Things I Have Done ...

OK, I know I just said I didn't feel like blogging, but this doesn't feel like a blog, it feels like fun! I found this meme at MauiGirl's Meanderings.

Try it while you're laying there on that couch, after having consumed more food than is possible to fit in a human stomach, and debating whether to watch more football or try to swallow one last sliver of pumpkin pie.

To participate, just copy and paste the list in your own blog, and color all of the things YOU have done (mine are in red, but you can use any color you want). Things you haven't done will be in black. Happy discoveries!

I HAVE...
1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched lightning at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Ridden an elephant

Wow! only 52 out of 100 -- so many things still to do, though I don't really want to be transported in an ambulance (#46), or kill & dress an animal (#87). I'm sure singing in the shower wouldn't count for #10, nor would those old family home movies count for #55 (though I did give the royal wave in many of them, to my imaginary fans, huzzah). I decided, based on absolutely nothing, that if you can't say you've done at least 50, you need to get out a lot more.

Re: #36, I didn't answer "I have" because I took spanish in high school ... but isn't it really your own effort that actually teaches your brain another language? It's not like a teacher can just force-feed it into your brain! Still, the way it was worded, I couldn't answer "I have". I think most of the things I have NOT done reflect a lack of wordly travel (which I hope to remedy someday) and/or chickenness (which may have no cure, brroccckkukuk).

If you like David Sedaris, be sure to see/hear the sad romance of The Squirrel and The Chipmunk (posted below) .

Mememememe!

Another Meme Tag ... this time by the unsinkable Utah Savage! Never fear, I will get her for this, sometime somewhere when she least expects it. In the meantime, it's a pretty good way to pass the hours until the OR & KY primaries tomorrow.

1. What was I doing ten years ago? In 1998, I was ... Working long hours, many weekends in my construction-related biz. Not paying enough attention to myself. Spending too much time stuck in gridlock, swearing at people who persisted in pissing me off (hint: everyone ahead of me on the road). On Sundays, hub & I tended our organic avocado grove (this was therapeutic, certainly not a profit-earning venture). Thinking all the "interesting" times were in the past (boy, was I wrong)!

2. Five things on today's To-Do List. I no longer do to-do lists. Here are five "highlights" of what I did today: First, I woke up (hey, don't knock it; someday I won't wake up). Second, I closed all the windows so the house would stay cool for as long as possible since temps were expected to hit 105 today. Third, I met with an architect to review my latest home design (more about that some other time). Fourth, I returned a Library book, Homo Politicus by Dana Milbank (a good read). Fifth, I noticed the temps were 108-degrees, time to go home & clip the dog's nails as well as my own -- actually my car said the temp was 118, but it is always 10-degrees off.

3. Things I'd do if I were a Billionaire. Now I must assume, by the way this is worded, that my "billionaire" status is an ongoing thing, not a recent lottery jackpot, nouveau-riche thing. Well, I'd spend plenty of time managing my billionaire foundation set up to do good works all over the world. I would concentrate on what would help make things better TODAY, not years/decades from now. I want immediate results for my money!

I would have self-sustaining homes, using off-the-grid technology, in places like France, Australia, Switzerland, Hawaii and Antigua. When I was not "in residence", these homes would be available for local university students to study what "self-sustaining" means.

I'd reserve exclusive luxury space on the first commercially available round-trip to the moon. If I liked the trip, I'd buy property on Mars and set up a Biosphere Colony.

I might finally get my anthropology/paleontology degree; then as global warming melts Antarctica, I'd fund & participate in an archeology project to hunt for evidence of pre-ice age man down there. I have a theory that we've been through all this before.

I would sponsor a yearly gathering of the Blogger Tribes, all expenses paid for a fun-filled lost weekend somewhere. Is Ted Turner's Montana Wildlife Preserve/Ranch for sale? We could have a Blogger Retreat there! No hunters allowed.

Finally, I'd pay someone to exercise my body for me while I consume spaghetti and haagen-daz and meditate on the cosmic zipper. I'm sure enough money would make this feasible. I hate to exercise!

4. Three bad habits? A) I am too detailed -- no detail is too small for my small brain to latch on to. B) I am too linear -- if things don't follow my own contrived sequence, I try to force them, often with disasterous results. C) I relate everything to myself -- it can't be all about me (can it?)!

5. Five places I have lived:
San Diego (sun, surf, avocados, what's not to like?)
Spokane WA (holy shit, 52" of snow & white supremecists hiding in the hills)
Hollywood CA (briefly in the 60's, my first non-desert experience)
Palm Springs CA (I liked it; husband hated it)
Las Vegas NV (in the 1950's-60's, not the same las Vegas as today; read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson, for the truth about my final year there, searching for the American Dream)

6. Five Jobs I've held: (I think these are all the same job, really)
Self-Employed, small biz, 25+yrs in construction.
CFO for an Exporter of Comm Equip in the pre-cell phone era (don't ask me too much about Central America).
Accountant (this is my "skill", such as it is).
Waitress (I lasted 2 weeks; quit when I couldn't force myself to be pleasant any longer; I'm sure I would've been fired soon).
Babysitting (don't laugh; this paid for all my clothes & entertainment during Jr High/High School; little kids loved "the redhead with the metal mouth").

Finally, I am supposed to tag five unsuspecting bloggers with this meme. OK, here they are, but I will be surprised if any of them do it:
1. Dada's Dally
2. Grubstreet Journal
3. Enigma Watergate Summer
4. EProf2
5. whoever the hell else reads this and wants to play!

Answer the same questions on your own blog and let the meme grow... or not, it's up to you. I had fun with it and wonder if you really learned anything you did not know.