Mid-life crisis that makes mine look like a mid-life easy-peasy problem

This article from The Independent talks about a woman who came out as a lesbian after 21 years with her husband.  I know that my mid-life crisis is in no way that dramatic.  But, I do think its interesting that this woman was a psychotherapist and it took her 21 years to figure things out.  But, maybe that's just me.

On a different note, I have figured out that my mid-life crisis needs to produce a few things to make me satisfied with my life.

1.  Some form of adventure that involves Bean (my daughter).  I have decided to try to institute daily, weekly, monthly, and annual adventures for us.  The daily will be small and easily doable: feed the ducks at the park, go downtown and play in the fountain, etc.  The weekly will be a little larger, but still easily doable: go to the museum in town, take a drive to a wildlife preserve in the area and bird watch, etc.  The monthly will be larger, a little more complicated and could require an overnight stay: camping, going to a new city and spending the day site-seeing, etc.  The annual will be quite large.  I'm thinking a multi-destination trip, or a flight somewhere new, etc.  I figure I will keep a list of places that fit into each category and use it to plan.

The impetus behind this plan is that I have noticed that my life is pretty blah most of the time.  I am a creature of habit and although I like adventures - seeing them on TV, reading about them - I rarely take the time and make the effort to have them myself.  But, I want Bean to grow up feeling confident about doing lots of different things.  My family drove on long trips and camped along the way when I was younger.  It forced me to be willing to meet new people, to deal with different terrains and bathroom situations, and to enjoy the possibility of it all.  Every camping trip was a new adventure and the possibilities for people, places and things were endless each time.  That is not true of sitting around your house watching TV or playing on the internet!

2.  A budget.  I know, this sounds anti-adventurous.  But, I've about had it with financial adventure and I'm ready for this part of my life to be totally predictable.  The first step in this process is to figure out what we spend and where.  That is the goal right now - to track spending.  Its a little weird right now with both of us being off for the summer and my hubby working away for seven weeks, so I figure we'll probably have to be in this tracking mode through the end of the summer and then institute a new budget when school starts and see how we do.

3.  A hobby.  I really need to find something I love to do and do it on a regular basis.  I think it will be reading.  That is an easy hobby.  I do love it.  I love all things books.  I want to get back to the time when I would read under the covers with a flashlight after bedtime because I loved it so much!

So, those are my three mid-life crisis notes for tonight.  We'll see how things pan out...