Nolan at Disney's Animal Kingdom Park, 2011
I worked on my bucket list a little bit this morning. Its changes over the past six or so years reflect little accomplishment and a lot of mellowing out. The thing about a list, you see, is that it is ever changing.
- See my son graduate; live long enough to be a grandmother
- Go trekking in the Himalayas Mongolia!!!! Sleep in a yurt, ride those little horses and drink fermented mare’s milk
- Remember my father every single day of my life and appreciate my mother every single day.
- Ride a horse across some Godforsaken Western landscape…alone Teach my son to ride a horse; he can fish, shoot, hunt and play guitar. Learning to ride is the only essential life-skill I think he should have that he has yet to master.
- Raft the Snake River in Idaho Finish rafting the rest of the Chattooga after almost drowning there last year.
- Fly over Alaska in a tiny little plane and then set it down somewhere to hunt moose I’d settle for killing a really big whitetail
- See a black bear in the wild (in South Carolina)
- Bungee jump—Well I did a bungee tower, not quite as high as a bungee jump, but close
- Take my son and husband to the Outer Banks.
- Read all the classic (again) from Beowulf to Jayne Eyre to Silas Marner to The Sun Also Rises to The World According to Garp
- Run a marathon Not so important anymore. I do want to do more triathlons, maybe up to Olympic Distance.
- See Hamlet in an off-off Broadway play or college theater group; See Godspell again
- Learn to scuba dive What was I thinking!?!
- Go to a cooking school
- Catch a rattlesnake Accomplished May 2009. Pin and pick up a venomous snake with my hands Accomplished May 2010. Catch an alligator (again)
- Visit New Orleans during Mardi Gras; have coffee and beignets at the Café du Monde
- Hang my clothes on a clothesline again, on a regular basis.
- Work a humanitarian mission, mission trip or field research project in a Third World nation
- Deliver a calf again
- Go to a tent revival and really get in the Spirit
- Go to the Super Bowl!
- Nude beach? No, private beach, nude
- Remember hearing my grandmother giggle
- Have a really great garden again ; freeze and can things for winter
- Finally see an Ivory-billed woodpecker Should I can this? I’ve made two attempts already that did not go well!!??
- Take my son to Disney World Accomplished April 2011
- Go to an Irish Pub and close the thing down, singing too loud
- Learn to do basic carpentry, and minor to moderate home repair—or learn to sew, which is basically carpentry with cloth
- Attend La Tomitina, that tomato-throwing festival in Spain
- Run the Peachtree Road Race again Set to do this a week from tomorrow. Pray that I finish!
- Walk through a street market in a Third World Country and not worry about what (or who) I am eating
- See a Jimmy Buffett concert again with friends and family
- Go to the Kentucky Derby wear an outrageous hat and drink mint juleps
- Finally get one of my book manuscripts published; I have five languishing in drawers
- Spend a month in Mexico, immersion-learning the language
- Tour Switzerland with my mother (her ancestors came from there) Not looking too likely; her health is not great
- Take my family on a tour of the American West—Rushmore, Devil’s Tower, Yellowstone. I hear the Grand Canyon is nice.
- A day at work where EVERYTHING goes right
- Watch or re-watch all the movies that won Best Picture at the Academy Awards; Well, maybe not all of them; gotta figure some are boring.
- And my ultimate: hitch-hike, take a train, walk, ride a horse, sail, etc, etc, from here to Tierra del Fuego Paddle my kayak across the Okefenokee Swamp and ride my bicycle back (accomplishing my first “Century” on the bike and so much more!)
