(posted two days later because my entire list was deleted.)
Did you know that the phrase ‘bucket list’ come from the term ‘kicked the bucket’? I didn’t until I just looked it up (thank you interwebz). I’m home today, hanging out and keeping Sasha (kind of) calm while we have gutter guards installed on our house. I’ve got work to do, but I’ve been at it for three hours already (and its only 9:30am), and I’m taking a break. A recent pin (on Pinterest) “5 Things That Should be on Your Bucket List” got me thinking. I don’t even have a bucket list. Do I want one?
The article (by MediaMeme) lists the five things that should be on everybody’s list — which is a hugely broad category, but . .. Anyway here they are (without comment):
- Start your own business.
- Take a dream vacation.
- Learn to play an instrument.
- Learn a language.
- Purchase property.
It’s a nice enough list, and, for those of us privileged enough to enjoy wealth, a good list.
But it’s not a very interesting list. Then again, I say that without having my own list, so perhaps the process isn’t very interesting?
I do, however, spend time each year (at my birthday) developing a list of goals for the year, and then I review that list and create a new one for the coming year. It’s a process I’ve done since the 90s, and is always interesting.
So, what’s on my bucket list?
- Take a cooking class
- Master knife skills
- cook all meals for a month (no dining out)
- cook all meals for a month (no dining out OR using prepared foods [like ravioli])
- visit all 50 states
- eat at the ‘top’ restaurant in every city I visit
- start a garden
- compost
- collect rain
- create a passive income stream
- add swimming 2x week
- exercise daily for a month
- exercise daily for 3 months
- exercise daily for 6 months
- exercise daily for a year
- Learn Tai Chi
- Improve library bookshelves
- Create a guest/fitness room
- Remodel the bathroom to be your dream room
- Pay off mortgage in 20 yrs or less
- Structurally reintegrate yr body (SOMA)
- Maintain alignment
- write another book
- convert a previous book & give it away to the community
- Teach at a ‘con (again)
- learn to make the dumplings of the world
- pet a BIG cat (Tiger, etc.)
- Travel (see list)
- learn to sing
- master self-hypnosis
- Be 100% debt free
- Get to your best possible place physically
- plan for maximal retirement opportunities
- Learn belly dancing (again)
- landscape front yard
- landscape back yard
- remodel kitchen
- learn to take awesome photos
- catalog electronic data (in progress)
- make a household binder
- clean out extraneous objects (continuous)
- Save (house) $10k/ yr plus maxing out 401(k) and IRAs
- Learn to bead
- paper crafts: learn/ do for a year
- Do 50 push ups, 50 crunches, and 50 lunges on my 50th birthday
- Write your biography
- Colelct family stories (record, transcribe)
- Do web videos
- Skype and ‘cam a ritual
- Give up meat for a month
- Catch up w/ friends more often
- Get a mehndi tattoo
- See all of Shakespeare’s plays
- Watch turtles hatch & run for the ocean
- Find a piece of pree Green Mark Belleek in Ireland and purchase it
- Attend the Super Bowl
That travel list? Here you go:
Visit the 7 wonders of the world:
- Stonehenge
- Colosseum
- Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa
- Great Wall of China — instead: Ely Cathedral
- Porcelain Tower of Nanjing – Instead Cluny Abbey
- Hagia Sophia
- Leaning Tower of Pisa
- Great Pyramid of Giza (ancient, only one still standing)
Ride a gondola in Venice
Ride the Orient Express
See the RSC in Stratford-On-Avon (again)
Northern England & Scotland
Paris (again)
London (again)
Spain: Madrid, Barcelona
Greek Islands
Turkey
Maldives
Sunrise at the Great Pyramid
Cruise down the Nile
Visit a black sand beach
Tucson, AZ
Carmel/ Big Sur, CA
Key West, FL
Sistine Chapel, Rome
Stonehenge
Bahamas
Cayman Island
Amsterdam
Ellis Island, NYC
Chicago, IL
Washington, DC (again)
Vancouver, BC (again)
Montreal, QC (again)
Bora Bora
A week at a 5 star spa resort
Ride the West Highland Railway, Scotland
Stendhal from Paris to Venice (?)
Full Moon Party on Tortola
Burning Man
Go on a cruise
Whale watching
Sail down the Nile
Karnak Temple (Egypt)
Turks & Caicos
Walk Hadrian’s Wall
See the Garden of Cosmic Speculation (Scotland)
Ireland
Sleep in a castle
But what I think is the more interesting question is — what have I already done? 🙂 That’ll be another post.