Realistic Bucket List.

[justginger]

Octoberfest was awesome, Alaska was not.

I suspected as much. We've been close to doing an AK cruise a couple of times now, but held out and went elsewhere. I suspect I am not the cruising type. I'd like to fly and drive/train AK independently. Denali NP looks astounding.

 

[Malbec54]

Octoberfest was awesome, Alaska was not.

LOL! Died laughing reading your post. Why am I not surprised? It would be cool to see the Northern Lights, but beyond that ---not so sure.

 

[artdecogirl]

Can anyone clue me in on why it's called a "bucket" list? Maybe I should as google...

Bucket list, meaning things to do before you kick the bucket.

 

[JaneSmith]

I've never made a bucket list! Reading this thread makes me think about MAYBE configuring one. The one thing that popped into my head right away after reading the responses is that I would really, really love to go on one more family vacation with my immediate family (parents, brother and SIL, niece, and my husband, daughter) so that my dad could enjoy playing in the ocean/on the beach with all of us one last time. The times I remember him being happiest when I was growing up were our family vacations spent in beach towns some Christmas breaks and every summer. When he went through all of his cancer treatments several years ago, he ended up having to wear a colostomy bag and he hasn't been back to the beach since.

He traveled extensively and accomplished a lot of things in his life. I wonder if he has a list...I need to get over worrying about whether it will be a painful subject and just ask him. Must apply "stop thinking so much and just do it" to my own list, I suppose.

I'd like to respond to all the others too, and will when I have some more time, but this one stood out for me.

Monarch, don't wait! Just over two years ago I was part of a family trip to a beach destination that was a last wonderful trip for my FIL. He had cancer, and he died three months later. It was a wonderful bittersweet trip and our last happy memories with him.
Call your Dad. Book a trip. Take lots and lots of pictures and video. Tell him you love him.

 

[JaneSmith]

I read this today: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24477163 and it made me think of this thread. I'm not a fan of the term bucket list either, but like I said in the first post, at least most people know what I'm referring to.
This link is to a story written by a young BBC correspondent who has terminal cancer, and all the things she is doing before she is too ill.
I felt very lucky to have done many of the things on her list; and as usual when I read someone else's list, I find myself adding to my own.

So, what's on your list? Big or small, I find this subject very interesting.

 

[rosetta]

I don't have a bucket list. I've done the main things I wanted to do in my life: have a fulfilling career, save some lives, travel extensively by land, air and sea, enjoy my jewels, love someone with all my heart. A few other things I would like to do, like go on safari, but I wouldn't be too unhappy if I didn't get to do that. Maybe I am just a boring person!

 

[missy]

I don't have a bucket list. I've done the main things I wanted to do in my life: have a fulfilling career, save some lives, travel extensively by land, air and sea, enjoy my jewels, love someone with all my heart. A few other things I would like to do, like go on safari, but I wouldn't be too unhappy if I didn't get to do that. Maybe I am just a boring person!

OMG rosetta-I am totally with you! I don't have a bucket list either and agree with everything you have said down to the safari LOL. Maybe I'm boring too but I am happy, relatively healthy, in love and feel passionate about my life (and the people in it) and when it comes right down to it what more can a person want?

ETA: I also don't make New Year's resolutions so maybe I am just not a to do list type of person anyway.

 

[Circe]

OMG rosetta-I am totally with you! I don't have a bucket list either and agree with everything you have said down to the safari LOL. Maybe I'm boring too but I am happy, relatively healthy, in love and feel passionate about my life (and the people in it) and when it comes right down to it what more can a person want?

ETA: I also don't make New Year's resolutions so maybe I am just not a to do list type of person anyway.

As a variant ... it's not that I don't have a bucket list, it's just that mine seems to operate on reverse. I don't know if a thing should be on there till I've done it. Once I have ... Check mark!

Of the things that have made that list:
- drive up the California coast in a convertible
- lunch alone on Paris
- celebrate midnight naked under a fur on the balcony of a five star hotel
- vault the railing of an abandoned pier to hang out with the rest of the kids playing hooky, regardless of age
- for that matter, regardless of age, play hooky once in a while
- smoke a cigar
- go to Venice. While you're there, enjoy a gondola ride in the wee hours.
- wander a strange city alone for a week
- speak to several thousand people at once (it will kill any residual shyness)
- even if you hate guns, just once, shoot a rifle (the rush of hitting the clay pigeon killed a wicked hangover on the spot)
- get a tattoo, dye your hair, pierce something: you're never too old, and better to regret having done something that to regret having done nothing
- never forget who you wanted to be when you were young ... I'm not as cool as I wanted to be, yet, but I figure I've, a) got time, and, b) won't get there if I don't keep trying
- be The Fun One, if only once in a while
- celebrate Halloween in New Orleans
- ... And on and on and on, what it boils down to is LIVE IN THE MOMENT.

It's funny, writing that list helped me crystallize that. I don't know if it's the chick thing of internalized objectification, where you're as likely to think about how others see you doing a thing as you are to just *do it* or if it's the whole modern-umbilical-tech thing, but the memories that stand out most clearly are simply the ones where nothing - no anxieties, no obligations, no ambitions, no nothing - got in the way of just *living* it. So ... I guess no matter what form it takes, that's my bucket list? To live in the moment.

 

[kenny]

Breath.
Don't die yet.

 

[packrat]

See Australia.
Alaskan cruise.
See a Great White shark..while in Australia no doubt. Would love to do a cage dive but not sure I have the nuts for it.
Visit a Botanical Garden
Learn sign language
See the leaves in Vermont/New Hampshire. Not that we don't have Fall in Iowa, we just don't have the miles and miles they do.
Hike the Appalachian trail
Act on stage

 

[missy]

OMG rosetta-I am totally with you! I don't have a bucket list either and agree with everything you have said down to the safari LOL. Maybe I'm boring too but I am happy, relatively healthy, in love and feel passionate about my life (and the people in it) and when it comes right down to it what more can a person want?

ETA: I also don't make New Year's resolutions so maybe I am just not a to do list type of person anyway.

As a variant ... it's not that I don't have a bucket list, it's just that mine seems to operate on reverse. I don't know if a thing should be on there till I've done it. Once I have ... Check mark!

Of the things that have made that list:
- drive up the California coast in a convertible
- lunch alone on Paris
- celebrate midnight naked under a fur on the balcony of a five star hotel
- vault the railing of an abandoned pier to hang out with the rest of the kids playing hooky, regardless of age
- for that matter, regardless of age, play hooky once in a while
- smoke a cigar
- go to Venice. While you're there, enjoy a gondola ride in the wee hours.
- wander a strange city alone for a week
- speak to several thousand people at once (it will kill any residual shyness)
- even if you hate guns, just once, shoot a rifle (the rush of hitting the clay pigeon killed a wicked hangover on the spot)
- get a tattoo, dye your hair, pierce something: you're never too old, and better to regret having done something that to regret having done nothing
- never forget who you wanted to be when you were young ... I'm not as cool as I wanted to be, yet, but I figure I've, a) got time, and, b) won't get there if I don't keep trying
- be The Fun One, if only once in a while
- celebrate Halloween in New Orleans
- ... And on and on and on, what it boils down to is LIVE IN THE MOMENT.

It's funny, writing that list helped me crystallize that. I don't know if it's the chick thing of internalized objectification, where you're as likely to think about how others see you doing a thing as you are to just *do it* or if it's the whole modern-umbilical-tech thing, but the memories that stand out most clearly are simply the ones where nothing - no anxieties, no obligations, no ambitions, no nothing - got in the way of just *living* it. So ... I guess no matter what form it takes, that's my bucket list? To live in the moment.

Circe, as usual profound and elucidating and I agree 100%. Living in the moment might just be one of the most difficult things to do but most definitely one of the most rewarding. And while I do not have a bucket list per se that is one of the virtues I am constantly striving for-not always successfully but always with persistence and optimism.

 

[sunshine0808]

Packrat,

I just had to comment on your list.

I live in IA as well, but I lived in Canada for ten years (loved it, would return in a heartbeat), and I love fall leaves. It's true that the leaves in Iowa aren't as remarkable as they are on the east coast, but every year my husband and I drive north along the Mississippi to see the leaves. We stop at some parks and at different overlooks to see the leaves in the river valley of the mighty Mississippi. It's always one of my favorite days of the year.

And sign language, my husband has studied it for fifteen years and is very skilled. I've been learning it as well. I'm just beginning, but it's a lot of fun. It has proved handy at times to have a non-verbal means of communication (super loud concerts, etc).

Also, we were married in a botanical garden. Complete with waterfall and koi pond. It was amazing.

And we would both love to go to Australia!

 

[justginger]

Our holiday this year is ticking off two items for me - NYE in TS and seeing an active volcano - and one for DH - a winter Christmas.

However, what wasn't on my radar before starting to plan which island to stay on in Hawaii is Mauna Kea. I am over the moon to see the observatories in real life. Here's a time lapse video - it's hard to believe that this is real, it is just so beautiful. http://petapixel.com/2013/10/05/stunning-time-lapse-mauna-kea-observatories-milky-way/

PS - Circe, you're so clever. I love the way you think.

 

[packrat]

Packrat,

I just had to comment on your list.

I live in IA as well, but I lived in Canada for ten years (loved it, would return in a heartbeat), and I love fall leaves. It's true that the leaves in Iowa aren't as remarkable as they are on the east coast, but every year my husband and I drive north along the Mississippi to see the leaves. We stop at some parks and at different overlooks to see the leaves in the river valley of the mighty Mississippi. It's always one of my favorite days of the year.

And sign language, my husband has studied it for fifteen years and is very skilled. I've been learning it as well. I'm just beginning, but it's a lot of fun. It has proved handy at times to have a non-verbal means of communication (super loud concerts, etc).

Also, we were married in a botanical garden. Complete with waterfall and koi pond. It was amazing.

And we would both love to go to Australia!

Well shoot, let's go to Australia, see some sharks and then I'll live vicariously thru you for the rest of my list!