Bucket List

In one of the many awkward exchanges I've had this year with a person I hardly know, a guy read me several items off his "bucket list." He had an actual physical list, several pages long (I would guess about 15-20. Not exaggerating.) He insisted on reading part of it to me, for whatever reason. Just part of it, not the whole thing. It was weird. When I tried to grab it and read it myself he flipped out and snatched it away from me. I never really understood why the contents of his list were so special that only his eyes could see them. I tried to explain to him that I wouldn't judge him for whatever crazy things he wanted to do (a lie, naturally), but he was very stubborn. What's funny is the parts of the list he chose to tell me were stupid and cliche. From what I can remember, these are the things he told me: One: drive across the country by himself. Two: On this trip, see how fast his car can go. Three: also on this trip: Camp in the desert and do long lasting hallucinogenic drugs. After that, I think my whiskey kicked in and I was no longer interested. However, I do remember him telling me that I needed to make a bucket list.

In case anyone was curious, this guy turned out to be a total and complete jack ass. But he's right, I think. On the day I die, I'm positive I'm going to be happy anyway because that's just my nature. That being said, I want to be able to know that I truly lived life to my satisfaction. So here goes, in no particular order, the beginnings of my bucket list. It's not by any means the most exciting list of activities, but then again I'm not the most adventurous person alive.

* denotes the ones I want photographed

1. Meet a real life Elvis Impersonator.*
2. Eat a crumpet in the English countryside.*
3. Stand in every state in the US.* (not simultaneously, obviously) (and I've already been in most of the states anyway, so yay!)
4. Visit the home town of each of my grandparents.*
5. Go to the Eastern/Western-most points of the country and watch the sunrise/set.*
6. Go to Dollywood.* (Don't judge me, I've never been and I want to go.)
7. Goto Graceland.* (Again, no judgement.)
8. Go on a road trip with my friends. (A trip to grandmama's house does not count. It has to be more than one friend and it has to be somewhere far away.)
9. Eat escargot.*
10. Ride a camel/elephant.*
11. Bungee jump (this one I'm very afraid of. I have to do it at least once! I realize it's something that's on everyone's bucket list, that doesn't change my mind.)
12. Pet a tiger.*
13. Successfully learn some useful phrases in a language other than English. (To some this may seem easy, and to those people I say bite me. Foreign Languages were never my "forte." Who was the girl that  counted in spanish without realizing it on her first day of French V? Libby Genz.)
14. Knit something. (It doesn't have to be good. It just has to be something. Something that I can hold on to and say, "That's right, bitch. I knit this.")
15. Drive by every residence in which I've ever lived.*
16. Go back to Village Deli and eat a giant chocolate chip pancake.*
17. Actually fill an entire diary. (I've never been able to do that. For some reason the starting of the diary is always more fun than writing in it every single day.)
18. Get a tattoo. (something meaningful in a discreet location. Not "God's Gift, Daddy's Angel" on my lower back, or a mickey mouse face on my boob, or the name of my crazy redneck boyfriend-at-the-time.)
19. Learn to play at least one Elvis song on either the piano or guitar. (Good luck to the person who attempts to teach me this in the future. I have no rhythm and no patience.)
(SIDE NOTE: gotta love how about 15% of the things on my list some how relate to Elvis. Damn, I'm cool.)
20. Kiss a wonderful man at the top of Tri-State Peak. (he has to be wonderful. It can't just be some stranger. Besides, any stranger you pick up in the Cumberland Gap is probably not a good catch.)
21. Tell every person I love that I love them.


That's all for now. I'm quite sleepy. I'm determined to not spend tomorrow as I've spent every other day on break (waking up at noon to eat breakfast and then falling back asleep until dinner), so hopefully I'll come up with something lively to do. I very much miss the comfort of my apartment in Nashville, where there aren't small children waking up at 6am to get on a big loud school bus, and my parents aren't around to ask how the tub of frosting found its' way onto my night stand. ("It walked in with a can of pringles, was I supposed to tell it to go away?")