Full Bucket List

And here we are, finally at the end! Here is the full list of the things that I completed prior to actually buying the bucket list book. I figured I would close this out by putting the entire thing up here for you guys. I told you that it was going to lengthy! If you’ve been following along, the most recent additions are #24, #61, and #180.

#3- Visit Las Vegas

My uncle (Uncle Skip) on my mom’s side lived in Las Vegas for a bunch of years. I visited twice. The first time was the summer between middle school and high school. I don’t remember much from that trip .I remember going to a water park and being too afraid to go down one of the rides (when I go back I’m going to made that slide my bitch, but heights will never be my friend) and doing a different kind of walk of shame. I remember spending a lot of time with my cousin (Sultan) and my cousin’s cousin (Jay… I think). Sultan is somewhere around 8 years younger than me so as you can imagine we didn’t spend too much time hanging out. His cousin was the cool senior, he introduced me to marijuana, underage drinking (calm down, I might have had 2 joints and a beer that summer, and didn’t drink or smoke again until I was 18), and parent-less coed house parties. The next trip was my uncle Skip’s wedding. I took my son, my son’s mother, and my mother out there just for the weekend. I had a great time with the family, took sultan out on the strip for a little (to places that he of course knew like the back of his hand), had sushi (my favorite food) for the first (and second) time, and went home. My uncle and his family have since moved to Texas but maybe the next time that I visit Vegas I’ll try to convince them to come with.

#4- Plant a tree

Unfortunately this is another one of those stories that I don’t fully remember. This one however has nothing to do with drinking or any sort of immature debauchery. In elementary school we planted a tree, I was just too young and frankly uninterested to remember the finer points of why we did this. I went to school in a forest. I mean my school was in a town where homes had more trees than windows (only a slight exaggeration) on the property. We were hipsters before being a hippie was hip again. I have a friend whose dad owns a tree farm and another friend who is considering starting an orchard so next time I go to plant a tree maybe I’ll help out one of these guys… Maybe both.

#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

Another one of those things that I never fully accomplished but for some reason decided to add to this list. I really should have put more thought into this. I took three years of french in school. And after that I am able to start a conversation, compliment and insult someone, and pick up on some key words here and there. That’s pretty much it. I also lived in Texas for a year and learned a decent amount of Spanish while I was there… Basically the same amount of french that I’ve learned. Currently, I’m trying to teach myself sign language. ASL is a little tricky so I’ve shifted my focus to PSE which means that I should be able to understand ASL but my conversations will just take a little longer.

#9- Ride in a limo

This will probably be the worst story on my entire page….. This BETTER be the worst story on this page, God help you if I end up with one as bad as this one. Basically, I remember riding in a limo when I was younger. But I was too young to fully remember so I just have vague images in my head of getting into and out of the long car, I don’t even remember what the inside looked like or who I was with. I told ya, I’m sorry… Kinda. Next time, I’ll suit up and take some pictures with those involved.

#11- Write a song

So… Have I mentioned yet that I was certainly NOT one of the “cool kids” before? Well, I wasn’t. My friends (for the most part) weren’t all that cool either. Not nerds, just not the talk of the school or neighborhood. Anyway, when I was younger my friend Kev and I would write music. I REALLY wish that I could find some of the raps that we came up with back in the day. I remember one we wrote to go with Biggie Smalls Hypnotize, I actually think that one might have been ok. Well, obviously we did not grow up to be a famous duo. So now I have to write a song for this list? Maybe I’ll write a song about the list… Maybe not… Who knows?

#14- Ride in a helicopter

Throughout my Marine Corps career I’ve been in a helicopter a handful of times. The most memorable time? Well, nothing actually happened, but I was shaking pretty much the entire time. I was on my way home from my second tour to Iraq. We were all packing up and being moved to the base where we would eventually fly out of. We were supposed to convoy to that base but for whatever reason today the route (that we had taken probably once a week for the past 6 months) was not our safest option. I drive trucks… On the ground… The thought of being “safer” in the sky was (and still is) crazy to me. I HATE military flights, If anything would have happened during that flight I probably would have pissed my pants (not kidding).

#15- Meet a celebrity

Well… What do you consider to be a “celebrity”? I met a movie star… I guess… I mean, what do you consider to be a “movie star”? Ok… All cards on the table… I met a porn star once (actually, I just told this story in Love). Rachel Starr, who at the time was my favorite porn star, was visiting a strip club in Philly. Conveniently for me my long term girlfriend (who HATED the idea of me going to a strip club without her) and I had just broken up. I found out about Rachel coming to the area and convinced my friend Drew to come out with me. We paid a cover charge, I had to pay to get a picture with her, and the drinks were pretty expensive so we didn’t stay long at all. Rachel looked NOTHING like she does on film. Her face was full of what I assume to be botox, she just didn’t look natural at all. All in all it was a pretty disappointing trip. Next time, I’ll try to meet one of the so called “A-list” celebs I guess.

#16- Ride a train

You know, if not for my time in Texas I would look at this as a pretty stupid thing to have on a bucket list. I grew up less than a mile away from a train station. My friends and I would regularly take the train into Philly. I’ve even taken the train to school on days when I missed the bus. I remember talking about this with some of my friends in when I was in Texas and they all looked at me like I was crazy. I guess in central Texas riding on a train was something that was only seen in movies. I remember one of my, um, acquaintances thought that passenger trains were only a thing overseas. Like the U.S. only had freight trains. Until recently, my most memorable train ride was the one that I wrote about in the second update. Last month I hopped on the train as sort of a spur of the moment kind of thing. When I FINALLY finish writing about my past bucket list experiences I’ll continue with listing my new bucket list accomplishments, the ones that actually make their way into the book.

#18- Get a tattoo

So yes, I am a heathen who on more than one occasion desecrated my body. I currently have three tattoos. but I plan to get more. Let me say that I believe that since it is “permanent” that it should be well thought out and have some long lasting value. My first tat was my version of the Marine Corps devil dog. Oddly enough, the majority of devil dog tattoos I have come across have looked rather passive. Just a bulldog, or bulldog head, and a USMC collar or tattoo. WEAK. I wanted something intimidating so I took the bulldog head and had my tattoo artist put it on a gargoyle body with wings, stars, stripes, muscles, skulls, ‘Murica (sorry, I got a little carried away there), the whole shebang. It’s a little too small so a lot of the detail that went into it gets lost and is hard to see but I love it regardless. Next, I plan to get the Marine Corps Marathon logo on one of my calves.

#20- Run a marathon and finish

I made it a point to run a marathon before I turned 30. I reached out to a bunch of friends and asked them to do the Marine Corps Marathon with me, one agreed, most declined, the rest flaked. The one who agreed (Mike) had already ran the marathon twice before. Mike’s wife Mandy came with and was the cheering photographer for us both. Even though she wasn’t there “for me” I can’t tell you how nice it was to find a familiar face in the crowd and to have them cheer you on. As for the actual race, I slacked on my training, a lot. I wanted a sub 4 hour run and I got a 6 hour run. The next year I signed up again, had a relationship with a girl (Al) who turned out to be a habitual liar and cheater, got super depressed, and as a result trained less than the year before, and somehow ran 1 minute faster. I’m a firm believer in when it comes to running it’s not about the destination it’s about the journey. I will focus more on my journey this next go round (I’m planning to run a marathon at the Delaware Running Festival) and make this third marathon my best one… Wish Me Luck!

#21- Go to a concert of a favorite band

Back in 2005 I went to my very first concert which was the “Live 8 Concert” in Philly. We bought train passes which we didn’t need, no one ever came by to check, the overcrowded train was a party in itself. I met a girl at the train station, we hit it off and she gave me her number as we got off of the train. I remember some guy coming up to me at the station and asking me if I wanted to be a model. To this day I’m still not sure if he was a real agent or not, sounded pretty legit at the time but I was/am too insecure and reserved for something like that. The outdoor concert was PACKED! I’m like 90% sure that we passed by a couple or two having sex in the lawn. But they were handing out condoms like they were going out of style so I’m sure that those couples were being safe. My buddies and I spent half of the concert trying to get to the stage and the other half walking back. I we walked the city a little and then hopped back on the train where I ran into the girl from earlier. She was a sniff of a shot away from being blackout drunk by now and had completely forgot who I was. I never called her. Maybe when I go to check this one off of the list I’ll run into her again.

#24- Play a round of golf

I have played golf a couple of times. Each time I was more focused on drinking and driving the golf cart than I was on actually learning how to play. I blame the group that I was with. We paired off and my partner happened to be the only other guy in the group who wasn’t a regular golf player. Needles to say, we had a great time. Next time I actually plan to keep score and really see how the game is supposed to be play… While drinking in the golf kart, some things just don’t change.

#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

I’ve been in a good handful of plays actually. Which is how I learned that acting is probably not my strong-suit. My fifth grade teacher had my class put on two plays. I was a ghost in Macbeth… Actually, I was two ghosts in Macbeth. Very short parts, I think one had only one line and the other had two. I am definitely more comfortable with public speaking now than I was then so this time around shouldn’t be too bad. But who knows. I should probably look up some play opportunities and see if I can find a small part to play. I really don’t know where to start with this one. I’m going to go ahead and push this one to the bottom of the list.

#44- Skateboard

As a kid, in middle school, I skateboarded. But I was never a “Skateboarder”. I sucked. I’m not sure how else to put it. I could step on the board and make it move, that’s it, no tricks, not a single one. I planned to teach my son how to skateboard but I think I might have to buff up on my skills beforehand.

#45- Learn CPR

It’s a little odd to me that this is actually a thing. I feel like it’s too common to be on this list. I learned CPR in health class in middle school, and in high school. Then I learned it in the Marines, and I have to maintain a current certification for my civilian job so I get a refresher every couple of years. Don’t get me wrong, I have no idea how I would respond in a real life scenario, so I guess maybe I’ll take this as “become confident in the practical application of CPR”.

#53- Sing at a karaoke club

I’ve sang (I actually had to look up whether I should use “sang” or “sung” for this, because I’m a nerd) karaoke at many a bar. But for some reason when I read this the first story that came to mind was a night out in Bensalem (I think it was Bensalem) with Drew (that’s his name and I’m sticking to it), Tim, Ashley, and Ashley’s equally attractive but incredibly ornery sister. We met at the bar, immediately started downing pitchers of mixed drinks, and got our names on the list to sing. I really don’t remember remember how that night ended. I wasn’t blackout drunk, but trust me I do have a good number of those stories as well, It was just a party night in a time when I was doing a lot of back to back partying. I don’t want to mix stories. Anyway, It was great hanging out with them. Actually, next time I think I’ll try to get the same group together, hopefully with a couple additions.

#57- Earn a medal or trophy in a competition

I’m not entirely sure if this counts but I do the occasional race where I earn medals. The last race that I did was the 10 miler that I wrote about in About Me. I’m still not sure how I feel about having that 10 mile medal. I think at last count my I had 15 medals which is a lot for the occasional runner but next to nothing for a real runner. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to cover a wall with my race medals… I know… I’m kind of a nerd.

#59- Do a road trip across the USA

After my parents divorced I went and spent a year in Texas with my mom. My dad and his girlfriend drove my sister and I from Pa to Texas in our sleeper van (I think that’s what those things are called). It really wasn’t a “road trip” in the traditional frat-boy sense. We drove; we ate; we slept; we had car trouble; we fixed the car; we drove some more. That was pretty much it.

#61- Try a martial art

Of course I have done some sort of martial art in the Marines. In fact, I am a Martial Art Instructor. But outside of/prior to the military I gave martial arts a try. Before my family moved into the house that I grew up in we lived in an apartment by a Karate studio. I loved the idea of taking lessons there. But when I went I was bored and ended up skipping more than I attended. I think (from what I remember) that it was a weekly class, and I was there for two months, and only made it to three classes. I kind of wish that I would have stuck with it when I was younger. Now, I am pretty interested in MMA but I would really like to not walk into work and have to explain a black eye. I think I will just use a Groupon or look on MeetUp and try to get my feet wet by taking some classes that way.

#80- Get into a VIP room/lounge

I am currently writing a blog about nights I can’t remember but won’t soon forget. My most memorable VIP experience falls in to that category. Unfortunately this story is one that Future Alphonso is going to have to tell, partially because I need to make a few phone calls to shed some light on the moments that have been blacked out of memory, but mostly because this story is too good to be hidden within a blog. It needs it’s own dedicated post. And believe you me, this story, it’s a doozy. It involves a bachelorette party, barber shop, bible, water park, and a tour bus. Next time, I’m going into my hotel room BEFORE laying down and going to sleep.

#90- Go to a rodeo

I vaguely remember going to Cowtown with my grandfather when I was younger. I don’t remember my dad or my uncles being there, I think it was just Pop, my cousin Eric, and I. Honestly the main thing I remember from that night is that it was COLD. Maybe not really cold, but when you are a kid stuck in a cold seat it’s a little different. I remember coming back and my grandmother commenting on how crazy we were for going out when it was cold. Years later I took my son. We stopped by my grandparents beforehand, my grandfather got excited, and my grandmother mentioned the cold. That night, it was a chilly 60 degrees, and I’m pretty sure that my son only remembers being cold. Next time I’ll check the weather.

#103- Try to find a four leaf clover

One random day when I was younger, say 4th grade, my friend Miles and I decided to go hunting for a four-leaf clover. I really have no idea what prompted this. I remember that we made the mistake of doing it in front of his apartment building where there were LOADS of kids laughing at and making fun of us. By “loads of kids” I mean a little more than 10, but when you are young and there are 10 plus kids pointing at and mocking you it seems a little bit more significant. We pretended to find one and all of the sudden the spectators turned into hunters as well. Miles and I lost interest and went about our business somewhere else. I’m not really sure when I will revisit this and check it off of my list, maybe on a picnic… I should probably add picnic to the list.

#108- Attend a toga party

Right before my first deployment my company randomly decided to throw a toga party. From what I remember there were only a handful of guys who actually dawned the toga. Of course, I was one. Our barracks was a big square surrounding a courtyard so we could party there pretty hard without the outside world seeing us. This party is in the books as another one of the nights I can’t remember but wont soon forget. Next time, less shots / more toga!

#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.

#132- Go camping

An ex of mine and I once went camping with her family. Well, “glamping”. It was in an RV on a campground. I had a lot more fun than I originally thought I would. I even got to go and do some fishing while I was there. It definitely changed my whole opinion on the whole glamping thing. But with that said, I still think that the next time I go I’d prefer to ruff (yes “ruff”, hopefully with a dog) it a little and just take a small tent or hammock and the bare essentials.

#135- Dance on a conga line

This is another one that I’ve done multiple times over. Mostly in weddings. The last time I did it was at the Marine Corps Ball. I’m not sure who started the line, which I guess in a way makes it better. I didn’t even know it was happening. I was in my seat, mid-conversation, when I got a tap on my shoulder followed by my chair being forced out from under me as the last person in line gave me the “come hither” hand gesture. Unfortunately it meant “come conga” not “come and get me”. I grabbed some people to join in as we passed by and then I hopped out before the song ended and it got awkward. Next time, I’ll start the line.

#137- Give blood

Funny story, I actually have a friend who has a red cross tattoo because that’s how much he loves to give blood. Maybe he’ll see this and leave a comment about it (hmm). My story is just that I gave blood in boot camp. I’m not sure how common it is. Maybe it was just the time period when I joined, or maybe the Marines do this regularly. Hell, I don’t even know if the other branches do it. But when I was in boot camp my entire battalion went and gave blood. It’s weird how satisfying being forced to take a needle can be. I should probably make it a point to give blood again soon… So should you.

#148- Inner tube down a lazy river

By now I’ve probably posted the “nights I wont soon forget” blog. One of the stories that came to mind while writing that blog was what my friends and I refer to as “the accidental drunk”. I’m not going to go through the entire weekend here, that’s definitely a story for another day, but I will say that at one point we ended up at a water park floating on a lazy river. Some of us had tubes, some of us were sharing tubes, and some of us got kicked out of the lazy river for not using a proper flotation device. Next time, I hope that I have a weekend half as good as this one… And I hope that I remember twice as much.

#157- Have a summer romance

Hmm. What would you define as a “summer romance”? Are we talking about between school years, during the season, or just a relationship that lasts for only a couple of months? I’ve even had “relationships” that lasted more than just a couple of months that now feel like nothing more than just a “summer romance”. I guess I’ll go with the latter. The summer romance that I had definitely totaled more than just a couple of months, but it was a very off and on relationship. From our first conversation I started to have reservations, but I continued on and hoped for the best. We had some fun, but when it came down to serious topics we could never really see eye to eye.

#163- Visit a castle

I wish that I could remember the name of the castle, when we went it was a “museum”, Glen mills museum I think… No… That’s not right. Anyway, I went on a school trip to the castle. There was only a handful of us. I remember towards the top of the castle there was an observation deck. with the skinniest/flimsiest railing you have ever seen. You just take one false step and bye buddy (might be an exaggeration, I was little, afraid of heights, in my mind it was a cliff on top of a tall house). The kids that I was with ran to the edge when we got up there. I, on the other hand, stood next to the door, clinging to the wall for dear life.

#180- Learn to juggle

I think that I’ve commented before on the fact that I tried to learn something new each time I went overseas. Well, this is where it started. I got a set of juggling balls in a care package during my first tour to Iraq. I taught myself how to juggle by practicing (and getting made fun of for practicing) whenever I got bored after the gym or before heading out for a mission. I plan to cross this one off of the list when I become able to confidently juggle more than three items at a time.

#186- Learn to ice skate

Honestly, this is one of my more boring stories from this list. Sorry. They can’t all involve drunken debauchery. In high school my friends and I randomly decided to go ice skating. I fell, not much really but enough. I also somehow got a girls number that day… First redhead I ever kissed, second worst date I have ever had. I got really excited about “picking up chicks” at Ice Works and kept convincing my friends to go back. I don’t think I ever even talked to another girl at the ice rink let alone “picked one up” after the first one. But, I learned how to skate… kinda. I would really like to take a class so I can learn how to skate backwards and not look like an old lady in a bouncy house out there.

#197- Climb a tree

I was a kid once, I climbed many a tree back in the day. As an adult? So far, only one. An ex girlfriend of mine (Christy) and I climbed a tree together and I don’t know why or how but this is one of the most romantic and intimate memories I have from that relationship. We went for a walk, ended up at her local park, shared a kiss in the gazebo, saw a tree and conquered it. At the top we took a selfie together, you know, back before selfies were a thing. If I recall correctly, we climbed it because she had mentioned that she had never climbed a tree before. Next time? I’m not sure yet, but hopefully it leaves a memory as good as this one.

#206- Solve Rubik’s cube

I learned how to solve one when I was in Afghanistan. II tried to teach myself something on each one of my deployments. My first deployment I learned how to juggle, at some point I plan to move from three objects to four, hopefully soon (look for “BL180”). On the second one, I tried to learn how to play guitar, I failed miserably. Luckily “learn to play an instrument” is in the book (be on the look out for post “BL5”). On this deployment it was the cube. If I remember correctly we got it in a care package. I sat down with it one day, trying to figure it out when my roommate Doc Hagman (Ted) took over. Ted, the corpsman assigned to my section, previously learned how to do it and decided to teach a group of us during out down time. It took a while, but eventually I got it. I practice solving it every once in a while when I get bored. Recently my sister got me a 12 sided Rubik’s megaminx which is what post “BL206” will be about.

#209- Play charades at a party

This is actually an easy one, my mom’s side of the family ends up doing this at our Christmas eve party every year. I remember once I was asked to help with coming up with an answer, when it came up in the game drunk Alphonso opened his mouth and gave it away. Drunk Alphonso doesn’t make the best decisions. Next time I’ll (hopefully) maintain the integrity of the game.

#214- Start a collection of something

I have a couple of small collections going. The one that comes to mind is one that I don’t have displayed in my home. I collect coins. I mean, if I find a “rare coin” I’ll hold on to it but that’s not really the kind of coin I search for. In the military we have challenge coins. I started late, but I’ve made it a point to collect one from every place I go with the military. I wish I had thought of it sooner, I would have so much more. I don’t have the coins from places that I visited prior to starting this collection. I’m not sure how I feel about ordering them online, but I doubt that I’ll be able to physical make it to all of them. I’m on the fence. For now, my “display” is in a stein mug hidden in my TV stand. In the future, I want to take them out of there and show them off. For my next collection? I’m not really sure what I want. Something small and meaningful… We will see.

#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

Yea, I’ve done this one more times than I can count. The first (and second) time I did this was in Pittsburgh during another one of those Nights I Wont Soon Forget. It was one of our many “let’s drink until we can’t feel feelings anymore” night. We had heard of the bar before but none of use had ever been there. We car pooled down, paid our cover charge, walked in, and realized that we were the only people there. We usually go out in a big groups, that night there was almost twenty of us. But still, this bar was huge, and aside from the bartenders, DJs (yes, multiple DJs, it was two bars and a club room all under one roof), and bouncers it was empty. So we made our own fun, had the DJ play whatever craziness popped in our heads, and took turns taking the bull by the horns. Great night. That bar has since closed down so I’ll have to find a different place to go next time, but hopefully I’ll take those guys with me when I go.

#218- Learn survival skills

I wish that I could come up with some amazing “in the Marines they taught me how to blahbitty blahsitty bloopitty blah” story about learning how to survive in tough situations. But to be honest, the majority of survivor skills that I was taught in the Marines are ones that I had previously learned via various survivor TV shows (because I’m a nerd) and later reinforced via survivor TV show marathons (I wasn’t lying about that nerd thing). To check this off of my list I think I’ll look and see if I can find an online class or maybe (hopefully) I can find something more hands on.

#221- Jump on a Pogo stick

Again, I had a childhood. I actually did that whole “laugh and play” thing. I’m pretty sure that I never actually owned a Pogo stick, but I had friends that let me use theirs. As an adult, my son’s cousin had one. I think I used it once or twice and was afraid that I would break the thing. I guess I can do some asking around and see if I can find one, but I don’t think I’m willing to buy a Pogo stick for myself. I have to draw the line somewhere.

#227- Teach a class in any subject

I’ve taught many-a-class in the military. As a Wrecker Operator (see sexy truck) I give at least one vehicle recovery class a year. I remember one year I did the class during our cold weather training. I went up to one of my squad leaders and told him to take the truck down the road a little ways and get it stuck. Wags (the squad leader) damn near flipped the truck on it’s side as he “slowly coasted” it into a ditch. The temperature was five degrees Fahrenheit (‘Murica) at 7, vehicle was mired by 10, a beautiful storm with a wintry mix graced us with it’s presence at noon, the truck was finally recovered at 3… Since then, all of the vehicle recoveries have been conducted in the summer.

#230- Sit in the very front seat of a roller coaster

So there I was, on one of my first dates (4th, 5th, somewhere around there I think) with Christy. We went to Dorney Park (she previously worked there, it was one of her favorite places). I really wanted to impress her so I spent most of the time trying to win her one of those cliche amusement park stuffed animals. I did. During the date we discovered that we both liked roller coasters, I told her that I had never sat in the front seat of one, and she immediately took us to the line of Steel Force (longest coaster on the east coast). It’s a whole new world up front. Somewhere on the ride my stomach flipped and turned and didn’t return to its original state. I spend the entire rest of the date sick to my stomach, on the verge of throwing up, trying to play it off and make her think that I was ok when I really wasn’t. Next time I’ll start with the smaller ones and work my way up.

#237- Live in another country

I’ve been deployed three times. Twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan for 6-ish months each. I think that counts as living in another country. I mean, how long do you have to be there before you can claim that you lived there? And under what circumstances? Next time, hopefully I spend a year abroad after I retire.

#243- Pet a stingray

There is an aquarium not too far from me that allows you to pet the stingrays and some small sharks. I LOVE fish, but I still get a little intimidated every time I go to put my hand in the water with them. I remember My son was begging to go to the aquarium, so one day his mother and I took him… He hated it, like pouting and “when are we going to head back home” kind of hated it. Conveniently, he doesn’t remember this story. But I do… He was miserable. So anyway, there is a petting area, my son wanted no parts but insisted that I touch the stingray, so I did… And then we left. Next time I’ll get a picture with the cranky one himself (who now actually loves the aquarium) as we both touch it.

#247- Join a club

March 2016 through May 2016 I ran a race almost every weekend. Some were 5ks’s, there was a 15k and a 10 miler in there, and then there was the half marathons. I ran two in two weeks in order to qualify for the “half fanatics”. I don’t care how often you run, it is no easy task getting mentally prepared to do distance runs on a consistent basis like that. I am so glad that I did it, as of right now the half fanatic shirt is one of my two favorite running shirts (the other is my RWB shirt, another club I joined in 2016). Next, hopefully I’ll progress in the fanatics and eventually become a “Marathon Maniac”.

Until next time, go check something off of your bucket list, then stop back over here and tell me about it.

P.S. As I said before, when I got the book I didn’t feel right crossing off things that I had already done, so I put them all here. However, since getting the book I’ve checked off a couple of items. I’ve already posted about BL37 and BL183 and there are many more to come. I hope you’ve enjoyed my journey so far… But it’s definitely not over, stay tuned!