28

I turned 28 this week. Instead of having new years resolutions, I'm going to have birthday resolutions. Mom says its because I can fail by New Years and not feel too bad about it. Maybe there's a little truth in that, but I think linking it with your birthday makes it more meaningful to me as a person. So here are some goals I'd like to achieve in the next year:

- Drink more champagne. I realized this a few weeks ago. Champagne is bubbly and fun. You know you're in for a good time when it starts off with champagne. I need more bubbly and fun-ness in my life.

- Host 12 gatherings. Okay, so going from a fun goal to not so much of a fun goal... depending on how you look at it. When Bryan and I first bought our house we were good about having people over every few weeks or so. It forced us into keeping the house clean and made us put on our host and hostess hats. The last year or two we haven't had nearly as many people over, besides family, that is. So in the next year I'd like to host more gatherings. They don't have to be formal parties or even dinner parties (although I do want to bring back the dinner party!). I'm starting off early this year by hosting my first one this weekend. I'm having some of my co-workers from Skyline over for Champagne! and appetizers. Just a fun girls night to catch up.

- Wear sequins. The other day Nicole of Making It Lovely blog wrote about how one of her life goals was to wear sequins. It struck me as such a fun goal and one I should adopt very quickly. For reasoning see: Drink More Champagne goal. It's the same.

- Stop listening to other people's advise. This may seem odd, but lately I've been re-evaluating my life and one of my biggest regrets in life is based on listening to someone else's advise. If I regret that, what else may I regret if I let other people's opinions guide my life?

- Listen to music LOUD! Somewhere along the way in the last few years I haven't been focused on music as I have in the past. Probably because I don't have endless amounts of free time to just sit around and listen to new music, research new bands, and loads of money to purchase new music. Which is totally fine, but this year its time to come back and listen to more music and when I'm in the car, listen to it LOUD. Because its fun.

- Visit 5 breweries or distilleries. If I'm going to complete my life goal of visiting 50 breweries I really need to get a jump start on it. This past year we visited a rum distillery, Yazoo, and two wineries. I'd like to hit up bourbon country in the spring and maybe squeeze in a few beer tours as well.

- Read 15 books (3 of which need to be non-fiction). Last year I had a goal to read 12 books. This seemed lofty at the time as I was deep in the middle of a reading slump. I lifted myself out of that slump this past July and with my current job I've been flying through books. I don't remember what my total is now, but its past 15 by now. I added the non-fiction clause because I don't typically read non-fiction. I finished a non-fiction book last week and really enjoyed it. I need to branch out more.

- Raise hell. Part of this comes with the whole drinking champagne, wearing sequins, and loud music. But this year, I want to have fun. Stop taking things too seriously and mix it up. Change the radio station at work, eat rotel for dinner, stay up late, etc.

There you have it. My goals to achieve as a 28 year old.