100 Things/10 Years

So, I'm jumping on the, what I've learned is an extremely popular, bandwagon of listing out 100 Things to Do Before I Die. But like others, I do better with limits - thus this list is for the next 10 years. I learned two key things during this process: 1) I've been extremely blessed (and fairly adventurous) in my first 26 years. While reading others' lists, I could usually name at least 30 things that I had already done. 2) If I let myself, all 100 goals would have involved some sort of travel.

As the illustrious Cecil Rhodes said on his deathbed, "So little done, so much to do." And this from a man who died at 48 having created his own empire of railroads, gold, and diamonds. Now if he thought that, surely I can fulfill 100 much smaller goals of my own.

They aren't in any kind of order, more like a stream of consciousness list.

1) Go on an African Safari
2) Adopt a dog from a shelter
3) Run a 1/2 marathon
4) Go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land
5) Live abroad
6) Sing a solo at karaoke
7) Tip a really great waiter/waitress 100% of the bill
8) Protest for a cause
9) Get a second tattoo
10) Stay a night here
11) Take a camel ride to the Pyramids
12) Witness the Northern Lights
13) Watch every Oscar winner for best picture
14) Bungee jump off a bridge
15) Earn a business certificate in French
16) Take a pottery class
17) Write a children's book - attempt to get it published
18) Learn passable German
19) Get my palm read
20) Sit in the stands at Wimbledon
21) Have my picture painted
22) Live in an apartment with central air
23) Ride on a motorcycle
24) Go a whole weekend without using electricity
25) Own 50 opera recordings
26) Spend a night in a haunted hotel
27) Sit on the board of a theater
28) Ride in a tiny airplaine
29) Stand in the middle of the Acropolis as the sun sets
30) Be a member of the audience for a TV show
31) See Wagner's Ringcycle
32) Go to a shooting range - shoot something
33) Buy a piece of art from a gallery show
34) Have my own library with an overstuffed leather chair
35) Learn to meditate
36) Push a handcar down a railroad track
37) Lose 20 pounds
38) Create a photo album for someone for a gift
39) Help a perfect stranger
40) Learn how to use my camera, like really use it
41) Have a wine and cheese party
42) Read the Bible from cover to cover
43) Get a cake batter cake from Cold Stone Creamery
44) Ride a bike with no hands
45) See Auschwitz
46) Put all of my loose photos into photo albums
47) Drive a Smartcar
48) Go to a Renaissance Fair
49) Eat 2 funnel cakes at 1 State Fair all by myself
50) Go on a family vacation
51) Drive a tractor
52) Learn to take a compliment
53) Keep a journal everyday for a year
54) Drive across the US - coast to coast
55) Help a child to discover reading
56) Be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras
57) Get certified in CPR
58) Travel the entire distance of the Trans-Siberian Railroad
59) Make an enemy
60) See an opera at the Palais Garnier
61) Ride on a roller coaster
62) Become a mother
63) Go to a midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show
64) Get an expensive manicure and not ruin it within 2 days
65) Continue to see the Nutracker with my dad every year
66) Attend a musical still in previews
67) Make my own candle
68) Go camping
69) Buy a pair of glasses without looking at the price tag
70) Visit Jim Morrison's grave
71) Make creampuffs from scratch
72) Have my picture in a brochure
73) Memorize a poem and recite it in public
74) Paint a room green
75) Read an entire book in French - understand it
76) Visit Mackinac Island when the lilac trees are in full bloom
77) Pet a lion
78) Take the man I love to see Camera degli Sposi
79) Watch all six Star Wars movies in a row
80) Serve a meal at a homeless shelter
81) Bake someone a birthday cake
82) Visit 5 Civil War battle fields
83) Join a book club
84) Send handmade Christmas cards
85) Read Middlemarch, Atlas Shrugged, and Ulysses
86) Stay one night at the The Waldorf Astoria
87) Cross-stitch an entire picture
88) Create a Wikipedia entry
89) Visit the UN building
90) Buy a great piece of furniture that isn't used
91) Travel to Budapest
92) Help build a house through Habitat for Humanity
93) Get my third tattoo
94) Make copies of all of my grandma's photos
95) Play slot machines in Vegas
96) Go salsa dancing until the sun comes up
97) Read all of Shakespeare's works
98) Eat crepes in Paris (again)
99) Watch the sunset from inside the "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" dinosaur
100) Finish this list:)