10 Years of 20 Things After 30

Exactly three months from today, I will turn the big 3-0.  Honestly, I'm not quite sure how that happened.  I feel like I woke up and somehow skipped everything between about 22 and today.  I remember college (amazingly) and I remember the last year or so, but whenever anyone mentions being about 25 or 26 years old, I try to remember those years of my own life and kind of feel like I missed them.  I think "Wait, I was 25 once...wasn't I? I had to have been...I'm 29 now." Obviously nothing overly exciting happened during those years, and I can truthfully say that I had some tough times, so maybe that's why they don't stick out in my memory.  I don't want the same thing to happen over the next ten years.

So, completely stealing borrowing an idea from one of my favorite bloggeristas and fellow struggling Singleton, Neurotic Workaholic (check out her blog, I promise you won't be disappointed), I've decided to put together a list of things I don't want to miss out on in my thirties.  I don't want to wake up and think, "What did I do in my thirties? And why can't I remember them?" Neurotic's list from yesterday is excellent, and she inspired me to start thinking about these things for myself in a serious light.  I kept mentally adding things to it at random times overnight, while I was getting the coffee maker ready for its early-morning responsibilities, while I was packing my after-work change of clothes for my chiropractic appointment.  My brain is a multi-tasking wonder to behold.  I decided to start today (as I enter the last quarter of my twenties...I promise you I won't start a countdown.  Or at least I won't publish it daily.) to give myself plenty of prep time so I can hit the ground running on December 22.  Or at least after Christmas.  No, don't let me start procrastinating!  December 22; hold me accountable! 

Things I'd Like To Do In My Thirties
(in no particular order)

1. Exit Singledom.  (duh)
2. Have or adopt at least one child.  With or without a man.  I can do it.  No matter what my sister says.
3. Write a novel.  It doesn't even have to get published; I just want to put one on paper.
4. Go on one real vacation every year.  I've missed entirely too many travel opportunities.
5. Have a savings account that doesn't look like I'm still 13 years old.
6. Buy a house.  Preferably a cute little cottage style house that I can decorate like Meg Ryan's in "You've Got Mail."  Wow, I totally just got the irony there.
7. Visit Las Vegas and spend entirely too much money on things I'd never do at home.
8. Visit Italy and find locations where my father's family lived before they emigrated.
9. Get physically fit.  I've got 10 years...this is accomplishable, right?

10. Ride a motorcycle.
11. Ride in a hot air balloon.
12. Make, in salary, twice what it cost me to attend college per year.
13. Learn to play the guitar.
14. See New York City at Christmas time.  Preferably with the person who helps me accomplish #1.
15. Own a bedroom suite.  Like a grown-up one.  I'm trying to transition out of "Just got out of college" furniture.  It's obviously a slow process.
16. Learn how to properly dance.  As in, taking a class.  And by dancing, I don't mean MTV stuff, I mean "Dancing with the Stars" stuff.
17. Learn to speak another language, probably either Spanish or Italian.  I could cheat and do Spanish, building up my seven years of schooling to a conversational level.
18. Run a 5K.  (This will only be accomplishable if I pull off #9, so that's why it's WAY down on the list.)
19. Finally get or start my Masters degree that I should have started immediately following undergraduate school, like everybody told me I should have, because then I'd get caught up in life and never go back. 
20. See at least 5 other Major League Baseball stadiums besides Turner Field.  I can't be a baseball fan with such a limited experience.

Okay!  Twenty things in ten years.  I can do it.  I know I can.  If I put as much determination into numbers 2-20 that I've been putting into accomplishing #1, I'm sure I will be coasting into the finish line this time ten years from now.  And how much more fun fulfilling all these goals would be with someone to share them with!  Focusing on number 1 right now...  eyes of the prize.

P.S. I intend to celebrate in style and am seriously considering a week-long themed celebration.  You are all invited, of course, and I am completely open to theme suggestions.