This is a scary thing! I am sitting here thinking about what I want to put on this list and suddenly I'm getting nervous and wondering just how I think I'm going to do all of this.

My favorite-est LT Eliot just wrote a really great post about The River Styx and Percy Jackson and discarded dreams and the people who help you realize those dreams.

Here's the paragraph that got me.

"I have the choice now to give life to those dreams that might otherwise swirl in the eddies of lost hopes. I don’t want my final passage hindered by the debris of everything I wished I’d done. I don’t want to see a soggy manuscript coated with oily water—or worse, the strewn images of time with my children & husband littering the surface of death. I want the ferryman to pole me across with a wink, knowing I reduced, reused, and recycled."

As I read I began to wonder just what I was discarding--if anything.

And I decided that I want to make a list of things I want to do before I die. And then I want to hang it somewhere where it can remind me to keep dreaming.

So, here goes.

1-Donate my hair to Locks of Love This is actually fairly do-able right now. I've been growing my hair out and I'm enjoying it long again so I think I'll keep going until I can donate.
2-Write a book--or finish the two I've started--or both.
3-Be a voice--for books on tape or an animated flick.
4-Go back to school and get my Bachelor's Degree.
4-a--While in school take elocution and speech classes (see #3)
4-b--Also take editing classes
5-Make a quilt for every member of my family
6-Visit every continent at least once (although if Antarctica doesn't happen, that won't kill me)
6-a--collect a mask from every continent personally (Again on the Antarctica thing) (I currently am missing only Africa and Australia on my continent list of masks, but they have all been given to me.)
6-a-1--North America--kind of a given
6-a-2--South America--
6-a-3--Europe--
6-a-4--Asia--
6-a-5--Africa--
6-a-6--Australia--
6-a-7--Antarctica--
7-Visit every state in the United States of America
7-a-I have been to, that I remember: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Lousiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming.
7-b-by the end of next month I shall have visited Pennsylvania. I'm going to Philly to see my little sister!!!! I shall also have possibly visited New Jersey as my brother lives right close there. I shall go revel in Amish quilts and possibly see Gettysburg, plus a big surprise that my little sister is not telling. So many possibilities, so little time!
7-c-So that means I have left: Alaska (I intend to do a cruise here) Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin (I have been told that when I was very little I actually did travel to several of the Midwest states, but I don't count them because I do not remember the trip.)
8-Go through a session in every LDS temple in the world. There are currently 130 operating temples, with 16 more in various stages of completion. Thankfully I can combine this goal with the others. . .I'm through 10.
9-Play and sing with a Bluegrass Band again
10-Play with an orchestra
11-Serve an LDS mission with my husband
12-Own my own house--with Faramir of course--and paint the walls some color other than eggshell
13-Run a mile without it killing me
14-Lose another 10 lbs

Such a short list, although I'm thinking I need to re-write it. You see, I left out a lot of the details.

For instance, I want to see France with Novembrance, Japan with Solipsist, Thailand with The L.I.O.N, Switzerland with The Military Man, Argentina with Faramir's mom, Brazil with J and L, England with Fritz. . .the list goes on and on. I want to go to these places with people who love them and can show me the things that they love.

I want to go to Scotland and Ireland and Germany and Italy and while I'm in Italy I want to ride in a gondola and visit The Vatican, and then to Greece and, really I'd probably want to visit every country in the world. I want to see the the other 6 natural wonders of the world--Mount Everest, the Northern Lights, Victoria Falls, the Great Barrier Reef, Paricutin Volcano, and The Harbor--I've seen the Grand Canyon. I want to see the "new" 7 wonders along with all the contenders. So, methinks I shall start a list that is not on the internet and put in all the details so I can mark them off as they happen.

Oh, and just FYI, there's not enough time in my life. . .