Things I'd Like to Do (Before I Die)

The idea of making a "bucket list" always seemed weird and gross and mostly pointless to me until the second I turned thirty when, suddenly, it occurred to me that yes, although life is finite and scary and often unfair, that doesn't mean I can't cram in a lot of awesome experiences before its over. That's probably pretty obvious to most people, but for me, I'd heard about this kind of desire, but never really felt it in my bones until that moment.

In 2013, I started a "Things I'd Like to Do" project to get myself actually working on creative projects and personal growth. I definitely want to continue that in 2014, but I think it's time I also started a list of the bigger, long-term stuff in order to at least get thinking about it all and work on preparing my skills and confidence accordingly. So this is just a rough draft. I think it will stay a rough draft until I die, or at least until I'm a perfectly actualized and completely satisfied human being who has done everything wonderful that there is to do in the world. You know, whichever comes first.

1. Visit South Africa and
- see the veldt from a speeding train
- step down from the train and onto the veldt
- lie down on the veldt and become one with the veldt beneath the massive African sky

2. Master the cello and
- play the Bach suites as I hear them in my soul, from memory

3. Appear in a feature film, in any capacity

4. Run a marathon, even informally, in less than four hours

5. Date, live with, or even marry a man who is very handsome, very smart, very kind, very loving, and possibly even rich (i.e. "out of my league") and just be like, "Yeah? So?" (i.e. confident and secure), while at the same time never, ever taking him for granted and
- be able to lift him off the ground or at least lift his weight in a gym (this is probably some weird psychological thing)

6. Get a perfect score on the GRE, just for fun

7. Actually learn to play the piano and
- be able to play long, beautiful pieces from memory
- be able to compose and improvise
- be able to play and sing at the same time

8. Take up archery for relaxation, since it's the one sport I was ever naturally good at

9. Learn to play at least one seriously beautiful piece of music on a concert harp

10. Challenge myself with longer and longer hikes and
- see if I can actually hike a major trail, like the Appalachian, or the Pacific Crest, or even...
- see if I can hike off-trail on other continents

11. Go to Australia, for goodness sake, and
- remember to take a jaunt down (or up!) to Tasmania
- see New Zealand while I'm in the neighborhood

12. Go to Ireland and
- ride a white horse on a green hill

13. Canter a horse through the surf on a sandy beach (again. And again and again.)

14. Ride in a pontoon plane, preferably between islands in Alaska and
- maybe even learn to pilot one or just take a lesson
- basically I want to land a plane on water

15. Do some kind of lasting, self-renewing good for people who need help

16. Dance

The Puppies (Dogs) Are ONE YEAR OLD Today!!

It's finally here--the puppies' real birthday. (I've been calling the 19th of each month a birthday for a whole year now.) On the one hand, I can't believe it, but on the other hand, it does feel like I've set up for 365 days-worth of playtimes, gotten the puppies ready for 365 days-worth of naptimes, and cleaned up at least 365 days-worth of messes.

It's been three months since the last "pupdate," so there are about 90 pictures, STARTING AT THE PUPPIES 9-MONTHS BIRTHDAY IN SEPTEMBER. As usual, some of the pictures are kind of blurry but serve to illustrate some particular thing I want to convey about the pups, while others can stand alone as Internet-worthy puppy pictures. Enjoy!

Rare flash photo of an ordinary playtime, as I said, three months ago:

Magic hour portrait of Joey:

I wanted to take a dual selfie with Max...:

But he's so long, he wouldn't fit in the frame with me!:

Lots of gnawing on each other's faces with these puppies:

I'm going to make a file that's only pictures of Max jumping at the camera:

(blogger lightened that picture for some reason. Annoying.)

Joey, Esquire. Note his lovely spotted tummy:

I set the camera on the floor and used the timer in the hope that it would capture razor-sharp puppy-level photos. These two were the best I could do:

(Lizzie's trying to give me a kiss there--aww. Not sure why there's an Aveeno box. They cheapened the formula recently and used the money they saved for an insincere and annoying commercial staring the insincere and annoying Jennifer Aniston. I hate them. I was using $0.75-worth of their lotion every day, and now I'll never buy it again. But I digress.)

What are the puppies so excited about?:

It's their mama, Ginger, in her second visit since they were weaned:

Max is particularly angry since he resents Ginger's challenge to his status as top dog:

(He's complaining to me loudly there.)

When she went out for a potty break, it was a major news event for these guys:

Lizzie even howled about it for a bit:

Each puppy went out one by one to run around with Ginger:

Can't remember what's going on here:

Lizzie enduring Max's tail wagging vigorously in her face:

(Why doesn't she just move? I moved them apart after I snapped the photo.)

I like the expressions:

More selfies with pups. Blurry, but more good puppy expressions:

(I'm kind of sweaty and windblown in these selfies from schlepping puppies in and out all day.)

One in focus!:

A cute progression of photos:

My mom bought some coats for the puppies to try on, and we had a fashion show (I hate how blogger lightened these--I wish I could turn this feature off):

What's this whirling purple blob?:

It's Joey!:

(We ended up only keeping a blue coat, not pictured just yet.)

Winter sun:

Playing in the kitchen again, despite having been banished in the summer:

This one reminded me of those Hollywood couple red carpet photos where the woman looks happy and smug because she doesn't see the man looking around for someone better:

The boys in their plastic jail, kinda like Magneto in the "X-Men":

Just thought this looked cool:

In focus!:

More annoyingly brightened photos:

Barking at a squirrel:

Good sniffs:

Inspector Dog:

Comfy:

Going out for potties:

Coming back in from potties on a colder day (Max and Lizzie don't really need to be held--though I do hold them--because they can cling to my body like monkeys):

Lizzie always tries to give me kisses:

I make little kiss sounds while she licks in the general direction of my mouth:

They hear the garbage truck:

Tug-of-war:

Winner:

More brightened photos--she was yawning because it was nighttime, I think:

Jealous:

Also jealous, plus crazy eyes:

He's sitting on my lap, but doesn't he look like he's standing at a doggie-height table?:

Jealous:

We had an ice storm:

Here's the one parka we kept:

(They ended up not wanting to do potties while wearing the parka, even though there was an opening in the back.)

Down in the fray, for playtime:

Max jumping and licking his lips while I try to take a photo for my food blog:

More jumping with the tongue out:

Joey wants me to come back in:

Max says its his job to ask me back in:

One-year birthday portraits:

Thanks for following along with the puppies!!