Jumping Out of a Perfectly Good Plane

Summer blazes on. Somehow taijutsu has helped me to acclimate to the brutal heat and humidity, but it’s still enough to have me looking forward to Autumn. I had some respite a few weeks back when I spent a week with my Mom in the Sierras. Gorgeous lakes and hiking; can’t wait to return.

Meanwhile, The Short List is growing, but I’m also making moves to make progress, and it feels good. I’m going skydiving in a couple of weeks! This has been on the list for as long as I can remember; I’m pretty excited about the opportunity to check off such a long-standing item (and, of course, to get myself to the door of that plane and subsequently experience the free-fall).

Also booked, an evening sewing class that I’ll be taking with one of my coworkers. It’s time to work on the tailoring item. After I paid for that class, of course, someone else pointed out a 10 week sewing course at Parsons. I can take it at no cost, but I’m dithering. I know I should, but it will mean 10 weeks without a day to sleep in. Also, I’m planning to return to Japan in November, so I’ll miss 2 of the classes. That doesn’t seem like a huge deal if I’m not taking the course for credit, but I’m imagining myself stressing out about missing that instruction and not having the end of term pressure to help me finish projects. Hopefully the The Short List will provide sufficient motivation and I’ll be able to make some significant progress on that item.

Status update:

The Short List

• Graduate from college
• Live alone
• Train in a martial art [ongoing, in progress]
• Learn to tailor my own clothing [class booked]
• Jump out of a plane (skydiving) [jump booked]
• Become fluent in at least one other language
• Learn to sing (voice lessons)
• Live overseas for at least a year
• Go to culinary school
• Master the smoky eye (this is a rather comical one, but it has its place)
• Learn to sharpen my own knives (this is about overcoming the sound that is like fingernails on a chalkboard, the chalkboard being my spine)
• Design a line of handbags
• Learn to like runny eggs
• Research my paternal genealogy

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