And here at thirty, I don't have a permanent job, I live with my parents, and I'm single.
As you may know, while I was twenty-nine, I was crossing off bucket list items before the big birthday. I made a list of seventy things I could potentially do, but I only had to do thirty of them. I actually ended up doing forty. This made me feel like I've actually done things with my life. I definitely recommend making a bucket list before you turn thirty.
So, I'm going to tell you all forty things that I did!
1. Buy a car. On September 30, 2017, I bought a 2017 Toyota Rav4 hybrid. My qualifications for a car were good gas mileage (to save the planet) and all-wheel drive (to save my life). This car allowed me to accomplish the various tasks on my bucket list. The pushy salesmen at the Bountiful Toyota dealer almost pressured me into getting a red one. They literally said, "Why do you care about the color? You don't see the outside of the car." Since they were so rude, I don't feel bad that I got a blue one at another dealer and made them lose their commission.
2. Run a half marathon. Some people decide to run a half marathon and then train for it. On a whim one day, I realized, "I'm in good enough shape that I could do one." So I did the Haunted Half. I didn't do great, but I still did it.
3. Throw a party. On October 20 last year, I gathered a few friends for a Halloween-themed gathering. They helped me eat pumpkin stuff, we played Balderdash, and we watched Mad Monster Party? But I don't plan to have any more parties, for a few reasons.
4. Get a cat. After my cat Jenny died in July 2017, I wanted to get a new one. So on October 21, I adopted an eight-year-old cat named Oliver and renamed him Jimmy. I did a good thing, because he had been at the Humane Society a long time, and he had been brought there at least twice. I don't understand why, because he's the most affectionate, mild-mannered cat (most of the time). I just love him. I love that he comes up to us and rubs his head against our faces and purrs and kneads. It brings me such joy to see him sitting on the edge of my bed. I know cats aren't for everyone, but some people actively go out of their way to hate cats and think people shouldn't own them. If you are one of those people, I don't need you in my life. Bye!
5. Katy Perry concert. This one wasn't actually on my bucket list, but since I had Lady Gaga on it (see below), I figured this one should count too. It was a fun way to spend the evening after Thanksgiving. But they did have to add a lot of fun things to mask the fact that Katy Perry isn't as good a singer when she's live.
6. Lady Gaga concert. I have loved Lady Gaga since 2011, and I especially love her Joanne album from 2016. So I had to get tickets in February 2017, ten months before her December concert. Unlike Katy, Gaga is just as good live as she is on recordings.
7. Cook a turkey. My grandparents insisted on cooking the Thanksgiving turkey, so I had to make a turkey for Christmas dinner. But I didn't do it entirely by myself. On Christmas, I was super groggy and tired from not sleeping well. My mom cut herself while cutting celery for stuffing. That made me too woozy to deal with the turkey innards. But I still did more than I usually would when it came to preparing a turkey. I tried, so it counts.
8. Go to an ice castle. In January, I went to the Midway Ice Castles. It was fun, but I don't think it's worth going out of your way for it more than once.
9. Write a book. This is one that I didn't expect to actually do. But one day as I was working in the Church History Library, I realized that I was writing chapter introductions for a documentary history book. I wrote most of the book's footnotes. For at least one chapter, I created it from scratch: found the nineteenth-century sources, transcribed them, verified the transcription, annotated it, and wrote the introduction. My name will be on the cover. It totally counts as writing a book. It should come out in May.
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| The cover art has not been finalized. |
10. Go snowshoeing. I went snowshoeing on January 30 in North Canyon, my favorite running trail. But the snow was packed enough that I didn't necessarily need to snowshoe. Unfortunately, my snowshoe excursion rubbed the back of my heels raw.
11. Finish visiting all Davis County cities. When I turned twenty-nine, there were three cities in Davis County where I had never been: Sunset, Roy, and South Weber. I have visited them all now. But maybe Sunset doesn't count, because I only drove through it.
12. Celebrate St. David's Day. I wanted to celebrate some lesser holidays, and first up was St. David's Day, the national holiday of Wales. This was largely inspired by my work on the Dan Jones chapter of my book. I listened to Welsh music, wore red, cooked with leeks, and made Welsh cakes.
13. Attended Utah opera. The bucket list item was actually "see an expensive musical," but when I was given tickets to Pagliacci and Gianni Schicchi, I figured that counted, since I was getting cultured. It did soften my opinion of opera.
14. St. Patrick's Day parade. In 2017, I made bucket lists for each holiday, but I was cheated out of a St. Patrick's Day parade, because they held it the day after, which doesn't count. So I went this year. It was the only really snowy St. Patrick's Day I can remember.
15. Go to the capitol. When I put this on my list, I figured it would be good to be part of a cause, but it would work just to be a tourist. My opportunity to visit the capitol came with the March for Our Lives on March 24. I didn't march, but I stood on the capitol grounds as the march came up. It felt great to be part of an important cause. You can read about my experience and my opinions here. I was surprised with how many of my friends did not hold the same opinions I do, because I find them entirely reasonable and important.
16. Write lyrics to a musical album. Since I collect music for every holiday, I am well aware of the dearth of decent music for most holidays. So I created an imaginary Easter album of sixteen songs, with eleven covers and five original songs for which I wrote the lyrics. Now I just need to find a musician who wants to make a kitschy Easter album.
17. Make a layer cake. I've always wanted to make a layer cake, so I made a carrot cake for Easter. It tasted good, and I was satisfied with its appearance, considering it was my first one.
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| I didn't put enough frosting between the layers. |
18. Run to the top of a mountain. In my trail runs, I rarely am on top of a mountain, so I decided to run to the top of Frary Peak on Antelope Island, though there was part of the trail near the top that was not suitable for running. It could not have been a better day for it.
19. See a movie on opening day. I don't see that many movies, so on a whim, I decided that Trek: The Movie would be the movie I saw on opening day. I didn't much care for it; it was super corny and heavy handed in some places. 4/10.
20. Set up a record player. The bucket list item was actually to buy a record player, but I didn't need to do that. Instead, I dug out my dad's old player from underneath the stairs. I set it up downstairs, where I can't listen to it that much, because my family won't let me set it up in the main part of the house. Even so, I have bought three new records: Kites Are Fun by the Free Design, the Mad Monster Party? soundtrack, and Redwing by Sarah Sample. (I wouldn't have bought that last album if I had known what it's about.)
21. Pick up litter. I want to better the community, so I found a trail portion that had tons of litter, and I filled up two garbage bags in a short amount of time.
22. Celebrate Earth Day. Picking up litter was part of celebrating Earth Day. I also went on a hike, ate granola bars, and put a PSA on Facebook criticizing bottled water.
23. Celebrate Arbor Day. The next week, I celebrated Arbor Day. My dad forbade me from planting a tree, so instead I purged myrtle spurge from the Wild Rose Trail, and I got a rash on my wrist in the process. I also watched It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown.
24. Celebrate Cinco de Mayo. This was the last of the minor holidays I celebrated. I watched Mexican-themed movies, ate Mexican food and desserts, listened to Spanish radio, and went to a ward Cinco de Mayo party.
25. Do a triathlon. This was my first triathlon. I didn't do very well on the bike part, because I only have a mountain bike, and the swimming wasn't great either. But I was in the top 25 percent of the run! It was a lot of fun, though cold and rainy.
26. Visit Spiral Jetty. This was a fun May excursion in the middle of nowhere.
27. Road trip with family. My family went to New York and New England. We flew out there, but there was a lot of driving involved. It was a fun trip. I especially liked Plymouth, MA.
28. Visit another state. I visited six states for the first time: Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. In addition, I also visited California, New York, Wyoming, and Idaho.
29. Visit another country. My family spent thirty minutes or so driving through Québec. We didn't do much, but we were indeed in Canada, and even close to the border, everything was in French.
30. Pick goatheads. June is my official goathead eradication month, but I didn't do as much as I would have liked in June. However, I still picked a lot in other months. During my lunch breaks at This Is the Place, I often went out to find and pick the diabolical plants. If they were human, no one would feel bad torturing them. The Bill of Rights would prohibit cruel and unusual punishment, except for goatheads.
31. Play a song on the piano. All year, I practiced so that I could play "The Wintry Day, Descending to Its Close" in elders quorum the week of Pioneer Day. I have been practicing that song for ten years; I think it's one of the hardest in the hymnbook. When the day came, I got performance anxiety and didn't play super well, but it was OK.
32. Be in a parade. This is one that I didn't expect to do at all. But then I got a job at This Is the Place, where they had mini parades on Pioneer Day. I participated in it, and I even got my fellow participants to carry copies of the Declaration of Independence, which is consistent with the first decade of July 24 parades.
33. Go paddleboarding. I first went paddleboarding on my knees on a lake in Idaho. It was fun. Then a few weeks later, I was able to stand up on a paddleboard on a reservoir in Utah. I might have to buy one. (A paddleboard, not a reservoir.)
34. Road trip with friends. My friend Susan invited a bunch of us to stay at her parents' home in Jerome, Idaho. It was a fun weekend excursion the end of July. Three weeks ago, I had a dream that there were alligators at the Idaho house, and Julie Andrews had to come help get rid of them.
35. Go camping. My YSA stake sponsored a fun camp at Cinnamon Creek, which is owned by the Church, the first weekend in August. We slept in tents, heard from guest speakers, and spent time on the reservoir.
36. Take night classes. My original idea was that it might be fun to take a class at a local college. But then my ward sponsored "learn something" nights with experts in our ward. There was a class on first aid, one on car care, and one on job seeking. I went to all three.
37. Visit Timpanogos Cave. Since I minored in geology and grew up in Utah, it's surprising I'd never been to Timpanogos Cave. So I went with my dad. It was a fun excursion.
38. Swim in the Great Salt Lake. I love being a Utahn, and I love that we have this weird, stinking large body of water. I took some friends to Antelope Island to go swim in it, and it was less gross than I expected. I wouldn't mind doing it again.
39. Visit all twenty-nine counties. I decided that it would be fitting to go to all twenty-nine counties while I was twenty-nine, especially since last year was my golden birthday. Twenty-nine and thirty were the magic numbers this year. My last county was San Juan, where I almost hiked to the top of Mount Peale, the county high point.
40. Visit all twenty-nine county seats. Initially, I just wanted to see all the counties. Then later I decided I might as well go to the seats as well. That's why they're separate items. Salt Lake is the biggest, and Manila is the smallest, thought Junction is tiny too. I think Manti is the quaintest.
I have no idea what I'm doing with my life now. But at least I have these experiences under my belt.
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Since it was my birthday week, I could eat whatever I wanted. But I still got some seasonal things. It took me hours to write my post, but I still need to do pumpkinundation roundup.
The Taco Bell Caramel Apple Freeze straddles the line between summer and fall. It tastes like apple candy with only a slight bit of caramel. I liked it well enough, even though it wasn't very caramely. 8/10.
For my first taste of Go Go Squeez Apple Pumpkin Spice Applesauce, I thought, "What is this? There's veggies in my applesauce!" But then I got used to it and really enjoyed it. I do not enjoy the wasteful packaging. I think it's so you don't waste applesauce, but I think it's better to waste applesauce than to waste plastic. 8/10.
Archer Farms Pumpkin Spice Snack Bites are satisfying and tasty. 8/10.
So are the Archer Farms Caramel Apple Snack Bites. 7/10.
Philadelphia Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese is tastier than I expected, especially on bagels. 7/10.
Quaker Pumpkin Spice Life has been around since 2016. It just has a generic spiciness to it. 6/10.
This Kroger Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream is more innovative than most pumpkin ice creams, with crust pieces and even a white swirl. But it's not as potent as others. 8/10.
I've had Kellogg's Pumpkin Spice Frosted Mini Wheats every year since they came out in 2015. They're OK, but there's no pumpkin in sight. 6/10.
Archer Farms Candy Corn Trail Mix is simple yet obvious. 7/10.
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