Sep. 18: Thursday Thirteen #11

Today is my 40th birthday. Last week I listed 13 things that changed my life in my 30s. This week, in honor of today, I’ll share:

13 things I hope will happen in the next ten years

1. I’d like to lose this damn pregnancy weight once and for all, and feel my age instead of 10-15 years older.
   
2. My hair will give up trying to hang on to its color and finally go completely grey. But it’ll be a nice grey, a lovely skin-complementing shade of grey, and wherever I go people will be envious. Yep. Envious.
   
3. I’ll still be writing in this blog, I figure. It’s a fun, creative outlet and keeps me from having to write the same e-mails to 15 different people every week. Of course, at some point my kids will probably start censoring me...
   
4. Travels: I will finally visit New York City, where my sister and I will leave some of our dad’s ashes at Yankee Stadium. Vic and I are planning a trip to Ka’anapali for our 20th anniversary, which is where we honeymooned in 1997. We’d definitely like to go on a Disney cruise again, maybe with the Jordan and Shahrokshahi families. And a trip or six to Disneyland and/or Disney World wouldn’t be too bad.
   
5. Work: I’m not sure what I’d like to see happen job-wise. I have no complaints right now, so maybe it’d be fine if things just continue as they are. Maybe if my work was a bit steadier, rather than have the busy-busy-busy times and then the slo-o-o-ow times... That’s too much to ask for, isn’t it?
   
6. Politics: I hope the next president elected has some common sense and will end the pointless war we’re in. I’d like to see marriage legalized for any two people that want to be married.
   
7. Katie and Jack will become teenagers—yikes! Katie will graduate high school with a minimum of tattoos and piercings. The kids will get to do things Vic and I never did, like go to prom, apply to colleges (we were automatically accepted into ours if we were church members and could write a very large check), take college prep courses, play competitive sports, etc. Ah, normalcy.
   
8. Katie will be old enough to vote in 2018. Will she rebel against me by registering as a Republican, then vote simply to cancel out mine? Or will she see the brilliance of Mom’s view on every little thing that matters in our world?
   
9. I’ll catch up on my scrapbooking. Right now I’m about four years behind and it’s just getting worse. I have actually considered not taking pictures at some events, just to save myself on layouts. Bad mother! Bad!
   
10. I’ll be married to a 50-year-old come July 2014. Buddha almighty. Victor and I will celebrate 20 years of marriage in 2017.
    
11. I plan to attend my 25th high school reunion in 2011 and 30th in 2016. We’ll go to Vic’s 30th in 2012.
    
12. (Kathy will hate me for this, but) I am determined to become a great-aunt. My nephews are 20 and 21 right now, so I don’t think it’s too lofty a dream, is it? The best thing about me being a great-aunt is that it will make my sister a grandmother. HA! I, on the other hand, will not become a grandmother in the next ten years. Did you hear that, Katie and Jack?
    
13. I’ll hire a housekeeper to deep-clean my house. And then I’ll keep her on to do all the day-to-day stuff I don’t like to do. And she’ll do all the yard work I hate. And she’ll do laundry and wash windows and disinfect the cat box and clean toothpaste globs out of the kids’ sinks. WAIT! I want a wife! And I want a good wife, not an incompetent one like me.

Every Thursday, bloggers jot down 13 things about their week, 13 secrets they’ve never shared before, 13 random things about themselves or their lives that give the reader a better idea of who they are. Then the fun begins; you go blog-hopping! Find other Thursday Thirteeners, spend some quality time getting to know your fellow bloggers, interact with them through their lists, and invite them to yours!