~Bucket List (Eighth Update)

Originally posted 31 Mar 2017

So close, you can almost taste it! I am so ready to be done with this list.

#5- Learn to play an instrument 

I never actually “learned” to play an instrument. I took Viola lessons in elementary school, but didn’t practice outside of class. I did the bells in elementary school, but wasn’t any good at it. Much later, In Iraq, I moved to a place where we found a guitar that someone must have left behind. I tried to teach myself how to play but without sheets of music (I wouldn’t know how to read them anyway) or the internet I was stuck with just my ear, trying to move my fingers from one random configuration to another. Maybe this is on that I should not have actually claimed to have completed before… Yea, probably not. Well, now I own a guitar. So I have now excuse.

#6- Learn a new language

#24- Play a round of golf 

#33- Attend a drive in movie 

This is another one that I find a little odd to see on this list. I guess we really take a lot for granted. Growing up, I went to the drive-in a lot. Well, maybe not “a lot”, but I’ll say a fair to moderate amount. The theater was about two hours away so it was hard to convince my parents to take my sister and I more often. Come to think of it, my sister was pretty young around that time. I wonder if she even remembers going. The funny thing about going to the drive in, we would ALWAYS see a kids movie. It was my parents little gift to us I guess. Funnier thing about going, I would ALWAYS spend more time playing with the random kids that I would meet there than I did watching the movie that I begged my parents to take me to see. My son would love this, I think I’ll take him next time.

#42- Be in a play 

#61- Try a martial art

#124- Dance on a bar

As you might have guessed, I wasn’t always as reserved as I am now. My friends and I acted like frat boys. We bar hopped, crashed sorority parties (really, we were invited, but crashing sounds a little bit more bad-ass), had bar fights, and many many more things that I am not at liberty to discuss. Well, one of those bar hopping nights in St. Louis started and ended with myself and my merry men dancing on a bar. Oddly enough, we began to strip our clothes off while at the first bar (which was frowned upon and ended up with us getting ejected), but as we drank I guess we got more self-conscious, or reserved, or something because we kept our clothes on while dancing on the bar at our last stop (where they were chanting for us to “take it off”). I’m going to go ahead and say that next time I do this I plan on being mostly sober.

#157- Have a summer romance

#180- Learn to juggle 

#215- Go on a zip-line 

A couple of years ago I surprised my son one weekend and took him Zip-lining down in Delaware. It was one of those things that we had talked about doing but the weather would usually turn on us or we would just flat out make other plans instead. Speaking of weather, the day that we went we ended up sitting in my car and waiting out a mild storm before going in. He and I went, and we had a BLAST. He would make fun of me and my fear of heights as he’d zip away, and I would shake my foot and shuffle myself into position. Truly great day… Recently, randomly, my son’s mom texted me to asked where we went Zip-lining. She’s not all that outdoorsy so it was a pretty weird text to see. When I told her, she sent me a link in response. Opening the link, I found a news story. Apparently, a lady who was trying to complete her bucket list went to the same location, stepped out off of a tree stand without being clipped in and fell… She didn’t make it. I really wish the best for her family and loved ones, so sorry for their loss. As I said earlier, I am a little reserved now, and as much as I want to say that I will go and take my son with me again, I really am not sure if I will after this… I guess we will see.

#217- Ride a mechanical bull

Until next time, take it off!

P.S. This is me trying to teach myself how to play the old gee-tar. I’m not sure if I have mentioned this before, but I used to smoke. I quite on my sister’s birthday back in 2012, which is actually a pretty interesting story… An interesting story, for another post.