Carpe Diem

As I'm creeping closer and closer to 30, I am realizing that so much of what I could have accomplished in my 20's is quickly passing me by.  I'm urged to recall Horace's Ode 1.11:

Tu ne quaesieris, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi
Finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios
Temptaris numeros. Ut melius quidquid erit pati,
Seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam,
Quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare
Tyrrhenum: sapias, vina liques, et spatio brevi
Spem longam reseces. Dum loquimur, fugerit invida
Aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.

Translated, it reads,

Don't ask (it's forbidden to know) what end
the God's will grant to me or you, Leuconoe.  Don't play with the Babylonian
fortune-telling either. It is better to endure whatever will be.
Whether Jupiter has alloted to you many more winters or this final one
which even now wears out the Tyrrhenian sea on the rocks placed opposite
— be wise, strain the wine, and scale back your long hopes
to a short period. While we speak, envious time will have {already} fled
Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the next.

So, I'm excited to finally make a list... 100 things to SEIZE!... I'll do my best to update you as with pictures, notes and excitement as I begin to seize all my days. Here goes!:

go to italy| go to spain | go to napa/sonoma valleys | go to seattle | take my father to the grand canyon | take my mother to europe | take an art class | create a painting that i want to hang on my wall | go camping under the stars with my husband |  take a hike through the mountains with my best friend | own a piece of land | ride a horse on the beach | snow ski | plant and grow a vegetables | write a short story | get something published | write a poem | learn to sew | sew something that i can wear | frame some of my grandmother's old black and white photos | frame the drawings my father made in elementary school | go hunting with my father and kill something | learn the rules of football | own a business | be a consistent volunteer for a non-profit organization | learn how to dive | love my body | learn how to cook a turkey | learn some of the star formations | host a valentines day party for all the people i love | become more earth friendly | write at least 1 real letter a month to a friend or family member | learn another language well enough to not need a translation dictionary | take a trip on a train | complete a week long fast | learn how to play one song on an instrument (besides chopsticks on the piano) | learn how to play a video game with my significant other | run a half marathon | stop biting my nails - for good! | learn about politics enough to form my own, solid opinion on the matters | stand up others when i don't agree or feel taken advantage of | fight for the rights of those without a voice | learn how to play chess | design my own home | have a child | teach my child independence and love | develop a relationship with someone completely different than me | be in a play in a local theater | sing karaoke | attend the same church on a regular basis | go one week without television | have a handmade christmas | take a dance lesson | ride in a hot air balloon | take a motorcycle trip | take a road trip with no destination | live in another country | buy one peice of furniture from anthropologie | grow my hair long enough to cut and give to locks of love | own a cottage | renovate a house | get a second degree | go on a safari | float down the streets of Venice | watch the running of the bulls in Madrid | Go to the top of the Eiffel tower | have a champagne toast at midnight in a foreign country | write a children's book | wear a grand hat to the kentucky derby | wear a couture gown to a fancy event | create a *successful blog | visit  the Louvre | tithe | do 30 push ups in a row | learn how to write HTML code | visit all 50 states | visit every continent (except antarctica) | get a book signed by the author | learn how to decorate cakes | dance in the rain | learn how to properly walk in high heels | take a cruise to Alaska | walk topless on a French beach | read all of Jane Austen's novels | begin a collection of something | have a coffee and chocolate at a eurpoean cafe | ride a bike through a eurpoean city | visit russia | visit greece | go to a film festival | learn how to develop film by hand | visit the outback | 93 visit the pyramids | organize a girls' trip with my closest friends | buy and successfully use a .mac | learn how to play golf | learn  the proper way to set a table | buy something at a live auction | draw my self-portrait | sky dive


I was inspired by Maggie Mason of Mighty Girl has made a list of "100 things to do before I go" and Karen Waldrom of Chookooloonks.