I'm 40 Today!

I know I've posted this twice before, but don't you think it's the cutest picture ever?

I'm 40. I'm in my 40s. For-ty.

I'm getting used to saying it. I can't say "I'm in my 30s" anymore.

But WOW! I'm 40! Wahoo! It's MY birthday! This is my favorite day of the year! My birthday is better than Christmas because it's MY birthday! And I'm so excited about MY birthday!

Yes, I know I'm like a little kid about it, but seriously...it's MY birthday!!!! And what's not to love about that? It's a day dedicated to ME!

And in the tradition of years past, this is my special birthday blog post. Last year, you will recall, I shared all my birthday horoscopes along with that super cute picture of my on my 4th birthday. In 2009, I discussed all the famous people who shared my special day, along with my first picture ever. I also showed off the most beautiful flowers in the world that I was surprised with by someone special. Finally, in 2008, I shared all the cool world events that happened on my birthday and shared the story of how I came into the world.

As I turn the page on this new chapter in my life, I thought I'd give a State of My Life update by checking in with my Bucket List.

This past year I . . .

1. Stopped biting my nails, have pretty nails I'm proud of and have started wearing rings. Item #42.
2. Paid off 100% of my debt. I achieved this Tuesday night. Whew! Just in time. You should have seen me doing the Happy Dance in my kitchen after I clicked the button on that online payment. This is a really big deal to me. It doesn't matter how much debt I had. In my opinion, any consumer debt is too much. I will tell you that the average U.S. household has $14,473 in credit card debt. I had significantly less than that, but enough that it took a plan. I followed my plan and achieved my goal. Item #44. Now I can turn my attention to item #67. (You'll have to go check it out, I'm not telling you what it is.)
   
3. Ride the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier. While you may think that's nothing to brag about, I'm really afraid of heights (and it's 150 feet in height!) and I overcame my fear to do this. Item #60.
4. Swam from the Watervale dock to BooHoo. Item #61.
5. Learned to love sushi. I accomplished this in January with a friend from high school that I hadn't seen since high school. Not only was it a great meal, but we had a wonderful, laughter-filled trip down memory lane. Item #62.
6. Applied for my passport. It hasn't arrived yet, but that's okay. I've applied for it and it should be here any day, based on their 4-week estimated arrival time. Item #63.
7. Lost 40 pounds. Okay, it wasn't the original 100 pounds that I wanted to lose this year and I also didn't reach my revised goal of 50 pounds, but I'm 40 pounds lighter than I was a year ago. I've lost 2 dress sizes and even a shoe size! Item #22.

I've also bought a new car (well, new to me), changed careers, gone to work at a company I love in a position that challenges me daily and brings me lots of personal fulfillment, and Little Merry Sunshine hit 50,000 visitors.

If I do say so myself, that's quite the list. I've actually achieved many of my personal goals and dreams in the past 40 years (see the bottom of my Bucket List for items I accomplished previously).

So what's up for the next 40 years? I don't have a crystal ball, but I do have my Bucket List and while I can't tell you with certainty that I'll achieve all of it, I do have a few items I plan to tick off in the next one to two years.

1. Buy a house (a condo counts too). Item #67.
   
2. Run a 5K. I'll do this by Thanksgiving. Item #21.
3. Finish losing those 50 pounds and add another 30 to the tally by Christmas. Items #22 and 22A.
4. Learn to play tennis. Item #33.
5. Donate blood. I swear I'll do this by Christmas. Item #36.
6. Dress in super sexy lingerie and feel confident about it. Item #53.
7. Bike the Drive. Item #65.
8. Travel to Paris. Item #68.
9. Create a scholarship at my alma mater by the time I'm 42. Item #10.
10. Learn to shoot a gun. Item #26.
11. Visit New York City. Item #6.
    

So that's it. I've got a lot to be proud of, but I've still got a lot to accomplish.

Although this isn't quite front row seats at a U2 concert (item #29), Bono and The Edge had a special birthday message for me:

My Credit Card Number Was Stolen...Again

Yesterday morning I received a voice mail message from my credit card company regarding some possible fraud on my account. You might think this would freak me out, but I've been down this road before with the same credit card company and the same credit card, so I simply couldn't get terribly excited about this. Plus, until the last few months, I've carried a balance on this card for the last couple of years (making on-time payments each month), but as of Thursday the card will be 100% paid off. So to be honest, when I heard there may be fraud on the account I thought they were worried the fraud might be having no balance and how that meant they would no longer collect interest from me.

Unfortunately, it turned out that there was actual fraud on my account. Some enterprising whippersnapper was attempting to travel around Europe on my dime. Well, on my credit card company's dime. And fortunately, the company caught it within 12 hours and called me immediately. Using my credit card number (but not the card which was safely in my possession), a Eurail pass had been purchased in Belgium, along with travel club membership, some fun stuff in Paris, and some movies from Netflix.

Was I currently in Europe? the nice woman from customer service wanted to know. I was sitting in the parking lot of a shoe store in Rolling Meadows, most definitely not Paris. Moments later, the charges were reversed, my account closed, and a new card was on its way to me.

As I mentioned, this is actually the second time this has happened. In November 2008, someone got a hold of my card number and joined a bunch of porn websites. In that situation, my credit card company was also on top of things and handled the matter quickly.

Two years ago, I believed there was a breach with the card company and today, I'm more convinced than ever. Why? Because I don't carry my credit card with me (I keep it in a safe place), I'm obsessive about shredding, I don't receive paper statements, I pay bills online directly with the card company, have all kinds of security on my computer, and rarely use the card (in the last 2 months I've used it twice for a total of less than $100 in purchases). Plus, in today's Tribune, I read an article about $3500 being stolen from ATMs of the same bank my credit card is through using credit/debit cards that the four victims said were still in their possession. Clearly, it's not me; it's the bank.

All of this talk yesterday about traveling through Europe got me to thinking: Even if I wanted to hop on a plane tomorrow and spend a few days wandering the streets of Paris, I couldn't do it. I don't have a passport.

I'm 38 days away from turning 40 and I've never left the country and couldn't if I wanted to.

So tonight I completed a passport application. And I'll formally apply at the post office during my lunch hour on Thursday.

Check another item off my Bucket List.