Life Meme

I've seen quite a few of these.

Life's to do list - Completed items are in bold

[My addition: – I put almost/sorta completed items in italics. Caveats added.]

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink – I don’t think I could ever be drunk enough to overcome my essential cheapness
02. Swam with wild dolphins – I’d love to. I think.
03. Climbed a mountain – hiked, really
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive – blah. Couldn’t care less about cars. I’d love to take one of those super-fast trains, though.
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid – maybe someday.
06. Held a tarantula – NEVER.
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone – how about a hot tub, sans candles?
08. Said 'I love you' and meant it - every day since about my third date with my husband.
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped – no, but I repelled down a repelling tower, which I was forced to do in sixth grade camp and hated every second of.
11. Visited Paris – but all I got was a stupid bus tour and a trip to Euro-Disney, of all places for an American in Paris to go. Long story.
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea - er, from the beach, and only on Lake Michigan. But it’s a really big lake.
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise – God, more times than I can count, in college, and a few times since…
14. Seen the Northern Lights – while on a sleigh ride, no less, in Norway, with hot chocolate afterwards. And wearing a wooly sweater, naturally.
15. Gone to a huge sports game – many, many times, but never once I passed the age of consent. Wait, does it count as "huge" if it's just the White Sox? (before they finally got to the Series, that is...long before.)
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa – no, but I’ve been to the top of the Sears Tower, John Hancock, Empire State, and that thingy in Seattle
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables – I wish.
18. Touched an iceberg – does a glacier count?
19. Slept under the stars – Also slept under rain clouds, and got rained on.
20. Changed a baby's diaper – I have a lot of cousins.
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne – have you ever had Crimean champagne?
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight - and they say my college isn't a party school.
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen an eclipse – while an acquaintance jumped up on a table and shouted bible verses, no less.
34. Ridden a roller coaster – the best is the kind where the track is over your head, but also below you until you get to the top of the first hill, when that one suddenly disappears. Oh yeah.
35. Hit a home run – I think I’m pretty good for having once or twice made contact between bat and ball
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking – but, naturally, I was very drunk at the time
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day – I attempt to adopt an accent whenever I speak Russian, which has been for months at a time. I’m not sure I’ve ever fully succeeded with the Russian accent, but as long as I don’t sound remotely American, I’m happy.
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment – I actually feel this way much of the time, lately. Unless someone says the word, “dissertation.”
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 10 provinces or all 50 states – not even close. What a sad thought. I’ve been around most of the edge-states on the continental US, and of course my own midwestern state and the few that neighbor it. But that’s, like, half.
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country – again, not willingly
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland – not yet, but I will.
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them – yes, but I never willingly talked to a stranger in a restaurant – that’s going too far.
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your cds
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke - in Russian, no less. It’s better that way.
59. Lounged around in bed all day – it’s too embarrassing to admit how often.
60. Posed nude in front of strangers – no, but I once walked up and down Michigan Avenue in Chicago dressed in a clown suit, for an hour.
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business – it certainly didn’t yield any profit, but in college I helped found one of the first zines on the internet.
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for 6 hours straight – never played it at all or been tempted, but how many hours do I spend reading blogs???!
72. Gotten married – did it up right, too.
73. Been in a movie – sort of – I was an extra, and my shot got cut! For the record, it was that critic’s darling, Chain Reaction, with Keanu Reeves.
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced – God forbid.
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch. It's one of the few things I can be trusted to do in the kitchen. You can learn to do anything if you want the results bad enough.
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice – came very close. We were there, we wanted to, but we’d run out of money…
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake Dead River
82. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
83. Got flowers for no reason – I don’t mean to brag, but it happens regularly.
84. Performed on stage – High school band, baby.
85. Been to Las Vegas – I won $15 on nickel slots before I lost it again.
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Had a one-night stand
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship – I was on a ship sorta like that from Goteborg, Sweden to Hamburg, and another from England to Norway. One was overnight.
94. Spoken more than one language fluently – but only “fluently” when drunk.
95. Performed in aisles at Rocky Horror – no, but I sang along to the Sing-a-Long Sound of Music at the Waverly in New York
96. Raised children.
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour – only about two or three stops, tho. It was They Might Be Giants, in the mid-90s.
98. Created and named your own constellation of stars
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge – I walked on it, and crossed it in a car, but didn’t ever walk the whole thing, if I remember correctly.
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an illness that you shouldn't have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication – if knitty.com counts! Also for a small book collection which didn’t ever get published because the publishing company folded. How about the college newspaper?
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone's heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show – I tried out for Jeopardy once, but didn’t make it – two of the categories in the test were sports, and opera. Sheesh.
113. Broken a bone – only if you count my little toe
114. Gone on an African photo safari – hopefully will someday.
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced – one below, three above. I was sober for all of them.
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild – picked them, too.
118. Ridden a horse – was scared to death the whole time.
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon – no, but I was at the rim
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi – regularly. I live in New York, it’s required.
128. Had your picture in the newspaper I was a National Merit Scholar, whoop-de-doo.
129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school – does it count if you never really left, you just took a year off to learn Russian in Russia?
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach – that’s disgusting.
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes – they’re yummy, if done right.
134. Read The Iliad
135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions – so far, so good!
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146: Dyed your hair – shades range from light auburn to plum to black-blue
147: Been a DJ
148: Shaved your head
149: Caused a car accident – I couldn't see. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
150: Saved someone's life