Forty By Forty

This is the year that I turn FORTY. I'm excited by it. I don't feel old. I don't feel like my life is over. In fact, it's more like it's starting. So when pondering how to celebrate this occasion, which is nine months away, I found myself wanting to do so many things. Someone suggested creating a bucket list of sorts...and that's what Forty By Forty is. Forty things/tasks/missions that I must complete by my 40th birthday which is December 10th, 2010. 

I could only come up with a few things on my own, so I asked my closest and most creative friends to contribute ideas. I got some really GREAT ones. Some confronting ones. Some embarrassing ones. They're all on the list which has over 60 things...thank god because now I have some leeway. I'll still complete forty, but from a wider selection so I won't have to make a baby just yet. 

And then the idea for the blog came about. My friend and college roommate, Rach, emailed me saying "I think you should start a blog about your Forty By Forty. You write so well and your adventures would be so funny to read about." Sweet. No pressure. So here it is.  

Some of these will be easy and fun...some a bit challenging...stay tuned for photos and details as I go...to hit my target I will be doing one thing every week between now and my birthday! The first list are things I've completed with links to their respective blogs. The second list is where I'm picking from!

1. See Sir Paul McCartney in Concert
2. Give a Micro Loan
3. Read 5 Books From 5 Countries Recommended by 5 Foreign Friends
4. Take a Ballet Class
   
5. Take an Art Class
   
6. Take an Ethnic Cooking Class
7. Go to Prom
8. Go to Australia
9. Take an Opera Lesson
   
10. Write 5 letters and Mail them the Old Fashioned Way
    
11. Take a Hip Hop Dance Class
12. Read War and Peace
13. Skydive
14. Hollywood Bowl Sing-Along
15. Run a 5 K
16. Bet on a Horse
17. Fire a Gun
18. Apply to the LAPD
19. Drive to Pea Soup Andersen’s for Pea Soup and Apple Pie
    
20. Peru 1 - Machu Pichu
21. Peru 2 - Ayahuasca Ceremony
22. Go to Bhakti Fest
23. Do Stand-up Comedy
24. James Bond Marathon
25. Learn to Play the Guitar. Again.
26. Find a Piece of Art that Inspires Me and Buy It
27. Go to Trapeze School
28. Go Horseback Riding
29. See Cirque De Soleil's VIVA ELVIS in Las Vegas
30. See CARMEN at the Met
31. Make a Family Tree
32. Ride a Mechanical Bull
33. Go Rock Climbing
34. Do Something Kinky and X-Rated
35. Boxing Match
36. Don't cut my Hair until my Birthday
37. Record a Pop Song
38. Have my Portrait Painted
39. Perform at Jumbo's Clown Room
40. Celebrate my 40th Birthday with the Friends who made it all Possible

1. Enter a Rockband Tournament
2. Join Mile High Club
3. Learn to Swim under Water 
4. Make a Baby
5. Write a Book
6. Become a Member of the Writers Guild
7. Go camping and sleep in a tent
8. Visit Renaissance Fair
9. Take Argentine Tango Lessons
10. Native American Sweat Lodge
11. Perfect French
12. Perfect Hebrew
13. Go on a Raw Diet for 30 Days
14. Give up my Car for a Week 
15. Monthly Shabbat Dinner
16. Go Fire Walking
17. Learn the Capitals of all the Countries of the World
18. Go to Burning Man
19. Race a sports car
20. Paragliding
21. Go to Africa
22. See Mount Rushmore
23. Drive Across Country
24. Go to Alaska

The list I'll be checking off at home