This was prompted by an article in Men's Journal (yes, I subscribe to that, Car and Driver, Oprah, Newsweek and Entertainment Weekly - wanna make something of it????) I think I've had these lists at various times, but due to the wonder of the web now I can update it whenever I think of anything. I put a couple on there that I've done (with + in front), but I'm sure there are others I've done that I've forgotten. See extended
-Learn to fly an airplane
-Jump out of an airplane
-Walk on the Great Wall of China
-Visit every continent
-Figure out if the drunken spins happen in the other direction in the other hemisphere
+Do a marathon
+Drive my car on a track
+Travel to Europe
-Write a book and get it published
-Get married
-Learn to speak Italian and use it to pick up on a guy
-Be on a tv show (not the news)
-Learn to ballroom dance
-Drink beer at Oktoberfest in Germany
-Visit Thailand
-Visit Rio during Carnival
-Learn to play the piano
-Visit all 50 states
-Visit Graceland
-Hike Half Dome
-See Stonehenge
-Visit Machu Picchu
-Read War and Peace
-Go to Burning Man
-See a major league game of every major sport (+football, +baseball, +hockey, -basketball, -soccer, -Nascar racing)
-Visit New York City
-Fly in a Lear jet
-Meet Dave Matthews
-See a taping of the Oprah show
-Make my own wine
I have a new resolution - to try to wear a dress or skirt to work at least once per week. So far I've kept it for 2 weeks. We'll see how it goes. But it seemed a shame to let all those clothes in my "good clothes" closet go to waste without seeing the light of day.
Don't you love holidays that you have no idea what they are about, but they involve drinking? Yes, I have reached that fateful point in the evening, the "I love you, man" stage of the evening. I think I had as close to the perfect evening as I could have had tonight. Perfection would have also involved sex, but the evening was pretty damned good...
I had dinner with friends who made me laugh so hard my stomach hurt, and I ended up with hiccups so loud that I made one of the girls go into the coffee shop to get me sugar to make the hiccups go away (which worked, by the way). We talked food, alcohol, travel, art, music and possible future vacation plans for my friend's 40th birthday bash (8 day cruise to Mexico) over great Mexican food. Then we went and had gelato. Mmmmmm. Then we went to the bookstore where I spent insane amounts of money on hardbound books that I bet I won't get around to reading in the next 3 months - but even if I don't, I really enjoyed the bookstore high. On this historic 05/05/05, I just wanted to say that I'm blessed with many wonderful friends, and that the next time I'm feeling sorry for myself, either point me back to this post, or slap me upside the head, or both.
Howdy folks. I was in Chicago for a long weekend (Thursday through Sunday) last weekend. That was AWESOME. Had a great time. See extended.
I've uploaded some pictures. But I wanted to capture some impressions while they are still (relatively) fresh. Susan and I met one of her daughters (who's living in Michigan and drove down) and her daughter's friend for part of the time.
-I'm all full of ideas and connections - my favorite part about travel is how it both allows you to both look outside yourself to a wider world beyond your doorstep, but also to connect with ideas inside yourself.
-Chicago is windy. And cold (so cold it snowed on the Saturday we were there). But really awesome. We barely scratched the surface, so there's more to look forward to seeing if I want to go back.
-Some of the Chicago cabbies are insane and very aggressive - they practically stalked us. Ugh.
-I need to take art history courses. I know more than I had credited myself with knowing (i.e. knowing the artists before I saw the information card).
-The city has amazing architecture, use of public space (parks), and public art. I took lots of photos, but again barely scratched the surface.
-We got to stay in an amazing hotel - the Chicago Hilton - we had a lakeside room so the view was cool.
-We intended to take a Chicago Architecture Federation (?) tour, but the bus tour was sold out, and we knew it was supposed to snow on Saturday, so we took another bus tour - which was a good idea since it was cold.
-If you have the opportunity, use the CityPass - less lines, great mix of museums.
-Art Institute - is huge with lots of famous stuff, learned I like Chagall. I think we missed a whole wing with all the American artists, so I'd go back there again on another trip.
-Body Worlds - an exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. The exhibit shows the human body is amazing, and icky. They use a process called plastination to show the ways the body works.
-Crowds are annoying, and people read slow, and I hate people in my space. I was glad to be done with the exhibit so that I could have my own space.