Thirtieth year to heaven

I was conceived in January, 1980. To heaven, I am thirty years old already.

On earth, I still have a few more months, and I'm determined to make the most of them.

Here is my list of things to do before I turn 30:

1. Make it down to my ideal weight (130-135). I'm not telling my height, so you'll have to guess what I will look like when I get there. This evening, I weigh exactly 140.0 in my jeans, having lost 25 pounds in six months. It feels good.

2. Submit a children's picture book manuscript to a publisher. I don't have to get published for this to count, by the way. I have wanted to be a published author since before I hit puberty, and I have half a dozen finished manuscripts ready to go if I can ever overcome my fear of rejection and let my babies flutter out into the cruel world. Hopefully the big three-oh deadline will give me the guts and gumption I need  to stuff at least one in an envelope and mail it. It will probably take me less than an hour start to finish, give or take five years.

3. Run a half-marathon. I don't want to run a full marathon. 26.2 miles is crazy. 13.1 miles is only moderately crazy. Much better. Here's the race I'm running with my Dear Dadoo this fall, if you feel like joining me: http://www.goodboyevents.com/BeaverIsland.shtml. Just think - you too can attempt the (moderately) insane!

4. Write a novel. Or a book-length memoir. Either is fine. Realistically speaking, with the way my mind works, any book I write will be either a fictionalized memoir or a novel based on actual events. I'm not so good at remembering things as they really happen, and I'm equally bad at making stuff up from scratch. Thankfully, I've lived enough lifetimes in three decades that a reasonably smushed-up pastiche of real-life memories makes for passable fiction. Of all the entries on my bubbye-twentysomethings bucket list, this one's the long shot, I must admit. It's June, and I haven't started yet. Still, though - as I only expect to turn 30 once, I might as well shoot the moon.

So that's it. Those are all the things I want to have done before I officially become the old fartiest Old Fart I've ever been. I'll let you know how it goes.