I've been thinking for several months (since I finally got around to Netflixing the movie) the items I would put on my personal bucket list, were I given the option. Then I decided, why wait? The following are the places I want to go and things I want to do, but I am trying very hard to do them before I know I'm dying. After all, aren't we all dying, from the moment we're born? Life's too short.
Visit New York City for both Thanksgiving and New Year's
It doesn't have to be in the same year, but I'd like to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade make its way down Broadway. My favorite part of it is not the floating balloons- has never been, actually, but instead is the singing and dancing and high kicking festivities going on solidly on the ground. I particularly love the marching bands. I'd also love to watch firsthand the famed ball drop on Times Square at least once in my life. I understand it's quite the melee, but I really do have a burning desire to stand in the middle of the drunken mob and revel in the noise and madness and feel the hope and joy as Auld Lang Syne plays and I kiss my sweetheart and all around me people blow noisemakers and toss confetti. At least that's how it happens in my mind.
Be in New Orleans during Mardi Gras
Even though I am neither Catholic nor French, I have come to understand that it doesn't matter during that time. I would like to stay in the French Quarter for at least a week prior to Fat Tuesday and gorge myself on delicious food and far too many drinks and watch parades and find an elaborate mask and then maybe go to the St Augustine church on Ash Wednesday. I love old churches, I love big parties, and combining the two is something I seriously would love to do before I die.
Watch the Aurora Borealis from a hot tub while sipping a cocktail
I think it goes without saying that I must do this in Alaska- I love (at least the idea of) Alaska, and would move there in a heartbeat if I could bring my family with me. There's just something magical about the Northern Lights, and there's no amount of videos in the world that could possibly compare, I'd think. Having never seen them firsthand, I am determined that when I do, it'll be a simple yet a grand experience, and one that's private. I haven't yet decided which cocktail it'll be, but probably something completely feminine like a caramel-appletini or mimosa, just because it seems to fit. But who knows, maybe a duckfart would fit just as well. When I get to Alaska in the winter (and it'll have to be in the winter), I will know.
Explore the castles of Ireland
There are many things to do and see in Ireland, and plenty of people who want to go there. Some of my distant ancestors were Irish, and perhaps that fuels this desire, but when I get there, I am making a list of the all the castles, both ghoulish and ruined and beautiful and graceful that are spread throughout the country. I think I'd like a summer there, although I may make several shorter trips, if I must. This is another thing that I can't explain wanting to see, exactly, but I just know pictures can't possibly do justice to, and I simply must experience for myself.
Take a college road trip with my children
I am already highly encouraging my children to attend a college far (or fairly far) from home. As much as I'd like to be able to shave off the chunk of tuition that an in state school would allow for, I also really want them to get their first tastes of parental freedom from within the relative safety of a college's (preferably ivy covered) walls. I want them to narrow their choices down to a dozen or so, and then the summer before their senior year, for us to take a road trip, a very meandering road trip, to visit each school. If we can't do it during the summer, we'll undoubtedly have to break it up and do it on long weekends so they don't miss too much school. That will be unfortunate because I think in part it will be an excellent bonding experience for us in our newly forming relationship- we'll be transitioning from a parent-child relationship to one that's more peer-like in nature as they become adults. I also think it'll give both of us an opportunity to slow down and see just a little bit more of our world than we normally do in our hectic lives.
Spend Oktoberfest in Germany
My paternal great-grandmother was fully German- her family came to America when she was an infant, and while I don't know any German and very little of our heritage, it had always intrigued me. I love beer (or bier), food, and a party, and one that lasts sixteen days sounds like a rollicking good time to me. There aren't a ton of international things I'd like to do or see before I die, but that's definitely one of them- and I'd really like to do it while I have good kidney and liver function.
Go skydiving
I'm not really a risk-taker. I don't have a death wish, and I'm certainly not an adrenaline junkie. I do like roller coasters and scary movies and thrilling novels, but that's really the extent of me getting amped up over pretty much anything. However, just once, I'd like to jump out of an airplane and feel, for a few seconds at least, like I could fly. I wouldn't mind having to do it with someone who knows what he's doing strapped to my back- in fact, I'd probably prefer that, as long as I got to go.
Cross the country using only public transportation
I don't even really know why I want to do this- maybe something to do with my line of work- and I'm quite sure it's something that will have to wait for retirement, but I'd like to make my way across this nation using nothing more than buses, and maybe trains for the trip back. I know a Greyhound would be fairly simple, but I'm talking the more localized bus that costs a mere pittance and runs from one neighborhood to the next and back again- that's the way I'd like to trek. It would take weeks, if not months, and I'm sure I'd see so much of this country and its people I hadn't even known existed, perhaps more than I'd care to see. I don't have a reason for wanting to do this, I just do.
I'm not yet thirty and (hopefully) many years from death. I had more things on my list that have been removed, as I've accomplished them. Those included things like visiting Niagara Falls, DisneyWorld, the Empire State Building, and a winery, flying in an airplane, growing a garden, being in someone else's wedding, planning and hosting my parents' 25th anniversary party, and writing a eulogy. I'm sure, as time goes by, I'll come up with more things I simply must do before I'm out of time altogether.
Visit New York City for both Thanksgiving and New Year's
It doesn't have to be in the same year, but I'd like to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade make its way down Broadway. My favorite part of it is not the floating balloons- has never been, actually, but instead is the singing and dancing and high kicking festivities going on solidly on the ground. I particularly love the marching bands. I'd also love to watch firsthand the famed ball drop on Times Square at least once in my life. I understand it's quite the melee, but I really do have a burning desire to stand in the middle of the drunken mob and revel in the noise and madness and feel the hope and joy as Auld Lang Syne plays and I kiss my sweetheart and all around me people blow noisemakers and toss confetti. At least that's how it happens in my mind.
Be in New Orleans during Mardi Gras
Even though I am neither Catholic nor French, I have come to understand that it doesn't matter during that time. I would like to stay in the French Quarter for at least a week prior to Fat Tuesday and gorge myself on delicious food and far too many drinks and watch parades and find an elaborate mask and then maybe go to the St Augustine church on Ash Wednesday. I love old churches, I love big parties, and combining the two is something I seriously would love to do before I die.
Watch the Aurora Borealis from a hot tub while sipping a cocktail
I think it goes without saying that I must do this in Alaska- I love (at least the idea of) Alaska, and would move there in a heartbeat if I could bring my family with me. There's just something magical about the Northern Lights, and there's no amount of videos in the world that could possibly compare, I'd think. Having never seen them firsthand, I am determined that when I do, it'll be a simple yet a grand experience, and one that's private. I haven't yet decided which cocktail it'll be, but probably something completely feminine like a caramel-appletini or mimosa, just because it seems to fit. But who knows, maybe a duckfart would fit just as well. When I get to Alaska in the winter (and it'll have to be in the winter), I will know.
Explore the castles of Ireland
There are many things to do and see in Ireland, and plenty of people who want to go there. Some of my distant ancestors were Irish, and perhaps that fuels this desire, but when I get there, I am making a list of the all the castles, both ghoulish and ruined and beautiful and graceful that are spread throughout the country. I think I'd like a summer there, although I may make several shorter trips, if I must. This is another thing that I can't explain wanting to see, exactly, but I just know pictures can't possibly do justice to, and I simply must experience for myself.
Take a college road trip with my children
I am already highly encouraging my children to attend a college far (or fairly far) from home. As much as I'd like to be able to shave off the chunk of tuition that an in state school would allow for, I also really want them to get their first tastes of parental freedom from within the relative safety of a college's (preferably ivy covered) walls. I want them to narrow their choices down to a dozen or so, and then the summer before their senior year, for us to take a road trip, a very meandering road trip, to visit each school. If we can't do it during the summer, we'll undoubtedly have to break it up and do it on long weekends so they don't miss too much school. That will be unfortunate because I think in part it will be an excellent bonding experience for us in our newly forming relationship- we'll be transitioning from a parent-child relationship to one that's more peer-like in nature as they become adults. I also think it'll give both of us an opportunity to slow down and see just a little bit more of our world than we normally do in our hectic lives.
Spend Oktoberfest in Germany
My paternal great-grandmother was fully German- her family came to America when she was an infant, and while I don't know any German and very little of our heritage, it had always intrigued me. I love beer (or bier), food, and a party, and one that lasts sixteen days sounds like a rollicking good time to me. There aren't a ton of international things I'd like to do or see before I die, but that's definitely one of them- and I'd really like to do it while I have good kidney and liver function.
Go skydiving
I'm not really a risk-taker. I don't have a death wish, and I'm certainly not an adrenaline junkie. I do like roller coasters and scary movies and thrilling novels, but that's really the extent of me getting amped up over pretty much anything. However, just once, I'd like to jump out of an airplane and feel, for a few seconds at least, like I could fly. I wouldn't mind having to do it with someone who knows what he's doing strapped to my back- in fact, I'd probably prefer that, as long as I got to go.
Cross the country using only public transportation
I don't even really know why I want to do this- maybe something to do with my line of work- and I'm quite sure it's something that will have to wait for retirement, but I'd like to make my way across this nation using nothing more than buses, and maybe trains for the trip back. I know a Greyhound would be fairly simple, but I'm talking the more localized bus that costs a mere pittance and runs from one neighborhood to the next and back again- that's the way I'd like to trek. It would take weeks, if not months, and I'm sure I'd see so much of this country and its people I hadn't even known existed, perhaps more than I'd care to see. I don't have a reason for wanting to do this, I just do.
I'm not yet thirty and (hopefully) many years from death. I had more things on my list that have been removed, as I've accomplished them. Those included things like visiting Niagara Falls, DisneyWorld, the Empire State Building, and a winery, flying in an airplane, growing a garden, being in someone else's wedding, planning and hosting my parents' 25th anniversary party, and writing a eulogy. I'm sure, as time goes by, I'll come up with more things I simply must do before I'm out of time altogether.
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