Top 40 before 40

June 10, 2010

Some years ago I started thinking about all the things that I always wanted to do or achieve but never had the time, courage or means to pursue. By setting a goal based on an important milestone in life, I will try to complete as many as possible before my 40th birthday - exactly one and a half year from today.

Some of them I already did, some won’t be able to do, but at the end, the idea is to enjoy the process of planning and performing, as well as documenting every single one of them.

Here’s the list of my top 40 before 40:


1) Skydiving – risky but liberating. I have been flirting with the concept since I can remember and every year the idea seems to vanish.

2) Write a short story - that can turn into a novel or just something to remember me by.

3) Go to Greece – Athens and the Islands; experience a real Greek night with real Greek drinks and authentic Mediterranean style, honoring my recently discovered Greek name background.

4) Take singing lessons – if anything, just to keep singing – it can only get better.

5) Go to a Yoga retreat – nature, soul and spirit for at least one week. Oooommm.

6) Take a trip with my sister – anywhere, just the two of us.

7) Go to a baseball world series game - anywhere…but aiming for Fenway.

8) Take a sabbatical month in Irish countryside or the Italian Toscana – with my husband, my dogs, my laptop and my full inspiration to write

9) Go to a wine tour in Argentina, Chile, Spain or Napa Valley

10) Take my 4 goddaughters to a field trip – just us, no parents. How about Disney?

11) Go to Boston for St. Patrick’s Day weekend for the whole Irish-American experience: DKM concert, South Boston parade, pre-concert drinks at McGreevy’s, breakfast at an Irish Pub.

12) Take my father in law on a trip - to Spain, to Italy or Argentina, his choice, his rules.

13) Go to Cooperstown - on induction day?? Totally a plus.

14) Go to Michoacan to the Monarch butterfly sanctuary with my mom and Mia. They are in love with butterflies and I want to see their faces!

15) Go to Turkey with my husband – he has to experience with me the tastes and beauty of this magical country.

16) Take high cuisine classes – I want to learn how to bone a duck and make my own Filo dough; the seasoning? That’s all up to me to discover and improve.

17) Learn another language – leaning towards Portuguese or Italian.

18) Train Murphy – he has to be an educated dog before I am in my 40’s.

19) Go to the end of the world – more precisely, to the Argentinean Patagonia. I have to feel the ice and drink scotch (or wine) in that relaxing totally natural environment.

20) Read at least 50% of Borges’s complete work. We have it all, it is our collection, is about time to make time for it.

21) Get in shape! I have to make sure to be at my best before my best decade.

22) Go to a romantic getaway to Zihuatanejo…stay at Tides in one of their lagoon suites, watch the sunset and enjoy the sunrise with the best travel partner and friend I have ever had.

23) Join a charity; analyze the best choice for us and become part of it. Make a commitment with a cause compatible with our beliefs and life.

24) Organize and maintain our book collection, library stile – with indexes, files and library cards, not only for the book information but with space where we can write our book comments and personal ranking.

25) Go to an authentic Tablao Flamenco – feel and hear the passion of that gypsy music.

26) Adopt a cotton de Tulear – it was our favorite dog for the longest time, and never had the chance to find one.

27) Go to Montana – it is a state that has always intrigued me. Legends of the fall completed the effect.

28) Visit all the MLB Baseball parks where the Red Sox play.

29) Go to one of the Red Sox’s spring training

30) Go to a Red Sox – Yankees series, both in Fenway and Yankee Stadium

31) Take the Cooper Canyon train in Chihuahua, Mexico. Hopefully with the Sternberg’s.

32) Re-organize my childhood pictures and print the best digital pictures for the last 10 years to put them all in nice chronological albums; technology is good, but paper photos are timeless.

33) Go back to Guadalajara with my husband and the Sternberg’s. It is part of what we are and what we’ve become.

34) Take the California Coast road trip – US Route 101 all the way to Napa.

35) Finish Purple Red, my first children story.

36) Go to Eastern Europe – Czech Republic, Rumania and Hungry to be precise. Russia too? why not.

37) Research my family’s true background – for once and for all, to unveil the myth of my Irish heritage.

38) Go to a U2 Concert… I’ve never been to a rock concert in my life (believe it or not), so let’s make my first time grand.

39) Go to my best friend’s 40ed birthday celebration – and remain as close as we have been for more than 15 years.

40) Have a baby; find the path already written for us to become the best parents we can be.