{my coworkers really know how to make a gal feel special/incredibly awkward during CEO visits to my cube.}

Welp, it’s true…as of last Tuesday, Feb. 19, I’m officially in my “late twenties.”

To which I first say: “@&#(*%!@?”*#!!!!”

And then (after a few deep breaths) to which I secondly say:

1) I may regret this on mile 10, 15, 18 and 24 but…run a marathon! 26.2 for 27…I like the sound of that.
2) Stop drinking pop (“soda” for all you non-Northeasterners) and cut back on the coffee.
3) Stop using Splenda…and stealing it from Starbucks. (Killing two goals in one, what whatttt)
4) Go on a cross-country road trip. Who’s in?
5) Move somewhere cool. Which may provoke the cross-country road trip! Or, just move someplace new in the DC area. Preferably with very large closets.
6) Take better care of my skin. (I should note that “happy birthday to me” gift was a Clarisonic. So technically I can cross this one off already! Yesssssss.)
7) Sign up for every flipping art and craft course I can afford (read: one) from the Smithsonian Associates. Pottery? Oil Painting? Knitting? Cocktails and creativity? I can’t even handle it.
8) And while I’m at it, master the art of sewing. Matt bought be a beautifullll sewing machine for my birthday last year, and while I have attempted simple projects, I still have no idea what I’m doing. I mean, I can make you a wicked crooked pillowcase and possibly a not-so-square napkin, if you really insist.
9) And when I’m not painting or sewing…I want to be gardening. How 1950s of me! But seriously…I don’t care that we live in a city, I am going to start a garden someway somehow.
10) Aaaaand to get back to 2013, I want to host this blog on its own server so I can have more control over ads as well as design elements.
11) Take this blog course, as well as Photoshop and Lightroom courses on Lynda.com
12) Get more involved with the blogging community.
13) Add more items to my Etsy shop, including crafts I learned from our wedding, like my wooden wedding toppers and burlap banners.
14) Expand ciao mama by covering more topics such as running, health, vegetarian lifestyle and my dreams of country living. And nail art (see snazzy photo above).
15) Take that girls trip with my Mom. (You hear that Mama Ro? Stop worrying about everyone else and let’s go.)
16) Spend more days volunteering at Arcadia farm.
17) Spend more days volunteering, period. I want to get back involved with causes close to my heart such as MS and Juvenile Diabetes.
18) Write more letters and make more phone/FaceTime calls to my friends and family.
19) Be a better aunt – call more randomly and send fun things in the mail when they don’t expect it.
20) Keep a running lists of craft projects I want to make, recipes I want to try, places I want to see. I am notorious for wanting to do too many things at once, and by the time I decide what will take preference, I’ve wasted so much time and energy. And caused quite the mess.
21) De.clutter.my.life. I tend to hold on to things for sentimental value  -whether its birthday cards, notes, clothes, Bonne Bell chapstick – for far too long. And when you live in a 2×4 apartment,  it tends to create problems. I need to let go, throw out and liberate myself from things I really, really don’t need anymore.
22) Be a tourist in our own city – tour the White House, Capitol, Library of Congress, Ford’s Theatre, President Lincoln’s Cottage, etc. We’ve done so much in our three years here, but I’m ashamed to admit that we have yet to see these things!
23) To borrow an unaccomplished list item from last year, and the year before that – take a beginner’s Italian course. (Man, I’m going to be doing a lot of learning this year!)
24) And while I’m rolling my r’s and waving my hands…plan a return trip to Italy! I left a huge chunk of my heart there a few years ago, and I will never be complete until we visit again and/or just move there. Seriously.
25) Cut up my LOFT card. Seriously.
26) Reconnect with old friends and keep in constant contact with my close friends. It is amazing what a long phone conversation with one of your best friends can do for the soul.
27) Grow my hair really really long and then CHOP it really really REALLY short.

And one more for good luck:
28) COMPLETE OUR WEDDING ALBUM. And post the photos to Facebook, for those of you out there who have begged me to for the past year and a half. :)

Whew – I have a LOT to do (and I have so many more things I want to add!) Better take my back pills…these old bones need to get moving. :)