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Sunday, July 13, 2014

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!

18 comments:

  1. This is great, Sunny! Your list will go with me when I teach my two memoir writing classes this week. Inspiration for my adult students' own bucket lists.

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  2. Never thought of that. Never intend to write my memoirs!

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  3. I was going to say the same. Any one of them would be a good novel, and the combination sounds like a very exciting novel. perhaps you should reconsider writing that book.

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  4. What a fantastic list and life! I SO want to hang out with you and hear all the details, like, were you deliberately or accidentally poisoned? And Barbados! Next door! Call me next time you're in the neighbourhood. :) Wait you went to school with Steve Perry? You knew him as Stephen Perreira? Of Journey? He is my sister's favorite singer ever! *groupie scream*

    I was raised Catholic too (no religious affiliations now) and married/divorced a younger man before it was trendy. I can also rattle off Owl and Pussycat by heart...I do it for my three year old granddaughter now. And I have shot a gun. Only on a range in Miami, though. I hate those things.

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  5. That was hilarious. I know some things weren't meant to be, but I can relate to *s*it* happens and you deal! I have always had a bucket list since I was a girl, but that was not the cool term and it was and IS, my Life List. I think writers (who actually write and not just say, I'm going to write a novel SOME DAY) are disciplined. No matter how much whining and evasive maneuvers we do, we still get the job done. I have a lot I wanted to do in my life, and gee, no one's going to do it for me! So, I literally have a list on my wall for travel, in particular. I also love lists (I make a daily one) so I can check things off and feel like I accomplished something. My main thing is to spend as much time with my boys as I can. They are in college now so I have to work at it. It is still the most satisfying and happiest times of my life--even though we argued from Denali to Cooper Landing, AK in a VERY small rental car...: 0 we laughed about it and it really was like having them back to small kid time. Love my lists. Keeps me focused and grounded.xo Victoria Heckman

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  6. Um, I should say no church affiliations rather than no religious affiliations. I'm not an atheist, although I've been called such--and worse. :D

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  7. Goodness. That's a life story in a quick, informative, list. I already knew about some of the happenings, but most were new to me.

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  8. Gosh, I'm wordless, something that rarely happens to me, but your list takes my breath away. Mine is more on the order of "Fly in an airplane without being terrified" or "Finish up the porch renovation before the neighbors complain to the zoning board,".

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  9. Uh, I think I've been living a boring life---maybe I'll have to add a few of your shining moments to my buck-it list. First, I have to actually make a buck-it list ;)

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  10. My list is very like Lesley's, (sigh)but my greatest goal right now (besides climbing Mt. Everest)is to see my first mystery novel in print and people liking it. You already accomplished that goal, Sunny. What an interesting life!

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  11. Well, everyone, I never set out to have an interesting life. Most of those things happened to me without any provocation on my part. I would have been satisfied with staying in my small town, getting married, having children. But hey, it didn't happen.
    Which is why I relish sitting in the backyard in the morning with the cats while reading a book. That's as much excitement as I crave.

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  12. Great post, Sunny. I, too, knew some of it but WOW. You know, life is what happens to us while we are waiting for it to be the way we planned it.

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  13. This is hilarious. You have definitely had a full, fun, interesting and successful life. And like you, if I don't accomplish anything on my bucket list, then I'll transfer it to my buck-it list. It wasn't meant to be.

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  14. Sunny, loved reading every bit of it. What a life. I think I've done something you haven't but maybe you just couldn't get it listed. I flew in Fifi, the only remaining B29 still flying and also took a ride in a biplane with the very first spaceman: Joe Kittinger. Look him up on Google. Life has been a blast and it isn't over yet.

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  15. Velda, those are awesome accomplishments on your list!

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