An updated, perhaps slightly more logical list

A New Year! A New Post!

And 290 days till I turn 30.  I'm actually pretty okay with that, I've decided my life will begin anew at 30! My 20s were a very strange decade, full of moving, and being unsettled, great jobs, bad jobs, and everything in between.. a decade of growth for sure, but I'm hoping my 30s help me be a little more settled down, and help me improve on that growth. 

In 2011 I created a list of the 30 things I wanted to do before I turned 30 (you can read that HERE) and now, the year of my actual 30th birthday, I've decided to revisit.


Let's start off the list with the things that were on that list, that I actually accomplished:


1) Move back to Los Angeles... I did this at 27, in January in 2012! (only to move to Denver January 2013... life is really unexpected most of the time)


2) Buy a new car (actually be able to pick out the car I want, in the color I want with the features I want and have it all in my own name etc.) I did this in April 2013... I totaled my dented Chevy... it was kind of sad, and then all I could think was NEW CAR!! I bought a Jetta, my 16 year old self, might have been more excited than my 28 year old self LOL, but damn it my 28 year old self was happy!


3) Improve my credit (made some mistakes in my 20's, and I'm just now starting to undo them, getting better slowly but surely) ... buying the car gave me an excuse to look at my credit score for real.  It wasn't great, but it was already better than I had thought, and better than it had been when I wrote this to begin with.  Buying the car and making payments and getting low limit credit cards and making payments on time has helped with all of this... slowly but surely. 


4)  Be the lead Producer on a project/segments-  I made the switch to working in Promotions in October 2012... I write and produce spots all the time now, I've got bigger things in the pipeline now too... so go me?


5) Actually start planning for grown up life (like adding more to 401k start saving for something like a down payment for property or something?) I have sort of started adding money to my 401k... also in thinking of improving credit I've started thinking about buying a house or something... for real, I'm going to spend this year figuring out if I can afford to buy a house, if I can afford to buy what I want in my first house, and is buying a house something I really want to do...


6)  Buy a couch, I did this!! Twice, technically.  I bought a great purple living room set in LA, only to sell it before I left, and buy a new couch and living room set (and a new queen sized bed, complete with headboard) in Denver... so does that count as 2 checks??

7) Buy an overpriced designer handbag... well, I bought them all on sale, since this post I've bought a fair few... and a wallet.. and a dress... ALL ON SALE, marked down, last season...much cheaper, but yes, I did this. 


8) Put some actual art for my walls, thanks to one of my favorite people ever I have REAL art on my walls.  A good friend of hers is an artist in Florida, and I was gifted a very lovely piece of art. (I'm pretty sure my painting from Canvas and Cocktails doesn't count, but hey it's on the wall too! And not to be out done a framed photo of my one half of my favorite set of twins' chocolate floor doodle) 


So 8 out of 30 ain't bad right?  the next chunk is things actually in progress, or at least things I'm making strides towards for real. 


Things still in progress, slightly adjusted for reality: 

9) Originally, this was "Start Masters" ... well that won't be happening this year, but I am looking for a math class and GMAT prep class to take this year so I can take the GMAT or the GRE's, so now this is TAKE GRAD SCHOOL ADMISSIONS TEST.  My boss is very supportive of the idea, and is the one who suggested I find a math tutor or a class to take, because no matter how hard I try to study I just don't remember how to do the math, and the practice tests I've taken make me feel dumb.  So take classes, take test...finalize schools to apply to

10) This was originally, get to goal weight, and after I wrote that, I promptly continued to gain, I was 20lbs away from the be all end all goal weight in 2010, but 2011 I had gained 30lbs back, and promptly gained another 10, then another 10, and ended up the highest weight I had ever been in my life... so fail... BUT, I joined Weight Watchers in August 2013 and I'm back down 23lbs... 57 to go! I'd like to get 40 or so off by my 30th birthday... so 40 till then!  

11) This used to be Win Emmy/Get Nominated for an Emmy with a team... still possible I suppose, there are Sports Emmy's, Regional Emmy's and I have big plans for work this year... so maybe a promo or a segment gets a nomination... and I'd very much take a Telly  award and a PROMAXBDA award/nomination... because why not?!?!


12) This used to be Run a half marathon... right now I'm working on Couch to 5k...I'd like to be able to run a 10k by 30... and I want to run the Tinkerbell Half marathon in January 2015 (a few months after I turn 30) 

13) This used to be pitch new tv show, shoot some sort of pilot... this is now pitch new segments and new campaigns to work... make plan, execute plan, have awesome finished product, a benchmark piece if you will. 

14) Read War&Peace... it's totally 100% on my Kindle... that counts for something right?!?!?


Things still on old list I want to accomplish/do but have yet to do.

15) Get a Tattoo. I know where I want, what I want, I just need to do it. 


Now for Brand Spankin' new, realistic goals for the next 290 days.


16) Master the Beef Wellington... or maybe just successfully cook a Beef Wellington.  Years of watching Hell's Kitchen and Master Chef and I'm like, ya know what I can do this!! 

17) Learn to frost pretty cupcakes, I make awesome cupcakes, the frosting looks like crap... 

18) This used to 2 things,  finish writing a book and get something something published ... I've started 2 books since then... but this is now Find all the copies, drafts and doodles of my children's books, refine them, package them nicely, think about looking into what it would take to get them published... even just to self publish them via the interwebs and give as gifts...also finish writing my newest book "Hedwig and the Hedgehog"

19) Buy my mother a plane ticket to visit me.  She hasn't been out to visit me in the 8 years since I've been away, it's time she does, I'll pay for it... or at least the plane ticket traveling west... she'll either have to stay put forever, or buy her own ticket back home LOL.

20) Take a class of some sort, just for fun, something random, maybe a cake decorating class, or a class where I make beef wellington, or something random like pottery, ceramics, belly dancing (might as well tone the belly I'm trying to shrink) but something in addition to my math/GMAT prep classes... something just for fun!!! Or hell Ballroom dancing! 

21) Write certain letters I may not ever send, but letters to the following: One person I need to apologize too, because I understand things differently now. One person who doubted me, and it only fueled my desire to achieve things. More than 2 people who very much helped me get to where I am now and where I am going. 

22) Send Birthday cards to a bunch of people for real and on time.

23) See a show at Red Rocks... I live in CO, how can I NOT do this

24) Go "to the mountains" I won't ski... but I still haven't been to "the mountains" and I'd love a nice dinner, a spa day, and like a hike or something in an adorable little ski village

25) Meet more people in Denver, make new friends, spend more time with the ones I have here already

26) Get out in the field more for work, go on shoots, interviews etc.  This will help with a lot of the above goals. 

28) Learn Avid, certainly not master it, but learn it, have a real understanding of it, like I did with FCP, I think it will make me better at my job, and maybe more capable and efficient. I like to be useful and helpful and I just like to understand what's going on around me.

29) Do the hike at Flat Irons park I was too out of shape, and too uncomfortable doing last year, maybe once I start running more and getting more in shape I'll be able to do this, last year I got an 8th of the way and decided I couldn't do it... I feel bad about that. 

30) Save $500 dollars... specifically for buying myself some ridiculous 30th birthday present!


There were a lot of things on the old list that are not going to happen by the time I'm 30 (for Example, I'm not going to be at another Olympics, which I'm very much okay with. And I'm kind over the idea of skydiving) but for the most part I'd rather not dwell on what wasn't, or isn't.  I'm proud to say I've crossed off 8 things on that first list, no matter how random or small some were.  I'm proud to say I've taken steps towards things still in progress, and still possible, and I'm proud to say that I'm smart enough to reel in my thoughts and goals to things that are more manageable and tangible, and to accept that.  That's not to say I still don't have a crazy list of things I want to accomplish, and that my dreams have gotten any smaller. But for now, it's all one step at a time.