30 things to do while you're 30

Sitting here on the dark side of 30, I've been looking back fondly on my wild and woolly youth -- though some might describe it as mild and cottony. Anyway, I thought I would share some of my observations (and opinions) on important things to accomplish while I'm 30.

Since my 30th year is coming to an end, and April is the last month I can do what was on my list. I think I'm going to fail miserably at some items, but succeeded with great gusto at most. Here was my list of 30 things to do while I was 30. (I did it a few years ago)

1 - Cut my hair (I know, I know seems strange, but it was half past a monkey's ass [mine] and Locks for Love needs 10 inches to donate...awe) - DONE! and I hate it.

2 - Drive a wicked cool car/truck/whatever - DONE. I had to rent it, but still, it was cool...for ME! Life's a journey, enjoy the ride. The best I did was driving a rental convertable from Miami to the Florida Key's. I ended up with sunburn on HALF my body, but hey, I was riding in style!

3 - Live in a cool place - DONE! Can't get any COOLER than Kotzebue!

4 - Sing Karaoke like I'm Lee Ann Rhimes! DONE - I was not exactly sober, but I thought I sounded GREAT. Record Deal anyone?!

5 - Have a threesome -Fail -Yeah, getting married and having a boyfriend kind of stumps that one, but hey, it was a fantasy list right?! Oh, and I have about six more weeks to go!

6 - Drive in Napa Valley and taste the wines - DONE! - very nice, managed to go to ONE winery, when the person I was with was her OWN whinery... she was more interested in the shopping outlets.

7 - Go to a concert - fail - Sorry, haven't managed to do this yet. Ugh.

8 - Dye my hair blonde- Fail - Ugh, another failure. I tried to put lowlights in it, but was a little allergic to the dye...so yeah, this probably won't happen. Thank God for my au naturale highlights courtesy of the sun every Arctic summer.

9 - Ski to Sisualik - fail - although I've done this before, I haven't done it this YEAR. I still have a little while to do it. Thanks to my new dog harness and long lead, I think I can get Nugent to do most of the work for me! :) I just need to get Dean to go before me to warm up the house. Brrrr.

10 - Learn to fly - fail - I just can't get over that fear. I just can't trust an airplane. Not even my own. I can't even trust my husband when he's flying with me. Ugh. I'm going to have to work on this.

11 - Make amends with an old friend/enemy- Done. Did it. Felt good. Going to heaven.

12 - Belong to a wine of the month club - Done - LOVE IT! Although when we find ones I like, its a bit tough to find them in any liquor store in Alaska! I'll enjoy them while I can. Oh, by the way, the UPS guy delivers them to me. He is required to ask, "are you sober?" because on the packaging it states, "Do NOT deliver to intoxicated person." HA.

13 - Go back to Finland - fail - I had really hoped that I could do this and a honeymoon all in one fell swoop. Since I didn't take ANY time off for a honeymoon, I didn't get back to Finland. But I visit frequently via internet! Kiitos!

14 - Earn a lot of money, give some of it away - DONE - between my families disposition regarding budgeting and my weakness for puppy dog eyes, I have managed to make a comfortable amount of money and give lots of it away. (pat on the back)

15 - Record my grandmother's oral stories - Partially done. - My Finnish grandmother gave me a family history book, so I have that. She did all the work for me. Kiitos Isoaitti! But I am yet to record my Aahna's history. One I believe is most important, becuase with the passing of our elders dies the rich Inupiaq history. Ok I'll shut up now. I'll do it next month!

16 - Go on a VACATION - FAIL!!! - Yes, I had to WRITE IT IN, and I still failed. I have to say that when I GOT MARRIED, I only took one day off. Ugh...so, again, I'll have to go on a vacation someday soon. :)

17 - Race a family dog team - Fail. - I am sorry to say that most of my plans are failures. Maybe I should have done a "top 10 things to do while I'm 30." OK...so my aunt and uncle race dogs all the time. Maybe someday when I have time, I'll go help them train them. My kids race every year. Maybe I could live vicariously though them?

18 - Learn to speak Inupiaq or Finnish (either one) - Fail...both. - I'm getting depressed at how miserably I'm failing. OK. So I have the Rosetta Stone for both languages. I can count and know some cuss words in Finnish. I understand a bit of Inupiaq and can pass the Rosetta Stone Language CD-ROM's without fail, but I still don't know the language. Sorry ancestors.

19 - Have my last baby - FAIL. - sad. that is me...sad. Oh well, I married the guy right!?

20 - Buy a house - DONE! - Whew, I was beginning to think I had failed everything. I did buy a house! A nice one at that!

21 - Open a business - DONE! - YES...two for like twenty! Katak's Bed & Breakfast is located in Kotzebue if you're interested!!!

22 - Buy something really expensive for myself - Fail?- Does a house count? I also got a ring...but didn't really buy that. Uh...how about a snowmachine...again, that wasn't for ME. Hmm...I guess my new stove and refrigerator wouldn't count either. I guess I failed this one. Maybe a coach purse IS a good idea! :)

23 - Get myself published in something other than the Arctic Sounder - Done - since I write for the Hunter. I also had stories picked up by the AP and they raced all over AK and the "lower 48" about uugruk hunting. Yay me. Hell, even Koy was published when he wrote an article for the Sounder about Selling popcorn for Cub Scouts!

24 - Run/Walk/Bike/Hike/Row, etc for Charity. - Done - Thanks to the Miluk runners, a team mainly from Kotz participated in the Alaska Run for Women. We raised a bit of money for the cause. I'd actually really like to DEVELOP a run/walk/bike/row, etc for IFOPA. A baby here has FOP, so we could use that excuse to plan a party! Sounds like a great idea. It'll be on my list of "31 things to do when I'm 31!"

25 - Hire someone to clean my house. - Fail. - I WISH. I pay a LOT if anyone knows of anyone!

26 - Get a painting professionally framed. - Fail - Geez my MOM beat me to this. my dad gets her cross stitching professionally framed for her. Man. Sad.

27 - Volunteer for a day somewhere needed - DONE - WHEW! That was hard. I was at Nikaitchuat for ONE day (Halloween) and it was TOUGH. I went home at 3 and promptly fell asleep from all the hard work I did. I don't know how the teachers do it. Thank God for them.

28 - Take college classes - Fail - WITH WHAT TIME?! I feel like I already know this crap anyway! haha...

29 - Spend at least one month at camp. - Fail. - Dangit. I am going to have to take some time off this summer.

30 - REMEMBER EVERYONE's BIRTHDAY's and send them a card - Fail. - Crap, once again, a failure. Sorry everyone.

Thus ends my illustrious list. As you can see. I am quite a failure. Maybe that's why I stopped going to college. Oh well. I still love my job!

Over a YEAR?!

OK, ok, I've been seriously procrastinating on my writing skills! Or, lack thereof. But, then again, when you get paid to write, why do it for fun anymore?! Oh, yeah, because you can be sarcastic, and mean...if you want.

What a year it's been. I've written a few blogs at myspace, those of the humor category. If you're my friend, you can read them, if not...too bad. I have to admit, I occasionally go to my blog on myspace and re-read my own works. I laugh almost every time. I think I'm really, really funny. Maybe that's just me, but that's OK, one needs to feel good about one's self correct?!

OK...on to the mega year. Let's see, I got married. Yep, tied the knot, jumped the broom, got hitched, and all that jazz. It's been NOTHING like I experienced in the past. Dean is a wonderful person, who has some serious problems dealing with me! (kidding!!!) He has the LONGEST patience and temper that I've ever seen. Combine that with my short fuse and nonexistent patience, we make a great team. He works for an airline, which means for me... (almost) FREE flights to Anchorage for shopping. My one vice. Maybe it's because I grew up with almost nothing, but I want everything for my kids. Not myself, shyuh, why get anything for me, all I need are a few pairs of cheap jeans and some shirts with no writing on it, and I'm game. But my kids, that's another story.

I'm still in love with my house. I love my room (although its messy), I love the kitchen and living room and bar. I love the TV on the wall and the built in bookshelf for all my BOOKS. (it doesn't fit half my books, but hey, at least we tried right?)

My kids are doing wonderful. Kaisa is in the "big kids" class at Nikaitchuat. She's been singing the National Anthem at basketball games for the past few months. She does an AWESOME job. I really need to learn how to post video's. Yeah, in my spare time I'll do that. (don't expect anything anytime soon) She's taken to singing about her day, my day, and when she's mad, sad, happy, oh, you know, all the time. Here is our latest arguement:

KK - MoooooOOm, you're a LOSER.
MjL - that's not nice. I'm a winner, I'm sitting at the winner's table
KK - No you're not. You're not selfish enough to be a winner.
MjL - Selfish? You don't even know what selfish IS.
KK - HellOOOO, Self ISH. Duh. SELF Ish. get it right mom.
MjL - Get WHAT right? You don't even know what you're talking about.
KK - Yeah, right YOU dont know what I"m talking about... cause your'e a loser.
MjL - Stop saying Loser, its a bad word.
KK - NOW YOU'RE just lying to me, its not a bad word. Loser
MjL - &^%$#@! Knock it off. Don't talk to me.
KK - OK loser.

Yeah. that's how our days go. She decided that I was a loser. So, I told her that I'd give her twenty bucks if she could lick her elbow. haha...it kept her quiet for about 2 hours. :) Don't tell her that its impossible to do!

Koy's been enjoying the social aspects of middle school. He frequently comes home with report cards that say this:

"Koy is a very smart kid. But, he has a problem not talking to other kids. He doesn't study for tests, doesn't turn in homework, and needs to stop talking to his friends. It is very sad that he gets 100%'s on his tests without studying, but still has a B (or C) in class. Nothing less than a 90% should be regarded as an F! Sincerely, His teacher. Ugh. That boy. I guess when you're smart (for KOTZEBUE) you get in trouble for not doing your mundane homework that my DAUGHTER could do. He is getting introuble for not writing a paragraph every night, after reading for 30 minutes. Can I just say that if he read for ONLY 30 minutes, I might disown him. He reads almost as much as I do. What. the. heck. Anyway, I guess its to "get ready" for high school. Who cares what the high school does here, HE's not going. He'll be somewhere else. Even if I can't convince my husband to move away from Kotzebue, Koy will NOT go to high school here. Sure, he may have more opportunities for scholarships, etc. But we're taking about an education. And high school is more important than college (he's in middle school). Anyway, he's doing great and we're all one big happy family.

P.S. I am very happy that its sunny out at 8 am and still sunny at 10 pm! 24 hour daylight, here we come!