday.  I still really hate running.
• Do more worthwhile and noteworthy things
  I want to do fun and exciting things.

Goal for 2012: Adult Things

Please allow me to introduce you to Adulting. (You're welcome.)

This shall be my goal for 2012.  I need to "adult" my life. Steps 1 and 2: assemble an "emergency box" for my car, and organize recipes somewhere that's not my laptop and is easier to use in the kitchen.  I also need to organize (majorly), upgrade, and otherwise classy-up my life.  Little steps, as the blog suggests. Personalized stationery. Actually writing thank you notes. Handling things like an adult.

Alexa, I'm dragging you into this too.

Another Frederick's of Hollywood party!

Tonight was another Frederick's of Hollywood flagship store party.  After seeing how busy it got last time, I decided to leave extra early and arrive as doors opened.

Excellent idea.  I got there right at 6:00 and that was such a great decision.  I dressed up more this time: short dress, black stockings, and heels. And it was cold outside.  I'm glad I only had to wait outside long enough to have my ID checked and name found on the guest list before I got inside.  No line, no real waiting.

They were doing manicures this time, so I went right upstairs to that station and waited behind just three other girls.  Within minutes, the line had grown to at least ten people behind me. (Ha!  I win!) I always do my nails red, so this time I went for an awesome taupe color...and already began to ruin it as I left the chair and grabbed my bag. Oh well.  I am not meant to get manicures—the last time I tried, I ruined that one too, even after waiting.  At least it already happened before shopping.  Now I didn't have to worry about them anymore.

Just like last time...discounts!  I got a cocktail, went right to the party dresses, and found two great ones...plus an excellent plaid Christmas corset.  I actually asked the dressing room girls to talk me into it.  I picked up a few more things and accidentally ended up spending half my rent.  Oh well.  Totally worth it. I love Frederick's, and that is why I'm a shareholder.

And again, like last time, I got a gift bag with all sorts of goodies.

Lucy Day at The Hollywood Museum

Today was Lucy Day at The Hollywood Museum.  They've had a large Lucy collection there for a few months already, but today was their big symposium including a panel of Lucille Ball's friends and colleagues. I got there as doors opened so I could spend enough time in the actual museum and see all the displays.

A sample of some of the collection

After a good amount of time in the exhibit, I went upstairs to where they panel would be held.  There, the first thing I saw, was Michael Stern's booth.  He's known as "Lucy's #1 fan" (given the title by Lucy herself).  He signed my copy of his book, and maaaybe I spent a lot of money on an autographed Stone Pillow limited-run posted. (Hey, this was my chance to get a guaranteed authentic Lucy autograph.)  There were several other tables with old magazines and collectibles too.

Bob Schiller, during autograph line

The main event was the discussion panel, and the meeting/autograph line following that.  A few people weren't very talkative (or were busy having conversations with each other, just going through the motions of "meeting"/signing for us...), but there were a few highlights.  Frank Gorey (Lucy's driver/household manager) loves my red hair.  Jimmy Garrett is a top-notch dude. (I hope he or his family Googles him and sees this.) Carole Cook is hilarious and a sassypants and now I want to be her when I grow up.  She said I can be.  Bernard Weitzman (Executive VP of Desilu Productions) was super informative during the panel, and came prepared with extra documents and photos to share—he showed me the first photo of him and Lucy together on his first day of the job.  And Bob Schiller (I Love Lucy writer) was adorable and reminded me of my grandpa, which I told him. "But was he wonderful?" (making sure it was a positive comparison!) Quiet, but so fantastic to have met him.

After going through the autograph line, I hung around to sneak a few more photos.  We couldn't photograph during the panel, so I got what I could after it.  The panelists began to clear out as the lined died down.  Carole Cook was the last one remaining—so I approached her again and asked if I could get a photo with her.

Super exciting day, and some of the inspiration I've needed lately.  I need to be more interesting like these fine people.

I filmed Mythbusters again!

Yeah, that's right, again.  In January 2010, I did a crazy 21-hour roundtrip drive to San Francisco to film an episode of Mythbusters at the workshop.  It was excellent...but really not a super smart idea to do it that quickly, essentially pulling an all-nighter-and-a-half.

This time, I planned ahead.  I got confirmation on a Tuesday for a Thursday (September 29) shoot day, and immediately booked a cheap motel room in Oakland for Wednesday night.  I drove up to SF from LA after work on Wednesday evening, and made it easily by 10:00pm. I got to sleep this time!

Driving up in the evening wasn't so bad

My classy, classy motel room matched my bags

On Thursday, I did a little exploring before meeting the crew on Treasure Island.  I drove over the Bay Bridge and found a television icon.

The Full House house!

View of SF and the Bay Bridge from Treasure Island

There were eight of us invited to film...and we did a lot of waiting.  They took us two at a time, apparently a men vs. women experiment.  Those of us left behind kept trying to figure out what we were going to have to do, based on some of our survey questions earlier. Or maybe it was mainly me who was trying to figure it out.  I was impatient.

There's been some press already on the episode, but I still can't talk about the details until the episode airs.  Boo.

Because we wrapped relatively early, and it was still pretty light outside, I did even more exploring.  I tried to find Lombard Street's craziness and the Golden Gate Bridge.  Yeah, should've researched an address or something earlier.  Found 'em eventually, though!

I DROVE DOWN LOMBARD STREET

I finally headed home after that. I got back really late, and probably could have left two or three hours sooner, but I'm so glad I did a little extra exploring this time.