Forty

                              Beanie, me, my brother Justin, Brandi (Bean's sister) and my husband Bert

Today is my birthday.  My fortieth. 

Four. Tee.

Truth be told it has taken me several months to adjust to the word "forty". Why is that? Why is it that my big birthdays- my 30th and 40th- were a bit harder to swallow but birthday 39 was just a walk in the park? Why is it on these birthdays we step back and look our lives and take stock: what should I have accomplished by the age of 40? 

“WHAT I DO TODAY IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE I AM EXCHANGING A DAY OF MY LIFE FOR IT.” –HUGH MULLIGAN

I googled "bucket list" and man, people have some odd ideas of things they *must* do before the kick the bucket. I have no desire to scuba dive, go to Burning Man or own a Capuchin monkey... but here is my list:

1. Italy
2. Learn to play chess 
3. Learn French
4. Be a good parent. Successfully raise a teenager. (work in progress)
5. Sea kayak in Alaska
6. Go white water rafting
7. Bungee jump
8. Ride a jet ski (well I rode on the back of one, does that count?)
9. Machu Picchu – Cuzco, Peru
10. Killer whale watching in the San Juan Islands
11. Drive across America, coast to coast
12. Try crazy bug food in Asia
13. Celebrate Chinese New Year in China
14. Ride in a helicopter
15. Santa Fe New Mexico
16. Feel an earthquake
17. Yellowstone National Park
18. Get another tattoo 
19. Grand Tetons National Park
20. Yosemite National Park
21. Glacier National Park
22. See a professional tennis match
23. See a professional baseball game
24. See a professional football game
25. See a professional basketball game
26. Switzerland
27. Visit The Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand
28. Hike on a glacier
29. San Francisco, California
30. Key West Florida
31. Pyramids and Sphinx – Cairo, Egypt
32. Australia
33. Nepal/Tibet
34. Grand Canyon 
35. Las Vegas, Nevada
36. London, England
37. Redwoods
38. Guggenheim Museum – New York
39. Walt Disney World – Orlando, Florida
40. Maui, Hawaii
41. Spain
42. Amazon Jungle – Peru/Bolivia/Colombia/Brazil/Ecuador
43. India
44. Chichen Itza – Mexico
45. Athens, Greece
46. Niagara Falls – New York
47. Day of the Dead, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
48. New Orleans, Louisiana
49. Oktoberfest – Munich, Germany
50. Take a photography class

And since I have so many culinary aspirations I decided to come up with a culinary bucket list as well:

1. Homemade bagels
2. Pok Pok's Pad Thai
3. Decent cinnamon rolls
4. Banh Mi sandwiches
5. French Crepes
6. Nigella's Sticky Gingerbread
7. Tikka Masala
8. Triple Layer Salted Caramel Cake
9. Fresh pasta
10. Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole (yes indeedy)
11. Pizza a la Colleen
12. Real sourdough bread
13. Tortillas
14. Paella
15. Cioppino 
16. Homemade Yogurt
17. Thai shrimp salad rolls
18. Graham crackers
19. The cheesecake of all cheesecakes
20. Egg rolls

Today has been a lovely day. Went out to breakfast, saw the latest Sherlock Holmes movie, had ice cream for lunch, got Cold Play tickets (yahoo!) and this cookbook, bought some books, went out to dinner and now am crashing: new books + sugar coma = bliss.

Tomorrow I start a new decade.

Bring it.