Buck-It List

Following Che Gilson's post on July 7, many of the folks commenting said they wanted to pick up the idea and do their own version of a bucket list.

I've never had a bucket list. I figured I'd let the world surprise me. Oh, and it has. I don't know if the powers-that-be got together with Karma and said, “Let's give Sunny a thrill ride.” All I know is that I've survived a bucket list I never asked for and could not have conceived of. So much for the best laid plans of mice and men. . . .

1. Born to a manic-depressive parent (check, unfortunately)
2. Had a sister who became a Sister (we're Catholic)(check)
3. Growing up on Midway atoll (check) 
4. Survived bootcamp (check)
5. Caused a riot in a German train station (check, but not my fault)
6. Rescued from said riot by a Spanish soccer team (check) (whew!)
7. Lived next door to an Iranian mass murderer (check)
8. Found one of the FBI's most wanted via my computer skills (check)
9. Being the only female photo-journalist in the Central Valley of California (check)
10. Being told I was paid less than the male reporters because I should have a husband (check)
11. Filed a wage discrimination suit (check, but the paper folded)
12. Restricted from returning to a foreign country (Colombia, not my fault)
13. Visiting Haiti after an attempt to assassinate the president (check)(scary)
14. Nearly thrown into a Haitian prison (check)(really scary)
15. Climbed the Arecibo satellite dish (ET phone home)
16. 22 marriage proposals (check)
17. Married a younger man before it was trendy (check)
18. Eloped (smart)
19. Had a fun divorce (check)
20. Nine shots of tequila using a shaving cream can top as a shot glass (seemed like a great idea at the time)
21. Worst hangover ever (check) 
22. Sue Grafton asking for my autograph (CHECK!)
23. Being poisoned (check)
24. Getting on the kidney transplant list (check)
25. Meeting Daniel Ellsberg (look him up in Wikipedia)
26. Ate flying fish in Barbados (check) 
27. Ate escargot (gag)
28. Entered an emerald vault in Bogota (check)
29. Graduated Summa Cum Laude from a university (check)
30. Ate fish & chips wrapped in newspaper on a stoop in Dublin (no blarney)
31. Kissed the Blarney Stone (also no blarney)
32. Went to school with Steve Perry (check)
33. Visited the set of Northern Exposure (check)
34. Tried out for a role in the 1974 Great Gatsby (didn't make the cut, but check)
35. Saw The Doors in concert (check) 
36. Learned astrology (check)
37. Memorized The Owl and the Pussycat (can still recite it)
38. Danced down the streets of Hanover singing “Cabaret” after many Oktoberfest beers (check)
39. Tangoed (only once, it was bliss)
40. Made a pit stop in Guantanamo Bay (yikes!)
41. Took a hit man out for ice cream (Henry Hill of Goodfellas fame. He ordered mint chocolate chip) 
42. Swam in shark infested waters (check. Dumb)
43. Created the Sheriff's Dept emergency plan for the Millennium (nothing happened)
44. Had to take mother off life support (devastating)
45. Have not (will not) shoot a gun (check)

Not much left on my bucket list. I've never had a S'mores. I hope to have the first artificial kidney. I guess I can take “Marrying George Harrison” off the list now. But I said "buck-it" to whatever others may have thought my life should be like and survived all the pitfalls. Check!