Goodbye Dallas Hello World: Things I Miss

100 Before 100

1. Learn to knit

2. Write a cookbook

3. Learn how to clap to the beat of music on my own (No, seriously. This is an issue)

4. Start a by-mail book swap with my amazingly smart high school friends

5. Learn how to use photoshop

6. Get a puppy and train him so well that I can go for a run and she/he will follow behind me with no instruction

7. Go to every continent

8. Be fluent in French

9. Watch all of Hitchcock's classic movies

10. Celebrate a 50th wedding anniversary

11. Throw a party that people will be talking about for years as one of the best events they've ever been to.

12. Write in a journal daily for a year

13. Learn to scuba dive (I received scuba lessons as a Christmas present! I'm one step closer to knocking this off my list!)

14. Ride an elephant

15. Read War and Peace

16. Have a white christmas

17. Wear a tutu in all seriousness in public

18. Build my dream kitchen (subway tile, giant stove, sofas for hanging out....)

19. Work on conquering my fear/phobia of needles to the point where I can get a shot without being slightly hysterical

20. Learn how to make delicious Indian food (there have been some very failed attempts in the past)

21. Live in a city that is no more than an hour drive from the mountains

22. Create a 5-year plan that is feasible, interesting, and exciting.

23. Go to the World's Longest Yard Sale in Tennessee.

24. Win the weekly cartoon-captioning contest in the New Yorker.

25. Go 12 months without losing a cell phone.

26. Donate 10+ inches of hair to Locks of Love

27. See the Taj Majal

28. Collect and record stories about my family from my grandparents

29. Break the habit of picking at the skin around my nails. Youch! It hurts!

30. Bungy jump from the world's tallest bungy jump from Bloukrans bridge in South Africa.

31. Have a “signature dish”—something that everyone will ask me to bring to a potluck.
32. Go ice fishing.
33. Get all of my amazing girlfriends across the nation together for an unforgettable weekend.
34. Spend a month in the woods with nothing but the pack on my back and whatever I can carry in it.
35. Use the phrase “the last time I was in Thailand” in a completely legitimate way.
36. Own my own company.
37. Learn how to clean and cook and entire fish.
38. Play with a baby elephant

39. Run a 7-minute mile.
40. Compete in a hot air balloon race.

41. Live in a foreigncountry
42. Play tennis at a 4.0 level (right now I'm a measly 2.75)
43. Learn the names of the constellations
44. Beat my Mom at Scrabble (never. going. to happen.)
45. Start a compost pile
46. Buy a gorgeous piece of stained glass
47. Learn how to be a good haggler
48. Wear a two-piece with ease again
49. Be an extra in a movie
50. Learn how to play chess

I know I am a day late on a Thanksgiving post, but oh well.

I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving day filled with friends, love, and lots of food. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Christmas seems comercial to me, don't even get me started about Valentines Day, Easter is also commerical, and does Halloween even count as a holiday?

I simply love Thanksgiving. It's the only holiday when family and friends gather together to enjoy a huge meal with the only expectation of being thankful. (Or at least I guess that is the ideal...)

This year there are so many things that I am thankful for: my family, my incredibly friends, the amazing future I have ahead of me, the ability to travel the world, the chance to be healthy and happy, and so much more!

And, I am thankful for each and everyone of you who reads my blog posts. It makes me happy to know that even if I can't talk to y'all on a regular basis I can tell you a little of what is going on in my life!

Happy Thanksgiving!
M

**p.s. when I get home Chris and I are going to go all out and make our own Thanksgiving dinner because I also LOVE Thanksgiving food! So, be excited because you will definitely see pictures and hear stories about me cooking my first turkey ever!!

Y'all, I love love love to cook. There is no doubt about it, it's possibly my favorite thing to do in the entire world. Yes, it is my favorite thing to do. No, I lied, I like playing with puppies more than cooking. Back to my point... cooking is one of the things I miss the most about traveling. I have of course been making a large number of meals for myself (which, I swear I have pictures galore to share with you when I finally get home and can upload and organize all THREE THOUSAND pictures I've taken) but it's not the same. Yes, making veggies, pasta, samis, etc is delicious and fun but it just doesn't cut it. I want to be in my kitchen in an adorable apron with flour on my face and in my hair, 4 pots going at once on the stove, a sink full of dishes and the most amazing smells drifting through my house. For me, the moment when I put down plates of delicious food that I've made is sheer heaven and it's even better because Chris is a wonderful dinner companion with amazing complements for good homemade food.

So, because I'm a cooking nerd and a foodie, I've been making a list while I travel of all of the meals that I want to make when I move home:

Pho

Falafel

Stewed red cabbage

Rissoto

Shepard's pie

Homemade calzones

Chicken curry pot pie with phyllo crust

Turkish food which I look a lesson for while I was in Istanbul!

All kinds of quiche

Bouillabaisse

Osso Bucco

Warm and tasty soups

Thai food

the list is so much longer but I'll stop now!

Plus all of my regular meals

Roasted chickens

Turkey pot pie with giblet gravy (Chris's favorite!)

Green chili enchiladas

5 pepper 5 alarm Chili

Stuffed peppers

And anything else anyone wants to recommend!!

I don't think that I have talked about this on the blog before but Chris and I are moving to Chicago when I get back for a few months before we leave for our huge 18 month trip around the world. So, imagine Chicago in January, February, and March; now imagine this Texas girl in Chicago in January, February, and March. Besides work I am never going to want to leave the house because it will be so damn cold! Which gives me the perfect reason to start up the ovens! And maybe I'll put these beauties from Anthropology on my Christmas list?