Living My Dreams

To Do List…seems like a place where you compile a list of those dreaded things you need to do, but can never quite get them done unless they are in your face. After seeing a new friend’s “Life List” it occurred to me that a “to do” list does not need to be a negative thing.

One of my very favorite plaques says:

Life is not a journey to the grave with intentions of arriving safely in a pretty, well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, chocolate in one hand and a latte in the other, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming loudly …“WOW! What a ride!”

So, call it a “To Do List” or a “Life List,” or “List of Dreams,” or even “Bucket List,” these are the *things, (in random order) that having accomplished them, (or even most of them!) will make me feel like I’ll be skidin’ in broadside when the time comes!

*I do, however, reserve the right to add to or delete from this list at any time!

1. Return to my former svelte size 6 (okay, I’ll settle for an honest 8 – no vanity sizing!)
2. Visit Australia
3. Hold a baby kangaroo while I’m there!
4. Actually WEAR the 4″ heels that are sitting in my closet
5. Spend a full day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC
6. Have one of my creations featured in a Somerset Magazine
7. Get to the point where “exercise” is truly no longer a dirty word
8. Ditto for “organized”
9. Go on an “eco” vacation
10. Go from vegetarian to vegan
11. Take my grandchildren to Alaska
12. Finish the “heart quilt” I started in 2007
13. Visit all 50 states
14. Get all the “stuff” I no longer use out of my life
15. Visit the Mall of America – check!
16. Go to a retreat where Kelly Rae Roberts is one of the teachers
17. Catch up my scrapbooks – I mean all the way up
18. Have one of my recipes featured on someone else’s blog
19. Buy a Betsey Johnson dress (and actually be able to wear it!)
20. Spend a day combing through all the shops at Chelsea Market in NYC
21. Have one of my scrapbook layouts published
22. Take all the grandkids to Disney World
23. Explore the Amish country
24. Win the lottery
25. Have only one size of clothes in my closet
26. Go to Japan
27. Kiss my man on the Eiffel Tower
28. Visit Normandy
29. Write a novel
30. Teach a class at Creative Connection (or another retreat!)
31. Design a line of scrapbook paper and embellishments
32. See the penguins in Antarctica from a Russian ice cutter boat
33. View the Northern lights
34. Ride in a hot air balloon
35. Go on a Windstar cruise
36. Actually put something for sale in my Etsy store – check!
37. …and sell it! check!
38. Paint a mixed media painting – check!
39. Learn to knit – check!
40. Learn to crochet
41. Attend Brave Girls Camp
42. Visit the Weems family castle in Scotland

Now, in fairness to myself, there is much that I dreamed of doing in my younger years that I have already accomplished, and I need to have a separate section to honor those accomplishments. To not do that would make me feel ungrateful. So, while it seems a bit less than humble, and like I’m “tooting my own horn” I need to remind myself that I’ve already:

• Gotten married and stayed with my husband (truly the love of my life) “for better or worse” for 40 years, when it would have been easier a time or two along the way, not to
• Given birth to, and raised (w/o killing them) two amazing children who are now grown up, responsible citizens and parents themselves
• Watched the birth of all three of my grandchildren
• Vacationed in the UK and Germany
• Made spending four weeks a year in Maui an every year thing
• Built my own brick and mortar retail business from the ground up, ran it for 20 years, and sold it
• Owned one home free and clear (now our vacation home) and have purchased a second
• Achieved (mostly through my husband’s efforts) a comfortable financial lifestyle, with enough of a cushion to sustain it through our old age (unless the whole country collapses!)
• Accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior
• NEVER been a drain on society
• Earned the love of three grandchildren who call me “Gaga”
• Learned to: cook, sew, scrapbook, garden, make jewelry, decorate pretty darn well, decorate cakes,
• Pretty much mastered operating a computer, both PC and Mac (there were times back in days of DOS when I never thought THAT would happen!)
• Co-Founded the merchant’s association in Mt. Shasta
• Spent many times contemplating to the point of tears, how content I am with my life (and pulled myself back from the depression that accompanied the few times when I have felt like I wished I had made different choices!)
• Been documenting the life of my family through scrapbooks they will treasure when I am gone
• Climbed to the 11,000 ft level of Mt Shasta before getting weathered out
• Taken a trip to NYC by myself to meet a “cyber” girlfriend for the first time
• Done enough genealogy to have discovered that my peeps have a castle in Scotland
• Chosen a vegetarian lifestyle because I don’t want one more animal to die so I can stuff my face
• Gone to San Francisco to meet Betsy Dijulio, whose cookbook – The Blooming Platter – I love, for the West Coast launch of that cookbook
• Shook hands w/ Barack Obama at a Reno Rally in 2008
• Touched Ringo’s head at a Beatle’s concert at Dodger’s Stadium a gazzillion years ago
• Done (and still do) political blogging at Talking Points Memo (often featured on cable news – not me, TPM) and Dagblog
• Been the first female Rotarian in Mt. Shasta
• Met a grizzly bear face to face on a path and took his picture
• Explored a large part of Yellowstone and got stuck in a “buffalo jam.”
• Learned how to solve “hard” sudoku puzzles
• Taken a Caribbean cruise
• Eaten snails at a French restaurant
• Loved a dog almost as much as I love my kids
• Flown in a tiny little pontoon plane and landed on water!
• Gone on a police ride along – twice
• Backpacked in the desert
• Panned for gold
• Hiked into the Haleakala volcano
• Climbed to the top of Black Butte
• Watched Tangled so many times I practically know the dialog by heart
• Gone to see Riverdance on stage – twice, yikes! Now make that three times!
• Taught my granddaughter to cross stitch, knit, and tie her shoes
•  Learned to snorkel
• Survived the “tsunami” of 2010 in Hawaii
• Stayed at the Madonna inn
• Visited both Hearst Castle and the Hearst family’s vacation home, Wintun
• Gone to Disneyworld
• Visited Washington D.C.
• Been an inch away from touching a whale in the wild, twice!
• Swam with dolphins for 2 seconds
• Fallen in love on the second date
• Had a big wedding and a honeymoon
• Gone to Graceland
• Started my own blog
• Had a cup of coffee with an actual author (Michael Wolraich – Blowing Smoke) at a little cafe in the East Village – this for a small town girl – was HUGE!
• Went to The Creative Connection and actually introduced myself to Kelly Rae Roberts and Becky Higgins and shared with them how much of an impact they’ve had on my life!
• Applied for and was accepted to do an unpaid internship with Kelly Rae Roberts (Highlight!!!) A dream so big I didn’t even know to dream it!
• Got bit by a rattlesnake and lived to tell about it! (wasn’t on my list of things I WANTED to do!)
• Went on an Alaskan cruise