Bloggers seem to have a thing about lists. How many annoying memes have you been tagged with that ask you for five or ten or thirteen things about a particular topic, and how many posts have you read that express the writer's idea in terms of a list?
Last year, I posted Bilbo's Bucket List - my list of things I wanted to do before I kicked the proverbial bucket. This was inspired, of course, by the Jack Nicholson/Morgan Freeman movie about two elderly men who break out of a cancer ward and set out to have a last fling by doing all the things on their own "bucket lists." I only had five things on that list at the time I wrote the post.
The other day, Amanda wrote about her own 101 Things to DoList, and noted that it only contained 64 items. She wondered about the length of the list, asking "Have I become so unambitious? Am I so complacent in life that I can't even think of things that I want to do before I die? Or have I just become boring? Older? Unimaginative? Narrow minded? Maybe I've lost some brain cells and I just can't think anymore?"
I thought she was writing about me. After all, her 101 Things list has 64 things on it. My more-or-less equivalent Bucket List only had five (six, if you count the one about visiting Vienna and St Petersburg as two items). I need to get moving, lest I be thought of as boring, older, unimaginative, narrow-minded, or lacking in brain cells (no comment necessary, Mike).
So (drum roll, please) ... here is the start on my own updated Bucket List/101 Things to Do Before I Die List. Wish me luck ...
1. Dance at the weddings of all my grandchildren.
2. Hold my first (at least!) great-grandchild and tell him (or her) stories.
3. Visit Vienna (Austria, not Virginia).
4. Visit St Petersburg (Russia, not Florida).
5. Go on a really long cruise with Agnes...around northern Europe and the Mediterranean, or through the South Pacific.
6. Dance a waltz with Edyta Sliwinska.
7. Publish an article in a national magazine.
8. Write and publish a book.
9. Learn to moonwalk.
10. Take a carpentry course and learn to build things.
11. Learn to take really good glamour photographs (no sense in having a high-end camera and knowing lots of beautiful women if I can't intersect the two).
12. Get my garden to the point where I'm actually getting more vegetables from it than the deer are.
Okay, I'm up to 12 things. That's about 52 things short of Amanda's list, so she ought to feel better.
At the moment, though, #1 on my to-do list is to get my pasty-white backside off to work so that I can earn the money to start working my way through that list. I've just got to win the lottery...
Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
I'm pretty much stuck with To do lists...oh and my 101 things to do with certain celebrities.
ReplyDeleteLOL! You must have already done so many things in your life :)
ReplyDeleteI'm just going to live with 64 ... given up on the remaining 37 to dos.
Btw, your item #5 is very similar to my item #27. I just want to go on a cruise, any cruise, because I've never been on any.
any size list is fun :D because the best part is crossing things off ... good luck!
ReplyDeleteHey, I really like #11 but then I like it any time the photographer can lie well enough to make me look good on camera, and I had to go to the link--Edyta who? 1. make it all the way through the syllabus in American, 2. start learning International, 3. do another competition, after all it's only been over 25 years, haha, 4. trace Joan of Arc's path through France, 5. visit Italy, 7. visit Greece, 8. go to Vienna Austria and dance the Viennese Waltz, 9. visit England, Ireland, and Scotland--I was going to lump it under the UK until I realized that the Irish would pitch a fit, 10. visit Australia and New Zealand, 11. make it to Alaska, Idaho, Wisconsin, South Dakota and Alambama to have hit all 50 states, 12. not have to wait another 50 years to hear a man who isn't a blood relative tell me that he loves me, 13. although this really should have been #1--FIND A REGULAR DANCE PARTNER!
ReplyDeleteI threw my To Do List away last October after being on life support. No point in dreaming life away when there is so much to be enjoyed today. Live life to its fullest as it comes to you!
ReplyDelete10 - Be in St. Louis on July 10th. Our habitat build is framing the first floor walls that day.
ReplyDeleteI have a very boring and practical "To do list before I check out of here." Number one on my list is get my house in order. I mean my physical house. I hate the thought of leaving the storage area in our basement in disarray for our children to deal with.
ReplyDeleteI need to create a much more exciting "to do list."
@susieQ "in disarray for our children"
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding? That's the pay back for having to deal with them as kids.
I can help you with the moonwalk when I'm in town next week. -Casper
ReplyDelete