Thirty Before Thirty

Part of the reason I’ve been m.i.a. from this blog for so long is because I didn’t actually know how long it’d been. You see, as we grow up, nobody really prepares us for the fact that time as an adult moves at a completely different pace than time as a child. Like whoa! One minute it’s August and a couple turkeys later it’s the middle of February and I’m freezing. It just won’t slow down. And as a result, I’m “getting older”. You know, the kind of older where it’s finally time to begin coloring my virgin locks because no matter the age of my heart, the colonies of grey hairs that have claimed a New World on my scalp are certainly rubbing reality in.

It’s not alllll bad of course. I mean, I’m getting married and welcoming the next chapters of my life. And I’m excited about it. Plus let’s be honest, my youth was a wild fun one. No major regrets or injuries. That I can remember. (Kidding, Mom)

So to commemorate my twenties I’ve come up with a list of things that I’d like to accomplish before I turn thirty. Which is in approximately 20 months, so you know, these are DO-ABLE things. And since do-able doesn’t always mean they’ll get done, I’d like to reserve my right to a “roll-over plan”. So like, if 30 comes more quickly than expected (which it probably will, ohemgee), I reserve the right to roll any incomplete tasks over to my ‘35 Before 35’ list. Because what is life without a bunch o’ lists, right?!

1. Learn calligraphy
2. Hike The Narrows
3. Get scuba diving certified
4. Coachella
5. Go on a vacation alone
6. Be debt-free!
7. NYC
8. Hike to Kolob Arch
9. Read 30 books
10. New Zealand
11. Get a piano
12. Make homemade pasta
13. Drive-Inn Movie (Sean has NEVER been to a drive-inn. Should MY feelings be hurt?)
14. Get a new tattoo
15. Audition for a production
16. Chop my hair
17. Write a song
18. Perfect the homemade churro
19. Paint a picture
20. Quit my job for something better
21. Take a dance class
22. Visit my out-of-town friends
23. Go on a cruise
24. Buy a better camera
25. Minimize More!
26. Go on a backpacking trip
27. Hawai’i with Sean
28. A vacation with my family
29. Get healthy. Really healthy.
30. Save $1,000 to spend on myself on my 30th birthday  

My Life List Pt. 2

My Life List Pt. 1

1. Learn to drive a stick shift
2. Go on a run along the Great Wall of China
3. See the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis)
4. Learn to play the ukelele
5. Become scuba diving certified
6. Ride an elephant
7. Feel more in control of my life
8. Pay for the car behind me at a toll booth
9. Be completely debt free
10. Own my own dog
11. Visit a rainforest
12. Spend a New Years Eve in New York City
13. Really learn how to surf
14. Go on a spiritual retreat
15. Swim naked in the Mediterranean
16. Learn how to meditate
17. Form a great habit of waking up early
18. Visit a live volcano and see flowing lava
19. Climb the Statue of Liberty
20. Spend a Mardi Gras in New Orleans
21. Journal every day
22. Finish a crossword with no help
23. Hug more often
24. Be the best sister I can be
25. Speak less, listen more
26. Write a love letter to myself
27. Make a gingerbread house
28. Learn how to bake bread from scratch
29. Explore Amish Country in Pennsylvania
30. Learn to make chocolate truffles
31. Take a bartending class
32. Learn more about wine
33. Attend Carnival in Rio de Janiero
34. Spend time on every Hawaiian Island
35. Take a martial arts class
36. Go skydiving
37. See marijuana legalized
38. Snowshoe in Canada
39. Ride on top of a double decker bus in England
40. Drink sake in Tokyo
41. Find a four leaf clover
42. Visit Machu Picchu in Peru
43. Attend Oktoberfest in Germany
44. Go on a cheese tasting tour in Europe
45. Pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem
46. Write an article for a magazine
47. Take a ceramics class
48. Sing karaoke
49. Host Thanksgiving dinner
50. Grow a garden

My Life List Pt. 1

Naturally, I'm a dreamer. Thankfully, I was also born to one. My mother is a dreamer and despite many odds, she's accomplished so many of her lifetime dreams and goals. At a young age, she taught me to cut out pictures of dreams that I want to see and do during my lifetime from magazines. From those pictures, we created our first "Dream Book" and filled the book with pictures and words of things we'd hoped to someday see, do, or have. Years later, I can now look at that first dream book that we created and I can put a check mark next to many of those pictures. Since then, I've made many dream books. Gratefully, I still have too many dreams. Many will be accomplished, and others may not be, but I cannot imagine a life void of dreams and goals. So here are a few. There will be many more to come.

1. Run a marathon with my mom
2. Smoke on a Jamaican beach
3. Get my degree
4. Swim with dolphins
5. Learn another language
6. Write a song
7. Learn to sail
8. Spend time in a foreign country doing humanitarian work
9. Get bigger boobs
10. Leave a casino with a lot more money than I started with
11. Write "our" book with my mother
12. Smoke legally
13. Learn to play the guitar
14. Fall in love. The right kind.
15. Roadtrip across the United States
16. Have a child
17. Have a star named after myself
18. Build a savings I can actually depend on if need be
19. Enjoy a beer at a pub in Ireland
20. Join a book club
21. Learn to make my own sushi
22. Leave a $100 tip for a waitress
23. Attend the Grammys
24. Take a gourmet cooking class
25. Go whale watching in Alaska
26. Spend a summer travelling Europe
27. Visit the Seven Wonders of the World
28. Horseback ride on the beach
29. Purchase a piece of clothing over $1000
30. Camp in the Grand Canyon
31. Ride a camel in the desert
32. Start my own business
33. Take part in the movement to legalize it
34. Visit castles in Europe
35. Ride a gondola in Venice
36. Safari in Africa
37. Learn to decorate cakes
38. Spend a weekend at a winery
39. Spend time in Amsterdam
40. Go on a Mediterranean cruise
41. Ride in a submarine
42. Go on a vacation alone
43. Develop a healthy and honest relationship
44. Visit the historical sights in Washington D.C.
45. Attend a broadway show in NYC
46. Sleep in an igloo
47. Learn to surf
48. Win a beer pong game
49. Be able to say, "I'm with the band"
50. Visit Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris