40 before 40. things to do after turning 30 but before turning 40.

33/40 | may 2016 – may 2026.

☑⠀ attend a film festival

• ⤷ chicago international film festival 2024

☑⠀ attend a music festival

• ⤷ lollapalooza 2022
• ⤷ ravinia 2024

☑⠀ attend a sports event

• ⤷ minnesota twins baseball game
• ⤷ st. paul saints baseball game
• ⤷ chicago red stars soccer game
• ⤷ chicago blackhawks hockey game

☑⠀ be a tourist where i live

• ⤷ minneapolis, minnesota, usa: this took like, a summer lol.
• ⤷ chicago, illinois, usa: in progress! always recommend the architecture river cruise!

☑⠀ become a better home cook

• ⤷ i learned how to make a lot of things and grew more confident. i can now throw things together without a recipe and they almost always turn out good...or at least edible.

☑⠀ continue collecting favorites as physical media

• ⤷ books
• ⤷ film blu-ray & dvd
• ⤷ teevee blu-ray
• ⤷ vinyl

☑⠀ establish a skincare routine

• ⤷ it took several years but i think i have what i need and it isn't overwhelming to me. it is something that will have to change almost yearly though, as aging is no joke and can cause products that once worked fine to fail miserably suddenly.

☑⠀ get houseplants & keep them alive

• ⤷ i seem to have a green thumb, though i regularly do battle with fungus gnats for some reason. i really like having plants! they do in place of a pet, which i don't have because i feel i travel too much still and it would be unfair to the poor pet.

☑⠀ get a job with work travel

• ⤷ it actually kinda sucks to have to travel a lot for work! i don't mind doing it occasionally, but multiple times a quarter meant there were some months it felt like i only paid for an apartment as a place to store stuff. and it was really only in the evening you could even start to explore a city, and most tourist things were closed and it was already dark. shockingly boring! i have a lot of opinions about airports though.

☑⠀ go to the movie theaters regularly

• ⤷ moviepass and then amc stubs a-list really changed the game. the prices are insane otherwise. there is no way i could have afforded to go so often, which is a three digit number according to the letterboxd tag that only tracks since 2020.

☑⠀ grow a container/balcony garden

• ⤷ i don't have a balcony any longer, but i really enjoyed doing this when i did. i commonly grew herbs, cherry tomatoes, and various peppers. the only downside is that a single plant can be far more productive than i expected, and so there was a lot of salsa in my life that first summer. i should look into what can be grown indoors without a fancy setup...

☐⠀ have a spa day

• ⤷ at an actual spa.

☑⠀ move to a large u.s. city

• ⤷ i'm too midwestern for this not to have always been chicago. plus, i don't see myself living in nyc, la, houston or phoenix, so...short list of options. i really wanted the good-by-american-standards public transit, tbh, which made nyc the only other option and the prices there...no way i can afford that. plus only one of these options is near a large body of freshwater, and isn't going to be like, destroyed by climate change in the next 50 years.

▣⠀ read all owned, unread books

• ⤷ i am going to define this as books owned 2023 and earlier. i think that shortens the list, but i really have got to stop buying books all the time, then just reading books from the library. this is an item that probably won't ever be finished—i have always had a stupid number of books in the backlog. this might be the first time it's not even close to being in triple digits, which is a win in and of itself!

☑⠀ read everything related to the dark tower series

• ⤷ i really enjoyed doing this, but i am also okay not reading any stephen king for a few years! love his writing, but maybe not this much of it so quickly.

☑⠀ read w. somerset maugham's bibliography

• ⤷ so much of this was hard to track down. this isn't a complete bibliography, but i am confident i got all of the major short stories, novels, novellas, and plays. i liked many of them! he's still my favorite writer, too.

☑⠀ (re)visit areas likely significantly affected by climate change

• ⤷ abroad: thailand, malaysia, singapore, & vietnam
• ⤷ u.s.: gulf coast of florida, dallas/ft. worth, new york city, salt lake city, & new orleans

☑⠀ rewatch star trek tv shows & movies

• ⤷ if it wasn't for the pandemic, i'd probably still be working on this. there is so much content for this franchise, which makes sense because it was the first one to really take the "go big or go home" attitude and invented much of what we know of as fandom today. which is cool! but holy hell it's a lot. the internet tells me there are 12 tv shows with 940 episodes, and 14 films. i thought about wading into the books but i think i'd go nuts from that much of any one thing, no matter how much time i spread it across. (the internet says there are at least 850 books, 500+ comics, and the total print media may be around 2,705...wow.)

☑⠀ run a half marathon (13.1 mi/21 km)

• ⤷ the perfect distance, imo. i don't need to worry about fuel because proper nutrition in the days before does wonders for me. i can get brunch afterward because i'm not completely depleted. i don't have horrible muscle soreness in the days after the race. i'm going to try to do the superhalfs on my 50 before 50 list!

☐⠀ run an endless summer trail run series race

• ⤷ my untreated hypermobility meant too many injuries until i got a handle on it. the only year i could have done this was 2020 and...it got canceled, obviously. these are on wednesday evenings, so it's tough for me to time a trip back to minnesota for it, too. ah, well.

☑⠀ see dita von teese live

• ⤷ incredible. a very memorable experience and performance. i'm so glad i got to see her live.

☑⠀ start a vinyl collection

• ⤷ i have wanted one of these for so long, but i was always moving around or traveling a lot or just generally never home so it didn't make much sense. working from home (and age) has led to my life being more settled, so it felt like a good time to finally buy a record player and buy some vinyl records.

☑⠀ take amtrak

• ⤷ both times i have taken it have been huge messes with delays or cancellations. i probably won't prioritize taking it again.

☑⠀ take a hiking and/or running trip

• ⤷ badlands national park, custer state park, & black hills national forest
• ⤷ rocky mountain national park
• ⤷ great smoky mountains national park
• ⤷ uinta-wasatch-cache national forest & twin peaks wilderness
• ⤷ mark twain national forest, ozarks, & hot springs national park
• ⤷ acadia national park

☑⠀ take a month-long vacation abroad

• ⤷ thailand, malaysia, singapore, vietnam, & south korea

☑⠀ take a multi-state road trip

• ⤷ utah ⇢ idaho ⇢ montana ⇢ wyoming
• ⤷ illinois ⇢ indiana ⇢ kentucky ⇢ tennessee
• ⤷ illinois ⇢ missouri ⇢ arkansas ⇢ tennessee

☑⠀ take a solo vacation

• ⤷ south dakota: badlands national park, black hills national forest, mount rushmore national memorial, custer state park, crazy horse memorial
• ⤷ southern minnesota: sat in a cabin on a lake for a long weekend
• ⤷ northern wisconsin: sat in a cabin by a fire with a stack of books while it snowed for a long weekend
• ⤷ illinois: lincoln home/museum/monument/tomb; missouri: gateway arch national park, mark twain national forest, ozarks; arkansas: ozarks, hot springs national park

☑⠀ take up a new hobby

• ⤷ mixology: i am not good at it and don't really drink any more anyway. but it was fun to try!
• ⤷ pilates: this is more a medical necessity due to my hypermobility, but i honestly enjoy it so much i want to put becoming a pilates instructor (part-time) on my 50 before 50 list
• ⤷ knitting: i just wanted something to keep my hands busy while watching tv, and instead i've gotten my favorite hobby. i love all the stuff i can make! homemade blankets are always a win for presents and i really enjoy making them. i'm working on learning how to make my own clothes, which is super-fun. it's also surprisingly easy to find community and i've made a lot of acquaintances-turning-to-friends out of this hobby.
• ⤷ tea: i mean, i always drank like, celestial seasonings, but i started to really get into loose leaf and all the different ways of preparing tea in the last few years. i really enjoy it! i still drink coffee nearly every morning, though.
• ⤷ biking: honestly, i liked this more in minneapolis with all the abundant nature trails in the city. it is stressful as hell biking in chicago so i don't do it a lot.
• ⤷ japanese short-form poetry: i haven't tried writing much yet, but i have learned so much about it. it's definitely not just the zen haikus we get in the west.

☑⠀ transition to a car-free daily lifestyle

• ⤷ moved to a city with good public transit, bought a bike, & sold car

▣⠀ travel at least once a year (excepting 2020)

• ⤷ this wasn't really a challenge because i do have to travel for holidays at minimum. i did have to add the addendum about 2020 though because i refused to travel anywhere that year for obvious reason.

▣⠀ visit at least one friend once a year (excepting 2020)

• ⤷ i have a lot of friends all over the world, and to keep those friendships up you really gotta make an effort! plus, i love visiting people and having people visit me!

☑⠀ visit canada

• ⤷ sault ste. marie, ontario

☑⠀ visit more u.s. national parks for the first time

• ⤷ badlands national park, south dakota
• ⤷ rocky mountain national park, colorado
• ⤷ yellowstone national park, wyoming/idaho/montana
• ⤷ mammoth cave national park, kentucky
• ⤷ great smoky mountains national park, tennessee/north carolina
• ⤷ indiana dunes national park, indiana
• ⤷ gateway arch national park, missouri
• ⤷ hot springs national park, arkansas
• ⤷ acadia national park, maine

☑⠀ visit more u.s. states for the first time

• ⤷ south dakota, pennsylvania, florida, new jersey, new york, colorado, nebraska, indiana, tennessee, utah, idaho, montana, wyoming, louisiana, kentucky, connecticut, rhode island, massachusetts, missouri, arkansas, & maine

☑⠀ visit southeast asia

• ⤷ thailand, malaysia, singapore, & vietnam

▣⠀ visit all five great lakes

• ⤷ lake michigan, lake superior, lake erie, lake ontario, ...

☑⠀ volunteer locally

• ⤷ esl classroom teacher, esl tutor, ciff volunteer, & bookstore volunteer

☑⠀ watch akira kurosawa's filmography

• ⤷ so good!! 30 films (32 actually but 2 are considered lost) and only a small number were stinkers. truly worth the time to track these all down. i had to use a mix of the library, streaming services, and uhhh other online means.

☑⠀ watch the studio ghibli filmography

• ⤷ so many of these are so good, and so many of these are not. but it was all worthwhile.

☐⠀ write one short story

• ⤷ i've got half of several but nothing finished yet, sadly.