Now that the light is slowly returning to the northern hemisphere, I’m able to keep my eyes open for longer periods each day. One of the first things I’ve noticed is the appalling condition of our yard. This is due to long-term neglect, but I prefer to blame it on lack of rain and the demolition efforts of Lucy-puppy. Since I don’t enjoy gardening, I hunker down in my office and entertain myself with things I do enjoy—like updating my Bucket List.
It’s important when writing a Bucket List to include only those items that are within the realm of possibility. For example, don’t write that you want to die with dignity. Only three people will ever accomplish that, and you and I aren’t one of them. This goes along with wanting to avoid dementia or becoming a burden to your kids. Let’s face it, our kids already think we have dementia, and we are a burden to them.
Over time, your Bucket List will change. As you check off what you’ve accomplished, you’ll discover new things. For example, a few years ago my Bucket List looked like this:
Visit Washington DC.
Visit Boston.
Enter a quilt in the Fort Bragg Quilt Show.
Participate in a flash mob.
Participate in a triathlon (actually, this was not on my list, but on that of my friend Kathleen who forced me into the torture of helping her realize it).
Start a blog.
I have since visited Washington DC and Boston.
I didn’t even know I had the desire to enter a quilt in the Fort Bragg Quilt Show until I made two quilts that weren’t horrible and received compliments from long-time quilters. They assured me I wouldn’t be humiliated—so I entered. I didn’t win a prize, but let go of my grudge against the judges after only a few months.
I organized and participated in a flash mob.
I lived through the triathlon (although while training I sometimes wished for death—with or without dignity—so I could get out of it).
I started a blog.
The items currently on my list:
Get a license to carry a concealed weapon. (Upon hearing this, my husband hid the guns and ammo.)
Find the guns and ammo.
Be a juror on a murder trial.
Get appointed to the Mendocino County Grand Jury (because I am terribly nosey want to be of public service).
Train Lucy to become Fort Bragg’s first bomb-sniffing dog.
Some consider my current Bucket List to be dark and bordering on violent. They may be right. Perhaps the list is reflective of how I subconsciously feel about the approach of another birthday—one that will propel me into a new decade.
I tend to get this way—dark and violent—whenever the second digit of my birthday is a 9. Once the number officially becomes a 0, I settle down and stop threatening to hurt people. By the end of this month, my Bucket List might look a whole lot different than it does today.
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So tell me, what’s on your Bucket List?
It Happened at Purity 
Okay, you have written so much fabulous stuff BUT I think you just topped the list again. Inspiring (in so many ways)!
Thanks Charlie. Get your own list going.
You have successfully succeeded in planting the Flash Mob Seed in my head! It’s on my Bucket List now. Along with going to Australia and skydiving [neither of which do I have any intention of doing]. AND…. I must being investigating if there is such a thing as a bomb-sniffing cat.
I loved watching the video, tho I swear there were at least 5 sightings of you, all in different outfits and perhaps one of them involved wearing a dark brown wig. You make being 49 look fun again!! 🙂
*begin*
The Flash Mob has to be on of the most fun things I’ve ever done. Go for it Angie–and everything else you can imagine!
(49–HAHAHAHAHA!!!)
Staying out of Kate Erickson’s way is now on top of my Bucket List simply because I want to live long enough to get to my other Bucket List goals.
HA! You’ll be safe after this birthday month has passed–I promise.
Be in a Flash Mob used to be on my Bucket List, but you helped me check that one off. 🙂
And we became friends as a result. Yay!
My #1 is landing a new position. My #2 is spending more time with my greatest someone:) My #3 is doing everything and anything ENJOYABLE for 2014!!! Happy Weekend:)
Love all of them! Especially the doing anything enjoyable. I say never pass up an opportunity to have fun!
Have to DO Enjoyable and FUN Each and Every Day for sure!!!
I never knew that I have a bucket list until recently. I was in the drive-in lane at Taco Bell, waiting to order two chicken tacos, when my mobile rang. It was Napa Valley’s The French Laundry informing me they had received a cancelation for the next night and was I interested? Taco Bell on Monday. The French Laundry on Tuesday. Of course I was interested! Now I only hoped my sister would agree to spending 300 times more for dinner than I just spent at Taco Bell. After almost having a heart attack over the prie fix cost, she agreed. Later I could hear the hesitation in her voice as she said she’d agreed because she could tell it was important to me. I felt like a little kid on Christmas Eve, and slowly began to realize I DID have a bucket list. I was so excited that I honestly didn’t sleep a wink that night, but developed goose bumps across my arms instead. A submerged dream was coming to the surface and something unbelievable was going to come true. It slowly dawned upon me that I DID have a bucket list, and The French Laundry was on it, along with a stay at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite.
Thank you for sharing this Nancy. I love the fact that your bucket list has been hidden from your consciousness and it took that event to bring it to the fore. Ah the mysteries revealed at the Taco Bell drive-through….
Now start writing some things down. Doesn’t matter if you get to them within the next year or two or three, just that you’ll eventually get to them.
Love you!