My Life List

A friend of mine recently made a life list and has been crossing item after item off of it as she tries to make her life better after her divorce. I thought it was a great idea, so I've been working on my own. I'd love additional book or movie suggestions too.

Here is my list:

Jennifer’s Life List:

1. Buy a house/apartment

2. Go shopping for and buy Christian Louboutin/Jimmy Choo/Manolo Blahnik shoes with Linzie

3. Learn to play guitar

4. Learn to speak Italian

5. Learn to speak French

6. Swim with dolphins

7. See the aurora borealis

8. Attend New York Fashion Week

9. Complete a major sports event (marathon, triathlon, AIDS lifecycle)

10. Learn to sail

11. Own a yacht

12. Get married

13. Be in-house counsel for a major fashion house

14. Go into space

15. Tour NASA headquarters with Dad

16. Tour the White House

17. Live in Italy

18. Make lasagna completely from scratch (including noodles and sauce)

19. Read the 100 greatest books of all time

20. Watch the 100 greatest movies of all time

21. Go on a roadtrip without an itinerary or plans

22. Visit all 50 states

23. Take dance classes

24. Weight 130 pounds

25. Attend a movie premiere

26. Be in a parade

27. Save 6 months living expenses

28. Be debt free

29. Do a press handstand

30. Watch a sunrise or sunset over the pyramids

31. Attend the Olympics and watch gymnastics

32. Stay at the ice hotel

33. Snorkel off the Great Barrier Reef

34. Catch fireflies in a jar

35. Drive a Ferrari with Dad

36. Ride in a gondola in Venice

37. Kiss someone on the top of the Empire State Building

38. Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge

39. See the Dave Matthews Band at the Gorge

40. See the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center

41. Celebrate New Years Eve in Times Square

42. Visit Salem, Massachusetts

43. Learn to surf

44. See the sunrise on the east coast and the sunset on the west coast

45. Be able to do right-leg, left-leg, and center splits again

46. Go to a Renaissance Fair in costume

47. Learn to play the drums

48. Ride in a hot air balloon

49. Go on a cruise

50. Buy a telescope

51. Pass the New York Bar Exam

52. Get a 4.0

53. Attend the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

54. Visit all of these places:

a. Aruba- with Renee

b. Australia

c. Belgium

d. Anywhere in the Caribbean

e. Cuba

f. Egypt

g. France

h. The Galapagos Islands

i. Germany

j. Greece

k. Ireland

l. Italy

m. Japan

n. Kenya- with Linzie, Kume, and Mercy

o. Monaco

p. Morocco

q. New Zealand

r. Norway –with Linzie

s. Russia

t. South Africa

u. Switzerland

v. Turkey

w. United Kingdom

Greatest Books of All Time (Random House)

1. ULYSSES by James Joyce

2. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald

3. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce

4. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov

5. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley

6. THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner

7. CATCH-22

8. DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler

9. SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence

10. THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck

11. UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry

12. THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler

13. 1984 by George Orwell

14. I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves

15. TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf

16. AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser

17. THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers

18. SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut

19. INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison

20. NATIVE SON by Richard Wright

21. HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow

22. APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O'Hara

23. U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos

24. WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson

25. A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster

26. THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James

27. THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James

28. TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald

29. THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T. Farrell

30. THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford

31. ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell

32. THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James

33. SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser

34. A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh

35. AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner

36. ALL THE KING'S MEN by Robert Penn Warren

37. THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder

38. HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster

39. GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin

40. THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene

41. LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding

42. DELIVERANCE by James Dickey

43. A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell

44. POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley

45. THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway

46. THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad

47. NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad

48. THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence

49. WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence

50. TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller

51. THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer

52. PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth

53. PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov

54. LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner

55. ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac

56. THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett

57. PARADE'S END by Ford Madox Ford

58. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton

59. ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm

60. THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy

61. DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather

62. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones

63. THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES by John Cheever

64. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger

65. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess

66. OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham

67. HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad

68. MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis

69. THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton

70. THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell

71. A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes

72. A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul

73. THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West

74. A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway

75. SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh

76. THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark

77. FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce

78. KIM by Rudyard Kipling

79. A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster

80. BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh

81. THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow

82. ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner

83. A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul

84. THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen

85. LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad

86. RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow

87. THE OLD WIVES' TALE by Arnold Bennett

88. THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London

89. LOVING by Henry Green

90. MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie

91. TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell

92. IRONWEED by William Kennedy

93. THE MAGUS by John Fowles

94. WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys

95. UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch

96. SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron

97. THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles

98. THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain

99. THE GINGER MAN by J.P. Donleavy

100. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington

My Own Additions:

1. THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien

2. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee

3. DUNE by Frank Herbert

4. THE STAND by Stephen King

5. BELOVED by Toni Morrison

6. SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury

7. ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE by Robert Pirsig

8. THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER by Tom Clancy

9. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST by Ken Kesey

10. MY ANTONIA by Willa Cather

11. THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN by Mark Twain

12. THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES by Arthur Conan Doyle

13. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Fyodor Dostoevsky

14. GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell

15. JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte

16. MOBY DICK by Herman Melville

17. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen

18. ROBINSON CRUSOE by Daniel Defoe

19. THE SCARLETT LETTER by Nathanial Hawthorne

20. A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens

21. UNCLE TOM’S CABIN by Harriet Beecher Stowe

22. WAR AND PEACE by Leo Tolstoy

23. WUTHERING HEIGHTS by Emily Bronte

100 Greatest Movies of All Time

1. Citizen Kane (1941)
2. Casablanca (1942)
3. The Godfather (1972)
4. Gone with the Wind (1939)
5. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
6. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
7. The Graduate (1967)
8. On the Waterfront (1954)
9. Schindler’s List (1993)
10. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
11. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
12. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
13. Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
14. Some Like It Hot (1959)
15. Star Wars (1977)
16. All About Eve (1950)
17. The African Queen (1951)
18. Psycho (1960)
19. Chinatown (1974)
20. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
21. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
22. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
23. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
24. Raging Bull (1980)
25. E.T. (1982)
26. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
27. Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
28. Apocalypse Now (1979)
29. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
30. Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
31. Annie Hall (1977)
32. The Godfather Part II (1974)
33. High Noon (1952)
34. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
35. It Happened One Night (1934)
36. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
38. Double Indemnity (1965)
39. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
40. North by Northwest (1959)
41. West Side Story (1961)
42. Rear Window (1954)
43. King Kong (1933)
44. The Birth of a Nation (1915)
45. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
46. Clockwork Orange (1971)
47. Taxi Driver (1976)
48. Jaws (1975)
49. Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs (1937)
50. Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (1969)
51. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
52. From Here to Eternity (1953)
53. Amadeus (1984)
54. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
55. The Sound of Music (1965)
56. M*A*S*H (1970)
57. The Third Man (1949)
58. Fantasia (1940)
59. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
60. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
61. Vertigo (1958)
62. Tootsie (1982)
63. Stagecoach (1939)
64. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
65. Silence of the Lambs (1991)
66. Network (1976)
67. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
68. An American in Paris (1951)
69. Shane (1953)
70. The French Connection (1971)
71. Forrest Gump (1994)
72. Ben-Hur (1959)
73. Wuthering Heights (1939)
74. The Gold Rush (1925)
75. Dances with Wolves (1990)
76. City Lights (1931)
77. American Graffiti (1973)
78. Rocky (1976)
79. The Deer Hunter (1978)
80. The Wild Bunch (1969)
81. Modern Times (1936)
82. Giant (1956)
83. Platoon (1986)
84. Fargo (1996)
85. Duck Soup (1933)
86. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
87. Frankenstein (1931)
88. Easy Rider (1969)
89. Patton (1970)
90. The Jazz Singer (1927)
91. My Fair Lady (1964)
92. A Place in the Sun (1951)
93. The Apartment (1960)
94. Goodfellas (1990)
95. Pulp Fiction (1994)
96. The Searchers (1956)
97. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
98. Unforgiven (1992)
99. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)
100. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

Grand Gestures

Since Victoria just moved here and her boyfriend Ian is still in California, it was time for a grand romantic gesture. I was recruited to help with the project. The project was to go to a bunch of iconic New York locations and Victoria would scream out loud how much she loves Ian. So cute. Sadly, the weather just did not cooperate. It was raining like crazy! So this turned into a grand gesture of friendship on my part :-)

We began our rainy walking tour of New York in Central Park at Belvedere Castle.

Our next stop was The Plaza Hotel:

This very bright sculpture was near The Plaza:

Next up was Radio City Music Hall:
Then Rockefeller Center:
The ice skating rink was more like a lake with all the rain:
Our last stop was the Empire State Building, but on our way the street was blocked off. Turns out someone had jumped from the building, so it was closed and the entire area was blocked off.
So the Empire State Building will have to wait for another day. Victoria took me to dinner at a restaurant called Brendan's Bar and Grill. It was yummy, but a weird place. The entire front area was a bar and everyone was watching hockey, then we ended up at a table around the back. Everything was so close together it felt like Victoria and I were on the dates of the people around us. Good food though. All in all it was a very wet day and we got totally soaked, but it was fun and the end product turned out cute.

Spring Break!

I am now on the last (hopefully) spring break I will ever have! Sadly, the weather is freakishly cold. Seriously, it is 38 degrees outside. Boo. I want the spring weather back!

Last Sunday, we were going to have a BBQ, but we ended up postponing it. I was hoping it would happen this weekend, but it is too damn cold. We did, however, end up going to the Brooklyn Flea Market. We began by eating some super yummy food.

This is an Asian-inspired hotdog. It was a chicken hotdog with cucumber, mango and peanuts in a yummy slightly spicy sauce on top. Sooooo good. Claire and I are going to try and recreate these at home.

Victoria got a ham and cheese grilled sandwich and a Mexican coke. She was beyond excited about the coke!

Claire got the same hotdog that I did. Sorry for the funny picture Claire! Its the only one I had!

The flea market was held inside. I think it was the last weekend of being inside and from now on it will be outside. The building it was held in was really cool though. It had amazing mosaics on the ceiling.

Victoria grabbed a brochure that explained the history of the building. Apparently you can rent the space for weddings. I think it would be an incredible venue!

Getting through the last few days of school before break was hard. Thursday night at 6pm when I was finally done, I was so relieved. However, I have a huge to-do list! Just because it is spring (passover) break, doesn't mean it was the end of the semester. I have a huge paper to work on. I really need to get a good chunk of it done and finish all the research because the week after break I have to do a presentation to the class on my paper. Not looking forward to that! The good thing about this paper is that it is about fashion! My paper is on the cultural appropriation of the word "couture" that is legally protected in France but is casually thrown around everywhere else. I get to read fun books about the history of fashion as part of my research.

Last night I hung out with Claire and Charlie and their friends. Claire made these great chicken adobo sandwiches, Charlie made steak and cheese sandwiches, and I made banana cream pie with a nilla wafer crust and a layer of chocolate. All in all it was a fun night.

I woke up at 7:30 this morning and should have just gotten up but I decided to go back to sleep. I then woke up at 12:30 this afternoon with a headache from sleeping too long. I've just been hanging around today catching up on some tv on Hulu. Now it is time to get some things done and be productive!

First Weekend of Spring!

It has been absolutely beautiful here for the past few days! Because of this, a lot of fun new things have happened.

First, unrelated to the weather, Victoria moved to NYC! She has been staying with me for a few days while she is trying to find an apartment. It has been great having her here and getting to hang out. I've gone to look at a few apartments with her and it has been interesting to get a feel for some of the different areas of Manhattan. Finding an apartment is a pain in the ass though, so I'm grateful for where I live. I keep telling Claire that I am never leaving! :-)

On Friday, Claire suggested that we go have a picnic in the park since the weather was so nice. Prospect Park is actually really close to where we live so we were able to just walk there. We wandered around in the park for awhile looking for a good spot to set up our picnic. We ended up sitting on a hillside under a tree. Claire packed a great picnic with french bread, cheese, grapes, bananas, and cream cheese. It was a wonderful afternoon! The weather was absolutely beautiful, although the wind got a little chilly, there were a lot of people out so we got to people watch, and it was just a glorious afternoon.

On our way back to the apartment we walked through the Windsor Terrace neighborhood of Brooklyn. It is a really cute quaint area. We stopped and got ice cream on our walk back. Birthday cake ice cream is super yummy!

Yesterday was a pretty lazy day. I tried to get some reading done for class and Victoria went apartment hunting. We weren't really planning on doing anything exciting but at about 9pm Claire came in to invite us out to a bar in the LES. Claire hardly ever goes out and it took a little convincing but Victoria and I decided to go. We went out with Claire and Charlie and met up with a bunch of their friends. Charlie's friend is a bartender at the bar we went to, so we were able to get in for a discounted cover charge. It was an interesting place. They made a really good drink that was vodka apple cider with actual chunks of apple in it. Claire, Victoria, and I danced for awhile to some interesting music. It was not your typical club-scene music. It was "middle-eastern-inspired electronic" according to Victoria :-) We had fun dancing. We ended up leaving a little before 2am. All in all it was a fun night.

Today we are planning to go to the Brooklyn flea market in a little bit. This evening Charlie is throwing a BBQ and invited a bunch of people. I'm really looking forward to that. At some point though, I need to squeeze some reading time in. Luckily I don't have class until 6pm on Monday so I can finish that reading assignment tomorrow if I can't do it today.

Meet Up!

Claire found this great website called Meetup.com. It is full of groups of people that do all types of things around the city. I'm assuming it works in other cities across the US. I joined 3 groups. First is a group of women in their 20's and 30's who get together to hang out with the goal of making new friends. The next group I joined is all about exploring everything NYC has to offer. I'm waiting to see what the upcoming events are for these groups.

The group I'm most excited about is one that Claire and I both joined. It is a classic film group. The group gets together a few times a month to watch a classic movie and then discuss it. It is like book club for classic movies. Claire and I have RSVP'd to see Easter Parade in a few weeks and Sunset Boulevard about a week after that. So excited! I think it will be a great chance to meet people who like what I like.

Emily Violet Thompson

One of the best things about going to Oregon last weekend was that I got to meet my cousin Linzie's baby for the first time. Emily Violet, or Evy, was born a few days after I moved to New York. I consider myself to be her aunt and she is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen!

Isn't she adorable?!

*By the way, I hate hearing my voice recorded! I need to remember that for future videos!

My Big Brother Got Married!

I went back to Oregon for my brother Brian's wedding last weekend and I'm so glad I did! It was a really long flight both ways and I was only in Oregon for about 45 hours but it was totally worth it.

The wedding was at the World Trade Center in downtown Portland. It was the Sky Bridge Terrace and absolutely beautiful. Seriously, the rest of my siblings and I are going to just have to get married at the courthouse because we will never even come close to something like this.

The sun was still out when we got there and went down as guests came and the ceremony started.

The view from the terrace
Table settings
Julia, Eric, and Dan before the ceremony started
Me and my grandparents
My dad and stepmom
The happy couple! Brian and my new sister-in-law Aubrey
Kelly and Dan
Julia and Eric
The food was incredible! The champagne for toasts was delicious and I don't normally even like champagne. I was pretty tired by the end of the night so I didn't do much dancing but it was fun dancing with my grandfather. He really let loose! Aubrey was in a sorority in college and she and her sorority sisters did some dance and song circled around Brian that was pretty cute. All in all it was a great night!