May 5, 2010

Go girl, it's your birthday...


Today is my 34th birthday.  They say you're only as old as you feel.  And since I feel like I'm 54, I figure actually BEING 34 isn't such a bad thing.

In spite of all the aging stuff, I love my birthday.  I always have.  It's a new day.  A new year.  And it's always made complete with cake!  So today, I'm starting the 365 Project, documenting a photo a day for one entire year.  I figured I practically do it anyhow, that I might as well make it official.

Which leads me to the promised, and previously agonized about, "Jennifer's 100 Things" list.  They are in no order of importance, and have no timeline to complete, except that before death do I part thing.  They are just a list of things, both big and small, long- and short-term that I want to someday be able to say "I've done that".
  1. Get one of my photos shown in a gallery
  2. Manage to do the splits again
  3. Whitewater raft down a river
  4. Climb Kilimanjaro
  5. Learn to speak German
  6. Swim 100 meters in a pool without stopping
  7. Taste the water of all 5 oceans (need the Arctic and Southern)
  8. Step on all 7 continents (need Oceana, Asia and Antartica)
  9. Visit all 50 US states (need Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Carolina, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut and Rhode Island)
  10. Visit 30 different countries (17 done)
  11. Be in a play
  12. Serve food at a meal kitchen
  13. Ride the train up Jungfrau
  14. Successfully navigate a hedge labyrinth
  15. Spend a night in a lighthouse
  16. Own a cool car (read: not a momobile)
  17. Write a book
  18. Hold a rummage sale
  19. Camp in the Grand Canyon
  20. Watch the Kentucky Derby in person wearing a big hat
  21. Take my picture in the Cloud Gate ball in Chicago's Millennium Park
  22. Go to the top of the Willis Tower
  23. Eat at Xoco
  24. Visit the observation deck at the Shanghai World Finance Center
  25. Take a cooking class with a famous chef
  26. Deep sea fish
  27. Hide a geocache of my own
  28. Play in a softball league
  29. Watch Casablanca and Breakfast at Tiffany's
  30. Take a photography class
  31. Spend Easter at the Vatican
  32. Bike across the Golden Gate Bridge
  33. Take C-man camping
  34. Soak in hot springs
  35. Build an exercise room in the basement
  36. Take a boat trip through Bangkok’s floating market
  37. Ride an elephant
  38. Own a Vespa
  39. Eat an apple from a tree I planted
  40. Hike on the Appalachian Trail
  41. Throw my arthritis into remission
  42. Start and finish Project 365 (started 5/5/10)
  43. Spend a birthday on the top of a mountain
  44. See the Olympics
  45. Take a mud bath
  46. Renew my wedding vows with Beerman, barefoot on a beach
  47. Learn to flamenco dance
  48. Gather lavender from a Provence field
  49. Sail the Greek Isles
  50. Drink water from the Lourdes sanctuary
  51. Host an outdoor party with white Christmas lights everywhere
  52. Make a pie from berries I pick
  53. Be a nude model for an art class
  54. Take part as a guerilla gardener
  55. Build a gallery wall in my house for any family artwork
  56. Become a certified herbalist
  57. Own a place in Switzerland
  58. See a World Cup game in person
  59. Taste 50 different sparkling wines/champagnes
  60. Get First Stage theater season tickets for the family
  61. Bathe in the Dead Sea
  62. Bike the Tour de Farms
  63. Learn to tie all those intricate Boy Scout knots
  64. Tiptoe through the Dutch tulips in May
  65. Take an Indian cooking class
  66. Earn a promotion to Director
  67. Learn how to tile a floor
  68. Cruise the Nile
  69. Find Great Grandpa Salzmann’s boyhood home in Moutier, Switzerland
  70. Take a meditation class
  71. Visit an Ashram
  72. Spend a weekend on a houseboat
  73. Send in a postcard to PostSecret
  74. Eat roasted corn with mayo and chile powder from a street vendor in Mexico
  75. Own a house on a river
  76. Learn to make luxemburgerli
  77. Live in another country
  78. Learn to sail a boat
  79. Own a zero turn riding lawn mower
  80. Go meatless for 30 days
  81. Eat at Felidia
  82. Haggle at a bazaar in Morocco
  83. Stand in two continents at the same time
  84. Visit the Haglia Sophia
  85. Attend services at a Jewish temple
  86. Kayak down a river DUH! I've already done this. I'm therefore replacing #86 to be Go 30 days without eating out
  87. Ride in a hot air balloon
  88. See a fjord
  89. Learn to snowboard
  90. Harvest saffron I’ve grown
  91. Eat a paczki in Poland
  92. Learn to play the guitar
  93. Read 10 classic books I’ve never read
  94. Enter something into the Wisconsin State Fair
  95. Take a cake decorating class
  96. Learn how to properly use knives
  97. Lay on the virgin’s altar on Machu Picchu (and laugh and laugh and laugh)
  98. Ride the Trans-Siberian across Asia
  99. Photograph Loy Krathong
  100. Drive a car over 100 mph

And because I can never seem to get this song out of my head lately...

7 comments:

Julie said...

Happy 34th Birthday! I had mine two months ago and have survived so far. lol I'm here via the May Mingle and hope you had a wonderful birthday!

Indigo said...

Happy Birthday!!

That's a great list! I have already completed the following: 2,3,11,16,17,18,29,35*,55,60,70,85, and 86

*If you count a treadmill, bike & tv in the basement a workout room. I've built it.

You are totally crazy: 53 and 100

We have #79 at work and sometimes my dad drops it off at my house to do my lawn. OMG TOTAL FUN!!! However, it does not fit through the gate into my backyard. :(

#96: Someday I'm going to send Peter over to Christine's so he can learn how to properly use knives too.

Perhaps I'll make a list of my own...

jon said...

Happy Birthday, Governor Jen.
I will comment on your list later. Happy 24th Birthday!!!!....?????

jon said...

I will comment on my favorites not necessarily in any order:
I am not a big traveler so that eliminates about half of them.
If it has to do with swimming or boating I can probably still do it.

2. a split...I would rip my pants
4. Kilimanjaro...I am still working on the stairs.
3. I have Kayaked and Canoed on numerous rivers and lakes.
12. Serve lunch...yes, I wouldn't mind that. it's like being a bartender for sober people.
14. Labyrinth...I have trouble finding my car at the mall. That's almost the same.
16. Cool Car? I owned a 1959 Austin Healy Sprite...A cool car during the winter too!!!!
17. I wouldn't mind writing a book. I would call it "Life Philosophy of a Squirrelly Senior Citizen".
18. Rummage sale, My wife hates them.
27. Geocaching sound like fun.
30. photography class? I did..It turned out to be a photoshop class. I didn't learn much about Photography, I learned photo software.
38. I owned a moped. It was fun but a little dangerous.
44. I lived near Lake Placid in 1980. I saw the US beat Russia from the press box. A friend worked for a local radio station. We had press passes. WAY COOL!!!
53. Nude model! That would get me out of my comfort zone now days...You go girl...Don't wait until your my age...gravity is your enemy.
65. Indian cooking? buy curry powder and a goat. What else do you need to know.
73. I like that idea also. but I must be the week. something like " Ted Bundy didn't do it" or something of equal value.
75. House on the river...I am 500 steps from the Atlantic.
78. Ah, learn to sail a boat? Sailing is a wonderful experience, I did it many times in my youth. It was one of the great moments of my youth.
You will love it. do it soon!!!
80.go meatless for 30 days. I could do that, but I would never be a full fledge vegatarian.
86. see 3.
97. Lay on a virgin's altar and laugh? I was spared at an early age. Would we be laughing for the same reason?
100. I was a passenger in a car that was doing 110 mph. six people in the car. no traffic, no cops, no brains!!!

jon said...

oops! 73 is star of the week

Kwizgiver said...

What a great list! I need to do this, too. I don't think I have as many cool things as you've got.

Happy, happy birthday!

::mingle::

Lindy said...

Happy belated birthday! Looks like a great list and since you're only 34, I wouldn't be surprised if you completed them all!

#12 - Very rewarding; have done it several times.

#29 - Surprised you haven't seen those. Get Netflix! =)

#25 - Who would be your choice of chef?

#31 and 50 - No doubt would be life altering.

Lots of great ambitions!

*mingle*