A few weeks ago as my nerdy school friends and I were participating in our usual "this is how much school sucks" tirade, one mentioned that she was planning on going skydiving as a reward for graduating next spring. I was more than willing to jump (ha. humor me) on that bandwagon, and a tentative date has been set for May 2008. Any and everyone is welcome to join. The discussion then moved onto shooting, and as that is also something I have not yet experienced, I have now traded Chinese dumplings for shooting lessons with another grad school friend.
This train of thought brought me back to an episode of one of my favorite shows in the whole wide world. A moment down memory lane, please:
Yes. I know. Tears welled up in my eyes too. It's okay. Unfortunately I couldn't find the intro with Leonardo DiCaprio but this one's almost as good.
Anyway, one episode involved the mom (Maggie!) discovering an old list of things she'd wanted to do before she died and her regret that the only one she could cross off was learning to drive a stick. So she went skydiving and rappelling... and I can't remember the rest of the episode. The point is, I've decided that I, too, need to make up a "Things to Do Before I Die" list. This is outside of, but not wholly mutually independent of a previous list of "Places to Visit Before I Die."
So, in no particular order:
THINGS TO DO BEFORE I DIE
- Skydiving (incidentally, these items do not also necessarily lead to a higher risk of death... it just happens to be rather coincidental)
- Shooting. Preferably learning how to aim sideways like the cool action stars do.
- Yes, learning how to drive a stick. I still don't know.
- Spelunking. The name says it all.
- Salsa dancing in Greece. I'm thinking for my birthday. Who's in?
- Road trip across the country. Preferably me, my car, moving to California.
- Learn Italian
- Pilgrimage to Mecca during Hajj (again, not looking to die necessarily, but an inevitable byproduct)
- Running with the bulls in Pamplona... or at least, just watching the running of the bulls from a safe balcony vantage point
- Play the Tabernacle organ in Salt Lake City.
- Pay homage to my ancestors in China. (Preceded by step one: find my ancestors in China)
- Learn kickboxing.
- Graduate from graduate school. Hey, at least I can check one thing off the list...
24 comments:
Addendum:
Hang gliding
Ride in hot air balloon
Visit all 50 states and 7 continents
Learn to play the drums
And the banjo
And the mandolin
wow, you are quite ambitious. i just want to learn how to ride a bike. and cook a really good pasta, lasagna, and chili (y'know, all the food i used to crave growing up but never got...) oh, and i still want to go to macchu picchu, lake victoria, and petra. and maybe learn how to ballroom dance so chase isn't picking me up and dragging me all over the dance floor (i think i look like a rag doll when my feet are just dangling inches above the floor). oh, shooting's on my list too. but sadly, i have no desire to jump out of a flying airplane nor any of the other crazy things you mentioned.
oh yeah, and eat blowfish. Mom and Dad did it. If they can live on the edge, I am so jumping over it. :)
Hmm...I would like to graduate before I die, preferably before I am too ancient. Learn cake decorating, how to make eclairs without their going flat. I'd like to travel with Aaron all over the world, but we'll have to be oldsters before it happens, those darn kids sure cramp your wanderlust :) Read War and Peace and other books I have always wanted to read but never found the time. I can't think of anything else I would like to do and haven't done. There's got to be more. I must ponder.
I'm not into running marathons or any of that before I die. I'd love to travel to Greece with my husband and possibly live in New York City again.
Dude, remember Mike's friend Richard Stabone -- aka Boner? There was this one humorous episode when he joined the army and was walking around with a stereo to his ear blasting The Star-Spangled Banner. And then at the end of the episode when he went off to boot camp, the following words flashed across the screen:
"Good luck, Bone."
Humor.
(By the way, remember when you downloaded for me during the gluttonous days of Napster the theme song to Growing Pains? Dude, I think that was back in, like, December 2001. Maybe early 2002. It was so tight.)
My bad -- that was my comment.
That I would *finally* have a stamp in my passport, and that it would say *Italy* on it.
MF
A few things I'd like to say:
1) Huzzah for the blogging return of Asian Keng! Long live Asian! Long live Asian!
2) Shooting sideways has nothing to do with aiming and everything to do with looking "cool." Personally, I think it's cooler when you actually hit your target.
3) I'll teach you how to drive stick (I have a car!) in exchange for dumplings/wontons/other Asian Keng fare. Having been frustrated by the failed promises and ineffective teaching methods of so many others, I believe I would be an excellent teacher.
4) I have a long, long list of dreams to do. To mention just a few, I want to graduate both from my master's program as well as from a Ph.D one, get to all 50 states, sail the Mediterranean, make my own kite, learn French, and play the mandolin.
5) You didn't put any reality restrictions on the horrific death, so I would like to go in a freak accident soon after I acquire the ability to fly. I would be attempting some crazy stunts after mastering the basic pitch, roll, and yaw elements and I would slam into a cliff and fall limp into the ocean. In Tintagel.
Growing Pains is one of my favorite shows, too! I honestly think it's a show whose humor has stood the test of time. No, it's not the FUNNIEST show out there, but it's pretty dang witty.
Seriously -- a lot of the episodes can still make me laugh, and they don't recycle cliche plots that every show does. Instead of having that one episode where the kids get in a car wreck when driving the car without permission and then sloppiily try to cover it up, they had the episode where Mike got in trouble for writing the answers to his test on the bottom of his sneakers -- even though he'd aced the test all on his own.
Genius!
Yes!! My blogging friends are truly faithful. For that I am grateful (especially during this Thanksgiving season) and I will enumerate each of you in my prayers of thanks tonight. =D
Read War and Peace. Wow. Um. Ambitious.
Melinda, I never felt deprived of those foods growing up. Though I guess you were always more of a noodle girl and I was quite content being the rice bucket. I taught myself how to make amazing chili though... I can teach you sometime.
MF (cha-ching!!) I too want Italy stamped on my passport. Whilst traveling together may be a bit of a social faux pas given current circumstances, perhaps we can rendevouz. What say you?
Dude, did I really download the Growing Pains song? Alls I remember is your penchant for the Neverending Story. There. I just put that online for the whole world to see.
Cabeza: aiming sideways is wholly different from shooting sideways. Aiming sideways assumes you've already mastered the art of hitting your target. Mostly it was watching Demi Moore in her memorable cameo in the forgettable Charlie's Angels sequel that inspired the aiming sideways. That and everything Bruce Willis has ever been in. Ironic that they were once married and produced several offspring...
And Shark, my Shark! How honored I am for your contribution to my humble blog!! Perhaps my own Growing Pains experience was a bit more biased toward the whole kirk/leo bit, but my favorite episode was the one where Kirk made obscene pictures out of the bubbles on his SAT test or something... every time I have to take a 'fill-in-the-bubble' test I think of him and debate doing the same... but I care too much about my measured intelligence to have the guts to do so.
I would like to direct your attention to http://kelptickle.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!FD1B9D1CA87A362D!508.entry
While that is not my complete list, it's definitely a start. At this point in time I will also add make my own salsa.
Also, when I graduate I'm buying myself a really nice camera or backpacking Europe, or maybe actually visiting Oregon.
Nikon D40. I'm trying to convince my parents that my life is incomplete without it, and since it runs around $600 that it is in their best interest to finance it for me. It takes amazing pictures. All my friends have one (total and utter peer pressure there) and I want want want one.
I want to drive a zamboni.
Visit LaliBela.
Visit Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. (How can you go wrong naming your capital city after a churn used to make fermented mare's milk?)
Go to an Arvo Part concert.
Learn a useless language (such as Armenia, Sanskrit, Esperanto...)
Read all the Hugh Nibley books (I have five down, too many more to go).
PS: I had a roommate in Baltimore who was a skydiving instructor, if you are looking for someone to help out I can get a hold of him.
I... I can't believe you ignored my awesome death wish in your response to my comment in order to make a moot point about an oxymoron phrase like "aiming sideways." Doesn't happen. Only in movies.
*weeping*
"Hey, Chief, can I shoot my gun sideways, like this?"
"Why not, Lou? It's your birthday."
1. Watch my kids grow up and enjoy teaching them how to ride bikes, read stories to them, how to cook and to be nice to everyone and not whine in church. Get invited to their tea parties with their dolls, build forts, and play cars and trucks. I want to make growing up fun and seem as magical as my childhood was. Most of all I want them to feel loved!
2. Open a small business specializing in cakes.
3. Travel and see Prince Edward Island where Anne Shirley tells delightful stories, London to see the Queen, Paris and get kissed by my husband on the Eiffel tower, Austria/Germany see Mozart and Beethoven's graves and eat their pastries, take a ride in a gondola in Venice and eat REAL Italian lasagna. Ride a camel in Egypt and visit the Holy sites in Israel. Go to Ghana and hear Ghanaan's sing.
Visit India and see a real Indian wedding!
4. Play the violin.
5. Speak French.
6. Continue to learn and cook different ethnic foods and teach my kids to love them and their culture.
7. Visit Mount Rushmore, see all presidential libraries (Clinton's maybe)Already visited three libraries!
6. Visit every Temple in my travels. (Been to 12!)
7. Get a PhD in nutrition.
8. Laugh through life's tough times.
9. Constantly improve myself in every way. :)
JR
Cabeza-- Please accept my public and humble apology for previously ignoring your fantastic usage of the word "yaw." Twont happen again. (Is twont a word? I just made it one.)
And JR-- That was the sweetest, best list I've ever read and pales mine in comparison. But I just have to note that you signing yourself as "JR" initially led me to believe your comment was created by Josh Richey... in the which case I was a bit taken back that he wanted to be invited to tea parties and bake cakes... then when I got the part about being kissed by your husband on the Eiffel Tower I finally figured it out.
I'm still laughing. :)
I can't believe I haven't thought of this! I graduate in 9 weeks. I need some serious seclusion this Thanksgiving holiday to review my options. Just off the top of my head:
GET A JOB
preferably with my name up in lights. And my own parking space. That's when you know you've arrived.
ooh. and I'd also love to learn how to fly a plane
The Neverending Story track is hot.
Bastian, Atreyu, The Child-like Empress/Moonchild, Gmork, Falcor, Black Moses, and Artex -- represent.
Sorry, Jen to mislead you! I'm glad you had a great chuckle.
UPC-LOVED the response!
Jen R
You know...I'm going to Greece in April with Hillary Burton, if you remember her from the mish. We went to France in September and decided to take another trip. Let me know if you're interested. And...way to go on all that schooling. You are so amazing, keep it up!!!
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