Amy Turn Sharp of Doobleh-vay fame has written a list of thirty-four things she would like to accomplish before her thirty-fifth birthday, and she has nudge me to do the same.

My divine friend Joslyn and I have been chatting for a while now about how we need to make lists that are for our lives and how hard it is to create and sustain that giant "bucket list" over the course of a life, but how it is far more manageable to keep ongoing yearly goals and lists.
After some inspiration from the amazing Hula Seventy, Jos decided to do a list of 34 things before she turns 35 later this year and since I am turning that magical number too I hopped on board too.
These lists are meant to be realistic and in the spirit of being good to [yourself].

Simple things. Small things. Meaningful things.

Now here is the fun part:
Please join us in sharing [your] lists.
What do you want to do before [you're] 25 or 43 or 55?
Next month? Next year? How can you make the time to be good to [yourself]?

Inspire us please?
Share with us by linking to Doobleh-vay and Simple Lovely blogs and posting [your] own list.
Leave us a comment that [you're] participating too.
We will pick one each day next week to share with the world.
And perhaps a little prize at the end too?
Kiss Kiss

I sat down and thought, hmm, my birthday isn't until the end of December, but I can give myself a head start and still do the list now, which will have how many things on it? Thirty-six? Yes, because I'll be thirty-seven at the end of the year, except, wait, I wasn't sure, so I asked the Palinode how old I was going to be. I am horrible at calculating my age. Somehow, my birthday being at the end of the year renders me incapable of figuring out my own age.

"How old am I going to be in December?" I called out.

"I'm not going to tell you, because you ask me all the time, and you never remember. Can't you figure out your own age?" he answered, a bit of superiority edging his voice, because he is oh-so-smarty-mcfarty for knowing how old he is.

"I don't trust myself with that. Help me!"

"You are going to be thirty-seven."

"Oh, right. That would be why I've been telling people that I'm thirty-six." I decided that a second cup of coffee was in order.

"That would be why."

"Wait. Are you sure?"

"Yes." He sighed. I can be ever so tiresome.

"Really?"

"Yes." He paused. "Wait, now you've got me second-guessing myself." He did that brow thing people do when they calculate math in their heads. "Oh, you are going to be thirty-six."

"What? I've been telling people that I am thirty-six already and wondering how the hell my late thirties were coming down on my head so fast, and I AM ACTUALLY ONLY THIRTY-FIVE?!"

"Yes."

Jerk.

I am pretty sure that one of those times in which I was hit by one of three cars, a truck, or a city bus might be the root of my age confusion, but I can't be sure. I'm fairly certain that it was that Mercury that had me picking turquoise paint out of my scalp for a week. Or maybe it was that time I was beaned with a softball that broke my Holly Hobbie glasses in half and swelled up half my head like a rising bread loaf.

So, as it turns out, my list will be of thirty-five things that I want to accomplish before I turn thirty-six. I feel like I've gained an extra year. If I stick with the Palinode, I could be immortal.

Thirty-Five Things I Want To Accomplish Before I Am Thirty-Six Years Old

1. Have every last bit of laundry done all at the same time just once.
2. Join a yoga class without anyone I know in it and not give in to my anxiety about group activities.
3. Floss my teeth every day.
4. Write more poetry.
5. Exercise at least every other day, even if that only means shaking my butt to music while doing the dishes.
6. Properly schedule my writing and other creative tasks.
7. Do a minimum of one kind thing for someone else and one kind thing for myself daily.
8. Go to my gynecologist every six months like I am supposed to, because I should know better after having cancer.
9. Go to the dentist in spite of my terrific fear at the mere thought.
10. Eat when I am hungry.
11. Become a published author in a book - you know, those things that have printed text on paper.
12. Lose some of my toaster-related fear. It is not a malevolent appliance. Really.
13. Get a better camera.
14. Publish a book of my photography in conjunction with my x365 pieces.
15. Eat more vegetables and fruit as though they are not chores to be trudged through.
16. Clean out our closets and shelves of all the detritus that clutters our living space.
17. Finish knitting projects, both old and new.
18. Hang more of my photography around the apartment.
19. Reclaim and nurture the creativity I have irresponsibly been allowing to drift.
20. Listen to more music.
21. Read more books of all kinds.
22. Sit on a beach with my feet burrowed into cold sand in the shade.
23. Get past my hatred of the flub under my chin.
24. Go to more art galleries.
25. Learn to cook a wider variety of dishes and enjoy doing it.
26. Create my own art.
27. Do what I say more often.
28. Get a tattoo.
29. Have sex more often, because I will die one day.
30. Learn to crochet.
31. Celebrate more, just because.
32. Allow in people who want to know me.
33. Learn meditation and welcome it as a daily practice.
34. Feel less guilt. I cannot be a robot, so I should put that aspiration aside.
35. Get a new couch.