My 100 Thing Challenge

I stumbled onto this website about the 100 Thing Challenge, and now I want to see how many things I can get rid of. I like all my stuff to fit into the back seat and trunk of my car because I
move a lot, so generally give stuff away a lot. To get started, I'm writing a list of all my personal possessions:

1. Teal cowboy boots
2. Snow boots
3. Old running shoes
4. Newer running shoes
5. Waterproof hiking boots
6. Steel toe hiking boots
7. Steel toe cheap boots
8. Silver high heels
9. Black leather high heels with ruffles
10. Temperamental laptop
11. Battered well traveled suitcase with deep cargo pockets
12. Sweater- black flower with stripped sleeves
13. Sweater- black with short sleeves
14. Sweater-gray with quarter sleeves
15. Sweater-green Canadian Army that makes me look frumpy
16. Vest-black fleece
17. Vest-red fleece
18. Vest-baby blue fleece
19. Vest-black sweater
20. Shirt-silk black dress shirt with white polka dots
21. Shirt-Red long sleeves Patagonia that makes me look good
22. Shirt-Brown long sleeves that makes me look frumpy
23. Shirt-Black with pretty ruffles
24. Shirt-long sleeved black cotton
25. Shirt-Blue with flowers and scoop neck
26. Shirt-scoop neck long sleeved T with a naked lady in a pilots hat on the back
27. Shirt-tank from Ukrainian Fest with the word "Listen" on the front in Ukrainian, the name of a band
28. Shirt-turquoise v neck
29. Shirt-cowgirl pearl snap with light brown checkers
30. Shirt-cowgirl pearl snap with black and white checkers and red roses
31. Dress-black clingy thing that makes me look great
32. Over shirt-Wool cowboy blue and brown checkered from Pendleton
33. Over shirt-puffy plaid and lumberjack like
34. T-shirt-Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge with Green Jay on it
35. T-shirt-Ethelbert Homecoming
36. Baby T-shirt-says "Buck Wild" and makes me look fat
37. Baby T-shirt with Buffalo and guns on the front
38. Exercise pants-black with blue trim and cuts off at ankles
39. Underware
40. Socks
41. Belt-light brown leather with heart belt buckle
42. Pants-green REI biology
43. Pajamas-Guinness
44. T-shirt with Blondie on the front that I wear to bed
45. Skirt-jean flared with horse stitched onto it
46. Jeans-Wrangler old style women's size 9
47. Jeans-Guess gray with crystals on the pockets size 30 (or 10)
48. Jeans-dressy dark
49. Jeans-Cruel Girl with a hole in the pocket
50. Jeans-New Wranglers dark navy
51. Swim Suit-brown with white polka dots
52. Swim Suit-turquoise with jeweled top
53. Swim Suit white top with turquoise butterfly
54. Swim Suit-lime green one piece that the German lady gave me at the cabin
55. Beanie-Turquoise hand knit by me multicolor one I wear everyday
56. Beanie-Turquoise hand knit by me that is worn
57. Beanie-multicolored from Nora wool hand knit by me
58. Gloves-acrylic work gloves that keep me warm in cold wetness
59. Gloves-black liner
60. Gloves-Marmot outer ski gloves
61. Coat-black down coat that goes to my knees that I bought in Germany a long time ago
62. Jacket-Tommy Hilfiger Navy light jacket that is faded and cut and worn
63. Necklace-stone
64. Clutch-turquoise leather
65. Bag-Makeup in red and gold stripes
66. Bag-makeup plastic blue
67. Eye Pencil-Cover Girl brow and eye in soft blonde 3 of them
68. Eyeliner-Almay intense i-color in brown topaz
69. Eyeliner Sharper
70. Eyeliner-Almay intense i-color in black
71. Eye primer from Mary Kay
72. Eyeliner-Almay intense i-color in royal slate
73. Eyeliner-Pestige waterproof in bronze
74. Mascara-Maybelline Colossal Volume
75. Mascara-Telescopic explosion
76. Makeup Brush-Sephora professional brush
77. Makeup Brush-Bare Essentials max coverage concealer
78. Makeup Brush-Bare Essentials kubuki full coverage
79. Concealer-Bare Minerals matte mineral powder in golden fair
80. Concealer-Maybelline mineral power that makes me look orange
81. Eye Shadow-Mary Kay signature eye shadow kit with 3 shades
82. Boot cream in medium brown
83. Brush-travel in hot pink
84. Chapstick-classic
85. Chapstick-Blistex medicated
86. Chapstick-free Fat Tire promotion one that smells like oranges
87. Chapstick-classic
88. Chapstick-Burt's Bees colored in plum that looks horrible on me
89. Chapstick-lip petrolium overnight renewal therapy
90. Ear Thingy
91. Expired medication
92. Ped Egg
93. Shower back scrubber in blue plastic
94. Lotion-empty bottle
95. Medicine-Equate Analgesic and muscle relaxant with Methocarbanol and Ibuprofen
96. Souvenir from London
97. Onsen pure A-peel skin renewal facial peel that a sexy Italian sold me at the mall
98. Burt's Bees herbal blemish stick
99. 13 bottles of meaningful beauty product
100. Empty pill bottle
101. Castor oil bottle
102. Medicine- 3 full prescription pill bottles
103. Medicine-Aleve
104. Medicine-Advil
105. Contact Solution and case
106. Hair Brush
107. Nail kit
108. Nail Polish-Sephora pink called "Vernis"
109. Nail Polish-cheap pink stuff from Ice that chips off too soon
110. Lotion-Vaseline deep moisture creamy formula with Vit E
111. Blackberry phone
112. Toothpaste-Aqua Fresh empty
113. Toothpaste-Colgate enamel strength Total
114. Toothpaste-Crest
115. Toothbrush
116. Toothbrush
117. Nail polish remover
118. First Aid kit with scissors, tweezers, bandaids, and wipes
119. shaving gel
120. razor samd extra razors
121. Shampoo-Herbal Essence
122. Conditioner-Herbal Essence
123. Shampoo-Treseme
124. Conditioner-Treseme
125. Green pottery jar that I made myself with hair accessories
126. Butterfly tote bag
127. Package of sewing needles
128. Knitting needles-Clover size 7
129. Knitting needles-Clover size 10 circular
130. Knitting needles-size 7 circular
131. Knitting needles-5 Crystal Palace bamboo size 3 double point
132. Knitting needles-Crystal Palace size 11
133. Knitting needles-pink plastic size 3
134. Half finished scarf in navy
135. Yarn-Navy acrylic size 12
136. Yarn-Gray, blue, and white for socks size 3
137. Yarn-3 left over skeins of turquoise lambswool
140. Yarn-fluffy light blue acrylic
141. Yarn-fluffy forest green acrylic size 6
142. Yarn-left over army green wool size 11
143. Yarn-7left over balls in assorted colors
144. 8 washcloths
145. 3 old collected bottles filled with philodendron clippings
146. Book-Swimming with Dolphins
147. Book-The Lost Symbol
148. Book-The Third Option
149. Book-The Weekend Novelist
150. Book-CD Elizabeth Peter's The 7th Sinner
151. Oil Paint-cadmium yellow
152. Oil Paint-every black
153. Oil Paint-cadmium red light
154. Oil Paint-zinc white
155. Oil Paint-permanent sap green
156. Oil Paint-burnt sienna
157. Oil Paint-raw umber
158. Oil Paint-manganese blue hue
159. Oil Paint-phthalo green (yellow shade)
160. Oil Paint-tamp black
161. Oil Paint-cobalt blue hue
162. Oil Paint-cerulean blue
163. Oil Paint-dioxazine purple
164. Purified linseed oil
165. Water mixable linseed oil
166. 15 ruined expensive paint brushes from a lack of turpentine
167. 5 cheap paint brushes
168. 3 paint scrapers
169. Paint palette
170. Half finished barn cat oil painting
171. blank canvass
172. 24 Crayola IQ pencils
173. Camera
174. Personal photos and multiple CDs
175. Notebook with a novel outline and scene dissections
176. Notebook with a novel outline and research
177. Diary
178. CD-Bird songs of the Rocky Mountains
179. Software-Thayer's birding software
180. empty Lady Gaga CD case
181. Software-Kodak easy share with book
182. Pile of old job postings
183. Pile of paperwork
184. Checkbook
185. Pile of cords
186. Green velvet ottoman
187. Blow up queen size air bed
188. Heater
189. Tent
190. Themarest
191. sleeping bag
192. Blanket from Germany
193. Down comforter
194. Two pillows
195. 3 sheets
196. Turtle artwork
197. Snow shoes - 2 pair

more to come still...I haven't even looked at my stuff in the other house yet, or the stuff in my parents basement.

Ambition and Time Travel

I didn't have anything to do. I just lost my job a few weeks ago and had finished the last Stieg Larson book in his trilogy and had absolutely nothing to do. So I started to get depressed. I went to the library and asked the guy with the long gray ponytail (known to me as the computer Nazi who goes around making sure everyone signed in)what authors he recommended. I said my favorite authors at the moment were Larson and Michael Crichton and they were both dead and would never have any more books. Ponytail man said he only read science fiction so took me to that area to choose me a book. He asked me what kind of science fiction I liked, my only answer to that is time travel and multi-verse theory.

He thumbed through every book with what looked like love in his eyes, caressing the books, his only friends. It looked like he had indeed read all of them. Some he said were boring, some not well written, then he pulled out one with a smile on his face. "Time travel and a good author!" He said with triumph. The book written by Orson Scott Card and called Pastwatch. He had read it and said it was a good one, he handed it to me and asked if I liked Star Trek books at all. I told him that my Dad watched too much Star Trek when I was a kid, so no. He went through the new books in front and handed me two more about time travel but warned me that he hadn't read them yet so they could be bad.

I really got into the Pastwatch book where people of the future can actually study the daily lives of people in the past, watching their every move, listening to their every word. One woman decided that slavery never should of happened and decided to go back in time to change it, stopping Christopher Columbus from discovering America. This was suppose to change the future to not have a polluted dead earth that could only support a few million people. Her daughter went instead to not stop him, but educate him and Europe never took over America but became trade partners with it and the educated civilization that was there.

It made me think of critical points in my life that have thrown it into new and opposite directions. It also made me think of how motivated Christopher Columbus was to achieve his goal of a west passage to the Indies. I think the book sparked my own ambition in what I want to achieve in my life, something that is almost as impossible as convincing a queen and king to send me into the unknown with their money and ships. If he can do it though, then so can I. He wasn't even a gentleman, he had to overcome his lower class and the long period of time itself to grow to the position that he made for himself in history.

2010 in My Own Photos

January
Lunch with Mom and my sister at Red Lobster. I took my nephew to look at the lobster tank.


February
Living in Wyoming, I had a freezer stocked full of wild game meat that I enjoyed cooking up everyday.


March
I started to run several miles a day with my roommate's dog Ranger on red dirt roads through the Wyoming countryside.


April
A blizzard in Wyoming left snow drifts that came up to my chest.


May
During bird training in South Dakota for my new job I wandered off and found a pair of mountain blue birds on an old cabin.



June
Camping every night across the state of Wyoming looking for birds, I encountered a lot of lightning storms in my tent. This night was my first, I thought I was going to die.


July
A rodeo in Sheridan, WY shut down a business that I needed, making me wait for hours.


August
I was busy helping with the cattle on a ranch in Manitoba, Canada.


September
I protected three barn kittens from Tom cats and cattle hooves, but they still all died by wintertime after I left.


October
Wheat still not harvested late in the season in front of a home long neglected in Canada.


November
Not the photo I wanted to put here and I might change it. I moved back to Wyoming from Canada to research sage-grouse and lived in this little cabin entertained by the length of my icicles.


December
Ordering an elk burger in Jackson Hole, WY at the famous Cowboy Bar.