A Few Things on My Bucket List

This is my entry in the Just Ask Bucket List Getaway Giveaway. Just Ask offers a breast and ovarian cancer screening and is encouraging people to share 15 things that I want to enjoy in my lifetime as a reminder to be aware of my health. Want to enter? Head over to TodaysMama.com to get the details.

I have been so consumed with finding work and creating income since we moved to our new state that the thought of filling out just one more job application or revamping my resume one more time makes me want to slit my wrists.  Yeah...I'm that burned out.  So I thought I'd take a break from the job hunt and focus on some of the really motivating things I would like to accomplish in my life, in the hopes that I might regain some of my sanity and maybe win an awesome family vacation in the process!

There are about a billion things I'd like to do before I leave this world, here are 15 of them:

1. Write a book.  I know.  Everyone wants to write a book, right?  And actually, just about anyone can do it these days with all the self-publishing options and e-books, but I can't remember a time when I didn't want to write a book, so even if it seems like a trendy, "everybody's-doing-it" kind of goal, it is a goal I choose to keep on my bucket list.  Don't ask me about the book topic, I have a few ideas, but nothing concrete.  Although I had an amazing idea today for a coffee table book that involves Dog the Bounty Hunter.  Intrigued?  I know, right?  How did someone not think of it already!?!

2. Learn how to design and build a website.  Because then I could more easily pursue some of my other goals that are sitting and waiting for a finished website to call home so they can come to life. Which reminds me of #3 on this list.

3.  Go back to school and finish my education.  I have a 20 year old Associates degree in an industry where my skills are no longer relevant.  I learned ad design and graphics before the computer!  Ever heard of amberlith, rapidographs and Prismacolor markers?  How about a Varitype Typesetter?  Ever made a photostat copy of something? No?  I KNOW!!  Because all these things are obsolete!  Time to start over and learn how to use all the spiffy new design programs out there like Dreamweaver, Photoshop, InDesign and whatever video editing software the kids are using these days.

4. Learn to play the banjo.  The redneck in me needs an outlet once in awhile.  I have this vision of sittin' around on the porch Andy Griffith style with a cool guitar player, a fine fiddler and a rad harmonica-nista.  We'll be a pickin' and a grinnin' while the neighbors clap and the kids dance on the lawn.  I cannot WAIT to post the video one day to prove to y'all that this one actually happened.

5. Own a 1965-68 Mustang with a big V-8 and cool mag wheels.   Va-rooom!  I LOVE those cars!

6. Move to a farm where I can raise my boys and live out the rest of my life growing amazing things and taking care of funny animals.

7. Lose weight and get healthy...so I can learn to do things like #8.

8. Ski with my family!  Even when I am thin, I have never been really athletic, but skiing down a mountain of snow sounds like a hoot.  Even if I never make it off the bunny hill, I'd like to try it once before I die.  And the weight loss thing would also be of great importance when it comes to finding a snowsuit that wouldn't make me look like the Michelin Man's wife.

9. Travel across the country in a decked out motor home to visit places like Mt. Rushmore and The Bigfoot Discovery Museum while eating really cool road food like "Rippers" from Rutt's Hutt in New Jersey and tossed rolls at Lambert's Cafe in Missouri.

10. Buy a really great digital camera and take a photography class with Arizona Highways or National Geographic photographers. .

11.Accomplish something physical that I never thought I would be capable of doing, like running a marathon or hiking the Grand Canyon. 

12. Find a cure for cankles.  Seriously.  I hate my ankles.  Even when I'm not heavy, I still have cankles.  Not from fat or water retention, but from giant bones and muscles.  I have thick ankle DNA.  I will never look good in a dress and strappy sandals until cankles become a thing of the past.  Please donate today to the "Cure for Cankles" Foundation.  Your contribution will help women like myself, my mom and Hillary Clinton shun pantsuits and long skirts forever.

13. Visit Ireland and come home with a wicked Irish accent.

14. Become a published author in a magazine or newspaper.   

15. Visit Grandmother/Great-grandmother's old home in Virginia with Mom and Sister.  My mom has always wanted to know more about her mother's side of the family and where they came from.  She has relatives there she has never met.  It would be wonderful to help her reconnect with family there and learn more about her southern heritage.