Thirtieth Birthday

Well... my thirtieth birthday came and went, with not much fanfare, except in my own mind.

I had been dreading the day for the past two years.

My parents had nothing to say about it one way or another - no words of wisdom or encouragement. My closest friends marvelled with me about the insanity of it - how could we possibly be thirty?! My coworkers (most of whom are older than me) told me that thirty was the new twenty, still so young, lots of time to do the things we still want to do, maybe even an opportunity for new beginnings... But I mostly just see it as a grown-up number, and I don't feel that I'm there yet!

But, alas, the day came, and went. It was a Wednesday so I had to work a full day. I could have taken the day off, but I had decided to take the next day off in order to do some baking for the county fair. So, I went to work. I wore a dress I picked up at a thrift store while on vacation the week before - it's black with white polka dots, and a teal sash, with a mini crinoline around the bottom. I refrained from wearing my tiara with that... I felt kind of cute. It was a pretty normal, if not quiet, day at work. My coworkers surprised me with a delivery from the florist - a pretty little single white flower, and balloons. They also sang to me. For supper I had wanted Hawaiian pizza from the restaurant, but everyone was rushed with baking for the fair and whatnot, so I got homemade hamburger pizza. It's what I would have asked for as a kid, and it's always good, but it wasn't quite what I wanted this time. My parents had bought me a new bookcase earlier in the summer, which I haven't been able to put up yet because my room is such a mess... My brother gave me the new Beauty and the Beast movie on DVD (and later on, the Belle Funko Pop! figure)... And that was my birthday day.

We had bought weekend passes for the county fair, so we ended up going Friday & Saturday night, and I got to enjoy all kinds of unhealthy fair food: cotton candy, blooming onion, poutine... And went on some rides. It was a fun weekend.

As far as my 30 Before 30 bucket list... Well, I didn't even manage to cross off half the list. I'm kind of disappointed about that. I had really wanted to do more. Let's just go through the list the see how I did, shall we?

  1. Live on my own - nope, didn't do that. And I'll be honest, it's probably not going to happen by next year either. It could, but it's not likely, unless I decided to pick up and move to another province, or am able to find a roommate (which wouldn't really be "living on my own").
  2. Write a business plan - I did not do this. Over the last two years, I've lost my dream. I'm no longer sure that I want to own a bakery, and in fact, I have no idea what I want to do with my life. So perhaps we should change this one to figure out what I want to do in life...
  3. Set foot in every province/territory - No. No, this obviously did not happen. And, well... like living on my own, it probably won't be happening in the next year either.
  4. Discover my personal style - *sigh* I mean... I guess I've always known what I like, but I don't like it on my body. So this is probably more closely related to either losing weight, or accepting my body for what it is.
  5. Finding my perfect "little black dress" - I still haven't quite found "the one."
  6. Be healthier - I had crossed this one off, because I had made efforts and gone to a nutritionist and made a plan to eat healthier... but I never went back to he nutritionist, and didn't quite stick to the plan, so... that was a half success.
  7. Get active - Well, I have once again not joined a softball or soccer team this summer... But I may take some exercise classes at the University this fall with one of my colleagues...
  8. Read Jane Austen - Nope, didn't do this yet, either.
  9. Do 30 random acts of kindness - I started doing this... but then time got away from me. I was also having a hard time coming up with 30 valid ideas that didn't involve spending lots of money. I'll keep working on it...
  10. Be a more faithful blogger - One I definitely did! I've been posting weekly or every other week on my book blog for the past year!
  11. Make a YouTube tutorial - Haven't quite got there yet, but I probably could. Especially now, as we're moving into Christmas craft sale season, and I will hopefully be making lots of my little ornaments to sell...
  12. Get up to date with technology - I bought a smart phone and joined Instagram, so yes I did this one!
  13. Travel with my best friend - Yes! We went to Orlando in March and it was EPIC!
  14. Enter a contest - By this I meant to enter my art or baking or something into a big contest, which I didn't do. I always put articles in the county fair, but it's not much of a competition, and there aren't any big prizes or anything.
  15. Take an online course - This comes back to not really knowing what I want to do in life. I would probably have to change this one to Go back to school once I figure out #2...
  16. Learn to enjoy cooking - I still haven't done much cooking on my own, so I haven't worked on this one.
  17. Get more organized - *sigh* I am definitely not done wktih this yet. I have, however, made some efforts. I bought a Happy Planner, which I have been using. I really need to clean up my room in order to organize my life a little better. Baby steps. But I'm going to consider this one crossed off, since I've gotten started.
  18. Become smarter financially - Sadly, I am still making silly impulse buys and spending way too much. It's kind of a coping mechanism because I don't have friends to hang out with...
  19. Plan for my retirement - I had crossed this one off because I spoke to my financial advisor and set up an automatic withdrawal of $50/month to go into mutual funds. However, I need to be saving more, so I'm going to see about putting that up to $100/month this year.
  20. Spend more one-on-one time with my nephews - I'm going to cross this one off because I did my part, but it hasn't really happened yet. Last year I gave my nephews "the gift of time" coupons for Christmas. They were to see a movie with me (and there was a ticket included), go window shopping (meaning I would take them to the mall to hang out, and they could shop if they wanted, but I wouldn't be buying them stuff), and spending a weekend at our house without the other boy. They have yet to cash any of them in yet. The summer was pretty busy for their family, so I kind of get it, but still a little bummed.
  21. Host a dinner party - I'm still not living on my own, so this one will be a little difficult until that happens. Especially considering I have no friends to invite over, so my "dinner party" would probably be my family...
  22. Learn to be ok with being solo - I more or less am ok with it, but this was more about being ok with doing public activities on my own, which I'm still not that comfortable with.
  23. Be a more knowledgeable car owner - ... Nope.
  24. See a live show/concert - Went to see Walk Off the Earth in Montreal April 2016, then April 2017 another fave band Home Free came to Sherbrooke. In November another up-and-coming group is come here called Washboard Union. So this has definitely been crossed off.
  25. Go to La Ronde - Did it! We went the summer after I made this list. Might go back this fall!
  26. Walk Foresta Lumina - Yep, did it too! We went for my birthday the last two summers. Didn't go this year because there was lots going on, but maybe I will go myself before the season ends.
  27. Visit the Abbey at St-Benoit-du-Lac - We did go last year, end of August, for a quick visit, but it would definitely be worth another visit, another time, earlier in the summer.
  28. Eat food truck food - My brother and I went to the food truck festivals in Montreal a couple of times over the last two summers. It was fun!
  29. Personal - This is one I didn't want to make public, but I still haven't done this one either.
  30. Unknown - I left one open in case I came up with something amazing... I haven't.
 
So... I really didn't do very well, I only crossed off 12 items, and some of those shouldn't really have been crossed off... But it did give me some goals to aim toward, so it wasn't all lost. And I believe I will be recycling this list and adding new ones for my 35th birthday (I'll think about that and maybe post in the New Year). I may also still try to do my 30 Random Acts of Kindness before the end of 2017, just because it was hard to come up with 30, I don't think I could do 35, haha!
 
Anyway... did any of you follow my lead to write a Milestone Bucket List? How are you doing with your lists?

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