Category Archives: Mighty List

Mighty List

The return of the great big list o’ dreams

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Back when 2018 seemed like a lot of years away, I wrote down a rather short Mighty List. The general idea — which sprang forth from the mind of Maggie and has for her turned into a mammoth and awe-inspiring thing — is that you should dream big (and little) and write down those dreams, and that that action will be a step in getting you closer to achieving your dreams and goals.

So, did my list help me achieve my goals? Well. I did make my own cream soda, and it was delicious. So delicious, in fact, that I’m pretty sure it interfered with the “lose 30 pounds” goal. I think I’ve left some of those original goals behind, too. I no longer have much interest in building a dollhouse, for example, and I don’t really have the desire to make a wedding cake. I tried to make a quilt a few years ago, but it was so maddeningly frustrating that I threw that goal out altogether. Other things remain on my list. I came awfully close to getting to see Wilco at the Ryman this year, but my plans were foiled by the show selling out so quickly. (I was in the online waiting room for 20 minutes before they went on sale! And I still didn’t get tickets! I remain somewhat bitter about that!) I’ve been to Washington DC since 2008, yet I forgot to reserve my spot for a White House tour in time.

The point is that it looks like I’ve made very little progress on my list, and to be quite honest I haven’t been pursuing it, really. What with Camp Mighty on the horizon, I keep seeing other people chipping away at their lists and doing marvelous things and writing wonderful new lists, and after reading Leslie’s Life List at LightsandLetters.com, I finally decided to update mine. Her list is divided into categories, and I liked the idea so much that I decided to borrow it (along with a few of her goals. and other people’s goals, also.).

And thus was born Nichole’s Mighty List v2.0. (It’s getting pretty long, so I gave it it’s own page.) Have you made a “life list” or anything like one? And if you’d like to help me accomplish any of my goals, please let me know!

Mighty List

I am preparing to party like it’s 1975

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My hometown library was just across the street from the high school, and it was where my friends and I hung out after school before we could drive ourselves off to places better suited for making trouble. The library was marvelous, and we were living in an Arcade Fire song. There were a few record players — complete with gargantuan headphones — in the center of the main room, to the left of the circulation desk. That’s where Rockford spent most of his time. Just beyond the turntables was the “young adult” section. If I remember correctly, it was a pair of blue armchairs next to a few rotating racks of paperbacks.

(The town where we grew up moved the library a few years ago, and I feel so sorry for the carless young nerds today who don’t know the joy of walking across the road to hang out at the library. Poor little things.)

Anyway, one day a number of us youthful nerdlings were hanging out at the library. Rockford was most likely listening to albums, a few people were probably sitting in those chairs back by the paperbacks, and I’m sure someone was perusing the latest copy of “Rolling Stone” over in the periodicals section. But it was yours truly who found gold that day. Solid gold.

Friends, our library had a book all about how to do The Hustle.

(I hope you’re whistling to yourself now. I know I am.)

The nerd-types gathered around, and we laughed and laughed, and much fun was made of those earnest purveyors of disco. And then I checked the book out, took it home, and tried to learn to do The Hustle. Did you know that you cannot learn to dance from a book? Well, maybe you can. I, however, cannot learn to dance from a book.

That was the only run-in I’ve had with trying to learn how to dance. Many years later, I put “Learn to dance” on my Mighty List, and then I ignored it for a good long while. And then! On Monday night, I went to a ballroom dancing class with a friend. And we did The Hustle. I think. The instructor called it the nightclub merengue, but then he let it slip that it was also known as The Hustle if one danced to a disco beat. Which I do.

My first dance partner looked a lot like this guy. It doesn’t get more awesome than doing The Hustle with that guy. (Unless you’re doing The Hustle with Rockford. I’m guessing that would be more awesome. Everything’s more awesome with Rockford. I’m trying to convince him to sign up.)

Bandwagons, Mighty List

I almost made a blister on my thumb

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My Mighty List has been lurking over there on the sidebar for more than a year now. Until this weekend, I’d only managed to cross off one item. And that was “make cream soda.” Which required just north of zero effort, and I still didn’t do it until Rockford said, “Let’s do this!”

Anyway, the list had been sitting over there for a long time, and nothing had been getting crossed off, and I finally realized that no one was going to do this stuff for me. Jimmy Carter wasn’t going to call me, that short story wasn’t going to write itself, and to be perfectly honest? I’ve gained 10 pounds rather than losing 30 over the last year. Yikes. If I wanted to get any of this list stuff done, I decided, I’d need to take some initiative.

Habitat buildSo a month or so ago, I signed up to work on a Habitat house. On Saturday, 10 other women and I framed walls and put them in place. We finished two sides of a house, and it was awesome. This particular house is our area’s Women Build project for this year. As the name suggests, it’s built entirely by women. I’m so glad that I finally did it, even though I am still crazy sore. I’ll definitely do it again.

I’ve also been taking peeks at other people’s Mighty Lists, and they’re inspired me to take on a couple more items. Amber at The Amber Show suggested that someone add “Bust out of a paper wall” to their list, and I thought, “That looks like fun!” So I’m adding it. Now I just have to figure out how to make a giant paper wall.

The other one, I’ve been considering since I first saw it on Karen’s list. She’s committed to taking 1,000 portraits, which I think is a really lovely idea. But it also sounds like something that would, at some point, require talking to strangers. Which, well, I don’t love so much. But I’m pretty sure that the one of the major points of the Mighty List is Stretching Your Limits and Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone and all that. So I’m going to go for it. I started on Saturday evening, by taking pictures of some dogs. Which in my project totally counts.