I feel like in the past month, I've had at least 5 people talk to me about, or show me, their bucket lists. And I started thinking "Do I have a bucket list?" I think I have one going through my head, but I can't keep up with it. I mean, you read this blog. Do you have issues keeping up with what's going on in my head? ME TOO! But I'll do something or see something and think "Oh that's one off the bucket list" or "I need to add that to the list." I really need to make an official list so that I can stop lying to myself about putting things on it, when I'll just forget them in five minutes anyways.
Also, I think I need to stop putting so much pressure on my bucket list. You know? Having tea with Princess Catherine is not very realistic, but having dinner with Shamu? That's a little more realistic. And considerably cheaper, probably. (You know you CAN really have dinner with Shamu! They let you do that!)
So here is some advice from me. To you. Words of wisdom. But not the kind that tell you to abstain from coffee and excessive meat.
Here they are:
Make your bucket list achievable.
Like, rather than having tea with her, aim to just go to the country that Princess Catherine lives in. (You might be wondering, and yes, I'm slightly obsessed with her. In my heart. Deep down inside. I feel that we would be best friends. Me and her and Natalie and Emma Stone. It could happen.)
I did actually cross something grand off of my bucket list once. A year and a half ago.
So. Grand. GRAND! In fact, it's so grand, I deemed the event worthy enough to be the background of this here blog.
Have you seen the Giant's Causeway? Have you HEARD of the Giant's Causeway? Google it. Right now. And whatever you do, don't believe all that mumbo jumbo about volcanic activity and basalt rock blah blah blah. It was Finn McCool, and Finn McCool only, who formed the Giant's Causeway. And he did it for love. Siiiiiiiigh. (Fionn mac Cumhail, if you want to be all Gaelic and proper. Aside from my obsession with British royalty, I also love anything Irish related. I don't know, don't ask me. Nothing much about me makes sense. Ask the bodhran hanging on my wall. I secretly think it grants wishes.)
When I was planning our (me, Mike, and Darius) trip to Ireland, I kept asking those two "What do you want to see and do over there?" and they both responded "Whatever." We had this conversation multiple times. I didn't want to get across the ocean, and one of them be all "Saaaandi! I thought we were going to go leprechaun hunting!" If that had happened, I would've gone all 'mom who is strung out from planning a massive vacation' and said something along the lines of "Your father will turn this plane around if you don't shut up and sit down! I asked you what you wanted to do and you said nothing!"
Luckily that never happened.
But they kept wondering why I wanted to rent a car just for the sake of driving up to the northern coast of Ireland. And I kept telling them "You guys! To see the Giant's Causeway!" And they kept saying "To see the what's the what way?" Over and over we had this conversation.
And then we got there. And both of them were like "Oh. Oooooh. OH!"
Because it's that amazing. It's a spiritual experience, made from nature. I mean Finn McCool! Made by Finn!
I don't know HOW something that started out about my bucket list, turned into a short vignette (learned that word from my dad) about my one and only international trip (more to come in the future, I hope?).
Well, since we're on the subject, please be enjoying some pictures from our little adventure on the Antrim coast! (2010 style!)
Look at me. Prancing about. Like a kid in a candy store.
This is probably my favorite picture from the adventure. Not just because it showcases Darius' awesomely pale legs (he wore shorts the whole trip! ridiculous!), but because it was one of those times in life where you really stop and think about what the heck is happening in the moment. And you want to take every inch of it in, every second, because you don't know if you'll get to experience it again in this lifetime.
It's the little things that make life beautiful.
See my face? It was like Christmas! CHRISTMAS! I'd been waiting YEARS to be there.
Mike managed to achieve a whole new level of creepiness.
And the wind was atrocious.
Seriously, do you know how humbling it is to look out over the ocean and realize that the only thing between you and the Arctic circle, is a bunch of water?
Man I love those two. That trip will go down as one of the best weeks of my life.