My Bucket List Explained

I have gotten some questions about my bucket list and I thought explaining it might also be a good idea to get my own mind in order. Some of the wishes on my list took me by surprise as well.

Before I kick the bucket, I would like to:

Go Fishing, catch a fish, filet it and cook it
I thought for the longest time that fishing would be way too boring, but now I long for boredom, and a peaceful place like a riverbed sounds heavenly.

Send a flower bouquet anonymously to someone who seems lonely even if I don’t like the person
About 25 years ago, someone sent me anonymously a flower bouquet. The card said “Just because” it was such a nice surprise. I tried to find out who did it, but there was no information. I never forgot how special it made me feel. I wish someone else to experience it as well.

See the Northern Lights in real
This one I don’t need to explain.

Sleep in an igloo or ice hotel
I follow a blogger in Norway, who shared pictures of her visit to an icehotel on her blog. I expected it to be like an Iglo with no comfort, but far from it. Doesn’t it look like “Lord of the Rings” a bit?

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Get the Moroccan lamp that won’t match anything
30 years ago I was called to work in Morocco for a couple of weeks and was arrested. On my way to the local Bazaar, I hit a man with my rental car. He had been on a bike riding right beside me, we both turned at the same time. I had seen him, but before I knew what happened, he was on my hood, then on the floor…screaming. I spent two days in fear he might have died until three embassies stepped in (Germany/Austria, UK, and USA). Turns out pretending to be hit by a car was a tourist trap, a staged accident to get a little bit of extra money. I aged a few years in a couple of days. In my cell, if you want to call it that, I could climb on the table and look outside the window. I didn’t see much, but there was a Moroccan lamp hanging in a corner, somehow it gave me comfort.

Change one person’s life for the better
I suppose that’s a wish we all have.

Take in a senior dog and let him/her spend one day or a couple of years happy
I have cried my heart out each and every time one of our dogs or cats passed away or had been put to sleep. Then I got to know a student who has made it her mission to take in senior animals who are too old to be adopted. I admired her and the longer I thought about it, the more it made sense. We are getting older. It’s a no-brainer. Will I cry my eyes out, Yes, that’s a no-brainer too.

Write about my mother-in-law, Charlotte
The most misunderstood, underestimated woman I have ever known. How she kept it all together is something I will never understand. How she kept her sanity and how she made her marriage work, will puzzle me forever. She deserves to be known by a few of my readers.

Finish the book “Losing it all”
Yes, I am already on it.

Buy a long dress and go to the opera all by myself
I was fifteen the first time I went to the Opera. It was a trip to Munich, Germany. We were the graduating class in our boarding school and the night out was our reward. I didn’t have a long dress but wore an older, altered dress I had found in my grandma’s closet. She had worn it when she was young. It was so pretty and my pride and joy. Years later I had a long dress, but only wore it once to a wedding. Then I lost it when we lost it all.

Does this wish to make sense? No! Why do I want to go alone? Because it would be torture for my husband.

Color my hair in peacock colors
It’s already short, pixy cut and it’s going to be platinum blond next week. I am getting myself ready. 🙂 I love colors and these fun hair colors were not around when I was young. Am I too old? Never!

Drink champagne for no reason
Perhaps the dumbest wish, yet it also makes sense. Do I need Champagne? Nope! Do I like it? Not sure. Perhaps it sounds good because we lived through a time when we couldn’t even afford sparkling cider.

Learn Bridge
I always wanted to learn to play the game but never got to it. I love card games and game nights in general. Old(er) age and more quiet times are just around the corner. It sounds perfect.

Learn a new language
I want to finish Spanish and then learn Japanese or Portuguese. Keep the mind going!

Get a tattoo
So far I never wanted one and it never sounded right. What if my taste changes? I am a tattoo virgin. Nut now I am leaning toward DNR (Do not resuscitate) on my chest, low enough so nobody can see, large enough so THEY can read it.

Maybe Recycle Me underneath. 🙂

Get a henna tattoo
I always admired them. A very special kind of art. It would look so good on my sausage fingers. 🙂

Sign up for the chocolate run if they allow dogs
The Hot Chocolate Run is a 5K, 10K 15K run. It’s raising money and it’s sending a powerful message of love and support to survivors of domestic violence. I found out they don’t allow dogs, but they can be on the sidelines. Fighting domestic violence is very important to me. I see and hear a lot when we deliver bras and feminine hygiene products to the shelters. My childhood might have something to do with it to.

Visit Canada and eat at least three pounds of smoked salmon
Smoked salmon is one of my weaknesses and I have never been to Canada. 🙂

Bake a cake with mirror glaze even if it means I have to superglue a mirror on top of the cake
I am a great cook and a terrible baker because baking doesn’t allow me to improvise. So the mirror glaze, as well as the cake itself, would most definitely test my patience. The chances that I will have to glue a mirror on top are pretty high. I should have never watched the British Baking Show.

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Go line dancing once
That’s a big surprise to me because I don’t particularly care for country music. Perhaps line dancing reminds me of my childhood. An homage to Saturday Night Fever?

Watch Downton Abbey
I don’t watch TV too often and not for too long so that’s a task.

Take an exotic cooking class
Asian cooking most definitely, perhaps a Thai cooking class? I enjoy eating Asian food.

Learn to make Sushi
My favorite food, I could eat it every day. What a taste sensation it is. How beautiful it’s presented. You can’t overeat on Sushi either

Learn to lose
I am a lousy loser in sports and in games. I play Gin Romee online and sometimes I still feel like the little girl who kicked the board off the table. I force myself to type “Great game” when I just got a few hundred points minus because the other person creamed me the same way I had planned it -just faster. Now I have to learn to mean it when I type it.

Go skinny dipping in a lake
I spent a vacation on a nude beach on a Spanish island (not by choice) which is not the same as skinny dipping. I can picture my husband and I jumping butt-naked into a lake in our 70s. When I picture us we have fun.

Dance in the rain
Why haven’t I yet? I have gotten soaking wet while walking the dogs and while hiking, it never occurred to me to dance in the rain.

Sing one song in a Karaoke bar
Well, I can’t sing, so that’s going to be a very humiliating and humble experience. 🙂

Touch a snake
Hate them. Fear them. Killed them (the venomous ones in the South). Maybe touching one would cure me?

Hold a bird of prey
It must be such an amazing moment to hold a wild bird of prey.