The Bucket List

 A few years ago country singer Terri Clark had a hit single called “I Wanna Do It All.”  The Green Bay radio stations even played a re-mix replacing “I want to watch the Yankees play ball” with “I want to watch the Packers play ball.”   That song happened to play on my iPod on my commute to work in Appleton today and it got me thinking… (On a side note, statements like this are what that “dot dot dot” button was made for.)  What comprises my list of “doing it all”? 

First we have Terri Clarks list which includes the following:

1.              Visit Paris in the Fall - been there, granted it was Spring way back in 1989… and NO this does not make me French, just like going to Japan does not make you Japanese, even though when I was recently asked if I was French due to a tattoo I have which is biblical verse written in French, I responded stupidly saying, “No. I went to France though!”

2.              Watch the Yankees/Packers play ball - Never the Yankees but many times the Packers.  Nothing compares to being at a football game inside Lambeau Field.

3.              See Niagara Falls - I have… twice.  From the U.S. side.  Long story, however, I did get to the Canadian side via the Maid of the Mist.   The falls were beautiful.  I am not a huge fan of Canada though, and we will just leave it at that. 

4.              Drink Tequila down in Tijuana - Is Nogales close enough?  Border hopping to Mexico via Arizona rather than California.

5.              Get my heart broke once or twice, settle down with the love of my life and rock my babies to sleep at night - Yes yes yes and all of the above and I wouldn’t trade a minute of it, not even the bad parts.

6.              Feel good in my skin, beating the odds with my back to the wall and trying to rob Peter without paying Paul - the two former are recent experiences for me, but it feels awesome and the latter I am an old pro at!!!

So what about my own “Bucket List”?  Do I have one?  Do YOU have one?  Even though I am able to check off quite a few of Terri Clark’s must do items, what about my own?  After all, I am the woman who once told a friend I didn’t understand the phrase “the one that got away” because I don’t have one.  So maybe my expectations differ from those of others.  I really had to rack my brain to come up with these.  Some I have already accomplished and experienced, some I am working towards, and others are yet to come.

1.     Swim in the pretty blue water - after years of my husband and I saying this to one another, this spring we finally swam in the ocean, the Caribbean to be exact, tasting the salt water and finally believing it really is turquoise water with white sand beaches. (Those photos in the travel brochures aren’t photo shopped!!!)  Nothing like feeling that sand between your toes.

2.     Write a book.

3.     Drive a 1969 Mercedes Benz.

4.     Visit every single National Park while taking an RV trip cross country with my husband and all three of my children and hug a big old Redwood tree when I get to California.

5.     Live to hold my grandchildren and see them grow up. 

6.     Play Paintball.

7.     Plant a garden.

8.     Wear a fur coat to the grocery store – (there IS a story behind this one, a goofy one, but a story).

9.     Hire an assistant to pull a red wagon behind me everywhere I go so I no longer have to worry about everything falling out of my purse/backpack/beach bag and digging in it like a bag lady every time I am at a checkout stand.

10.  Learn how to appropriately scan and bag items at the self-checkout so ONCE … JUST ONCE…. I wouldn’t have to call an actual employee of the store over to help me!

11.  Give BACK. Volunteer for worthy causes that I believe in – I have had a very rewarding experience volunteering in a Kindergarten class at one of the local schools, but I would like to expand on this, perhaps volunteering at pregnancy counseling center or the humane society.

12.  Dance at my daughter’s wedding.   

13.  Go on a wine tour in Napa, Go on a wine tour in Italy, Go on a wine tour at Walgreen’s – oh wait, I already did that one!

14.  Work as a missionary in the jungle of South America.

15.  Live a simpler life with fewer belongings so that the “things” that measure me as a human being are not material possessions, but rather what’s in my heart – I have already started working toward this.

16.  Earn a college degree – and then another, and another, and another - I am almost there with the first one thank you NWTC!!!

17.  Have the kind of patience others have given to me – yes; I want to give up my need for immediate gratification. 

18.  Have lunch with Tina Fey, dinner with Justin Timberlake, drinks with Kid Rock and play laser tag with Barney from “How I Met Your Mother.”

19.  Run through the house of someone who is an OCD perfectionist and tilt all of the pictures on the wall, mess up the hand towels, wash my hands with the decorative soaps, and turn all of their canned goods around and upside down so the labels are not perfectly facing front... JUST FOR FUN!!

20.   Become the friend that a friend would like to have, modeled after those in my own life who have shown me that I truly CAN count on the kindness of good friends.  Thank you, all of you, for what you do.  I was once told that if you cannot be a good example, at least be a horrible warning.  So thank you dear friends for giving a good example to this horrible warning.  I love you all!