52 Changes - Too Many Lists!

You know what the most dangerous phrase to say to me is?  Now, I don't mean to imply that I'm some sort of Manchurian Candidate-style programmed spy, and that just by saying some code phrase I become a mind-controlled killer.  Or do I?  ;)  Well, no, actually I don't.  But simply by uttering the phrase (or even implying it) "collect them all," I become an obsessed machine with an unstoppable goal to complete whatever list I'm "collecting."

Toy makers know about the susceptibility of people to this, as you can see on all sorts of packaging, from toy cars to cereal box prizes to trading cards.  Maybe this is something that most people experience as children and eventually grow out of, but it has somehow become ingrained in my subconscious that once I start a set of something, I can't stop until I finish.  Let me give you some examples.  Right now I have no less than seven separate spreadsheets listing collections that I have begun and am rating that I, on some level, want to complete. There are lists of movies, that you know about, books, restaurants, places to camp, tea flavors, music, and even baseball stadiums.  It can be fun to make these lists, to keep track of things I've tried or seen, but like all things, they can go too far.  Once I get sucked in, I become almost more wrapped up in completing the list than I am in the enjoyment I got out of the list's contents in the first place.  And some of these lists are just impossible to ever complete, so they need to get changed.  Here we go.

1) AFI's 100 Movies list - I've been watching between 5 and 8 of these a month, and have 77 left to go, making it entirely reasonable to complete.  Plus I'm still enjoying it.  But I do need to be careful.  At times it has felt a bit like a chore to see how many movies I can get through in a month just to finish the list.  I realized this the other day when my sister saw Shane sitting on my coffee table, and I said "I'm not looking forward to that one, but it's on my list."  Kind of a silly mindset for a goal I supposedly started for fun.  I still want to complete this list, since it's a good source for old movie suggestions, which I really like, but I'm going to focus less on the goal being completion, and more on enjoying the movies.

2) AFI's other lists - AFI put out ten other lists of films, in genres like 100 Laughs, Thrills, Passions, etc., and I've naturally assumed that when I finish the 100, I'd move on to those.  But with so many lists to begin with, it ends up being a lot of movies - 355 to be exact.  If that stops being fun, it's a major chore.  So my new thought is to pepper these in to the current viewing plan based on my personal choice rather than running up through the rankings.  So this month I'll still see five or six movies from the main lists, but also one or two that I choose from the whole selection.  This month TCM will be showing The Big Sleep, which I've wanted to see again for some time.  It's only on the 100 Heroes list, but since I want to see it, I'm throwing it in.  Maybe I'll actually understand it this time!  :)

3) Books - I decided a couple of years ago that I wanted to read more in general, particularly more classic literature.  Not knowing what I should read, I sought out some lists - and found a ton!  There's the Modern Library list, the Koen and Radcliffe lists, the Time magazine list, and the Hugo and Nebula award lists (for science fiction, not really literature).  Add it all up, and you've got over 700 books!  Books take longer to finish than movies; my pace is usually about one a month, so if I go at that pace, I should finish the list by my 86th birthday.  Obviously not doable.  I think I'll keep the list (since I have loved some of the selections from it), but just as one source of ideas when I'm choosing a book.  If I find something outside the list, that's perfectly fine.  And just knowing that I'll never "collect them all" gives me some freedom to not try so hard.

4) Camp in every county in Iowa - This was a fun idea Stacia and I had when we first camped a few years ago.  I'm sure you've seen those decal maps on the sides of campers, where people fill in the states they've traveled to.  Well, we decided to make one of Iowa (not stuck on the car though) and color it in as we've camped in different counties in the state.  Neat idea, but especially with the floods the past few years, it's been hard to get out as much as we'd like.  So in 4 seasons, we have camped in 12 different counties, which is quite an accomplishment, but would take another 29 years to fill out the rest of our map.  Add to that that some counties don't have great parks, and that there are neat places to visit out of state, and it becomes too confining.  This is another one where I guess we keep the list, but just use it as reference.  If we plan to camp, we'll consult the list first, but only as a source of ideas, not a need to choose one from the list.

5) Des Moines restaurants - Last year the Des Moines Register put out a list of the top 100 area restaurants, and I immediately thought, "let's go to all of them!"  But the reality is that we only go out to eat once or maybe twice a week, and it's more often an I-don't-feel-like-cooking, let's-get-some-fast-food than it is a planned excursion to a nice sit-down restaurant.  That said, some of these nice places are really great venues to find inspiration for my own cooking endeavors, to see some neat ideas and taste some new flavors.  I think I'd like to eventually complete this list, but I don't think it needs to be urgent.  When we do go out as it is, we usually check the list for ideas before we depart anyway, just because we like to try new things.  At one a week from the list, it would only take two years to hit them all, not even taking into account that we've already dined at 33 of the selections.  It will happen, but eventually, not imminently.

6) Baseball stadiums - I honestly don't know how this became such an obsession.  There are lots of websites out there documenting peoples' travels to different ballparks across America, and sometime last year or so I became infatuated with the idea.  I like baseball, I like to see new places, and on some level it's a traditional "guy thing" - the baseball pilgrimage.  I compiled a list, and came up with umpteen different plans for how many and which I intended to see in any given year.  I even wanted to get a hat at each stadium I went to (which I admit is still a fun idea).  But here's the kicker.  There are 282 stadiums on my list.  In a typical year, aside from Principal Park in Des Moines, we maybe go to one or two ballgames in other places.  I don't have 280 years to go to baseball games, and none of them will be dramatically different from ones here.  Should we travel great distances to see essentially the same game we can see at home?  Do I want to travel to Toledo, or New Jersey or Appalachia to watch baseball?  And if I'm in an awesome place (like SW Michigan), do I want to spend some of my precious time going to a baseball game (in Grand Rapids)?  Obviously, this is one list that I need to drop.  I will keep the actual list, so if we're traveling somewhere, I can see if there's a baseball team in the area that we can decide if we want to visit.  But I need to give up that idea of making trips all across the country to watch baseball just to fill out a list.

I don't know if too many of those are outright changed.  I'm still allowing myself to keep the lists, since I like them so, but at least two are no longer any form of "collect them all."  Baseball and books are going to be things I enjoy at my leisure, when and where they come up, rather than from some frenetic list.  Movies I'll continue to enjoy, but need to remember that the movies are the goal, not seeing them all.  And with the restaurants, well, that's just bound to happen anyway.  I guess in general it's a change in mindset.  Making lists is fine, and can be fun (for strange people like me).  Just don't make finishing the list outshine the enjoyment of the things you listed in the first place.  And I'll try to apply this thought process to any new lists I make up in the coming years.  I like organization, but obsession is one step too far, so this should make things a lot more fun and relaxed.