30x30 Check In

When I first started this post I was still only 28 and I had a full year to go, but my birthday's come and gone and now I have less than a year left to complete my 30x30 list, and so far I've only made minimal progress. I thought it would be a good checkpoint to see how it's going with my list and what I have planned. I broke the list down into 3 major categories


Classes/Learning/Activities

1. Graduate with my Masters Degree - Check
2. Take yoga classes more regularly - I've looked a whole bunch of times to find local yoga classes, of course like anything else in this world, yoga classes don't come cheap. They only offer 3 yoga classes a week at my gym and they're all at horrible times that don't work for my schedule. There is one class on Friday mornings at 8 that I have been saying I am going to try. Maybe after the new year I'll make a commitment to try and take that class at least twice a month. It's a start since I don't foresee myself buying a package of classes anywhere else at this point as much as I'd love to. 
3. Take cooking classes - I've seen a couple classes in the city that look like fun, unfortunately I always seem to get deterred by the cost of them. I keep looking into them, maybe this spring/summer I'll bite the bullet when it is warmer to go into the city and give it a shot.   
4. Learn to speak Italian (better) - I took Italian in high school and then was fortunate enough to spend a semester abroad in Italy, it was amazing, I was by no means conversational but I could understand some and get the basics down, unfortunately when you don't use it, you tend to lose it. I've always been interested in taking classes to relearn it again, I think that would be so much fun, now I just have to actually do it.  
5. Take dance classes (like tap or ballet) - I love taking classes at the gym, I feel like taking dance classes would be just as fun and also good for you. I've been looking into this for years as well but have never actually called any places to find out about it, all these classes I want to do certainly add up 
6. Take photography classes - (Hopefully) Spring 2012 I've potentially found a place I want to take classes at but it's in the city (I couldn't find anything like this locally). I really want to take a weekly class series, this way I could have assigned homework assignments and get feedback from the instructor. The other problem is the classes don't come cheap. I'm hoping I can take some classes next spring. 
7. Learn to use my camera in manual - I am def getting better and a little bit more comfortable with my camera. I've taken a couple of introductory classes that were a good foundation to at least get me started and play around with some of the functions on the camera, but I still have a long way to go. 
8. Join a tennis league - Summer 2012. Every summer for the past few years I also look at the websites and day dream about joining a tennis league but I never follow through on it. I'd like to commit to making this summer the year that I actually do it. 
9. Join a book club - Jan 2012. Since I have not been successful in finding a local book club to join I've decided to start my own book club. I used to post on a North Jersey Wedding Community Forum Board (through the knot), to ask questions or find out about local vendors since it's all people from the local area, so I decided to ask on there if anyone was interested in joining a book club and I got responses from at least 11 other girls! We decided to start this up in January after the Holidays and I couldn't be more excited about getting this off the ground. 
10. Take a sign language class - Again one of those things I have good intentions to do. When I first came up with the idea there was a guy in my department that is deaf and I enjoyed trying to sign with him, unfortunately he's now left the company and there's no one for me to even practice with, I think this might be one item that doesn't get done. 
11. Learn to swim (I'm not so good right now) TBD. Probably Summer 2012. I know that I need to learn to swim better. It's funny I took all these swimming lessons growing up but I guess I never liked to hold my breath under water, or I don't have the innate sense of swimming but I get so nervous in the deep end of pools. I really need to think about taking some lessons for adults next summer. 

Travel 

1. Go to Chicago, catch a Cubs game at Wrigley Field - Fall 2012. I hope I convince Mike that it would be fun to take a long weekend trip to Chicago next fall, maybe we could try and go for Labor Day weekend or something. 
2. Go on a double decker tour of NYC - Summer 2012. Who wants to go on an open tour bus around cold Manhattan, I'll wait for the nice weather to roll around next summer, I know some people have mentioned wanting to do this so hopefully I can get a group together next summer 
3. Travel to Napa Valley, California - Check 
4. Go to the Long Island Wineries  - Summer 2012. This one is easy since I'm from Long Island, I just need to plan a girls trip out there to see who wants to go. I know my Mom has also been wanting to go as well 
5. Go on weekend trips to places like New England, DC, Niagara Falls - I love taking short weekend trips to "local" places that we could drive to. Unfortunately Mike does not share this same sentiment towards traveling. I hope I can convince him to do some short weekend trips once the weather is nice again. 
6. Go to famous food places in new cities - TBD - I was thinking like a philly cheesesteak in Philadelphia or an original Boston Cream Pie in Boston, or deep dish pizza in Chicago, but so far we haven't really gone anywhere. There was that delicious, authentic beef patty in Jamaica, but I need some more places to go and try some new foods out.... 
7. Have a Guinness at the factory in Dublin (again)  - Spring 2012. I am pretty sure I have Mike convinced that we should take a trip to Ireland in the spring for a long weekend trip. He recently had to go for work and got to see Dublin for a few hours but I think he'd go back, if I can find it for the right price. Hopefully we'll go in the March/April timeframe when it's pretty cheap. 
8. Go back to Italy  - Fall 2012. My dream would be to go on a Mediterranean cruise for our second anniversary but I'm not sure how likely this will be, this might have to get moved to 31x31 when I don't make my 30x30 goal. 
9. Go away on vacation with our friends (/family) Check. Technically we've done this. We went to San Francisco this spring with Joe and Gina, and went on the cruise with my Brother and his girlfriend. Although when I wrote this one I was envisioning us renting a house with everyone down at the shore. We talked about doing this with Michelle & Chris, John & Amy, etc, the more the merrier, I hope maybe we could do this next summer but we'll have to see. 

Other 

1. Run a 5K race - Check 
2. Get a puppy - Check :-)
3. Spend a whole day at the spa - Dec 2012. Mike, I know you're not reading this but I'm sure someone will tell you, or I'll give you not so subtle hints. For my 30th birthday, I would like a full day package at the spa. I'm talking about the 5 hour packages and a day of total pampering. Bridget is coming too, so make sure you get with Johnny on this one and let him know too!  
4. Cook with/Eat more organic & unprocessed, natural foods - Check
5. Go on a romantic date night in the city  - Check (technically). We had an awesome anniversary date in the city, going to dinner and the show. Although ideally I would have loved to have 1) gone out somewhere nice after the show and 2) stayed at a hotel in the city so maybe next time! 
6. Make a cookbook of all the women in my life recipes - TBD. I finally found a website that has all the features I was looking for design-wise. I started working on the book this weekend, it's def a work in progress and I hope to collect some more recipes, but it is at least starting to come together. 
7. Learn to make a digital scrapbook - TBD. I thought I wanted to learn how to make a digital scrapbook using all the fancy tools like Adobe photoshop but I found this new website to make the cookbook with and it looks like it really has a lot of the same capabilities to design some really cool books. I think I'll look into that some more.  
8. Go out and stay overnight at my brother's in NYC - TBD. No immediate plans, I'll figure it out...
9. Get a "really killer sophisticated city outfit" - TBD. I need a wardrobe makeover, I wish someone could shop for me and pick out all new clothes for me. I feel like my wardrobe is so bland and boring, I'd love to look more put together and polished, if only I knew what to pick and it didn't cost a small fortune....
10. Host a wine tasting party at our house - Dec 2012. Mark your calendars people, I'll be hosting a wine and cheese party at our house for my 30th birthday next year.