Bucket List Tag

Hello, Bloglings.

I have been tagged by Ashley at A to Z for the now-circulating bucket list tag.  I generally don't write posts every time I'm tagged, but considering the fact that I've never actually written down a bucket list, I thought this would definitely be an interesting exercise.

Uh, so the rules are either vague or nonexistent, so I guess there's no particular length of list.  I've always been terrible at making lists and schedules and such things.  I'm a terrible planner.  Hopefully I don't crash and burn spectacularly.

I shall call this list . . .

Twenty-Five Things to Do in My Lifetime

1. Write a murder mystery series

At least I've started that.  Christmas at the Tittletons, anyone?  (OK, that was shameless advertising.)

2.  Win a big writing contest

Yes.  That would be neat.  I am, of course, referring to the writing contests such as the playwright contest hosted by Yale or one of the more famous short story writing contests.

3.  Live for at least a year in a foreign country

I've read so many books set in other places, so it would be swell to actually live in one of those places. cough*Germany*cough

4.  Learn to speak fluent German

I'm working on that now.  I only need to find people who can actually speak it with me.

5.  Bake my way through the entire Bread Baker's Apprentice book.

Are you familiar with this amazing book?  I want to start at the beginning and go straight through it someday.  (Sometimes I like to just sit there and flip through the pages looking at the pictures because they all look so delectable.)

6.  Sing in a production of Handel's Messiah.

This is actually happening this December!  I've wanted to do this ever since my Dad took me and my brother to see this production at the Hill Auditorium.

7.  Teach a Sunday School class

I don't know how much of a teacher I'd make, but I would love to permanently teach a Sunday School class.  (Fifth grade sounds appealing, somehow.)

8.  Visit historical sites on the East Coast (i.e. Boston, New York City, Ft. McHenry, Plymouth, Jamestown, War for Independence battlefields)

I've been out West a couple of times, but I've never really gotten a chance to see all the sites that played a part in our nation's earlier history.

9.  Work with ESL students

I've already gotten to do this, but I want to continue.  It's both fun and rewarding to help people learn English, and I can definitely sympathize with them since I have so much trouble grasping other languages myself.  People who learn to be bilingual or trilingual have my utmost repsect.

10.  Furnish and fill my own personal library

You knew that one was coming, right?  There's no way I'm not putting THIS on my list of things that I want to do before I "kick the bucket."

Yes, yes, the winding staircase will do nicely.

11.  Learn to read music

Shockingly, I can only play the piano and sing by ear.  I could tell you the names of the notes in any random piece of music, but I can't truly read it.

12.  Spend Christmas in Germany

Preferably with my family . . . (CBCs are family.)

13.  Actually learn how to pronounce those words that I know but have never heard spoken

All fellow readers will understand my plight.

14.  Meet a famous author

Being friends or cousins with a future famous author also counts, right?

15.  Go whitewater rafting on the Snake River in Wyoming

I've never felt the urge to go skydiving.  This is probably as dangerous and outdoorsy as I'm going to get.

16.  Watch the LOTR extended editions

I've read the books, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and even some of the Middle Earth histories, but I've yet to become a true Middle Earth nerd by seeing these versions of the movie.  At least I know all the names of the Dwarves in the company right off the top of my head, right, Kiri?

17.  Read to my children every night before they go to bed

This, of course, is on the condition that I actually have children.  If I don't, I may have to find someone else's children to read to.  That's not odd at all.

18.  See a play that I've written performed on stage

It would be neat.  It just would.

19.  Go on a mission trip to help a foreign missionary family

I have no idea where or when, but wouldn't that be wonderful?

20.  See the Northern Lights

These have always fascinated me.

21.  Visit the Hofbräuhaus

Such history!  I must see it someday.

22.  Set up elaborate (yet still classy) Christmas decorations in my front yard

I love looking at those houses that are decorated with only garland and white lights.  It would be neat to do that some year.

23.  Ride the Orient Express

Yes, I am a murder mystery buff, in case you didn't get it from the first item on my list.

24.  Get a driver's license

With the driving problems I've had in the past, this would be nothing short of a miracle.

25.  Be that person who does random acts of kindness

Somebody's got to do it, right?

Thank you all for reading my life plans.  Now if only I can stick to the list.

I'm not going to tag anyone, because I've noticed that so many of these are going up that probably anybody I tagged would already have been tagged before.  If you haven't yet been tagged yet, though, please feel free to do this tag.

Thanks for reading, and God bless,

Kathryn