Things to Do (My List)

Sidebar before I continue: today, I read author Anne Rice's NY Times priece on the disaster in New Orleans. It's excellent -- read it!

Hurricane Katrina's destruction of New Orleans made me realize it will be a while before I can check off one of the items on my "Things to do before I die" list. I made this list years ago, in my early 20's and while I have added a few here and there over the years, I've never removed any and checked off a few. My list has existed in many formats over the years -- from handwritten to typed to many iterations on various software programs. (I can't remember if this was on a Magnavox VideoWriter diskette, but it definitely spent time as a Symphony spreadsheet file.)

Don't have a list of your own, dear reader? Get to work! How else will you keep track?

Things to Do Before I Die:

1. Go skydiving (status: closed -- not once, but twice in 1991)
2. Tour Ireland (status: open)
3. Climb an Aztec pryamid in Mexico (status: closed - 1992, Pyramid of the Sun)
4. See the Great Pyramid in Egypt (status: open)
5. Attend Mardis Gras in New Orleans (status: open)
6. Attend Carnival in Rio (status: open)
7. Spend New Year's Eve in Times Square, New York City (status: open)
8. See an actual rain forest (status: closed - Puerto Rico, 1994)
9. See an actual jungle (status: closed - Malaysia, 1993)
10. See the everglades (status: open)
11. See the Sydney Opera House, Australia (status: closed - 1995)
12. Vacation in New Zealand (status: closed - 1995)
13. Buy or Rent an RV and drive across the U.S./see Mount Rushmore (status: open)
14. Take the train to Seattle (status: closed - 2005)
15. Take the bullet train in Japan (status: closed - 1996)
16. Climb the Statue of Liberty (status: open)
17. Ride through the Arch in St. Louis (status: closed - 1998)
18. Attend a bear event in a major city (status: partially closed - BP in Chicago & IBR in San Francisco, among others; always willing to see more)
19. Retrace the route "Priscilla" took through the outback (status: open)
20. Tour Rome and Greece (status: open)
21. See the Arizona grandmother knew (status: open)
22. Take a whale-watching cruise to Alaska (status: open)
23. Publish a best-seller (status: open)
24. Fall in love and live happily ever after (status: so open)