Revisiting My Bucket List

I try not to make New Year's resolutions because I never follow through and then I just feel bad when I don't follow through so it's better to just not make them!

I don't vow to lose weight, get more organized, or quit smoking. In my defense, I don't smoke so that's moot.

However, the start of 2012 did make me think about my Bucket List and working towards marking at least one more thing off the list this year. 

Last year, I was excited to be able to cross off "Go to NYC and see at least one Broadway show." 

We saw Brooke Shields in The Addams Family. Can you define normal?

Technically, I could cross off  "Wear a two-piece swimsuit at a tropical resort (not Hawaii)," but I really meant wear a bikini. I wore a tankini (is that a real word?) and swim shorts in Cancun so I think that's cheating. I was more covered than most women in the 1950s on the beach!

 As I was looking through my NYC photos, I did realize that I am getting close to crossing off "Grow my hair longer than shoulder length just to see how it looks."

Don't my sisters and I look very chic in our sunglasses and black rain jackets. (Believe me, we needed the rain jackets much more than the sunglasses during that trip!)

Do you make resolutions? If so, how successful are you?

Checking a Box off the Bucket List

Last October I created my Bucket List...as well as a short term "to do" list.

Last weekend, one of my gal pals helped me mark one item off this List...

• Bake The Pioneer Woman’s cinnamon rolls. (This should be a to do but I’m pretty sure it’ll be a once in a lifetime event for me.)

We went one (really two) better than the PW's cinnamon rolls. We divided the dough in thirds and also made her Chocolate Chip Rolls and Parker House Rolls! Woo Hoo!

For full disclosure, I have to admit that my friend did most of the heavy lifting. I took a few photos, spread a bit of butter and nursed a Mike's Hard Lemonade during most of the process.

But I did help clean up the ooey gooey butter/cinnamon mixture that was left on the counter...

Even though I did less than my fair share, I'm going to mark it off the List. I also got to take home a pan of the cinnamon rolls, which are waiting in the freezer for a lazy Saturday morning.

Now, the mini pans of frozen unbaked Parker House Rolls didn't make it into my freezer. After the four hour drive home from our girls weekend, the rolls were pretty much thawed so I turned on the oven and baked BOTH pans up. In my defense, there were only 7 rolls total in the mini bread pans.

When I reached in the fridge for the grape jelly, I came up empty-handed.

The horror...warm Parker House rolls with only butter...what was I to do.

Then I remembered a recent purchase at Jungle Jim's thanks to a certain Dutch dairy woman...

Only one word for this combination...YUM!

I wonder which item my friend I will check off next.

My Bucket List...and a Short-Term "To Do" List

Now, I don't have a long-forgotten bucket list like Hannah over at Off the Cuff but I have always had a list in my head of things I want to do before I pass...a - for a lack of a better term - "mental bucket list."

I finally got around to putting it on paper typing it up the other day, so I thought I'd share it and maybe this will spur me to mark a few off.

Of course, when I sat down and started typing, these were my first three entries:

• Go to the dermatologist.
• Clean my baseboards.
• Purge my sweater closet.

Yes, I know. These are "to do" items NOT bucket list items. So I made two separate headings of "To Do List" and "Bucket List" and went to town.
 
Some of my "to do" list items still ended up in my "bucket list" but I am an editor at heart (and by vocation) so once I was done with my list, I moved some stuff around and presto...my Bucket List.
 
Now I couldn't help adding some editorial comments because this is a blog entry, not just a list!
 
Bucket List


• Drive down a coastal highway in a convertible with a scarf on my head. (Think Thelma & Louise-like without the hand-holding cliff scene, but maybe including Brad Pitt.)
• Go sky diving.
• Take a hot air balloon ride.
• Go white water rafting.
• Go sailing. (Learn to sail first or during the trip.)

• Take each of my nephews/nieces on an amazing trip (one-on-one).
• Visit all 50 states – 14 more to go.
• Go to NYC. See at least one Broadway musical.
• Go to New Orleans and eat a beignet.
• Visit the Grand Canyon. (Visit, not hike.)
• Hike the Appalachian Trail (or at least part of it).
• Hang out by a pool in Las Vegas.
• Learn how to broom board but ONLY in Hawaii – preferably on Kauai.
• Go back to Krakow, Poland and visit some of the places I loved most while studying there.
• Go to Ireland and order a pint at a pub.
• Wear a two-piece swimsuit at a tropical resort (not Hawaii).
• Spend a month in Europe.
• Visit Vancouver.
• Learn Photoshop/InDesign.
• Take a creative writing course.
• Bake The Pioneer Woman’s cinnamon rolls. (This should be a to do but I’m pretty sure it’ll be a once in a lifetime event for me.)
• Learn how to decorate a cake (maybe just a cupcake).
• Grow my hair longer than shoulder length just to see how it looks.
• Learn how to arrange flowers.
• Learn how to change a tire.
• Learn sign language.
• Visit a real working cattle ranch (maybe learn how to ride a horse).
• Wet harvest cranberries while wearing waders.
• Stand under a windmill and just listen. (Those big ones in the middle of cornfields. Yes, I’m that big of a dork.)

Hopefully, I have another 50-plus years to accomplish all of these!

For those of you curious, this is what ended up on my "To Do" list.

Moved to the “To Do” List

• Go to the dermatologist.
• Clean my baseboards.
• Purge my sweater closet.
• Actively play the stock market/actively manage my money (maybe a to do is learn how to manage my investments).
• Implement a time management/life management system that works for me (more a to do, right?)
• Write for pleasure every day (more a to do, right?).
• Become more knowledgeable about my faith.

Personally, I think the "bucket list" looks like more fun!
 
Now, anyone want to go to South Dakota with me?