“I’m a pessimist with occasional positive lapses.”
“I like pessimists. They’re always the ones who bring life jackets for the boat.” –from Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas.
I would be that pessimist. I’m generally pessimistic, paranoid, sarcastic, sometimes hostile, and I let the negative things get the better of me a lot of the time. But I’m working on making those “positive lapses” last longer and longer when they do happen.
My Bucket List:
1. Swim with dolphins (not the wild ones; I’ll never be okay with jumping into the ocean…plus I’m pretty sure that’s illegal in most places). I didn’t accomplish this, but have decided I don’t want to because of the movie The Cove. Read my blog on it; you’ll understand!
2. Visit every continent: a) Africa b) Antarctica c) Asia d) Australia e) Europe f) North America (completed September 5, 1987) g) South America
3. Own a horse (preferably buckskin; The Man from Snowy River gave me an odd obsession with them)
4. Watch the sun rise and/or set on every ocean a) Arctic Ocean b) Atlantic Ocean (completed May 2005) c) Indian Ocean d) Pacific Ocean (completed June 2009) e) Southern Ocean
5. Get something, anything, published
6. Adopt a pet
7. Visit Oahu, Hawaii (where Lost was filmed)
8. Pay off my *^%#ing loans
9. See a Daniel Tosh show in person…and meet him
10. Ride a gondola in Venice, Italy
11. Live without phone, internet, and TV for a day
12. Watch IMDB’s Top 250 Movies (89/250)
13. Volunteer abroad
14. Take a Napa Valley wine trip
15. Parasail
16. Stand under a waterfall
17. Work/volunteer in an animal shelter (completed in Des Moines at the Animal Rescue League, November 2011 on)
18. See the Top 20 Natural Wonders of the World
19. Zip line (completed in Costa Rica, June 2009)
20. Visit all 50 states (and not just driving through, stop somewhere awesome)
21. Go on an African safari
22. Watch the World Equestrian Games
23. Somehow repay my parents for their help through school and with loans and for not killing me long ago
24. Ride a horse on the beach
25. See the Grand Canyon
26. Go to Vegas (completed June 2010, thanks bestie and parents)
27. Take my photo under the Hollywood sign
28. Jump on a water trampoline
29. Donate blood/plasma (completed May 2010)
30. Go on a cruise
31. Own a home with a pool and a huge yard
32. Work in/manage/own a bookstore
33. Be a foster for shelter animals
34. Take a First Aid course
35. Be able to not have a budget for every.single.thing in life
36. Go horseback riding in Mongolia
37. Read all of the Pulitzer Prize winning books in the Fiction category
38. Read all of the Pulitzer Prize winning books in the General Nonfiction category
39. Watch all of the winning movies for Academy Award for Best Picture
40. Go island hopping in the Caribbean
41. Start a blog (completed August 2010)
42. Meet someone famous–not someone lame, like a mom from LA Wives or Justin Bieber
43. Watch Derek Jeter play in a game (completed May 2012)
44. Swim in the world’s largest swimming pool
45. Get out of Subway. OUT. (completed October 2012)
“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it. The “hard” is what makes it great.” –Jimmy Dugan, A League of Their Own
“The basis of optimism is sheer terror.” –Oscar Wilde
“I think I deserve something beautiful.” –Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
And if anything gets in my way, I’m gonna treat it like this annoying little boy (as you can see, I really, really like this movie):
