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Life List

by Allison in

I made a life list:  My Life List, So Far inspired by the Mighty Maggie Mason in advance of attending the Mighty Summit 2010 in Napa Valley.  It was a really good exercise, and I encourage you to do the same.  No, really. Go do it.

This month, over my birthday weekend in fact, I’m going to attend the Mighty Summit in the Russian River Valley, outside of San Francisco. To say I’m excited doesn’t cover it. A small, hand selected group of some of the smartest women in social media for a weekend of brain trusting and pampering? Yes, please.

napa valley

Part of the deal with the Mighty Summit is coming up with a Life List. You know, like a bucket list only less grim. I have lists covering every aspect of my life, including a pretty basic list of places I want to travel before I die. But things I want to experience, talents I want to acquire? Nope. I have nothing of the sort.

So here, in front of everyone, is my Life List.

beach front hotel in california

100 things to do before I die

  1. Live in Europe
  2. Learn to properly fishtail french braid my daughter’s hair
  3. Ride my horse bareback
  4. Swim in bio-luminescence
  5. Learn to surf. On a long board October 2010 Huntington Beach, California
  6. Visit Hawaii. Stay in a hotel close enough to the ocean to hear the waves crash.
  7. Make crescent dinner rolls that rival those of my mother
  8. Have a dress custom made for me by a designer I love
  9. Ride a bike across the Golden Gate Bridge
  10. Publish articles for well known magazines
  11. Write a book. A good one.
  12. See aurora borealis from Alaska
  13. Attend a World Cup soccer game
  14. Go to fashion week. As a fashion writer.
  15. Spend time in Greece
  16. Collect sea glass from 50 beaches
  17. Design a line of clothing for women sizes 10-14. Cute, stylish clothes.
  18. Attend the Tomatina food fight in Spain
  19. Visit my husband’s childhood home in Warsaw, Poland  May 2011
  20. Finish a sprint triathlon
  21. Own a sports car
  22. Take my kids to Poland while their Babcia + Dziadek are still alive    May 2011
  23. Stay on a Caribbean island with my family
  24. Commission a painting of my children from an artist I love
  25. Own an original painting by Brian Kershisnik
  26. Get a tattoo {sorry mom!}
  27. Name an O.P.I. nail polish color
  28. Have sex with my husband on a beach
  29. Be in better shape at 40 than I am at 32
  30. See both of my children married
  31. Take a sleeper train across Europe
  32. Become fluent in Spanish. Again.
  33. Trace my husbands’ Eastern European genealogy
  34. Visit my grandmother’s childhood town in Iowa
  35. Ride a street car in San Francisco
  36. Attend an honest-to-goodness movie premiere
  37. Earn enough money to sustain my family on my own
  38. Read every book in my home library
  39. Go behind-the-scenes at the Monterey Bay Aquarium July 2009
  40. Have one massage a month for an entire year
  41. Visit every one of the bridges my grandfather designed
  42. Stay in Martha’s Vineyard
  43. Surf in Costa Rica
  44. Visit Cape Cod
  45. Own a pair of obscenely expensive shoes
  46. Drive a race car around a track, un-throttled
  47. Attend a Christmas Mass in Poland
  48. Travel to Australia.
  49. Meet David Sedaris
  50. Go on a cruise
  51. Sleep in a hut
  52. Fly Virgin Atlantic and sleep in a horizontal bed while flying
  53. Become a talented photographer
  54. Spend an entire day at a spa, get every treatment available October 2010
  55. Eat lunch at a European cafe May 2011
  56. Be an instrument in raising awareness of, and finding a cure for Lupus
  57. Renovate my kitchen
  58. Travel to every state in America
  59. See the ruins in Guatemala
  60. Visit the rain-forest in Belize
  61. See an elephant in the wilds of Africa
  62. Graduate from college April 2004
  63. Wear a ball gown. To an event of importance.
  64. Drive down PCH with my husband and kids
  65. Sleep in a castle
  66. Knit a sweater
  67. Own a stock portfolio
  68. Buy a house August 2000
  69. Learn to hip hop dance. Properly. Not going to happen. Went to two Zumba classes;  I flail and hit people with my arms.
  70. Spend a day in a fashion house
  71. Own a horse December 2009
  72. Meet the Dixie Chicks
  73. Sleep on a warm beach
  74. Get 50 stamps on my passport
  75. Hear Cat Stevens perform live
  76. Take an art class
  77. Sleep naked
  78. Marry my soul mate May 1998
  79. Overcome my fear of open water {see #5}
  80. Visit the Louvre
  81. Understand math
  82. Become a mother November 1999
  83. Go running in Central Park
  84. Follow a sewing pattern all the way through, make something I’d actually deem wearable
  85. Learn to play the guitar
  86. Go scuba diving in warm ocean water
  87. Visit New England in the fall
  88. Learn to play the piano
  89. Dance at a European discotheque
  90. Take professional makeup lessons at a M.A.C. store
  91. Run through the alps
  92. Canoe down the Amazon river
  93. Launch a cosmetics line
  94. Have lunch with Meg Cabot
  95. Teach my children how to serve
  96. Visit Stonehenge
  97. See a flying fish {Catalina Island Summer 2009}
  98. Feed a whole chicken to an alligator
  99. Take a boat tour of Venice, Italy
  100. Have an enormous, blow-out 40th birthday party
  101. Scuba dive to the ruins of a sunken ship
  102. Dye my hair Blond  The year 2009
  103. Go whale watching in a kayak
  104. R.V. across the United States with my kids
  105. Hike through a jungle

Do you have a Life List? I’m not kidding, this one took me five days to come up with. I didn’t take it lightly, I really pondered things I want to get accomplished in this life of mine. There’s really something to writing something down, committing it to memory and promising yourself you’ll get it done. 100 things really affords you the indulgence of dreaming big.

Do it, do it now.