Trailer Wife

One of the blogs I read regularly, Mighty Girl, challenged readers to come up with a "Mighty List," of 100 things to do before you die. This lucky chick convinced Intel (yes, that Intel) to sponsor her list, and they are now paying for her to complete it this year. So I pretty much hate her.

Feeling decidedly uninspired lately, and a sucker for listing of any kind, I sat down tonight and did one of my own.

1. Ride an elephant
2. Make a quilt out of Gusser's baby clothes
3. Go to Germany with my sister
4. Learn how to ride a horse
5. Build a piece of furniture
6. Write a novel
7. Get a story published in the New Yorker
8. Speak conversational french
9. Summer in the Italian Riviera
10. Grow a garden
11. Give a random deserving person $100
12. Take a gourmet cooking class
13. Paint a portrait of myself
14. Attend Mom's Weekend at Gusser's university
15. Buy myself an amazing piece of jewelry
16. Get a full sleeve tattoo
17. Have short hair for a year
18. Wear a sari in India
19. Public reading at Powell's Bookstore
20. Vacation on Loch Muick with the Dukes
21. Design and build a house
22. Enter and finish a 10k race
23. Midnight dancing on the Summer Solstice
24. Stand on top of the Empire State Building
25. Safari in Africa
26. Finish a Sunday NYT crossword without cheating
27. Sleep in a hammock on the beach
28. Learn how to sail a boat by myself
29. Road trip through the southern states
30. Read every Pulitzer Prize winning novel
31. Read the Lord of the Rings trilogy to Gus
32. Attend an opera in Milan
33. Go spelunking
34. Have a personal audience with the Dalai Lama
35. Do a Boudoir photo shoot
36. Learn how to pick a lock
37. Bungee jump
38. Take Gus to Disney World
39. Write a screen play
40. Stand on the Great Wall of China
41. Visit Anwar in Pakistan
42. Take singing lessons
43. Jump off a bridge into the Santiam river
44. See the fjords in Norway
45. Host a glamorous Christmas party
46. Learn how to belly dance
47. Stomp grapes in Napa
48. Record my grandmother's memories of childhood
49. Sleep in a teepee
50. Ride in a helocopter
51. Visit the Outer Hebrides
52. See the Palio di Siena
53. Construct a drive-in theater in my back yard
54. Own a Le Crueset pot
55. Look through an enormous telescope
56. Hold a political office
57. Own a pet
58. Write for a newspaper
59. Work in a factory
60. Get my godfather stoned
61. Go ice fishing
62. Hot springs skinny dipping
63. Hike the Pacific Crest Trail
64. Wear a kimono
65. Write a song
66. See northern lights
67. Finish my wedding album
68. Create a cool baby book for Gus
69. Volunteer in a nursing home
70. Return to Scotland with Gus
71. Own an original piece of art for every room in my house
72. Go back to Vernazza for our 25th wedding anniversary
73. March in a gay pride parade
74. Go dog-sledding
75. Take the Inca trail to Machu Picchu
76. See the Valley of the Kings
77. Be able to do the most difficult yoga postures, and make it look easy
78. Go to the Grand Canyon
79. Sleep in an igloo
80. Visit an expensive psychic
81. Produce a home movie of my life
82. Learn how to use a pressure cooker
83. Visit the Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic
84. Take Gus trick-or-treating
85. Shopping spree at Powell's Bookstore
86. Be an extra in a film
87. Send a message in a bottle
88. Sit on a jury
89. Go wine tasting in South Africa
90. Find one of those secret behind-the-waterfall caves
91. Spend Christmas in a tropical place
92. Take a hot air balloon ride
93. Fly first class
94. Ring a church bell
95. Open a used bookstore/coffee shop
96. Memorial day reunion in Pacific City
97. Create a fitting tribute to my father and his crazy family
98. Be the "cool" aunt
99. Be unafraid of making grand gestures
100. Anonymously fund a child's education through college