I was checking out a blog that linked to me that suggested making a list of 50 things to do before you die. For the life of me, I can’t remember whose blog it was to link. Anyway, I started trying to think of 50 things and 30 is all I could come up with:
- Live overseas for at least one year with Mr. A and children. Preferably somewhere in Asia.
- Learn another language well enough to understand the answer to “where is the bathroom?”
- Spend an entire day alone in a really fancy hotel room. Alone. In silence. With no small children touching me or waking me up at 6:00am.
- Run 10 miles all at once.
- Live in a house with really nice, clean, plush carpets. (Damn you hardwood floors and your good resale value!)
- Visit India
- Eat Thai food in Thailand. Again.
- Serve on the board of a nonprofit I really care about.
- Avoid working at any jobs I do not love.
- Eat another Mangosteen.
- Live in a house with lots of large windows. No more living in a cave for me.
- Get up the nerve to try Durian.
And chicken feet.Done!- Plant a garden and actually maintain my interest in it long enough to water and weed it for an entire summer.
- Drive a car that is not a total disaster of disgarded school papers, abandoned coats, crumbs and old coffee cups.
- Take a family vacation in which we volunteer helping those less fortunate than us.
- Live in a house long enough to have mature raspberry bushes, a lilac bush and a mulberry tree.
- Go to Africa, maybe more than once.
- Never get divorced.
- Pay off all our grad school debt.
- Make a substantial contribution to a cause I believe in.
- Take my children to a protest.
- Return to yoga classes on a regular basis.
- Be able to afford to hire a handy person to fix all the broken things in our house.
- Teach my children to maintain a cleaner living area than my own natural state of messiness.
- Take a vacation alone with Mr. A to somewhere warm. Alone. Without children.
- Survive the years when my children will roll their eyes and even hate me so we can become close when they are grown up.
- Set aside special days with each of my girls in which they get to select the activites we do. Remember that they are only little girls for a very short time.
- Set aside time to spend with Mr. A so we remember why we fell in love before our lives got so damned busy.
- Set aside time for myself so I can do the things that keep me sane like reading, visiting friends, etc.
I actually feel like I can manage to cross a lot of these off with just a little work. Others will take more work, but hopefully I have a long long time to get them accomplished.
These are awesome, particularly taking the kids to a protest, I had never thought of that, but now I’ll keep it in mind. Working for a non-profit org. and helping people are great too.
Oh, and the vacations, the travel, oh yes.
And I think the most important of all is: never get divorced.
Fun post! Durian is goooood – try it! Chicken feet – not so good.
Go ahead and try durian, like Melissa said it’s good, after about three times you will actually crave it!
Chicken feet are ok if you can get over the texture.
God, a night at a hotel room ALONE! Wouldn’t that be the best!
That is exactly why I enjoy staying in the hospital! I keep telling people I have to have a baby to get a vacation….
My list has a lot of the same things on it! Not the chicken feet, though.
Living overseas again was on my list.
I second/third Durian being good. Its durian season now in South East Asia, which also means mangosteen season. Teaching your kids to mantain a cleaner space than you do is also a really good idea.
We’re moving to Asia for three years come September. I’ll eat a mangosteen (yum) in your honor. But no to the Durian. I’ve tried, failed and considered that the end of story. Ditto to Jackfruit.
I either need to aim lower or you need to aim higher because I have a mental list and it starts with:
1) Travel to outer space
..and then it doesn’t get any easier.
Durian: Start with durian gelato. The cold cuts down on the, um, fragrance, and lets you enjoy the flavor. An even easier start is with durian-flavored bubble tea, because you can pop a lid on the drink and cut down on the fragrance altogether.
[...] I know, this must be just about the most annoying post ever. If you think you have a good guess as to what it is, you are probably right. The only other thing I can say is that the Next Big Thing will enable me to knock at least 5 things off the list of 30 things I want to do before I die. [...]
[...] I am currently forcing campaigning for Mr. A to complete his own 30 Things to Do Before I Dies list. I am thinking it would be a good exercise for us to compare lists and see what changes we can make to help make some goals a reality sooner rather than later. My list, for reference. [...]
[...] He is like an achievement-seeking robot. You compare these to my goals, you can see that we are very different people. (Mr. A would like me to mention that these were only three of his goals and some of them involved spending time with the family too, so don’t think he is heartless and greedy. ) [...]
[...] Today, I finally managed to scratch one item off my list of 30 Things to Do Before I Die. [...]