100 Things To Do Before I Go

This morning I enjoyed a lovingly prepared breakfast of buttered toast with jam, 3 farm fresh eggs (over easy), a glass of fresh orange juice and a cup of delicious Sumatran coffee.  Zahava gives me the royal treatment far more often than I'm really entitled, but today there just happened to be a reason; It's my birthday. 

Every year during my pre-birthday funk I try to put together a list of 'stuff' about myself to post here on treppenwitz.  These lists tend to be part self-discovery and part exhibitionism.  They also happen to be very therapeutic for getting me out of the above-mentioned funk. 

This year I wanted to do something a bit different.  Instead of only looking backwards towards stuff I've done, I wanted to also look forward... towards things I want to accomplish. 

I've seen variations of the old '100 things to do before I die' list floating around the blogosphere and admit to having been tempted.  But I've never been happy with the 'cookie cutter' aspect of the meme. 

I mean seriously; "Give birth to my own baby" might be a laudable goal... but it might be a bit of a reach for me, wouldn't you agree?  And "Eat junk food for an entire day without feeling guilty" isn't particularly note-worthy in my world.   How about doing that and actually feeling guilty for a change?! 

Also, so many of the things on those pre-made lists seem so passive: 'Go to a rock concert?'... "Be a member of an audience for a TV show"?  "Go to the World Series... or Super Bowl"?    While those may be fun things to do... why not just write a nice catch-all like "Become an anonymous, faceless member of a herd?'"   This is supposed to be a list of individual wants, needs, desires, yearnings... right?  Just checking. 

So, in honor of my 47th trip around the sun, here is a first draft (in no particular order) of my '100 Things To Do Before I Go' (checked items in Bold have already been accomplished... at least partially):

1) Write (commission) a Sefer Torah

2)  Swim with dolphins

3)  Swim with sharks

4) Skydive

5) Have my portrait painted [the following is actually a photo I had taken for my parents that the studio painted over for effect.  Remember, this was before the days of photoshop.  [Note: The small ribbon on my uniform was mis-colored by the painter because he couldn't clearly see the unit citation (Battle 'E') I was actually wearing at the time as it is similar in color to the uniform.]:

                [click to embiggen]

6) Learn to speak a foreign language

7) Go skinny-dipping at midnight in the South of France (OK, it was Maui at 3AM, sue me!).

8) Save someone's life.

9) Learn to swim perfect laps in a pool (I can sidestroke and breast stroke for miles in the ocean, but I never learned that smooth, perfect crawl I see the fit old men and women doing at the local pool).

10) Have a piece published in the 'Lives' section of the NY Times magazine or in 'The New Yorker'.

11) Drive the old Route 66 all the way from Chicago to LA.

12) Own (us, not the bank!) our home

13) Make my own wine

14) Work on an archaeological dig

15) Become an amateur beekeeper and have my kids help me with the hives

16) Drive the Merrit Parkway (Connecticut) during the Fall Foliage season

17) Visit Venice with someone who understands and appreciates art (my wife)

18) Learn to sail competently

19) Fly an 'Ultralight' plane and/or glider

20)  Try to live my life so that I actually overhear someone referring to me as a 'Renaissance Man'

21)  Be written up in Forbes or the Wall Street Journal (OK, it was Globes, but still!)

22)  Spot a complete stranger reading treppenwitz in an Internet coffee bar... and not say a word

23) Send a message in a bottle

24) Ride a camel into the desert

25) Take an African Safari and climb Mt. Kilimanjaro at sunrise

26) Plant a lemon tree and serve guests in our home icy cold Limoncello made from the fruit

27) Learn not to say 'yes' when what I really mean is 'no'

28) Write a fan letter to my all-time favorite hero (sadly, it arrived after he had passed away)

29) Buy a ridiculously expensive (but fantastically comfortable) bed

30) Learn to wear a sun-hat without feeling self-conscious

31) Learn to cook and bake so that people seek out dinner invitations

32) Build a real Scandinavian sauna and share it often with friends and family

33) Fall deeply in love — helplessly and unconditionally

34) Take an overnight train trip and sleep in a Pullman (or the European equivalent thereof)

35) Visit all 50 US States (I'm only missing Alaska)

36) Write that novel

37) Frame and hang all those wonderful old family photographs

38)  Be well known enough (for good reasons) to have a legitimate Wikipedia page written about me

39) Drink beer at Oktoberfest in Munich (It was August in Heidelberg, does that count?)

40) Be someone’s mentor

41) Shower in a waterfall (Photo taken in southern Luzon the Philippines)

                [click to embiggen]

42) Become so close with my children that they'd want me to come along on their post army trips abroad (not that I would)

43) Cycle around the island of Oahu on a perfect summer day (this was taken near Hanauma Bay.  I'm the guy on the right)

                          [click to embiggen]

44) Make my own Root Beer

45) Cycle through Holland with my family

46) Hike the length and breadth of Israel with my family

47) Cycle the length and breadth of Israel with my family

48) Have a lap pool in my back yard (you know, the small single lane ones where the water moves and you swim in place)

49) Keep the list of countries I've visited larger than the number of trips I've made around the sun

50) Tell the people in my life I love them as often as possible

51) Experience weightlessness

52) Give bone marrow, a kidney or a liver lobe

53) Fly in a helicopter

54) Camp across America from coast to coast (twice!)

55) Institute a weekly movie night with my family to share the classics (and not-so-classics)

56) Have 'The Talk' with each of our kids in such a way that they will try to remember it verbatim when they have kids of their own

57) Write my/our will (one nagging detail keeps us from doing this!  Very bad!!!)

58) Sleep alone under the stars

59) Build and fly a radio controlled glider with my kids

60) Learn to play a musical instrument well

61) Book a conference room with a big round table at the Algonquin Hotel, invite the smartest and most interesting people I know to share ideas over excellent food and drink.  Make it a recurring event.

62) Make (and enjoy) homemade ice cream with the kids

63) Scuba Dive in exotic locations (Hawaii, Maldives, Philippines, Australia, Thailand, etc.)

64)  Get intentionally locked inside a high-end bookstore (the kind with overstuffed chairs & couches) overnight with a backpack full of gourmet picnic food/drink.

65) Learn to accept compliments without blushing

66) Learn to accept criticisms without blushing

67) Take a carpentry/cabinet making course

68) Own and use fine woodworking tools

69) Raft through the Grand Canyon and hike from both the northern and southern rims to the canyon floor

70) Learn how to blow glass and how to work with gold/silver

71) Live in such a way that smart and influential people seek out my opinion... but be wise enough not to feel the need to offer it

72) Grow a well-planned vegetable garden

73) Get into optimum shape

74) Drive a convertible with the top down and music blaring

75) Accept myself for who I am

76) Figure out what I want to be when I grow up

77) Spend a night reading a good book in a tent during a wild rainstorm with lightning flashing overhead

78) Go up in a hot-air balloon

79) Spend a night in a Scandinavian Ice Hotel

80)  Become adept at river sculling and/or ocean rowing

81) Become a compulsive 'Thank You' note writer.

82) Give to a charity — anonymously

83)  Rent a large sailboat and sail the Greek islands with two or three other couples for a week or two

84) Show off my family at places where I experienced the greatest feelings of self doubt in my youth to prove to the ghost of my younger self how well I've lived my life

85) Throw casual dinner parties (stews) for friends at least once every couple of months

86) Learn to play electric Bass competently (I'm learning... but am not far enough along to check this one off the list)

87) Learn to quilt

88) Go fishing and eat the catch before the day is out

89) Let my children overhear me complimenting them to others (Note to self: Do this often!)

90) Convert our home entirely to Solar power (electricity & heat)

91) Take a cruise (heh, does 4 years in the 'Big Gray Canoe Club' count?)

92) Be granted hereditary arms by the College of Arms (I technically qualify due to a branch of the family tree that left the UK in the 19th century)

93) Create my Family Tree

94) Take batting practice in Fenway Park, put one over the 'Green Monster'... and casually trot the bases.

95) Listen to Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture while sitting in Fingal's Cave off the coast of Scotland

96) Ski a Blue Square run on Telemark Skis

97) Retire to the Golan or northern Galilee with enough land to keep a few domestic animals (cows, chickens, sheep, etc.) and raise a few small crops

98) Climb a mountain in a winter blizzard and camp near its snowy summit (bonus points for setting up the spare ten at 2:00AM when the first one gets ripped apart by high winds and driving snow)

99) Hike at least part of the Appalachian Trail

100) Really finish all the things on this list (and then some) before I go

[Here is a collection of lists from previous years for any newcomers to the party.]

Inspired by: Mighty Girl