Dirty Thirty

So the big 3-0 came and went, and I had not completed everything on my "30 before 30" to-do list. This came as no great surprise to me, since I created the list in January 2012, leaving me only a year to complete 30 goals -- some of which were seasonal or required lengthy reading. A list that long can take years to accomplish, especially when one's days, weeks, and months are most often filled with the mundane day-to-day.

Am I a failure? Certainly not. While I will admit that a small part of me is disappointed that I didn't pull off a miracle, I also know that even the process of writing down goals (and accomplishing a few of them) can be enough.

Of the 30 goals, I completed 10 (all of which you can read in my previous blog posts). Here's what's left (maybe I should re-title the list to "30 while 30"):

1. Read all of Shakespeare's plays. (In the past year, I read six new plays. That brings my total to 20 of 37 plays.)
2. Read the entire Bible.
3. See a drive-in movie.
4. Watch The Godfather movies.
5. Ride a horse or pony.
6. Change a baby's diaper.
7. Go camping in a tent. 
8. Get a caricature picture drawn of myself.
9. Get a spray tan. 
10. Make an entire Thanksgiving dinner from scratch.
11. Write a one-act play and submit it to local theaters. (Note: I started a draft of a play, and almost finished it, before I thought it too cliched and maudlin. Creative writing, when you're rusty, is hard!) 
12. Learn to play chess.
13. Learn to parallel park (again).
14. Bake my own bread (using yeast). 
15. Routinely back up all computer files. 
16. Learn to sew.
17. See an opera. (I have tickets for March 17! Progress!)
18. See a ballet performance. 
19. Take a photography class.
20. Consolidate all 401K plans and open a new one.

Maybe, just maybe, I can work on completing the remainder of these this year. Who's with me?!