Category Archives: 101 in 1001

101 in 1001: #46 Visit the Aquarium

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A couple weeks ago, when the fella was in town, we spent a couple hours one afternoon at the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy, UT. I’ve been wanting to check it out for a while now and visiting an aquarium was #46 on my list of 101 in 1001.

After all, I’m pretty sure I have sea water coursing through my veins instead of blood. The ocean calls to me. It really does. Water. I need it (says the girl who lives in the desert).

Did I ever tell you I won the floating contest at my 5th grade Field Day? It’s true. We started out with about 20 competitors in the pool and one by one they eventually sank. It was down to me and one other girl. The teachers finally called it a tie after 15 minutes but I could have easily floated for another 50 minutes. (That’s my kind of competitive event.)

I think it’s the weightlessness of it. Water I mean. Or rather the weightlessness I feel when I’m in it, near it. That feeling of total surrender as you eventually let go and allow it to hold your limbs and carry you. The way it muffles and blocks all the noise around you as you submerge. How your breath and heartbeat are the only sounds amplified when you’re under it. The feathery fan of your hair waving around you like an anemone.

Sometimes, when I take a late-night bubble bath, I’ll sink down into the water and let it lift me. To remind me what it feels like. Listening only the the quiet drip of the faucet. Slowly running my fingers over and through it. Watching my chest rise and fall, my breath sending a soft lapping against the basin’s rim.

As a child, when someone would ask, “If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?” most other kids would say, “a bird, so I could fly.” But I’d always say, “a fish, so I could swim.”

If anyone has any great tips for photographing fish, jellies, octopi, and other sea creatures at an aquarium, please leave a comment. I struggled with the lighting. It was really dark, but if I slowed my shutter speed, I got blurry fish obviously. I upped my ISO and lowered my aperture setting, but still … guidance and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Although here’s one really cool shot I got of a lion fish …

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101 Things to Do in 1001 Days

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This year, in addition to a few well-thought New Year’s Resolutions, I have made a list of 101 things I want to do, see, accomplish, or experience in the next 1001 days. I saw this idea on another blog (Sorry. I can’t for the life of me remember where.) and I thought it looked like an amazing thing to try … I mean, do. I’m all about positive thinking, affirmations, verb tenses with intent, and the like these days. It is the New Year after all.

So here’s my list:

1. Write a book
2. Record a song
3. Start a business
4. Sorry, this one is secret
5. Sell a piece of my art December 17, 2010: I sold a bunch!
6. Hike to a waterfall May 27, 2010: Emerald Pools Trail, Zion National Park
7. Visit a continent I’ve never been to
8. Another secret
9. Plan an elegant dinner party
10. Learn French
11. Take a dance class September 15, 2011: Signed up for weekly Hip Hop Class
12. Learn how to put up jam September 21, 2010: Made peach jam to give as favors
13. Go to New York City (I’ve never been!)
14. Become a regular yoga student
15. Go to a BYU football game (I haven’t been since I graduated. Sad!)
16. Visit a state I haven’t been to yet
17. Go on a picnic
18. Visit my mission (Washington)
19. Get my recipes organized
20. Read all 100 books on the Best Literature List
21. Learn to grill June 2012: Taught by the talented Whitney Ingram
22. Go to Paris
23. Be kissed Mmm hmm.
24. Drive the west coast highway
25. Go to a ML baseball game April 2012: Braves game with my sisters and their husbands
26. Hostess a summer BBQ September 2, 2012
27. Get a story printed in a major magazine
28. Skinny dip August 24, 2011: Half-skinny in the Atlantic Ocean (still working towards a full skinny)
29. Learn how to make tarts April 5, 2010: Orange-Lemon Tart
30. Build a blanket fort and cozy in with someone I’m wild about
31. Write a letter once a month for a year
32. Get my scrapbooks organized
33. Get my room organized (once and for all!) Summer 2012: Finally
34. Get my office space and studio organized
35. Learn how to dive
36. Write a poem/day for a month February 2012: Read them all here
37. Buy Photoshop & InDesign
38. Fly a kite
39. Teach a class (non-Church) July 23, 2011: Taught a Marketing Class at a Business Seminar
40. Set up KristaMaurer.com January 2010: But it’s always a work in progress
41. Update my wardrobe
42. Hostess a tea party
43. Go to the temple every week for a year
44. Visit all the LDS temples in Utah
45. Go to an amusement park
46. Visit the aquarium May 20, 2010: Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy, UT
47. Visit the planetarium June 23, 2010
48. RUN a 5K (the whole thing)
49. Make Julia Child’s Beef Bourguignon
50. Pay off any debt
51. Take a photography class
52. Get a pedicure 3 so far in 2012
53. Sew a quilt Finished May 31, 2010 for the Karl Malone family
54. Do something for a good cause
55. Grow peonies Summer 2011: My First Bloom!
56. Take a design class February 2012: Salt Lake Community College
57. Save $10 for every task completed on this list
58. Memorize The Living Christ
59. Memorize The Family Proclamation
60. Start/Keep a journal (with the stuff I can’t/won’t publish here) Summer 2012: Most consistent journal writing since my mission
61. Write a letter to myself to open in 10 years
62. Take a cooking or baking class
63. Knit something (other than a scarf or hat. Been there, done that.)
64. Learn (and play for an audience) a new piano piece
65. Get the piano tuned
66. Start a writing group
67. Play tennis regularly
68. Do genealogy (1x/quarter)
69. Make a budget and stick to it
70. Be featured in the media Tuesday, January 12, 2009: Appeared on Good Things Utah
71. Send someone flowers
72. Send a message in a bottle
73. Begin taking cello lessons March 2012: My birthday present to myself
74. Sleep under the stars
75. Learn how to fillet a fish
76. Play in a rainstorm
77. Don’t use car for one week
78. Ride a horse
79. Clean out my computer files
80. Send an anonymous letter to someone
81. Go to a concert Not only went, but HOSTED one! December 13, 2011: Mindy Gledhill
82. Get a new car
83. Eat vegetarian for a week May 2011 — September 2011
84. Refinish a piece of furniture
85. “Unplug” for a week (no phone, no computer, no internet, no TV, no iPod)
86. Ride on a subway
87. Take pictures of my sisters and parents Done
88. Float in the Great Salt Lake
89. Collect fall leaves and press them
90. See a movie at a drive in
91. Learn how to make taffy
92. Buy a nice turquoise jewelry set
93. Buy a nice pearl jewelry set
94. Start a non-profit organization
95. Illustrate a children’s book
96. Go to a spa
97. Sing karaoke at a real karaoke club
98. Another secret goal
99. Record a podcast
100. have 6 months expenses in savings
101. Go fly fishing

26 down. 75 more to go. I better get going!

Finish by: September 27, 2012