30 for 30

Well, 30 for 30 is not only a great ESPN documentary series, but also the title of my "30 before 30" list.  Because 30 for 30 is easier.  To be honest, I am not (at least right now) afraid of 3-0.  Maybe it's because I have so much time, or because I had a quarter-life crisis and 25 and things turned out great!

I got a lot of inspiration for this list from the Huffington Post piece, which I mostly disagreed with, but it's a list of ideas and not necessarily things that you can "do".  Other lists I read that loosely inspired the idea are here, here, and here.  Honestly, I googled "30 before 30" and got about a million hits.  It was interesting to see what other people would like to accomplish vs. what I would like to.  For instance, I have already made over five types of Christmas cookies in one year, baked a triple layer cake, DIY-ed things on Pinterest, gotten a Master's degree, and lived in a different state from where I was born (two actually!).  But, I have never run a long race, bought a home, or taken up a new hobby as mid-twenties gal.

So, my list is very reflective of pushing the limits of what I know I can do (cooking, baking, DIY, going out to eat) and things that I have never tried (running for real, buying a home, sewing):

1.  Adopt a pet
2.  Run five 5K races
3.  Run a half marathon
4.  Cook a multi-course (six? seven?) dinner party for at least six people.
5.  Actually become good at painting my own nails
6.  Go to Europe
7.  Cook my way through a whole cookbook (minus seafood recipes--my list, my rules)
8.  Make my own chocolate candy (not a bark, something more involved)
9.  Buy our first home!
10.  Make a Food Passport for Texas with 30 entries and stamp off each entry!
11.  Bake four colors/flavors of macarons.
12.  Re-learn Spanish/get Rosetta Stone
13.  Go to the dermatologist!
14.  Visit New Orleans (preferably during Mardi Gras)
15.  Begin/continue paying off my grad school student loan debt
16.  Learn to shoot a gun properly
17.  Own a total of eight place settings of our wedding china and the stemware to go with it (currently have 2 settings, 0 stemware)
18.  Buy a sewing machine and learn how to use it
19.  Visit New York City
20.  Complete one DIY project that requires staining, a hammer and nails, power tools, etc.
21.  Watch the IMDb Top 250.
22.  Rent a dress on Rent the Runway for a wedding/event
23.  Learn to golf finally!
24.  Go carb-less for a week.
25.  Have a Louis Vuitton Speedy 30. (This is my "something ridiculously expensive that you bought just for yourself" item.  And I've been obsessed with this bag since my first "real" job when I was 22.)
26.  Get a Sunday subscription to the newspaper (I love reading the Sunday paper and would rather just have a subscription, plus it's cheaper this way!)
27.  Read 30 new books (Including some from genres I would not usually read)
28.  Go to one yoga class a week for at least three months.
29.  Actually do one of the 400 million mason jar DIYs I have pinned!
30.  Begin going to church regularly

I have about 3 1/2 years to get going on it, so let's hope for the best.   I plan to update every time I do something relevant to the list-i.e. finish a new book, register/complete a 5K, buy some china (hahaha), etc.  I will not bore you every month with the payment details of my student loans.