I've Decided It's Important to Have a Bucket List

It's my BIRTHDAY EVE! My birthday's tomorrow (Friday) and I'm turning 35.

And I've been thinking a lot, as always, about what that means to me.

The funniest part about 35 is that I feel like now I've just started living!

I am in my happy place!

I feel like my whole life leading up to this point has been one giant class. A learning experience, a dress rehearsal and now I'm finally on stage for the big show.

This past year has literally been one of the best of my entire life. Between my little toddler men and my marriage and doing triathlons and meeting new people and finding new loves and passions and throwing cautions to the wind, I really haven't quite enjoyed life like I have this past year.

34 was good to me.

Really, really good to me.

Which got me to thinkin. I got a lot I wanna do. A LOT.

So I've decided it's important to have a bucket list and for the following reasons:

Because so very often, you find yourself wanting to do something, and you can't figure out what. Perfect time to tackle something on your bucket list! Or you find yourself wanting to take a trip. But you don't know where to go. Bucket list! You find yourself lost and you need inspiration. Bucket list! There are a ton of things you want to see and do before you kick the bucket but you have them in no organized fashion and you're flailing about in your life stuck in the mundane. Bucket list! You've stopped enjoying life and you want to start again. Consult the bucket list! There are travel specials on Travelocity and you can go to England roundtrip for $100. Bucket list!

The bucket list is an important friend! You must have it to consult! You must organize your thoughts in one giant to-do list! That's what I've decided.

So I've decided to write one and this is it. It seems I add more as I check them off, but that's ok, right?

• Run the Brooklyn Bridge
• Run the Golden Gate Bridge
• Go to San Francisco
• Go to Alcatraz
• Watch a shuttle launch from Cape Canaveral (November 1st! We have tickets!)
• Go to the Olympics (as a spectator. I think my Mary Lou Retton days are over.)
• Go back to school to get my Master's in Journalism
• Teach high school journalism
• Teach a spin class
• Live in New York City (again)
• Own or rent a condo on the beach to go on the weekends just to write. With wine handy.
• Write a book
• Finish a marathon (January 2011. Disney.)
• Take a photography class
• Go to the following: Ireland
• Italy
• France
• Germany
• Germany again
• England
• Design and complete NICU bags for NICU families
• Design and complete NICU journal for NICU mommies
• Take my children to a pow-wow on the Mohawk reservation in Canada where my family lives
• Go camping with the kids
• Open a tea room with my mom
• Take a public speaking class
• Take an acting class
• Do an Ironman 70.3 (November 14th)
• Do an Ironman 140.6
• Go to one of those places where you stay in a cabin with a glass bottom in the middle of the crystal blue ocean water, like in Tahiti or Bora Bora
• Cross-country roadtrip with my parents, sister and all the kids and husbands in an RV
• Two words: CHRISTMAS CRUISE!
• Travel to and provide aid in disaster relief or poverty stricken region
• Travel to and provide aid in disaster relief or poverty stricken region with the kids (when they're older)
• Blow off Thanksgiving and volunteer in soup kitchen
• Travel for a running, biking or triathlon race anywhere really really fun and far
• Do 10 one-armed pushups like Demi Moore in GI Jane
• Shave my head
• Finish my tattoo (or get another)
• Learn to play the guitar
• Get a guitar
• MHC.
• Go to Mardi Gras and get lotsa beads. Lots.
• Go to New York City for the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11th and meet my friends who I lived with and worked with there in 2001.
• Go to the Statue of Liberty. I know. I've lived in New York and I've never been. LAME.

So that's what it looks like so far. I will continue to add and cross off but I'm just glad I have a point of reference now!

Have you ever written a bucket list? What's on it?

Workout Wednesday: A Dream About Demi Moore (And a Challenge)

I have a fantasy.

Please don't laugh.

It's about Demi Moore.

I have this fantasy of one day doing a one-armed pushup.

I know. Even "saying" that out loud crossed out sounds a little ludicrous to me. But there was something so pivotal about her one-armed pushup scene in GI Jane, like that one-armed pushup meant something. It was more than the pushup. It was about her conquering that world, the one she was not invited into, and it was about her conquering herself.

And I want a one-armed pushup in my life.

So hey. My life is just a tad bit different from GI Jane's. So what? So I'm not almost drowning every day in training and being tortured by male GI's because I want to be part of their world. So my life is instead filled with tiny GI's and I am struggling to fit into their world. That's a sort of boot camp, right? I think so.

Anyway, I mean, look at her! It's RIDICULOUS!

I also have a fantasy about shaving my head but that's another story and my husband will have none of that. But if I ever, ever find myself in the position of being able to do a one-armed pushup, you best believe I might entertain the idea of shaving my head in celebration. My luck, I'd have a lumpy head.

I don't expect to be able to do a one-armed push-up anytime soon (still got some of that "wave flab" going on here) and in fact, it might be years until I can ever do one. I'm ok with that. But it's on the bucket list. And we only live once.

So since you have to have a plan and I'm all about plans, I'm issuing a smaller challenge.

It's about pushups. Not the kind that has to do with a bra (although I could really use one of those). The way I see it, it's a long road to the one-armed push up and it's paved with regular push ups. And let me preface this by saying I can barely do 10. This is going to be a really, really long road.

But I figure I should probably be able to do more if I'm ever to try the one-armed kind. So, I'm taking the 100 PUSHUP CHALLENGE!  

I can't even believe I'm saying it out loud. My husband and I are doing this. I invite you to just try it.

It's a 6 week plan but it takes less than 30 minutes a week! That's like less than 5 minutes a day! (Are you sold yet?) I will just add it onto the tail end of my workouts, how bout you?

I will have a few vlog reports where I embarrass myself and crash to the ground in a heap on the floor I'm sure and we can check in here and if you choose to blog about it, you can leave your link and/or update in the comments. If you drop out halfway through because it turns out this thing is all sorts of crazy, please do tell because I'd love to know. Or you can just follow my personal journey through pushups here.

I'm going to post my very first pushup workout here next Wednesday (which means I will technically begin the challenge myself next Tuesday). If you want to do it too, you can start here with the initial test, where they tell you where to start.

So, I'm going to take the rest of the week off now and rest up for my big pushup ceremony next Tuesday. I need a nap just thinking about it.