Top 30 - Take 2

They say 30 is the new 20, a time when one must figure out what is going on in life - who they are, where they're going, and how on earth they are going to get there.  Forget the mid-life crisis, the younger generations are partaking in the growing trend of the quarter-life crisis.  We are young, energetic, educated, and full of the promises of our childhood - work hard and you can be anything you want to be.

Well, I'm still not an astronaut, but that's probably more to do with my lack of interest in being spun in a centrifuge at 6G, or being locked up in a space station not much larger than a few school buses for months on end, or moving to Huston to join NASA/CSA (ugh summer all year long), than a lack of ability to try.

But that was my 10 year old self watching Star Trek with my parents and reading books on the solar system day dreaming about how cool it would be to visit other planets like Pluto.  Childhood dream crusher #2, Pluto's not even a planet any more!

Fast forward another 10 years, and me at 20 had everything all figured out.  By 30 I would have the following things: husband, house, car, PhD, career in teaching, and our very own addition to the family on the way (if not already arrived).

Well, I've got some of those things off the list - husband and house, check.  The house could use some work, and we could really really use more space (at least a garage), but they are there.  Car?  Sort of... we've got a truck, but it's André's really, he needs it for work.  The train wreck that was my career?  Yeah, still not ready to talk about that one, but suffice to say, it's unlikely that I'll ever wind up teaching.  And the family?  Again, now that I'm at the age where I had originally thought that I would like to have kids, in truth I'm enjoying my life on my own too much to want to settle down and raise a family.  I've still got a couple of years to figure that out right?

In the mean time, I've been thinking.  I've done some pretty cool things in 30 years of life, but there are a pile more things that I would still like to do.  So, in honour of my quarter-life crisis, and still trying to figure everything out, I give you Top 30 - Take 2 - 30 things that I will do in the next 30 years (or so).

1. Go north again - this time in the winter, and see the Northern Lights above the Arctic Circle.  Nunavut again would be nice, but there are 2 other territories I haven't been to yet!  Speaking of which, I'm going to cross the rest of those provinces and territories off my traveling list.  And revisit some of the others, this time with André in tow.
2. Go back to Newfoundland.  Yes, it sounds like a repeat of #1, but this time we go for like a month and tour the place properly.  And take our time doing it.  Maybe with an RV.  
3. I'm going to venture out into the world at large.  There's not many places outside of Canada that I'd like to visit but there are a few.  Alaska, New Orleans, Australia and New Zealand (more sheep than people!).  First though, I'm going to need a passport...
4. We are going to design and build a new home.  Maybe not the next one, but there will be one.  From brain to paper to blueprint to land to house.  All of it by ourselves.  Although by "by ourselves" I don't mean that I am going to dig the foundation myself.  More that after designing the foundation I am going to point at the ground and a guy with some seriously heavy equipment will make the hole happen the way I said it should. 
5. In the mean time, I am going to flip a house.  Buy it, reno it, and sell it for profit.  Sounds easy eh?  Wish me luck. 
6. Thinking about buying a rental/investment property too.  The more likely scenario would be buying us a bigger place and just renting out the place we're in now.  I'm cool with that. 
7. One day I'm going to quit working retail and work with André full time.  There is a plan. 
8. And with all the spare time that's going to give me I'm going to learn how to use a lathe properly.  
9. And then I'm going to turn my own knitting needles.  
10. With the rest of the spare time, I'm going to buy some alpacas and board them with my sister's herd (which she doesn't have yet, but again, there is a plan!). 
11. I am going to learn how to sheer a sheep.  Then maybe I'll tackle an alpaca. 
12. Which of course means that I need to learn to spin.  I've got a working wheel and everything... I just can't piece together the time (see #7).
13. I am going to design a knitting pattern for my own hand-spun yarn.  And then publish it. 
14. I am going to combine points 8-13 and go back-to-back.  Off the fuzzy back of my alpaca (or sheep) in the spring, and on to my own for the fall.
15. On the topic of one to another, I'd like to go from tree to furniture.  Chain saws and I get along well, and it would be really cool to have furniture that I build from a tree that I felled. 
16. While I'm making things, I'm going to make a quilt.  I haven't sewn in years, but it's something I've wanted to do since I was a kid and watched my mom made quilts. 
17. I am going to quit smoking. 
18. Which is hopefully going to help me be the best curler I can be.  I am going to get better, and I really want to be some sort of good.  I would love to play on an A team, even for one season, and not feel like a liability to them. 
19. I am going to the Brier Men's Championship.  Seen the Scotties, but I'm more of a men's curling fan.  (Although this list did once include taking an "I [heart] Hart" sign.  But since Richard Hart formerly of Team Howard has retired from competitive curling, I'll just have to come up with something else suitably witty).
20. On the same lines as quitting smoking and curling, I'd like to take up the bagpipes.  Might have to have a house with no direct neighbours before I actually start that one though.  
21. I'm going to get a dog.  Big dog like a retriever or lab or Sheppard. 
22. I am going to write the Mensa test.  But I'm not going to tell anybody that I'm doing it until it's done.  Too much pressure.  Hell, I might have even done it already ;)
23. Speaking of writing things, I am going to write a book.  Getting it published would be amazing, but I think I'll be happy that I did the writing. 
24. I'm going to put even more effort into this blog.  One day I am going to get comments (hint hint).  Then another even more distant day I'm going to get a comment from someone famous in the knitting world.  Actually, I'll start with even just one comment from someone that I don't already know.  Writing a blog is a lot more work that I thought it would be, any my admiration for those that have hugely amazingly successful blogs grows every day. 
25. More blogging means that I'm going to need to knit more to keep the blog fed.  See also points 8 - 14.
26. I am going to get my yarn stash under control.  I would like to have a stash where I know where everything is so there are no more cases of me turning entire rooms upside down looking for that ball of sock yarn that I swear was there just last week.  And I need to loose some of the dead weight yarn - the stuff that was bought at garage sales for $2 for the whole box.  I was young and desperate.  Stop laughing André or I will post pictures of your shop.  
27. I'm going to get a motorcycle.  A nice touring bike.  Maybe a Harley.  Maybe not.  We'll see.  
28. One day I am going to retire.  Not to say that I'm going to stop working, because André and I are both the type of people that will work until the day we die.  Rather, in the next 30 years I am going to get to a point where I don't have to work if I don't want to or where it doesn't matter what the job pays, rather how much I enjoy doing it. 
29. Before I can retire I have to keep working hard.  Our business is growing, and I have to work harder every week.  But it will be worth it.  One day our business will be large enough that I can have minions employees to do things like payroll and accounting, so that I can get on with the stuff that I really like to do - project managing and problem solving. 
30. Every now and then I'm going to do something completely and solely for me.  Last year I bought a Christmas tree.  We hadn't had one in forever, and André's rather indifferent to them, but dammit I wanted a Christmas tree.  Little things like that.  

I am going to spend the next 30 years crossing things off this list, and I'm going to do it all with André and the rest of my friends and family at my side. Who wants to come along for the ride?