Yesterday was my twenty-ninth birthday! Inspired by
Dean's and
Molly's '30 Before 30' lists, here are the thirty things I'd like to do before my next birthday, in no particular order:
1. Visit a financial planner.
Learn how to save for retirement and a rainy day, and improve my credit score.
2. Save money.
I have a specific number in mind that I'd like to see in my savings account by my thirtieth birthday.
3. Get fit and strong.
I'll measure my progress by using a timed 40-30-20-10 workout as a baseline test (40-30-20-10 rep sets of sit ups, push ups, and air squats).
4. Take vitamins.
A daily multivitamin for women, plus maybe one for hair and nails. Is this actually an important thing to do? It seems like taking vitamins is, like, an 'adult thing' I should be doing.
5. Go to the doctor.
I have to go to so many doctors: the gynecologist, the dentist, the dermatologist, the knee doctor. I should probably also get a physical from a regular doctor.
6. Start an anti-aging skin care regimen.
You know--eye cream, nighttime moisturizer, less cigarettes.
7. Get a Brazilian wax.
I've never had one, and I think I'm ready to face the fear.
8. Floss.
When the reason for not flossing is because it hurts too bad and makes your teeth bleed, you know you need to be flossing more than anyone.
9. See our apartment on Apartment Therapy.
I don't know that this would do anything to improve my life at all, it's just something that would make me really happy. I also think it would be nice to have professional documentation of our home as a snapshot of this particular moment in our lives.
10. Have a family portrait taken.
I'd like a beautiful photo of Paul, Maggie, Helen and I, for the same reasons as the above. This year just feels like it's going to bring a sea change with it, and capturing life just the way it is right now feels important.
11. Set foot on the Appalachian Trail.
This is the first, tiny-baby-step towards the only thing I definitely want to do before I die. Maybe I'll drive out to see Andy and Tron in West Virginia come springtime and see if they'll take an afternoon hike with me? There is a spot on the trail about 135 miles from Huntington that has free-ranging ponies (!).
12. Do my taxes.
I haven't done them in three years.
13. Learn to play the guitar.
I'm going to take lessons, and I'd like to be able to play a handful of easy songs by the end of my twenty-ninth year.
14. Send birthday cards, thank you notes and postcards.
I always really appreciate getting mail, and I've long wished I was one of those really thoughtful people that promptly sent a thank you note, or remembered birthdays in time to send a card.
15. Back up my computer.
This seems like another one of those things a 'responsible adult' does, so maybe this item should be next to 'take vitamins'. But honestly, I would be legitimately up a creek if my computer died right now.
16. Eat a bagel in Montreal.
First of all, I love bagels more than just about any other food item available. Second, I love saying French words. Third, I love traveling and I've never been to Canada. Fourth, I love a good rivalry. Four reasons seems like enough to add this to my list.
17. Get properly insured: life insurance, renter's insurance, jewelry insurance.
I'm embarrassed to say I don't currently have a single one of those insurance policies.
18. Keep a journal.
I've only kept a journal for one year in my life (tenth grade), and it's the most hilarious and insightful information I have about myself. I'd like to keep a journal this year, pack it away, and read it on my 40th birthday. It'll be like an internal 'before' and 'after' picture.
19. Order prints of my photos and make albums of the last few years.
This is actually a pretty important one to me, and something I'm really excited to do. My Grandma Mellor has an album for every year, and I love looking through them whenever I visit her. I have albums from high school and my freshman year of college, but every photograph I have taken since 2003 is living on the internet, mostly in my Flickr account, which feels less permanent than an album on my bookshelf.
Bonus points: Figure out how to hack into my old Photobucket account. There are some really good photos in there, but I don't remember the password or the exact username. Is it possible?
20. Get our wedding photos and video.
I never ordered copies of our formal portraits or the video from our ceremony from the hotel where we got married. I wonder if they still have it somewhere? I really, really hope so.
21. Complete a thirty day Bikram yoga challenge.
Recently, I took a month-long break from alcohol and it made me feel so good. I think this would make me feel the same way, only even better.
22. Wash my face before bed every night.
I'm a much happier person when I make myself do this, even on the nights when I just want to flop face first into my pillow.
23. Decorate our bedroom.
It's the one room in every house/apartment that we've lived that I never get around to decorating.
Bonus points: Get our landlords to put some new molding in there.
24. Finish the Michelin list.
Paul and I helped Molly and Timmy cross some Michelin-starred restaurants off their
list.
Plus, this past weekend I got it on very good authority that contrary to what one may
think, the food at L2O is just as good (if not better) than before Laurent Gras left.
25. Get my diploma.
I finished all of my classes at UNLV the day before we moved to Chicago, and I never applied for graduation or got my diploma. Time to remedy that!
26. Get better at 'small talk'.
I'm so bad at making conversation with strangers, and I have the feeling that it's a skill I'll need to use a lot in the coming year.
Bonus points: Remember everyone's name.
27. Read my mysteriously free subscription to The New Yorker every week.
Katie generously got us a one-year subscription to The New Yorker as a house warming gift when we first moved to Chicago three years and a half ago, but it just kept coming! I'd like to be more diligent about reading it every week.
Bonus points: Subscribe to (and read) TimeOut Chicago and Chicago Magazine.
28. De-clutter my house.
The closet in our entry way is full of clothes that need to be donated, arts n' crafts supplies that need to be organized, tools that need to a toolbox, shoes that need new heels, and about one million other things that need to be purged.
29. Write more.
Write this blog, write letters, write Paul's blog, write a cocktail book, write press releases, write lists, write diaries, write, write, write.
30. Draw more.
Doodles, markers, pencils, water colors, portraits, logos, menus, et cetera, et cetera.
