Sunday, August 1, 2010

To do sometime between the time I publish this post and the time I die.

Have I ever mentioned I'm a list maker?  One of my customers at work told me once that she read somewhere that list makers are melancholy people.  It must be true.  Anyway, I do have a "bucket list," but I don't call it that.  I just call it my wishlist of things to do.  This list has been ongoing now for about three years, so some (a very few) of the things are checked off.  I tend to add things much faster than I mark them off, soooo . . . yeah.  My list is rather long, but I provided links for things you may or may not find interesting--in case you were thinking of adding them to your own list.  :)  Also, you may notice that some of these things are partially done.  I have a horrid habit of starting projects without finishing them (The Booty Project, The Da Vinci Code Project, Grammar Matters, and a photo project I started taking notes on last month are a few of them I can think of).  So some things, even if they aren't scratched off, are partially complete.  Others are more subjective in their completeness (bellydancing, piano, etc.--can anyone ever call an art completely learned?).

So I know you're dying to read my list, and here it lies. (I should mention that these are only in the order in which I added them, and their placement on the list is not indicative of their weight, but may be indicative of things I was studying at the time I listed them, which is why you'll see historical sites listed together, and astronomical endeavors grouped):

1.  See Pueblo Bonito at Chaco Canyon.
2.  See the tomb of Shih Huang-di in China.
3.  View the Parthenon in Greece.
4.  Climb the Eiffel Tower, tour the Louvre, or see Versailles.
5.  Learn at least five languages of the following:  Spanish, Italian, French, German, Japanese, Cantonese, ASL, Portuguese, Finnish, Dutch, Greek.
6.  Learn to ride horseback.
7.  Drive on the Autobahn.
8.  Snorkel & see a kangaroo in Australia.
9.  Ski in Switzerland.
10.  Stroll down a vineyard in California.
11.  See Niagra Falls in person.
12.  Take Zachary & Caitlyn to Disneyworld or Disneyland.
13.  Ride a gondola in Venice.
14.  Learn to bellydance.
15.  Visit a pub in Dublin.
16.  See Stonehenge in England.
17.  Behold the Alamo.
18.  Walk the Avenue of the Dead in Teotihuacan.
19.  See either Mayan Chichén Itzá or Incan Machu Picchu.
20.  Watch a ballet, opera, or Broadway play in New York.
21.  Visit an internet friend in another state or country.
22.  View the Taj Mahal in India.
23.  Visit a street market in Thailand or Indonesia.
24.  Get an incredible shot of the landscape in New Zealand.
25.  Discover and edit a bestselling author.
26.  Read Sir Thomas More's Utopia.
27.  Attend an RWA national conference.
28.  See Bodies: The Exhibition.
29.  See the Pirate Soul Museum in Key West, FL.
30.  Visit the National Cryptologic Museum at the NSA.
31.  Witness a total solar eclipse. (Pending date of completion is in 2017.)
32.  See the Northern Lights.
33.  Master the GRE Wordlist.
34.  Shoot a gun.
35.  Complete my Grammar Matters project.
36.  Learn to play the piano.
37.  Own one signed book by each of my favorite authors: Susan Elizabeth Phillips, J.R. Ward, Dan Brown, Karen Marie Moning, Rick Riordan, Jude Deveraux.
38.  Take a photography class (or two).
39.  Read all of Robert Frost's poems at least twice.
40.  Read Voltaire's Candide.
41.  Read Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and/or Sense and Sensibility.
42.  Read Carl Sagan's The Dragons of Eden and/or Cosmos.
43.  Read Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide series.
44.  Read S. Morgenstern's/William Goldman's The Princess Bride and Buttercup's Baby.
45.  Rock climb in Colorado.
46.  Go for a long walk in the Netherlands.
47.  Accomplish a master's degree.
48.  Go on a "wee hike" in Scotland.
49.  Join a book club for romance readers.
50.  See a movie at the park (projected on the wall of an outdoor building).
51.  Read all twelve Letters from an American Farmer, by St. Jean de Crèvecoeur.

3 comments:

Robert McDonald said...

I can make number 34 happen. I have connections. ; ) I'd love to make number 25, haha.

I make lists, and I don't consider myself melancholy. I also have the habit of changing my mind at the last minute. Typically I don't regret it either. I can honestly say I'd love to do the vast majority of things on your lists, though quite a few of them fall into my 'travel the world' category.

Kristin said...

I swear, one of these days I'm going to make it to where you are. And then you can help me mark #34 from my list!

I was kidding about the melancholy thing. I don't know why that statement from my customer stuck with me--maybe because it was odd? Anyway, I was employing sarcasm when I said it must be true. ;)

A travel the world category wouldn't be all that helpful to me. I'd forget exactly what I wanted to see or do if I just said, "travel the world." I guess I like things very specific.

Kristin said...
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