#19 – Randomly try an unfamiliar restaurant… DONE!
Every time I say this goal out loud it makes me giggle. After four years, it’s started to sound kindof silly. “Random” AND “unfamiliar” you say??? You can tell I was trying hard to emphasize the unplanned part. Heavy on the spontaneous, I may as well have written. 
Goal #19 was a lot like Goal #25… Break out of the rut. Try something new and don’t analyze it to death first. (Why? You can read more about my perpetual planning in this post. The principles apply here, too.)
Last night Aaron and I wanted to try something new for dinner and decided to kill Goal #19 with the same stone. We drove to an area of town that neither of us is very familiar with to find out what kind of eateries it possessed. As we drove around, though, I ended up doing a lot of this: “Been there, looks too expensive, boring, too expensive, chain…” and so on. I’d been hoping to find some hidden jewel of a place that’d be really cool to write about, let alone eat at. In reality, it meant that we did a LOT of driving.
Through this experience and others like it (we “randomly tried” a few new restaurants on our road trip last summer), I’ve learned that while spontaneity is fun, it’s somewhat overrated when it comes to restaurants. All the great new eateries we’ve found have been with some research, utilizing tools like Citysearch and Metromix to guide us to places that others have already tried and rated highly. And I’m ok with that. Eating well (and maybe with a coupon or something–lol) ranks higher on my list than “cool and spontaneous” anyway. 
So where DID we end up last night? We finally stopped to eat at a place we’d never been to nor heard of… a Mexican food restaurant in St. Louis Park called El Gordo. I kindof rolled my eyes as we went in; there’s not a lot of mystery and glamour in a place named “The Fat One.” Ha ha! Though the service wasn’t the best, the food was great (we had chicken+steak+shrimp+chorizo fajitas) and we did enjoy ourselves.
Next time, however, we’ll probably try something from this list instead.
Progress Report: December 20, 2009
So, my 25th birthday is just under five months away, and I’ve still got a way to go on this list. So, here is a FULL progress report, because I need some accountability if I’m going to get ‘er done. Lol!
Days left to complete list: 144
#2 Study Latin – I read quite a bit in a book I had checked out in my June 27 update, but I needed to take a break. (That and my book was due back to the library… ha ha!)
#3 Learn to Salsa dance – I decided that paying for salsa lessons was going to be too expensive, so I have a couple of learn-to-salsa DVDs on my list at the library for when I get back from my mission trip.
#4 Travel to Europe – Unfortunately, it looks like this goal will not be fulfilled in the next few months, but I plan on coming up with a substitute experience. Stay tuned!
#10 Learn to make sushi – I have all the tools to make this, as well as a couple recipes I’m interested in. I just need to pick a day and do it.
#12 Be consistently on time – I actually haven’t put in too much effort in this area, but I’m finding myself late less often anyway. It’s a good feeling, not always being late to everything, and that in itself is motivating me to keep doing it.
#13 Begin a documentary – I’m actually in the pre-production stage of two separate mini-documentaries, one on the mission trip I took in 2006 and the other on the trip I’m taking to Belize next month. Though these aren’t the idea I had in mind when I made the 25 Steps list, I think they’ll be more beneficial in the short term. I guess you could say that goal #13 is complete, but there’s more I want to do in the next few months to really do it justice.
#14 Make up a recipe – No progress, but I’m not worried.
#15 Weigh what’s on my driver’s license – No progress. I blame Christmas… and Thanksgiving… and Fourth of July… No, in reality I only blame myself. Bad Lauryn.
#16 Get totally caught up on my scrapbooks – This is one area where I’ve made tons and tons of progress. Getting totally caught up is a huge feat, but I can see the finish line already. (Follow my progress using the #16 tag.)
#17 Read a book about the major world wars - I actually decided to expand this goal a bit and am currently reading a book about the whole of American history from colonization to modern day. I also have a world history book in my book bag that I’ll read when I finish this one.
#18 Dye my hair – Dye’s on the counter, ready to be used.
#19 Randomly try an unfamiliar restaurant - Looking forward to knocking this one out sometime in the next few months. So is my husband.
#21 Write an article and have it published - No progress [EDIT: Not true! See post]
#23 See the top 10 movies on the AFI list – There are only three movies left on the list that I haven’t seen yet: The Godfather, Lawrence of Arabia, and On the Waterfront.
#24 Own a little black dress – I’ve been putting this one off until goal #15 is accomplished. Hmm… maybe I should get to work on that.
So there it is, the whole pile of unfinished projects. Let’s just say it will be a very productive few months.
