Bucket List

I've been thinking, lately, about things I'd love to do in my lifetime. I've been really, really fortunate--I moved to England to teach, spent Spring Break 2003 in Rome, did London Semester in 1999. I've had some awesome experiences, and they've opened my eyes and mind to the wide world and all of the possibilities.

That said, there are tons of things I haven't done, places I haven't seen, and experiences I haven't tried. So I've decided to create a Bucket List.

Here are fifty things, and they are presented in no particular order. Some are Big Adventures, and others are more mundane.

1. Participate in a flash mob.
2. Ride the Indian Pacific Railway from Sydney to Perth (or from Perth to Sydney, doesn't matter!).
3. Climb Half Dome in Yosemite National Park.
4. Visit and walk to the top of Borobudur in Indonesia.
5. Get at least one autograph from a member of Keane (preferably Richard, but I'm not really that picky).
6. Participate in some kind of volunteer excursion to Africa, either Habitat for Humanity or Volunteer Africa.
7. Go to a NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Daytona International Speedway.
8. Pay my respects to Athena at the Parthenon in Greece.
9. Be a foster mom to a pregnant cat, and witness the birth of her kittens.
10. Get married in Yosemite National Park (just me and the guy).
11. Have a book published, whether its something I write or a book of my photography.
12. Have my own garden, where I can grow oodles of daffodils, maybe some tulips. I'll definitely have a plastic flamingo.
13. Walk along  part of the Great Wall of China.
14. Listen to jazz music in New Orleans.
15. See A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte at the Chicago Art Institute. It is the most famous of Georges Seurat's paintings. I've seen some of his others, but this is the one I most want to see.
16. Join a bowling league. I was in one in middle school, but since then I've never had the time and the money at the same time.
17. Visit Yellowstone National Park.
18. Get my kicks on Route 66.
19. In fact, a road trip across the United States and back, hitting as many states and cheesy tourist traps as possible.
20. Stay a night at one of the surviving Wigwam Motels.
21. Attend Glastonbury Festival, especially if Keane is playing.
22. Go hot air ballooning (thank you, Alana the Crazy Liberal, for unknowingly reminding me of this one!). Over Napa or the San Francisco Bay would be nice, but I'm not picky.
23. Ride a riverboat down the Mississippi River (if they're still actually moving, not just docked).
24. Take classes in ballroom dancing.
25. Have a dinner party using my grandmother's china.
26. Even though I'm not a big fan of the idea of horse racing, I would love to attend one Kentucky Derby, and, of course, wear a fabulous hat.
27. I suppose I'll have to go parasailing, like Mom did. : )
28. Crunch leaves under my feet while visiting New England in the fall.
29. Ride in a gondola in the waterways of Venice, Italy.
30. Attend (and look fabulous at) a masquerade ball.
31. I really, really want to compose at least one decent song in my lifetime. I have little scraps of ideas, and some know-how. I just need to do it, really.
32. Learn to ski and snowboard. Now that I actually have some balance, I could do it without hurting myself, I think.
33. Run an 8-minute mile.
34. Visit the various ruins of the Aztec, Mayan and Incan peoples of Central and South America.
35. Make a road trip around England, stopping in little towns and all the tourist spots.
36. Spend at least five days exploring, shopping and riding rides at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida.
37. Shop at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.
38. Visit the Great Barrier Reef. I'm not sure I'll ever try SCUBA diving, but I wouldn't mind seeing the reef from a glass-bottomed boat.
39. Get a Master's degree in music (I'm thinking vocal performance).
40. Learn to get used to the flat keyboard of a laptop computer...then actually invest in a laptop.
41. Ride a mule in the Grand Canyon. Horses, apparently, aren't as suited for the terrain.
42. Visit all fifty states (I'm at something like 22 or 23).
43. Go to the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco (this should be easy enough), or a Lantern Festival in China.
44. Celebrate New Year's Eve in London. (For New Year's Eve 2004 and New Year's Day 2005, I opted to be in the US of A with my family.)
45. Have a living room with green walls (this WILL happen).
46. Make a Midi recording of my World Beat Music Poster (a playable piece of music that happens to be a map of the world--check out the link).
47. Buy a Eurail pass and head off to every country I can possibly pack in to a trip...preferably at least one month.
48. Watch the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) from Norway. All while avoiding lutefisk.
49. Experience a Japanese tea ceremony in Japan.
50. Complete and entire cryptic crossword without peeking at the answers.

Good grief, it took about three hours on Saturday night and many more than that on Sunday to finish this! I'd walk away to think or look at my map of the world. I also read email, played around on OKCupid and Facebook, worked out, etc. in between. But it was really, really hard to come up with fifty unique experiences (rather than just "go to this place, go to that place").

Now, I want to know--what's on YOUR Bucket List? Post in the comments, or write your own blog post and put the link to it in the comments so I can visit.