Friday, November 19, 2010

The Bucket List

It’s Friday night again…it was 8:08 when I sat down and decided to watch a movie. How the Grinch stole Christmas was on, but it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, so I couldn’t watch that. Then I turned to TNT, The Bucket List! Oh, yeah I have always wanted to watch that movie! So I cuddled up in my blanket…AND LAUGHED!!! This movie made me laugh out loud that it hurt in my chest…augh, cancer. Jack Nickelson and Morgan Freeman are two old guys that find out they have cancer and end up becoming friends in the hospital room they share. Jack is a grumpy, rich man and Morgan is a hard working, middle class man. I just have to quote some of these funny lines! Like when Jack got rolled into the hospital he said, ‘And I want to talk to Dr. Frankenstein about that Bleomycin shit. I hear it eats your lungs.’ Totally relate to that! And when the doctor tells him he has to have chemo in the morning he says soothingly, ‘Oh, the smell of chemo in the morning.’ :) You have to hear the sarcasm from them. Great duo. Then, when Jack is done puking from chemo, he says, ‘Some lucky guy right now is having a heart attack.’ Took the words out of my mouth!

But what I really liked was the idea of making a Bucket list. You know, write down the things you want to do before you kick the bucket. Life isn’t about living a metaphor, it’s about the actual LIVING part. Morgan said in the movie that he always wanted to go back to school to be a history teacher, but 45 years goes by fast. I don’t want to be that person 45 years down the road saying, oh I should have…So here it is. This is my current Bucket List…beware, I dream big...and a lot.:)

See New York City at Christmas…especially Rockefeller Center and the ‘Big Tree’
Scuba dive in a coral reef and surf on my 5 Year anniversary in Hawaii
Volunteer my time to something I would never do.
Take a hot air balloon ride…I came so close this fall!
Run a marathon…I want to have a number on my shirt. And run like I know these lungs can.
Take a cruise to Alaska…mainly to see the whales.
Own a boat…two down, a few upgrades to go yet.
Have at least 20 more sister nights where we laugh ‘til we cry.
Watch a Vegas show in person…nothing dirty. Just to be in total awe of it.
Frame my own art work. My parents did it in high school, but I want to try again.
Have a walk in closet…my fashion life would be easier.
Take a missions trip to Africa…and definitely do a safari.
Make out in public…to be caught totally off guard by my husband in front of a hundred people if I want to get real picky.
Take my loved ones to the Virgin Islands…its close to Heaven.
Own just one pair of Jimmy Choo shoes…I want the red bottoms.
Give something away that I totally love…to learn it’s not all about possessions in life (bye-bye jimmy shoes)
Go skinny dipping...
Go to an Oprah show, even if I’m in the back row…I’ve tried but I think it’s impossible to get tickets.
Save someone’s life...wow.
Take my parents to see Billings, Montana where they used to live…I want to see them smile.
Ride in a limo with the sunroof open…you know what comes next. :)
Direct a Children’s Christmas Play…those were some of the best times.
Talk to a homeless person…oh the lesson’s I would learn.
See baby sea turtles hatch…it happens in South Carolina near my aunt’s house.
Do some serious fine dining…like risotto, 5 star, black dress/black tie dining.

Go on a Youth Trip as a chaperon to see what we put them though.
Have true friendships…the ups, the downs, the forgiveness, and the laughs.
Write a book…
Experience labor…I’d go through it a hundred times just to have my own child.

When I’m old, have a big family that sits around a table, with a dinner that I cooked, and eats together. I want to be a grandma too.
Read the entire NIV Bible…yes, even the boring books.
Sing a song for an audience…that perfect song made just for me.
Give my children every opportunity I had as a child…and know the meaning of work.
Go to Europe…and see it all.
Make a difference…somehow.
Die in my sleep…because I don’t like pain.

Some of this won’t happen, I know. Oprah herself would have to call my work to let me come to her show because I’m out of personal and sick days :) But seriously, I’m glad I at least have some things in life to dream about. I’ve done some amazing things already with this 26 years of life…swimming with dolphins, graduating from college with my last name on the diploma, landing my dream job two weeks after I graduated, experiencing crazy true love and marrying the cutest guy in town :), and soon to be a cancer survivor. And if I can fulfill at least some of this stuff on my bucket list before I see Jesus, I am one very lucky girl. I want to make sure I had joy in my life and was a joy to someone else’s life before I kick the bucket. Like the movie says, Today I lived to die another day. I just want to make sure I’m LIVING in the process.

3 comments:

  1. Ok, so I too would love to see a Vegas show (like Cirque de Soleil)or something. I'm not sure if I spelled that right! lol. And, I would love to frame my own artwork. There is a guy in Lima that teaches classes on oil painting, and I told Ryan that I would like to do it this summer, so maybe we could do it together!

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  2. I love the list Laura! Everyone should have a bucket list, life is too short to go 45 years and be disappointed.

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  3. You can cross off make a difference...somehow and write a book. These blogs and awesome pictures have made a differnce in alot of peoples life. Someday print off all these blogs. What a great book! Love and Prayers, Kelly

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