Life List

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.

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.

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. Swim in the Mediterranean sea
25. Commission a painting of my children from an artist I love
26. Own an original painting by Brian Kershisnik
27. Get a tattoo {sorry mom!}
28. Name an O.P.I. nail polish color
29. Have sex with my husband on a beach
30. Be in better shape at 40 than I am at 32
31. See both of my children married
32. Take a sleeper train across Europe
33. Become fluent in Spanish. Again.
34. Trace my husbands’ Eastern European genealogy
35. Visit my grandmother’s childhood town in Iowa
36. Ride a street car in San Francisco
37. Attend an honest-to-goodness movie premiere
38. Roam around Paris for a few days
39. Earn enough money to sustain my family on my own
40. Read every book in my home library
41. Go behind-the-scenes at the Monterey Bay Aquarium July 2009
    
42. See David Beckham play in a Major League Soccer game
43. Have one massage a month for an entire year
44. Visit every one of the bridges my grandfather designed
45. Stay in Martha’s Vineyard
46. Surf in Costa Rica
47. Visit Cape Cod
48. Own a pair of obscenely expensive shoes
49. Drive a race car around a track, un-throttled
50. Attend a Christmas Mass in Poland
51. Travel to Australia.
52. Meet David Sedaris
53. Take a first class sleeper train across Europe.  One of the fancy ones with a shower.
54. Go on a cruise
55. Sleep in a hut
56. Fly Virgin Atlantic and sleep in a horizontal bed while flying
57. Become a talented photographer
58. Spend an entire day at a spa, get every treatment available October 2010
59. Eat lunch at a European cafe May 2011
60. Be an instrument in raising awareness of, and finding a cure for Lupus
61. Renovate my kitchen
62. Travel to every state in America
63. See the ruins in Guatemala
64. Visit Spain, practice my Spanish while I’m there
65. Visit the rain-forest in Belize
66. See an elephant in the wilds of Africa
67. Graduate from college April 2004
    
68. Wear a ball gown. To an event of importance.
69. Drive down PCH with my husband and kids
70. Sleep in a castle
71. Knit a sweater
72. Own a stock portfolio
73. Buy a house August 2000
    
74. Learn to hip hop dance. Properly. Not going to happen. Went to two Zumba classes;  I flail and hit people with my arms.
75. Spend a day in a fashion house
76. Own a horse December 2009
77. Meet the Dixie Chicks
78. Sleep on a warm beach
79. Get 50 stamps on my passport
80. Hear Cat Stevens perform live
81. Take an art class
82. Sleep naked
83. Marry my soul mate May 1998
    
84. Overcome my fear of open water {see #5}
85. Visit the Louvre
86. Understand math
87. Become a mother November 1999
    
88. Go running in Central Park
89. Follow a sewing pattern all the way through, make something I’d actually deem wearable
90. Go scuba diving in warm ocean water
91. Visit New England in the fall
92. Learn to play the piano
93. Dance at a European discotheque
94. Take professional makeup lessons at a M.A.C. store
95. Run through the alps
96. Canoe down the Amazon river
97. Have a conversation with Meg Cabot
98. Teach my children how to serve
99. Visit Stonehenge
100. See a flying fish {Catalina Island Summer 2009}
101. Feed a whole chicken to an alligator
102. Take a boat tour of Venice, Italy
103. Have an enormous, blow-out 40th birthday party
104. Scuba dive to the ruins of a sunken ship
105. Dye my hair Blond  The year 2009
     
106. Go whale watching in a kayak
107. R.V. across the United States with my kids
108. 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.