My Bucket List

I was recently chatting with an old friend about this reunion camping trip we're planning. And as with old friends, you find yourselves going off on tangents and talking about unrelated topics with little transition between them.

I recently bought a map of California and have been looking at it all week. So, when we started chatting about camping, I had to tell him about my idea: to see all state parks in California and then all National Parks.

Turns out, that same idea is on his bucket list. And since we're friends, I don't think he'll mind if I copy the idea.

Now, my bucket list has never been precise or carved in stone, it's more vague and most often forgotten. When I think about it, there are so many things I have added to my bucket list, all in the form of a mental post-it note stored in a filing cabinet of my brain titled "Remember, you want to do this". Sounds like a terrible system, doesn't it? If that filing cabinet were to open, post-it notes would pop out like those fake snakes from a can.

High time for some spring cleaning.

Let's make piles for the different post-it notes. First let's see what I have already checked off:
-Live in another country (France, 2013-2014)
-learn three languages
-US festivals: Not So Silent Night (2007), CMJ (2011), Sasquatch (2012), Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (2014), Treasure Island (2014),
-International festivals: Dour (Belgium, 2014), Lyon Gypsy (France, 2013),
-Continents/Regions: North America (USA, Canada), Latin America (Mexico), Europe (Scotland, Germany, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, France),
-California State Parks: Big Sur,
-National Parks: Haleakala (Hawaii, 2000),

Next pile would have to be what I haven't checked off:
-Burning Man
-learn another three languages
-ComiCon
-Maintain a year-round garden
-See all California State and National parks
-See every continent and region
-US festivals: SXSW, Outside Lands, New Orleans Jazz, ...
International festivals: Boom, Tomorrowland, ...

The last pile is something of a back-burner collection, the most common items on a bucket list and the least likely to happen:
-skydive
-go to space
-drive a Tesla
- ...

This cleaned up bucket list will double as my New Year's Resolutions each year, an easy merger of the two.

Negative Points

Well this is awkward. How long have I been absent from One Part Funny One Part Nerd? I have definitely lost points for my absence. And that's fine, I deserve it. These fake points I assign myself and to others, based on nothing else but the funny, cool, and nerd factor systems (which are also arbitrary and change depending on the now) are just there to make life a little more interesting, like a game (with no extra lives).

Clearly I lost points because of the funny factor because I haven't written anything funny nor is it funny that I haven't written.

On the nerd factor, I lost points for the same reasons as funny, I simply haven't written or done anything worthy of nerd points.

And let's just face it, my cool factor has never seen levels even close to Grandma-bridge-club cool. 

I do have an excuse for my absence, like a note from a doctor or parent excusing you from PE. Now, I don't really care if you don't think it's an acceptable excuse, this is my blog and not yours.

I have been busy sending my resume here and there, doing phone and Skype calls with this number and that screen name, and going on interviews over here and over there. I have been running around like a chicken with a diploma and no head, your 20-something standard. A chicken in slacks, a blouse, and a shoulder-padded power jacket: something stoner-college-chicken-me does not recognize. That chicken inside my head (which, by the way, I don't have) is laughing at me when the sweat starts leaking out of my body as the interviewer simply asks for me to take a seat. And that chicken is roaring with laughter as the sweat waterfalls down my spine with each question. As the interview ends, power-jacket-chicken-me as no idea how it went, well or hell. Is the joke on me? It must be: a chicken in heels? That's funny. 

Who knew you could lose at your own game based on your own distribution system with fake points which only you assign? And it's not like I have forgotten my blog, I guess this thing called life keeps getting in the way. I have drafts on drafts, ideas on ideas, for the blog. So if we count theoretical points, I'm in the lead. I'm the queen of fake points.