30 Before 30 Revisited

I've been thinking a lot about my 30 Before 30 List (now moved to its own Page because I'm fancy like that).  I've also been thinking about what I want from this blog and what I want to do in 2012 (new year's resolutions and such).  I love blogging even though I've been absent (but, hey, so have a lot of you who have blogs!).  Blogging is super hard during the holidays not to mention the fact that I underestimated how hard it would be to adjust to my new life here in California. But this is not about making excuses -- because I don't need to! I refuse to feel guilty for my lack of blogging because I've been spending the last 3 months getting settled in my new home and job and getting reacquainted with my husband.  I also have to admit that I really want to blog about the rest of my adventures in NYC, but I have found looking at the photos painful because I miss it (and my friends) so very much.

I learned through this holiday season of traveling and seeing family and friends that I am starting to really like it out here.  I miss everyone terribly but I'm going to make a better effort to keep in touch via the phone and email (but mostly phone because I like real-time conversations better) and stop depending so much on social media.  So, I'm going to embrace my longing for NYC and channel it to share my adventures with you.

Anyway, back to the 30 Before 30 list.  A surprising and shocking amount of things have changed in my life since June 17, 2011 when I made this list.  I'm not sure I reserved the right to change my list at will in my initial post but it's my list and I'll do what I want. :)  So, here is a revised list (well, really an amendment because I'm not going to amend and restate... you'll just have to put up with my posting only the changed items.  Check the Page for the restated list):

Old 6. Hit 122 lbs. and stay there! I'm changing this one because, frankly, I have better things to do with my time than obsess about those extra 8 pounds (okay, 10) I'm carrying around.  But I do want to be healthier and in better shape, which is a constant struggle with how many hours I work and how long I sit at a desk every day.  That leads to New 6. Turn 30 in the best shape of my life (or a close second to freshman year of college when I was doing crew).

Old 10. Run a marathon in wine country.  So, I had signed up for a marathon in wine country.  But, yeah, with the crazy hours I was working in NYC before I quit, moving and starting a new routine my training fell by the wayside, the way-wayside (I get winded more easily than I care to admit now, but see New 6 above).  When I tried to start training again in October, I realized that training for a marathon was not how I like to workout.  I felt very limited by the daily runs and not being able to do anything but run for months.  Also, who wants to run 8 miles on a weekday? Not me.  So while it would be amazing to complete a marathon before I'm 30, I would be doing it for the pure satisfaction of checking something off a list — not because I really have a burning desire to run for 4+ hours straight or because I LOVE running so much. So, my new goal is: New 10. Save enough for a down payment on a house.  You're right, this has NOTHING to do with my previous #10.  Oh well.  The reasoning for this one is apparent on its face (and was not even a pie-in-the-sky dream when we lived apart).

Old 17. Revisit Sanibel Island. As much as I have great memories of traveling to Sanibel Island, FL with my grandparents as a child, now that Erik and I have moved to the West Coast popping down to Florida for a long weekend is not going to happen.  It would be prohibitively expensive.  I'd like to go back but not before I'm 30.  Along the same lines of revisiting childhood memories, I present New 17. Revisit Yosemite National Park. We may even do this one this February/ March (we'll have to see how my bar study goes).

Old 20. Travel to a U.S. city purely because of a restaurant/ something I saw on tv. This is not a good goal.  It just isn't.  I've already kind of done this already (usually picking a place and then finding cool things to do).  Also, I don't watch the travel channel. AND I do this ALL the time.  All our weekend adventures are based off a book or a blogpost or maybe from TV, but we just don't watch enough TV.  Plus, we are spontaneous enough.  I don't need to waste a precious slot on this. This leads me to New 20. [Redacted].  I know, I know.  Putting in a redacted goal is kind of lame, but there are somethings that are too personal to have on the blog.  I'll talk about this one with friends but online seems a little too big of a portal.  This goal is also too important to not have on the list so this is the best compromise I could think of.  So there. :P

Anyway, I realize that this is changing 13.3% of my original list but whatevs. I can't stick to just one plan made at one moment in my life.  Life is fluid and so this list is fluid.  My priorities change and will probably change again especially if we hit another major life event. So, with that, my new goals before I turn 30 (20 months from today!).  Happy 2012 to all!