Dear Adventure Avenue,
While I didn’t accomplish 100% of my goals, I did make some great progress on others. I’ll use what I learned to help develop my 2026 goals.
2025 Goals Update
1. Read 50 books this year. Of those 50 books, I want to read 4 French books. Two goals in one.
In December, I finished reading Antimatter Blues by Edward Ashton which I didn’t think was quite as good as the first book, Mickey7 by Edward Ashton. I also read The Housemaid by Freida McFadden in the span of 24 hours.
I finished listening to Lessons in Chemistry which was very enjoyable! I loved how it portrayed women in STEM in the 1950s through the lens of a TV production. Now I want to watch the Apple TV show! I also finished listening to Loved One by Aisha Muharrar, which I enjoyed but was left wanting more. I also listened to The Art of Spending Money by Morgan Housel which is the same author that wrote The Psychology of Money and The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop. I finished reading Outlive on my kindle.
I’m currently reading My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante which I received as a gift from my Aunt for Christmas.
This year I have read:
- Reconnected by Carlos Whittaker
- Eragon by Christopher Paolini
- Taming 7 by Chloe Walsh
- Rich AF by Vivian Tu
- The Royal Librarian by Daisy Wood
- Mickey7 by Edward Ashton
- Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan
- The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking.
- The Blue Zones Secrets for Living Longer by Dan Buettner
- The Alexandria Link by Steve Berry
- Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
- Icebreaker by Hannah Grace
- Two Can Play by Ali Hazelwood
- The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan
- The Day the World Stopped Shopping by JB MacKinnon
- Home and Hand Made by Melissa K. Norris
- Magnolia Table, Volume 2: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering
- A Healthier Home
- Accidental Shepard by Elise Greensfelder
- When In Rome by Sarah Adams
- Becoming Trader Joe by Joe Coulombe and Patty Civalleri
- How to Win at Travel by Brian Kelly
- Until the Streetlights Come On by Ginny Yurich.
- Everything I Want to do is Illegal by Joel Salatin
- Damn Delicious Meal Prepby Chungah Rhee
- The English Understand Wool by Helen Dewitt
- George Washington’s Secret Six
- Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
- Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood
- The Thursday Murder Club
- Cabin
- The Wedding People by Alison Espach
- Practice makes Perfect by Sarah Adams
- Dune
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reed
- Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Beg, Borrow, Steal by Sarah Adams
- We Should All be Millionaires by Rachel Rodgers.
- It’s a Love Story
- Strengths Based Leadership by Gallup
- Business Ethics by Todd Pheifer
I met my goal of reading 50 books (barely), but I did not read any French books. I did go to France though, so that has to count for something, right? Definitely did a lot of reading in France there!
2. Go to one new Coffee Shop a month. I’m doing this one with a friend and am so excited to complete this one! – COMPLETE!
In January, I went to Restoration Hardware’s rooftop cafe. The views were great!
In February, I went to Lulu’s Cafe in Fullerton, California.
In March, I went to Rendez-Vous Cafe in Corona Del Mar, California.
In April, I went to Tru Bru Organic Coffee Roasters in Orange, California.
In May, I went to Coffee Dose in Costa Mesa, California.
In June, I went to MoonGoat Coffee in Costa Mesa, California.
In July, I went to Cafe the Scoop in Long Beach, California.
In August, I went to Huckleberry in Santa Monica, California.
In September, I went to Succulent Coffee Roasters in Huntington Beach, California.
In October, I went to Cafe de la Plage in Santa Monica, California.
In November, I went to Still Coffee in Brea, California. I had the first matcha I actually liked there!
In December, I went to Tacitas Coffee in Diamond Bar, California.
3. Exercise 2025 minutes. (That’s about 169 minutes a month).
In January, I did 40 minutes of strength training with weights, 22 minutes on the bike, and I did 70 minutes of yoga. In January, I did 132 minutes.
In February, I did 40 minutes of strength training with weights, 22 minutes on the bike, and 73 minutes of yoga. In total, I did 135 minutes in February.
In March, I did 42 minutes of strength training, 238 minutes of riding the peloton bike, 113 minutes of yoga, and one (free) 45 minute Purple Pedal class. In total, I did 438 minutes.
In April, I did 40 minutes of strength training, 232 minutes of riding the Peloton bike, and 61 minutes of yoga. I also did a 3 hour long hike in Big Bear, but I don’t think I’m going to count that in here.
In May, I did 25 minutes of strength training, 31 minutes of riding the Peloton bike, 80 minutes of yoga, and 30 minutes of swimming.
In June, I did 60 minutes of swimming, 22 minutes on the bike, 90 minutes of strength training.
In July, I did 18 minutes of strength training, 23 minutes of Yoga, and 32 minutes of riding the peloton bike.
In August, I did a LOT of traveling (so LOTs of walking) but not a whole lot of structured exercise: I did 22 minutes of strength training.
In September, I did 15 minutes of swimming, 10 minutes of yoga, 60 minutes of kayaking, 15 minutes of canoeing (at Disneyland, no less!), and only 1 minute of weights.
In October/November, I did 60 minutes of pickleball, 60 (active) minutes of golf, 210 minutes of yoga, 45 minutes of strength (F45 training), 60 minutes of Yoga Sculpt at CorePower Yoga, 15 minutes of swimming, and 120 minutes of Tai Chi.
In 2025, I have done 2,069 minutes of exercise, completing this goal!
In December, I stopped tracking everything because I hit this goal… oops!
4. Strength train with weights 40 minutes a month. (This goal counts towards goal #3)
In January, I did exactly 40 minutes!
In February, I did exactly 40 minutes!
In March, I did 42 minutes.
In April, I did 40 minutes!
In May, I didn’t quite meet my goal this month and did 25 minutes.
In June, I helped my friend move and did a ton of lifting. I estimate I did about 80 minutes of active lifting. Plus, I also did 10 minutes of strength training.
In July, I did 18 minutes of strength training.
In August, I did 22 minutes of strength training.
In September, I only did 1 minute of strength training – oops! Unless you count kayaking and canoeing, then I exceeded this goal!
In October/November, I did 45 minutes of strength training + 60 minutes at Yoga Sculpt.
In December, I did not track any strength training.
On average, I did about 35minutes of strength training a month, so I didn’t achieve this goal. However, I hope I have some actionable steps I can do next year!
5. Decrease number of photos on phone from 11,124 down to under 8,000 by posting travel pictures 3 times a month (and then deleting them afterwards).
In January, I was down to 11,094 pictures and videos. I posted one blog post this month for this goal – My Restoration Hardware Cafe Post.
I’m at 11,364 photos. I posted two blog posts in February – Star Wars at the Frida Theatre and Paseo in Downtown Disney
In March, I had 11,635 photos. I did post two new blog posts in March: LuLu Coffee and Los Rios Tea House.
In April, I had 11,751 photos. I did post a few blog posts: Rendez-vous cafe, Grand Prairie Home2 Suites, Hard Eight BBQ, one about a German restaurant, Disneyland Star Wars Nite, and Tru Bru Organic Coffee Roasters.
By the end of May, I was up to 11,917 photos and videos with no new blog posts.
By the end of June, I had 11,805 photos and videos on my phone. I posted the Irvine Regional Park & OC Zoo, my MoonGoat Coffee review, and my visit to Historic Main Street District Grapevine Texas.
By end of July, I had 11,991 photos with two new blog posts: Cafe the Scoop and El Dorado Regional Park.
By end of August, I had 12,819 photos. (Did I mention I traveled a LOT in August).
By end of September, I had 12,987 photos. I posted my August coffee shop: Succulent Coffee Roasters.
By end of November, I have 14,199. I really need to work on deleting some pictures!
By the end of December, I had 13,388 photos. I was doing so well in the beginning of the year, but I traveled a LOT during the second half of the year. This month I did start posting a lot more. I posted Tacitas Coffee, Pappadeux Seafood Kitchen, La Bodeguita de Mima, Houston we have a problem, and Hampton Inn Duncanville Dallas Room Tour.
6. TOP Secret Goal
Phase 1 was RESEARCH – COMPLETED
Phase 2 was APPLY and that is now done!
Phase 3 is about to begin.
My Top Secret Goal was applying to universities to start getting my MBA! I have successfully applied and started classes!
7. Make my Disney pass “worth it”
I have the Enchant Key which is the second tier and means I can go on some Sundays and most weekdays (but due to work, I’ll only be spending weeknights). This means I need to spend 82 hours at Disneyland, and it is assuming a 1day ticket is $119, the cheapest option outside of any specials they run. Based on a 10-hour day spent at Disney and that ticket price, I calculated that one hour at Disneyland is equal to $11.90.
In January, I went to Disneyland 4 times and was there for 18.25 hours and I spent $36.25 on parking.
In February, I went to Disneyland 2 times and spent 10 hours there. I spent $10 on parking.
In March, I went to Disneyland 1 time and spent 4.5 hours there.
In April, I went to Disneyland 1 time and spent 8.5 hours there.
In May, I went to Disneyland 3 times and spent 18.25 hours there. I also spent $26.25 on parking.
In June, I didn’t go to Disneyland.
In July, I didn’t go to Disney because my pass was blocked out.
In August, I went to Disney twice – once using my pass and once using a free ticket I got for donating to (and participating in) the CHOC Walk. In total, I went to Disney for 18 hours and spent $0 on parking!
In September, I went to Disney twice for a total of 11 hours and spent $0 on parking.
In November, I went to Disney once for a total of 2.5 hours and spent $0 on parking.
In December, I went to Disney one time and spent 2.5 hours there and spent $0 on parking!
In total, I spent 93.5 hours at Disney! I can officially mark this goal complete!
Until next time,
A
PS
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