30 By 30 List

"Don't be afraid to give yourself everything you've ever wanted in your life."

Well, as you all know from yesterday's blog, I'm in the last year of my 20s.  Honestly, how did that happen?  I guess time flies when you're having fun, huh?  I've had several friends (and seen TONS of bloggers) do lists of 30 things they want to accomplish before they turn 30.  Y'all know I love nothing more than making a list, so of course I wanted to join in!

This picture has nothing to do with anything.  But I met
a dog named Rudy at Notre Dame and I just think it's
hilarious.  Had this not already happened, it would be
list-worthy for sure.

Here they are....my 30 by 30 goals!

1.  Cook 10 new recipes.  This would like triple the current number of recipes that I can cook.  I'll keep the fire extinguisher handy.

2.  Go camping.  I haven't been camping since I was a kid.  I'm talking put together a tent, roast food over a camp fire, pee in the woods kind of camping. (Well, I'd be okay without the last part.)  There's this lake in Colorado that is calling my name.  You hear that Coach A, The Godfather and Little L?  Let's make this happen!

3.  Run another half marathon.  I had so much fun when I ran the first half of the San Francisco Marathon last year that I've got to do another!  This time, my sweet friend Loud Oklahoma Girl is on board and we're looking at Dallas in March.  Get excited!

4.  Check 5 items off my bucket list.  Hello, my name is Tiffany and I have a list making problem.  Yes, I'm cross referencing between lists here.  Whatever.  5 checkmarks on the ol' bucket list shouldn't be too hard to pull off.

5.  Get a draft of Uncle Black Belt's book put together.  See, Uncle Black Belt has all of these amazing stories from his time in the military.  I mean, fascinating stuff.  He's got a book in there.  I've been working on it a little bit....

6.  Do my 2011 and 2012 scrapbooks.  So as an example of what a slacker I am, I created this awesome digital scrapbook to capture my life in 2010.  It was expensive, but I thought that I could justify it by saying I'd do one every year and have my entire life in book form for my grandchildren one day.  Yea.  As you can see, I've not done another one since.  Time to get that plan back on the rails.

7.  Read 24 more books.  I'm enjoying my goal of 2 books a month for 2012, so I'm going to keep that baby going.  If it ain't broke....

8.  Send a little gift to my friends once a month.  I've seriously got the sweetest friends in the world.  If you had seen the amazing birthday presents I got yesterday, you'd realize that these people are on top of gift giving.  I'm just trying to keep up. 

9.  Eat in 10 new restaurants.  I am the world's worst about finding a place I like (and even a dish inside that place) and never changing things up.  Enough of that.  Time to branch out and try something new!

10.  Apply to The Amazing Race.  This one has been on the bucket list for quite some time.  I'm dying to apply to the show.  The hold up?  Picking a partner.  I've been doing a lot of analysis and have several viable candidates.  I think I'll do a blog that outlines the candidates and then lets you guys help me decide.  And then, we'll have to come up with a video!

11.  Set a new 5K PR.  Now, just for the record, I'm a firm believer in the following statement, but I'm also crazy competitive.....so ya know, I have to try.

 Current PR for a 5K?  29:30 set at the 2011 Run for the Zoo.  It was freakin' freezing and I just wanted to get back to my warm car.  Good motivation!

12.  Listen to the New Testament on my iPod.  Well, see, here's the deal.  Remember the great program at church where I was going to follow the plan and listen to the whole New Testament by the end of the summer.  Yea....I failed at that.  I got through the Gospels and then somehow thought I got too busy and fell off.  Time to redeem myself!

13.  Create a gallery wall.  All you bloggers and your creative home decorating ideas have convinced me I need one of these. 

I've been trying to decide what photos to go with.  Do I pick a theme (places I've traveled, bucket list checkmarks, photos of home)?    Do I want all pictures or pictures mixed with a canvas mixed with maybe a letter?  Do I want different sizes?  Different color frames?  Ugh....the decisions!  I think that yesterday I may have gotten my center piece though.  Stay tuned next week for a birthday present report!

14.  Learn to parallel park.  Here's the deal.  I grew up in a town with no stop light.  We had to drive to hours to a town with stop lights for driver's ed.  Even that town was tiny, so my parallel parking lesson involved pulling up behind a truck that was parked by the library.  To this day, I do not understand how cars bend that way.  But I'm going to learn.  Who volunteers to teach me?

15.  Go to church every day for a week.  Pretty self-explanatory.  I'm excited about this one!

16.  Visit 2 new states.  I really want to get to all 50 states at some point.  I've got to get to adding a couple a  year in order to keep this goal moving forward. 

17.  Take Little Cowboy on a Tiff/Little Cowboy Day of Fun.  After the whole $70 worth of candy at the M&M Store incident, I'm not sure his mom will go for this again.  But I bet we can talk her into it.

18.  Work on a family tree.  Have you guys ever seen that show on tv...great, I forget the name....but they do research on a celeb's family tree and trace their roots back?  Well I think that would be awesome.  I'm on it.

19.  Take my quilts to a quilter.  I have sort of become a collector of quilts...and I LOVE it.  People keep giving them to me and making them.  I've got one that has been all laid out but needs quilted.  I've been meaning to get it to someone for years and just haven't done it.  Plus, I've got stuff gathered up for someone to make me another quilt out of my college t-shirts, but haven't taken that to anyone either.  Since I'm asking for a quilt rack from Santa, I need to get on this.

20.  Take a day off work just because.  I know what y'all are thinking.  "You're always gone from work on trips somewhere!"  Well, yes, that's true.  But, I have seriously never taken a day off work to do nothing.  I'm always on an airplane if I'm not at the office.  I think a day of nothingness would be awesome!

21.  Try a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks.  I know, I know.  I'm the last person on the plante to drink a PSL and get an iPhone.  Sue me.  But see, I don't drink coffee.  Actually, I don't drink any caffine at all.  But after hearing everyone I know rant and rave about these things, I've got to see what it's all about!  I'll probably be awake for a week.

22.  Send money anonymously to someone at Christmas.  I am a total sucker for donating money and gifts at Christmas.  Last year, it was the last day for the gift tree for senior citizens at Wal-Mart and I was so upset that there were people left on the tree who might not get Christmas, I just took them all.  Well this year I've got someone in mind who I'd like to send some money to completely anonymously who I think really deserves a little surprise.  I can't wait!

23.  Take a kid trick-or-treating.  This one seems strange to have on my list because (a) I don't have a kid and all, and (b) I don't really like Halloween.  Stay tuned for one of my Thoughts from an Outsider blogs next week for an explaination.

24.  Finally buy a duvet.  When I lived in San Francisco, I had this great apartment overlooking the Bay.  And I'd sleep with the window open at night and always have the cool (cold!) breeze flowing in.  I also had the most amazing big, fluffy duvet.  I swear I've never slept better and have been talking about getting one ever since.  It's time.

25.  Read a classic.  God bless my mother.  See, she's a high school English teacher.  And her own daughter has never read a classic.  Well, unless To Kill a Mockingbird counts.  According to my friend The Godfather, I don't think it does, however.  So I'm going to redeem myself this year.  I'm thinking Grapes of Wrath is going to be the selection.

26.  Ride the tram.  This is something that people come from all over the world to do and I've never done it.  Ridiculous.

27.  Host a themed cooking party. Yes, another cooking goal for the girl who eats Wheat Thins for dinner at least once a week.  (Or three times!)  Anyway, ND Friend is pretty much the coolest person I know and she and her friends had a fall bake off where they all got together to bake something and try all of the creations.  Love this plan.  I'm totally doing it.  Who wants to come?

28.  Get one of my photos printed on canvas for myself.  I've had these made for other people, but I think it would be cool to have in my own house.

29.  Bring home a bouquet of flowers once a month.  There are few things in the world I love more than flowers.  I buy them for myself sometimes, but I like the idea of doing it once a month.  They just make things happier.

30.  Pray a voiceless prayer.  My sweet friend Dr. Kyra mentioned to me a "voiceless prayer" that she did years ago by leaving an item in a church.  She's a bit of a talker (um..pot, kettle, black) and she said that it was a plea that she could not make with words.  I think it's absolutely beautiful and perfect and told her I would be stealing her idea.

So.  There you have it.  I now have 364 days to accomplish my list.....here goes nothin'!