Is someone trying to tell me something?

Did everyone have a Merry Christmas? I hope so! Mine was hectic (XMas Marathon '08), but I had a good time, ate some good food, and spent time with my family.

We started at my Dad's - where we ate, opened gifts, then played Rummikub. My family is vicious when playing games - we all want to win and are all convinced that everyone else is trying to cheat us out of the win.

Then we headed to Mom's. We ate a delicious dinner, opened gifts, and chatted. It was nice, but I was tired at this point. I came home and crashed about 10 PM.

I received a Kindle from my Dad. I'll blog more about it when I get it in 8-12 weeks (March 9-20). It's awesome and I can't wait for it to get here!!

My sister knows I'm a freak about books. A freak. She likes to call me a "bibliophile." She says that I devour books. It's true. (I'm only 6 books away from my goal of 50... and I still have 3 days left, I'm not giving in until the last minute!!)

So my sister and her hubby get me a book, "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die." Of course, I want to start looking and seeing how many I have read. (Ed.'s note: The print is so small I needed my reading glasses - I am getting OLD!!)

I'm sad to report that I have only read 26 titles. (Ed.'s note: If you counted Cliff's Notes, then I could probably add another 10-15 to that number. If you counted movies I've seen, I could bump it up another 10 or 15.)

The good news is that I have 7 of the books in my pile to read beside my bed. That's good, right? That brings me to a grand total of 33 books, or I've read 3% of the books I must read before I die. At this rate, I'll need to live for another 1,113 years to read all of the books listed. Not a problem!


I took a picture of my new XMas present (left), with my travel "bible" that Sigh Sister Betty and I use. Notice a common theme between them?

Now, I've done much better on my places - I've been to 68 places so far. I have another 11 places planned for 2009 (2 in March, 8 in June/July, and 1 in November), so I'm doing a bit better here. I have a whooping 6.8%, but will have 7.9% this time next year - maybe more, if I get to travel more. (Ed.'s note: And yes, I mark the pages with the date I went to visit the place. I know I'm a dork, but I love it!!)

I'm 38 1/2 years old today. Though I bitch that I am old, I'm not. I shouldn't die for like another 35-40 years...... so why do I have these books? So I can get a head start before I die? I can't die with these paltry percentages - I've got to get my numbers up!!

Or is a new theme once you hit your 40's - everything is "(insert something here) before you die?"