Gearing Up

Catherine and I have been talking about what we're planning to do in January to get a good start on each of our lists. We're hoping to take a dance class, and I'm already planning more time with my friends and family. I'm also making a list of books I want to read in 2011. Every day I take the train to and from work. It's very convenient and gives me a good bit of time to myself, which I usually use to catch up on my reading. Like most people, I've got a stack of books I've been "meaning to get around to" on my shelf. One of my 25 goals is to read ten books of my own choosing that aren't among my book club selections. Here's a rough list of what I've got on my shelf:

The Stand by Stephen King
Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
Close-up on Sunset Boulevard: Billy Wilder, Norma Desmond, and the Dark Hollywood Dream by Sam Staggs
Amore: the Story of Italian American Song by Mark Rotello
Me: Stories of My Life by Katharine Hepburn

Mohawk by Richard Russo

There will probably be other titles mixed in here, but I'm excited to dive in! Do you have any recommendations for other books that I should read? I can't say I'll get to them all, but I'd love to hear some ideas. Also, you should check out our friend Rachel's blog, Trac Changes, where she'll be chronicling her 2011 challenge to read five books from each of her ten categories. That's 50 books in one year. We wish her all the best!

It's almost a new year, which means it'll be time to officially launch this blog! Here's to 2011 - may it be a year filled with new adventures, old friends and a lot of happiness. Cheers!

Taking the Plunge

It seems that though we make resolutions every year, we often fail to keep them. To shake things up, we (Catherine and Amanda) are determined to not keep just one resolution this year, but 25 of them! Our birthdays are only about a month apart (December and January respectively), and we, as both friends and fellow writers, are determined to spend our 25th year doing 25 things we've always wanted to do but for which we've never made the time. We're not going for all-out adventures like climbing Mt. Everest or sky-diving, however; it's more about what we can feasibly do in our lives to grow as people and enjoy every minute of the year.

Amanda

---

When I was little, I thought that being 25 was a huge deal. Adults were 25. They made big decisions and led big, fulfilling lives with big responsibilities. And when you hit 30, man, you were old! But now that I'm treading on the cusp of my 25th year, I realize that it's just the beginning. I've been fortunate enough to do many wonderful things so far like go to college, get a job, and live on my own, but there's always that nagging in the back of my mind about what I've left undone. You all know that little voice - it has a habit of getting louder on long train rides spent looking out the window or during that time in the night when you can't sleep because the faucet's dripping and you just stare at your ceiling wondering where your life is going. Okay, that might only be me. I've always been the kind of person who sits back, watches the world pass by and wonders when my life will start. One terrifying night in college I jumped off a river pier into frigid water with some friends for what was supposed to be a fun dip, but instead I became paralyzed by the icy cold water and my own fear of drowning. But not everything turns out that way. While I'm not signing up for anything like skydiving or polar bear plunges, I have my own list of things I've always wanted to do but have not gotten around to doing yet. As overwhelming and somewhat daunting as it might seem, I'm not content to sit back and watch the world anymore - I'm ready to jump in, to tackle all those dreams and silly ideas that I've been putting off for far too long. Sink or swim, I know I have to get off the beach. My 25th year will be the best so far!

Catherine

---

The internet has taught me that being immortal would be a horrible, horrible thing, if only because science has apparently proven that our perception of time speeds up as we get older. That being said, my vague grasp of mathematics tells me that year twenty-five will be over before I know it, so I might as well do my best to (1) get a lot done and (2) chronicle every bit of it. I'm hoping 25 at 25 will help me with that, and that Amanda, my most favorite blogging buddy, will keep me on track so that I actually get around to doing this stuff. So while I don't expect to, say, jump out of a plane or anything quite as wild as that, I've pinpointed twenty-five things I would very much like to do this year, and I'm going to do as many as I can before I blink and find the year is already over. Fingers crossed!

We hope you'll enjoy our mad-cap adventures in 2011. Here's to a great 25!