The List of Things To Do Before I Die

These are things on my List of Things to do Before I Die. The ones with dates and/or pictures are the ones I’ve done. I would like to say that my best friend and I made our Lists before it was cool, and before The Bucket List came out. The point of the List, for me, is not necessarily to only do “big” things. It’s to keep me from getting stuck in a rut. It’s to stop me from missing the beauty in the world, the adventure in things both large and small, to remind me to make time to dance alone and live life to the full.

Now with photo and potentially video evidence!! Hint: when you click, they get bigger. Ooo, aaahhhhh. Enjoy

1. Catch a fish
2. Walk down memory lane: February, 2009

3. Be loud and obnoxious
4. See the launching of a ship and the shattering wine bottle
5. Make a candle
6. Watch the sun rise in India
7. Chase a car down a street in Bali
8. Ride a wave
9. Do everything unnormal for a day
10. Walk around in a ballgown: January, 2009

11. Take the water
12. Be a tree
13. Sing the McDonald’s Farm Song in McDonald’s: December 31, 2010
14. Play my flute for tips
15. Beg for donations at a Pick ‘n Pay
16. See the Red Sea
17. Pray in Jerusalem
18. Climb Mt. Everest
19. Eat ice cream in the snow
20. Paint the floor
21. Try to skateboard
22. Go to a college at Oxford and sit in on a lecture
23. Apply to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton
24. Ride a bike on the Great Wall of China
25. Learn to play the drums (well)
26. Learn to play the violin (even better)
27. Tell someone I love him with all abandon in the rain
28. Make a sophisticated song out of Happy Birthday
29. Record a CD
30. Wallow: 2010 (apparently writing the date down didn’t occur to me)
31. Spend a day in public barefoot: April 5, 2011 (One Day Without Shoes)

32. Write a play: October 26, 2010
33. Write an article about something “unimportant”
34. Be absolutely myself when meeting someone new: July, 2008

35. Yell “yawp” from a street corner
36. Create a work of art I’m truly proud of
37. Be a character from a book for a day
38. Make the coolest jeans ever
39. Just…run
40. Make time to dance alone (like a maniac)
41. Take a road trip across Asia
42. Finish Shard: September 12, 2008 (now the editing/rewriting begins)
43. Ride a dragon
44. Spend hours at a laundromat
45. Give a $100 tip
46. Buy food for a homeless guy
47. Do 100 authentic situps without stopping or slowing down
48. Ski a black diamond
49. Write a letter to the president
50. Make a book of photography
51. Take a boat trip (not a cruise) of at least a month
52. Open the potato restaurant with Hilary
53. Build something that actually functions
54. Learn to fix cars
55. Fly a plane
56. Do a wine tasting
57. Have coffee with a complete stranger
58. Buy a pair of Jimmy Choos
59. Disguise myself and be a spy for a day: January 14, 2011

60. Spend a night in the Addis Ababa Sheraton Hotel
61. Be deaf for a day
62. Backpack in Europe
63. Run a mile in 6 minutes
64. Write from the point of view of a hand
65. Make lemonade (from life’s lemons)
66. Make limonade (from actual limes)
67. Cook over a fire: December 18, 2010

68. Have a normal day
69. Eat chocolate in Switzerland: July, 2008

70. Learn to make a chocochino: September, 2008

71. Be alone and mysterious at a real diner
72. Write a short story in Biblical Greek
73. Read the whole Bible in one night
74. Memorize the book of Romans
75. Dedicate a book to Alfred Hitchcock
76. Go to bed at 6:00 pm
77. Go skydiving
78. Get a tattoo
79. Cover a room’s walls with newspaper, old money, and book pages
80. Spend a day being fearless
81. Do something shocking, unpredictable, and free
82. Laugh in the face of tragedy
83. Seek the place where the wind sleeps
84. Roast marshmallows indoors
85. Turn something grotesque into something beautiful
86. Make a change
87. Count from 1 to 100, then go backwards
88. Laugh until I cry: February 8, 2009
89. Witness something majestic
90. Bury a box of letters
91. Dance on the roof with someone I love
92. Be 18 and never been kissed: August 8, 2009

93. Lose my voice (temporarily, of course)
94. Fill a journal or book with fortunes and pop top rings
95. Talk to a tree
96. Make a kite and fly it
97. Don’t second guess myself: February, 2009
98. Sleep all the way through a BA international flight
99. Start an obscure publishing company
100. Write music
101. Learn to dance spectacularly
102. Press flowers
103. Write by candlelight
104. Cook perfect fried rice
105. Open a book store/writing place/coffee shop
106: Have a spa day: November, 2009
107. Go hiking and camping for at least 3 days
108. Enter a bike race
109. Spend an evening watching the stars: January 3, 2011

110. Drink nothing but water for a month
111. Find the perfect potato soup recipe (or create one)
112. See Spamalot with Rachel
113. Feed pigeons
114. Have a meaningful conversation in a furniture store
115. Make a bonfire on the beach with friends
116. Fall asleep in a strange position/place: March 13, 2008
117. Make and eat a cakeburger
118. Drink some authentic grog
119. Learn to sword fight (fencing doesn’t count)
120. Name something after Edgar Allen Poe
121. Get a record player
122. Build a record collection
123. Attend a circus
124. Go to a rodeo
125. Paint a picture of the sky
126. Lie down in a field of dandelions
127. Surprise someone: June 30th, 2008
128. Watch the sun rise on the beach
129. Go birdwatching
130. Disappear for a week
131. Donate to a small artist group
132. Write about the band
133. Shed light on the situation
134. Grow an obscure plant
135. Read a newspaper from cover to cover
136. Get something published in a magazine
137. Write notes to put in Bibles in Barnes & Noble with Hilary: March 17, 2008
138. Spend an hour or two with Jesus: April 19, 2011
139. Take a day to clean and organize: May 29-30, 2010
140. Skip rocks on a brook
141. Dress up, without shoes, and go places
142. Burn a stupid, ungodly movie
143. See the world
144. Make Turkish Delight
145. Sing a song of praise: August 3, 2008
146. Take a tour of Harvard
147. Go shark cage diving
148. Ride a motorcycle: November 6, 2010

149. Drink coffee without milk or sugar and like it: March 16, 2008
150. Spend a whole day writing at Starbucks
151. Take a month and be spontaneous: November, 2010

152. Eat crackers and Wensleydale cheese on West Wallaby Street
153. Dedicate a relevant book to (alias) Michael
154. Write a clean romance novel
155. Get something published by Harper Collins
156. Be bold: February 14, 2009
157. Do something unthinkable: February 21, 2008
158: Go to a drive-in movie
159. Carve my name on the underside of a booth at Asian Buffet: April, 2010
160. Have a smooth trip where nothing goes wrong: July, 2008

161. Enter a cheese-rolling contest
162. Get Shard published: January, 2009 (self-published, but still)

163. Learn to play the guitar
164. Lie in a field of flowers and watch the clouds
165. Learn to count my blessings, big and small: April 20, 2011
166. Ride bareback: December 13, 2010
167. Do a coffee tasting: November, 2010

168. Learn a form of martial arts
169. Get my scuba license
170. Drive all night, accompanied by coffee and good music
171. Climb Table Mountain
172. Write a poem in Hebrew
173. Ride a camel in Egypt
174. Visit Wellington, New Zealand