24 things

Today, I'm twenty three! My favorite number, my lucky number, my golden birthday-- can you tell I'm a bit excited? Now, I'm a realistic girl-- I know that there's not a whole lot more special about this number than any other number in the grand scheme of things, but I belong to the school of thought that when you think good things and do good things, good shows up in other unexpected places. And thus, I'm thinking good things about twenty three. And whereas my life list for twenty two was about challenging myself, trying a little bit of everything-- this year, it's a little bit more about doing good things. Good things for others, good things for me, good things for the world (and of course, some silly ones that have nothing to do with anything at all, because what else is life for than being silly sometimes?). Like I said yesterday-- twenty two was good. But I predict twenty three will be spectacular. Thanks for following me along for the ride, friends :)

24 Things Before I Turn 24

1. Pick up a few second-hand copies of my favorite books, leave them with little notes in random places around the city.
2. Grow my own SCOBY, brew my own kombucha. (6/12)

3. Give my number to a cute waiter on the bill, giggle about it with my girlfriends like 13-year-olds as we skidaddle right outta there. 

4. Go morel hunting (with someone who knows how to do it so that I don't, you know, end up accidentally poisoning myself). 

5. Get/bottle a bunch of spring water from a natural tap.

6. Buy a bikini. WEAR IT. In public. I mean it, self.

7. Post 23 operation beautiful notes in one day.

8. Make my own hula hoop AND take a hula hooping class (fellow MKE'ans: hoopvive looks GREAT! who's coming with me? :))

9. Begin to write my big-dreams bucket list-- the things that will take more than just a year to do!

10. Cook for an entire week with just farmer's market goodies.

11. Go a week without ANY makeup  (not even mascara, self. I mean it.) 

12. Paint. (not walls. a picture!) (9/2/12)

13. Make homemade jerky (slash use the ever-loving crap out of my new dehydrator :)) 

14. Go to pub trivia night with friends!

15. Send a message in a bottle (perhaps in a fancy, romantic, literary way!) 

16. Try five crazy new fruits. 

17. See a movie at a drive-in. I think I'll have to drive out to the country for this one-- I just found out that the drive-in I used to go to when I was a bebe is closed now :(

18. Take an in-a-day road trip adventure-- maybe rent a scooter and drive up the lakefront as far as I can go :)

19. See a movie by myself-- popcorn, the whole shebang! 

20. Take a dabble class (or another class I wouldn't normally have tried)

21. Paleo-ize a recipe. (1/10/13)

22. Roast a whole chicken. Get over the squeamy factor. Try not to die of salmonella poisoning.

23. Stargaze at the North Point Lighthouse.

24. Smile at everyone. Never go to sleep angry. Be thankful & joyful at least once per day. Do random acts of kindness always. Find love in everyone & everything. Leave a trail of happiness in my path. Do good things for others, and be grateful realizing that we are all in this together. 

Here's to twenty three!