Before I turn (gasp!) 40...

Since my 34th birthday in July, I have been compiling a list of things I'd like to do before I turn 40. I am publishing them here in the hopes that more people will hold me accountable and help me attain these goals in the next six years!!! Here we go...

1. Learn sign language
2. Religion 101 – or Religion for Dummies? – I just need to educate myself on the world’s religions
3. Walk in one of the 3 day walks for breast cancer
4. Become debt-free (other than mortgage)
5. Volunteer time with the children or without - Animal Shelter, Hospice, Soup kitchen, or some other worthwhile cause
6. Perform one random act of kindness every month, anonymously and without recognition
7. Begin genealogy research and update family tree
8. Visit 6 of the 7 continents. I veto Antarctica and I still need Asia and South America to get to 6.
9. Swim with dolphins
10. Learn to scuba dive
11. “Compete” in an Olympic distance triathlon
12. See the northern lights and/or experience the 24 hr sunshine or 24 hr darkness of the far north
13. Visit Russia
14. Sample more cuisines of the world – try something new each month
15. Buy something from a TV infomercial
16. Surf
17. Go one week without watching TV
18. Check into a very nice hotel by myself for a weekend and order room service as often as I want and order pay per view movies (but not dirty ones) like they're going out of style
19. Do an all-day movie marathon in a movie theatre
20. Learn to play poker
21. Spend an afternoon (or maybe just an hour; whatever it takes to get through a bucket of golfballs) at the driving range, and try not to be a spaz
22. Watch all the movies (that I have not yet seen) on the IMDb Top 100 List
23. Start and continue an exercise regime for three months, even if it kills me
24. Learn to accept my body and all its imperfections
25. Read 3 classic novels I should have already read
26. Spend a summer in Europe with my family
27. Finish writing a children’s book (should probably start it too)
28. Go through all our photographs and select some to mat and frame like they’re real art
29. Get rid of all the things in my house that are just clutter and would benefit someone else
30. Buy a plant and keep it alive, instead of treating plants as if they are meant to be disposable
31. Organize a box for each child to hold their special childhood crap memorabilia, limit size of said box so that they can never say they don’t have room for it in their own house
32. Shower under a waterfall in an amazing tropical setting
33. Track down and help some of the AIDS orphans that I met in South Africa in 2001
34. Go to the Olympics
35. Stay connected with my girlfriends
36. Throw a dart at the map of the world and travel wherever it lands
37. Visit a country for every letter of the alphabet (except O, Q, XYZ – you try to find a country to go to in that list! I’m not going to Oman or Qatar.) – have 9 letters left to visit (D,G,H,J,K,L,P,R&T)
38. Strut on a Catwalk unselfconsciously
39. Try archery
40. Do something so completely unexpected that everyone will say “WHAT? Tamsin did that?”