Mid-Jan check in

 So far, so good, and I see a couple possible bingos forming. 


Culture

  • I went to a new-to-me museum: The Oregon Historical Society. I'm certain I've been there before, but I don't remember it, or spending any time with the exhibits, so I'm counting it as new. I learned it's free to people in my county, and it was a very enjoyable way to spend some time! 
  • No place on this card, but related: I also went to a historical architecture presentation at a different museum, and it was so good I've now become a member. I'd been there before so it didn't qualify for a bingo square.
  • Live music: I went to see The Sextones at the Jack London Revue. I saw them one other time - they're kind of retro R&B (their wikipedia page says soul & funk - sure) and are a lot of fun. 
  • I have a ticket to see a documentary on Friday about Chet Baker at my favorite non-profit indie theater, The Hollywood Theatre - so unless something happens, I can check this off soon. 
Food
  • I revisited a place I've meant to go - West African food at Akadi. It was every bit as good as I remembered, and they had terrific live music too! I last ate there in Sept 2019 so that's 4+ years of good intentions, finally turned to action thanks to my bingo card. 
  • New to me restaurant - Lone Star Burger Bar. This wasn't risky in the slightest as it's owned by a fantastic bbq place, and you can't go too far wrong with burgers anyway, but it was delish. I wouldn't mind if they offered smaller burgers as an option but somehow I managed to inhale the whole thing, plus shared a side of fries, so... the serving size wasn't a real problem. 
Fitness/Health
  • Walk 5 days. When I created the 5-day series, I intended that they'd be 5 consecutive days, but I don't know that I'll hold myself to that. At any rate, if I count a hike as a walk and then the 4 following days of intentional walks, I made 5 consecutive days.
Possible other squares:
  • I have friends bringing food here to share before we watch a movie; does that count as hosting a dinner? (Not really, not the way I intended it)
  • I still have more than half of the month left, but if I focus on getting a bingo then the obvious moves are Nonfiction book + PBS show/series OR No car 5 days + Mail a postcard. We shall see. 
Note on bingo card selection
At first I was going to randomly choose a card from the printed pile, but then I fiddled around a little and made a smaller deck to choose from.
  • I made a selection pile from all the cards that did NOT have Go to a neighborhood festival/monthly art walk since it's not that time of year right now. 
  • Then I made sure the cards I was going to choose from did have Live music since that was already in the works. 

Last note for now: I forgot that Conversation with a stranger wasn't on this month's list! When I went to the historical architecture presentation I was mindful of that topic and chatted with the woman next to me instead of scrolling like I might have done otherwise. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

July = Family time

Image
 I’m spending time with family and have been getting some real summer in!  I flew to meet up with my SIL and niblings, and we four went to see my parents. We got in lots of beach, park, and library time, along with some summer food faves like lobster rolls, frozen lemonade, and ice cream. Plus a very successful sea glass-hunting expedition! Then I flew with them to their home in much hotter places, but I get to see my brother and enjoy a few more days with the kids.  One cool game we played is called Dixit. Everyone is dealt a few art cards, and one person picks a card and says a word that their card evokes for them. Then everyone else chooses a card from their hands that evokes the same words or feeling. We didn’t bother with scoring but it was pretty fun, and great to get a glimpse of how their little brains work. This is the set of cards we used for the cue “patience”: And the adults are having fun working on a backlog problem my brother has from a cocktail subscriptio...
Read more

2025 Activity Bingo

Image
I haven't made resolutions the last few years, but I wanted a way to be mindful and stay engaged with doing new/meaningful things this coming year. Someone mentioned they'd heard about people making bingo cards and that really took off for me. I did some brainstorming and brought my idea to fb, and in the end I generated a series of cards:  My intent is to go for one bingo (5 cells in a row, any direction) per month, but hey, maybe I'll get motivated to do more!  A couple people asked how to do this so I figured it's better to write it up where I can find & share it!  Here's how I made the cards.  Made a list of activities that I might want to do or be reminded/prompted to do. Grouped them into five categories Dug around til I found a site that would let me generate free bingo cards and would respect the category concept (rather than fully randomizing my items across the whole card). Do you want to play? Here are my categories/activities; feel free to change the...
Read more

Elephant visit

Image
  It’s been amazing and I’ll post more later when I’m on better wifi. We’ve stayed at a posh lodge on the Lewa Conservacy, did a walking safari & camped two nights (supported by 13 camels and 8 Maasai tribesmen), visited a school and village, then flew north to the Samburu region.   It’s a lot to absorb! Today, to get something up here, I’ll share about yesterday’s visit to the Retiti Elephant Sanctuary. Young elephants sometimes fall in wells, or their parents die, or they get separated from their herd somehow. Community members spot them and call the Sanctuary.  Sanctuary staff come assess the elephant calf, give immediate assistance if needed (getting them out of the well, for example), and wait 72 hours to see if the mother/herd return to collect the baby.  If not, they’ll take the calf to the sanctuary for as long as 5 years, feeding them, reintroducing them to the wild, and eventually helping them integrate with a herd. They give lots of chances for the you...
Read more