The Bucket List

No, this post is not going to be a riveting play by play of the acclaimed 2007 film with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. That being said, it WAS a good movie and you should go watch it... after you're done reading this post, of course.

No, today, I'll be listing MY bucket list. Or at least what it used to be and what's on it now.

For those of you not familiar with the concept of a "bucket list" - first of all, have you been living under a freaking rock!? And secondly, the general premise...

General premise... Ha! That never gets old...

... is that a bucket list = all the things you want to accomplish before you kick the bucket. Sentimental, I know. But that's really the gist of it. 

That brings us to a few weeks ago. I was looking through my old high school junk. I actually have a couple of boxes in the storage closet full of stuff I'll someday go through... or, you know, haul with me everywhere I move for the next 60+ years until one day I die and my children will have to sort through it FOR me - take THAT future children whose diapers I will change and thereby need reasons to get back at you or at least use as my stereotypical scapegoats!

My house they'll have to go through when I die... NO, I'm not a hoarder, I promise!
This is my modern art piece... uh, I call it... "Barnes and Noble ate my baby"

 ... Where was I? Oh yes...
While looking through my Senior Project binder, I found the "Goals I Want to Accomplish in the Next 15 Years" list.

It was pretty entertaining to see what I've accomplished in the 7 years since I graduated high school (yes, I'm a baby... yes, I'm old! Take your pick, readers). It was also entertaining to see the few items I would now consider pretty stupid.
I know what you're going to say - "but it says 15 years - it's only been 7" - yeah I know. So I've decided to take what I had and revamp it to share with you:

• The 8 Things I've Accomplished
• The 3 Things I'll Probably Never Do
• The 10 Things I Still/Now Want to Do

 

8 Things I've Accomplished (in the past 7.5 years)

1. Get accepted to a college/university of my choice
    Now let me just say, as an honor roll student in high school - this was a REALLY creative choice for my list. Let's just call it senioritis dumbassery. It's a medical condition, I swear...
Lucky for me, I DID get accepted to a private liberal arts school close to my hometown AND it WAS, in fact, my choice to go there.

Gotta love private school - I'm sure my mom was THRILLED that I became the ever-lucrative "English Major"

 2. Get a part-time job
     Whoa there, high school me, you're so darned ambitious! Again, rather difficult but since that time, I've had not one but FIVE part-time jobs (one I still do) and now a full-time job. Go me!

3. Take theatre classes and workshops
    As a Theatre minor, this was kind of a given. But at the time, I was starting school to be a teacher... which slowly evolved into being an English major doing my MIT (masters in teaching) laaater... which became the English major, Theatre minor now glorified secretary who writes snarky blog posts and acts in/directs community theatre shows whenever possible. Guess I always knew I loved theatre...

"What do you do with a B.A. in English?..."

ps - If you got that reference, we can be friends. If you didn't... I hope you have other redeeming qualities. Like a winsome personality or a karaoke machine.

4. Buy a new car
    Ok, this one is completed more on a technicality. While not a "new" car, I just this year bought my very own used car to replace the 21 year old beater I was driving around since I got my drivers license at 16. SO, it's new to me. That counts right?

5. Graduate college with honors
    Did I mention I was an honor student in high school? Yeah, I may have been a little grade-focused when I made this list... But good news! I graduated magna cum laude from my alma mater. I'm guessing for those of you who only picked out a few key words in that sentence (namely cum and mater), you probably didn't... Come on guys! What did I tell you about those minds in the gutter?

6. Learn to drive a motorcyle
    This wonderful bucket list item was shortly followed by a NEW bucket list item - "learn to CRASH a motorcyle" - good times... To be fair, I just laid it on its side... twice... and broke the side mirror... and road burned by ankle so now there's a nasty keloid scar... Ok, moving on!

Let's just say I'm not too keen to be driving a "donor-cycle" again any time soon

7. Parachute from an Airplane

    Just gonna throw out that I'm not sure why the "from an airplane" indicator was needed. But hey, I've completed this one twice! Want the proof (and why it's awesome) - see this blog post! Now don't backtalk me young man! You go read it now! ...Ok, good.

8. Get married

    Woo! Done! Check it off the list! ... No, I didn't get married JUST because the list said so... for reals... I kind of love him and stuff...

 

3 Things That WERE on My List that I don't really care about now

1. Learn how to surf

    While the idea of surfing does sound cool, I've decided with my particular distaste of the ocean (and things living IN the ocean), I don't mind taking this one off the list...

Ha...ha... no, really, that's ok. You go on without me.

2. Scuba dive in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as well as the Gulf of Mexico

    Ok, so for this one, I will say that I DO actually have my scuba diving license. The down side, though, is that I learned "how to SCUBA" in landlocked Eastern Washington which meant doing the written course and then the practical learning in a pool followed by my final test dive in a large lake. 

I did really enjoy it though. I would like to do it again someday - but the equipment is on the expensive side since I don't own it AND at this point I'd probably have to do a refresher course. 

But overall, if I don't scuba dive in all the water surrounding the United States, I think I'll be ok.

3. Attend a high school reunion

    High school on the brain much? Let's blame it on the "beer" goggles known as graduating in a month and already missing my friends. Though I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to going to a high school reunion, I don't know that I'd care much if I missed them either... Just being honest.

So, I was going to do a picture like THIS:

But decided against it.

So we're going to go with this one instead since at least everyone will understand it...

Bitchy? Perhaps... True? Hell yes.

And FINALLY we come to a small compilation of my current Goals in Life - or Bucket List, as it were.

                    

10 Things Currently on My Bucket List

Though I'm sure there are many more - both practical and boring as well as exciting, daring things I just can't think of off the top of my head. But here's what I have at the moment:

                

Travel Related:

                 

1. Go on a Cruise!

    We considered this for our Honeymoon but decided to save our money for a bit. I'm hoping, though, once our loans are paid off (or close) - don't worry, only 2-3 years away, we're focused! - we can celebrate with a cruise. I'd actually really like to do a summer Alaskan cruise sometime - I hear it's beautiful.
 

Um... but maybe not THAT cruise-line...

 

2. Visit New York and Washington D.C.

    Though I'm sure there are many wonderful U.S. locations to visit (I've been to a few - Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, New Orleans, podunk Washington) - I'd especially like to see these two both for their historical and entertainment qualities.

                             

3. See a Broadway show (or more than one!)

    Going hand-in-hand with the New York trip, you HAVE to see a Broadway show. Or, at least, I do. As a theatre person this is one of the 10 Holy Commandments of Theatritude. So unless I want Babs herself to come down from Heaven and strike me down for my heathen ways, it must be done at some point in my life... Wait... Barbara Streisand is still alive... Well, still!

Wrong Babs... Though that one would come down from Heaven and strike me down too...

 

4. Tour Europe

    Especially England, Ireland, France, Germany and Italy! I've already been to London and would LOVE to go back. Or live there. Definitely go back AND live there. But of all the places in the world I'd like to visit, Europe is top of the list. Cliche? Perhaps. But in the words of the immortal Rhett Butler, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." 

               

Creativity Related:

 

 5. Taking Lessons - Singing, Dancing and Creative Writing
     In the attempt at personal improvement, I'd like to get better in the creative areas I enjoy - singing, dancing (acting), writing and so on. So at some point, I'd like to take lessons for these things. Pretty much as simple as that.
                          
6. Finish a novel (and try to get it published)
    So... I've been working on various stories since I was in the 6th grade. I often have novel ideas and have even gotten pretty far on a couple. Then, of course, I get self-conscious and wrapped up in editing my work and end up scrapping the whole thing... but you know. Whatever.
SO one of these days I would like to ACTUALLY complete one of my stories and perhaps get it published.

 

7. Write a play (and try to get it publish)

    This one I actually HAVE done - I wrote a play for my high school senior project and directed it for a weekend of performances. And I LOVED it. I'd love to write another play or two. I have some particularly fun ideas with modernizing Shakespeare comedies... just saying.

8. Direct at least 10 shows in 15 years

    They say goals are supposed to measurable and attainable and all that other crap right? Well there you go - a specific number of shows I'd like to play a hand in directing. Luckily, I've done a few directing and assistant directing gigs so far and looking forward to a couple/few this season as well. It's gonna be Totally Awesome! And for everyone who knows me, know that I'm an awesome director mostly because I'm really good at being bossy. Comes with the firstborn territory.

 

 

Also, I'm dead sexy...

           

Home Related:

          

9. Be Debt Free!

    Remember that earlier point about attending a private liberal arts college? And the fact that I came out with an English Major, Theatre Minor? And the fact that I met my husband at college so we BOTH have fairly ginormous college loan debt? Good times.

In better news though, staying on a zero-budget (Dave Ramsey program, baby!) we're working on becoming debt free! Making our money work for us instead of being in debt until we have our own kids' college to think about... As it is, we have less than half our original debt amount, NO credit cards (and refuse to) and no car payments! So in another 2-3 years of throwing money at the beast, otherwise known as Alma Mater (be good, guys), we will be debt free! So definitely looking forward to that.

 

10. Have midgets (aka children)

... though there's nothing wrong with midgets. Midgets are fine too... actually it may be better if we have midgets given my dad's seeming affinity for people of little stature. Ok, I'm going to stop saying midgets now before the Political Correct Police (PCP... wait a minute...) come after me.

Not everyone wants kids and that's ok, but I always have wanted at least 2 kids to torment in the appropriate parental way - aka excellent mom jeans and dad jokes. We're gonna rock it.

 



 

And that's it! That I can think of. At the moment...
So, let me know what you think in the comments - like my bucket list? Think I'm missing something super important? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks all! Until next time... stay awesome (I'm just going to assume you are. So, you know, try and live up to your potential ok?)