Happy Birthday to ME!!!!!!

• Amy Cissell
• February 24, 2016
• Aggressive Happiness, Blessed are the Cheesemakers, Cake or Death, Gin, Cheese & Other Necessities, Made of Awesomesauce
• 723

It’s my birthday! Hooray!

I love my birthday. It is the only day of the year I really want someone to bring me cake. Last year, my cake was provided by my friend Jamie. HOWEVER, I’m guessing she’s not planning on a surprise trip back from Boston for the sole purpose of bringing me cake and gin, so it’s possible I might have to do without this year.

True story: one year, my then-roommate, knowing that I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, got me a cheese cake. Literally a giant block of cheese (colby jack) that she put candles in. Marcy is awesome. HOW DO I NOT HAVE PICTURES OF THAT? And how is that not a bigger thing on the internet? Google image search has let me down. A cake that looks like a cheese is not the same thing.

ANYWAY. Birthday. Mine. Today.

I am 39! (I know, I know, I don’t look a day over 29. I have discovered the fountain of youth – and it’s insomnia and beer.)

I’m starting my last full year in my 30s! I’m not particularly bothered about turning forty. It’s certainly better than not (unless, of course, my aging was arrested by an extremely…friendly…vampire).

AHEM! Where was I?

Oh right, my #40before40 list.

ONE TIME CLASSES/EVENTS

1. Attend the ballet
2. Climb a tree
3. Go ice skating
4. Go to a book signing
5. Go to the local nude beach
6. Go to the opera (Sweeney Todd in June? Anyone?)
7. Sing a new song at karaoke
8. Take a barre class
9. Take a dancing class
10. Take a cooking class
11. TEMPORARY funky hair color (holla Danny!)
12. Throw pottery (on a wheel)
13. Try a pole dancing class at the studio down the street.
14. Try hot yoga
15. Volunteer with Habitat for Humanity – signed up for a 5/21 volunteer date!

WEEKEND COMMITMENTS

16. Do a boudoir photo session
17. Do a fun thing with Bean every day of his summer vacation (a few ideas: Zoo, OMSI, roller skating, rock climbing, art museum).
18. Host a wine tasting (mmmm…rosé in the garden in July? Who’s in?)
19. Make a cheese that needs to age 10 months and eat it on my 40^th birthday
20. Take the Bean fishing
21. Whale watching

TIME CONSUMING THINGS

22. [Redacted]
23. Become a proficient knife thrower (i.e. hit the target more often than not)
24. Become passable in Swedish
25. Develop a habit of meditation
26. Learn 100 ASL signs
27. Get back into my DIY habits – I used to do a lot more homemade stuff. I’m thinking of doing more of the following: make my own bread, stock, cheese, jam, salsas, etc. I might not dive back into my smoked meat projects that I was doing before I had a Bean.
28. Perfect the homemade pie crust. (Find volunteers to eat and critique all the pies.)
29. Read one prize-winning (any major prize) book each month
30. Run a 5K, a 10K and a half marathon. Bonus: run something longer!
31. Take a good photo and pay to have it framed
32. Try a new (to me) cheese each month
33. Write 150 blog posts (more is better, but I only wrote 75 last year [SLACKER], so I don’t want to get TOO ambitious)

EXTRAVAGANT ITEMS

34. Drink a bottle of expensive champagne (this will happen on March 2)
35. Get a stamp in my passport (I have plans for this fall!)
36. Give a $100 tip on an inexpensive meal (hat tip to Danielle!)

BIG GOALS

37. Feel good about my fitness level and appearance
38. Get better at self care. That means eating regularly; exercising regularly; sleeping regularly. It also means I need to learn to let it go (sing it with me now)…specifically work drama. Repeat: “It’s not me, it’s them…” (Also, self forgiveness…so even if I don’t get every single one of these ambitious goals [I misspelled ambitious so badly that my spell check suggested I met calamitous – touché comput.er], I am still a winner.)
39. Meet three ‘in the computer friends’ in real life. (I’m looking at you  Cat, Elizabeth, and…[insert your name here!])
40. Publish my first book

 

Every month on the 24th, I’ll give a brief update on my progress. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a very expensive bottle of champagne to procure.

 

 

 

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