Strictly Business--The Official List

Disclaimer: I'm not so sure this blog will be funny or entertaining, but it will be informative and informative is good.

So, today, I’m officially 30…which means I get to start doing things vs. planning them. Over the past few months, I have received a lot of great ideas. That being said…with so many great ideas, I kind of switched things up a little bit.

I originally planned on 15 categories with 2 things in each category. For those of you non-math people 15 categories x 2 = 30 things. :) I also tossed around the idea of having the contributor actually do the suggestion with me. For example, if Joe suggested I go skydiving, and I opted to sky dive, then Joe goes sky diving with me. Basically…all those ideas had a baby which resulted in:

1. No categories, just 30 ideas. What was nice about the 15 categories is they created diversity. Though the formal categories are gone the general idea stuck. I ended up with a big variety of things to do/try.

2. I opted against having the contributor participate in the suggestion, mainly because as I talked about my list with people, I found that a lot of people want to do the same thing. So, I decided there is an open invite on any of the below items. Continuing with the skydiving example…before I go skydiving…I’ll send out an open invite to go skydiving. So if you're interested, or know someone who is, let me know. Who knows, maybe we could rent out the whole plane. Not only does it give people an opportunity to scratch something off their own list, but I always have fun doing things with friends and making new friends.

So, here’s my list:
1. Purchase energy efficient products like CFL light bulbs and faucet aerators
2. Grand Canyon
3. South Africa
4. Read “Tipping Point”
5. Cooking class
6. Dance Class (Salsa? Swing?)
7. Self Defense Class
8. Kentucky Derby
9. Complete a Marathon
10. Cardinals Cubs Game at Wrigley
11. Chuck Berry at Blueberry Hill
12. Memorize a Chapter of the Bible (not just a few verses)
13. Weekend of Silence
14. Fast Eddie’s
15. Melting Pot
16. Sky Dive
17. Match.com
18. Meet a Celebrity
19. Loose a pants size
20. Watch the Alfred Hitchcock movie “The Birds”
21. Visit the NYC for a weekend of Art and History. I’d also like to visit two churches in particular: Redeemer and the Brooklyn Tabernacle.
22. Book #2: A few pending suggestions, I’ll fill this soon. Open to suggestions…
23. Watch “Juno”
24. Keep a personal journal of experiences between 30-31
25. Learn to snowboard
26. Ice Skate at Forest Park/a Local Park.
27. Take a road trip to see at least one out of town college friend
28. Visit a missionary my church supports
29. Buy a tiny dog and name it Beyonce
30. Buy a car

And, this idea just came to me, but I’m creating a short list of “alternates”. Since my main objective is to do 30 new things, IF there is something on the above list that I’m not 100% ready for (like getting a dog) then I’ll replace it with one of the below:
*Charlie Gittos.
*Misc. idea that comes to me.
*Take 1-2 month’s off work to travel (start before I turn 31, but can still be traveling at 31).
*Memphis in May and/or Jazz Fest
*Ride on a motorcycle
*Watch Casablanca
*Misc #2 idea…just in case…

Ok, that’s my official “update”. Oh, and stay tuned because I actually was able to scratch one of the items above off my list today! But, I’m too tired to type about it…