Reverse bucket-list

If you’re looking for the “about me” page, please click here.

A list of the things I’ve already done. Feel free to share yours or provide suggestions!

(Many of these were made possible by my journalism career, 2003 to 2009.)

• Sang ‘Ricola’ from the Swiss Alps
• Attended a NYC society ball (twice!)
• Skied in the Rockies, the Cascades, the Appalachians, Poconos & Whistler/Blackcomb
• Retraced Jesus’s final steps, the stations of the cross, in Jerusalem
• Fish nibbled my feet in the Jordan river in Israel
• Fallen in love
• Married someone tall, dark and handsome
• Got religion
• Attended three presidential inaugurations
• Attended two inaugural balls, (Christian inaugural eve gala for George W. Bush, 2005, Karl Rove in attendance; Western States Inaugural Ball for Barack Obama , 2009, various governors and president in attendance))
• Cornered & interviewed a couple of state governors
• Spoken with beggars
• Visited Normandy, France and felt the breeze rustle my hair
• Bar hopped in Hanoi, Vietnam
• Wine tasted in the south of France
• Felt the Virgin Mary’s presence at her home in Ephesus, Turkey
• Toured Amsterdam’s red light district
• Visited Paris’s red light district
• Ran along the beach (US Gulf Coast; Bournemouth, England; Canary Islands)
• Been to a crawfish boil (several); eaten crawfish (highly recommend!)
• Attended five secret society balls in Alabama (appeared in the call outs for one)
• Thrown beads from a Mardi Gras float
• Flown in a restored WWII B-17 bomber
• Flirted with wealth & visited with poverty
• Welcomed into homes of Hurricane Katrina victims on Thanksgiving and Christmas 2005; hugged people in grief
• Been published. Everywhere.
• Appeared on national television
• Interviewed on national radio
• Chased down members of Congress
• Chased down CEOs
• Worked for minimum wage
• Earned six figures in one year
• Lived in the Northeast
• Lived in the Deep South
• Lived in the midwest
• Lived in London
• Lived in the Pacific Northwest
• Jogged the Las Vegas strip
• Called a stripper phone number in Vegas to ask questions
• Drank wine all night and slept under the Eiffel Tower (the lights on the tower turn off in the wee hours)
• Woken up by 5 a.m. lawn sprinklers under the Eiffel Tower
• Danced in a cage in a tranny club in Alabama beside my best friend, also a newspaper reporter (don’t ask)
• Been infused with the holy spirit
• Hiked the Grand Canyon, from the top, down to the river, and back, in one day! (It was brutal. I don’t recommend trying this, it probably wasn’t a very wise endeavor to hike 16 miles down and 22 miles up in 18 hours. We had to carry all of our water and food. July 4, 2008 – and it was more than 100 degrees at the bottom of the canyon – HOT.)
• Seen Neil Diamond in concert
• Seen The Boss (Bruce Springsteen) sing at Jazz Fest in New Orleans
• Moved across the country without knowing a soul (three times)
• Moved to a new city after visiting just once
• Danced on a bar
• Name or article appeared in a lawsuit (twice)
• Had my heart broken
• Drank too much, vowed to never do it again. Did it again.
• Experienced a parent’s death, twice (saddest item)
• Learned to hike & camp in the mountains
• Learned to play piano as an adult
• Learned to shoot a gun (a Glock-19), looked badass while doing it
• Attended a rally (Obama healthcare rally)
• Attended a pro-life march (Washington, D.C.)
• AIDS Walk in Washington, D.C.
• Given a speech to 3,000 people (high school salutatorian)
• Guest-lectured at a university (college students have a special place in my heart)
• Survived a category five hurricane, watched walls blow off buildings and dumpsters float down the street
• Comforted someone in grief, served as a “rock”
• Lived as a racial minority (for five years, Willingboro, N.J.)
• Learned to computer code, VB, C++, SQL
• Said something that moved shares on the stock market
• Scored tickets to an exclusive event (several, including the American Embassy party in the 2004 presidential election, Gordon Brown in attendance.)
• Viewed a re-enactment of the shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Ariz.
• Seen a Broadway Play in NYC (Phantom of the Opera, among others!)
• Received a private tour of British Parliament from a member of the House of Lords
• Been on the roof of Parliament (not open to the public)
• Attended a VIP luncheon at the White House with the first lady and secretary of state (2000)
• Climbed a tower crane
• Visited a Turkish bath in Paris with girlfriends (wild)
• Met a billionaire (several)
• Saw the KFC across the street from the great pyramids in Cairo, Egypt
• Skied a double-black diamond. Lived. Barely.
• Twirled a flag in a marching band
• Eaten weird things (byproduct of travel)
• Been on a yoga retreat in Mexico
• Appeared on Wheel of Fortune. Won the game. Won an all-expenses paid trip to the Galley Bay resort in Antigua. They really do pay for everything.
• Won a canoe race on a river.
• Ran a half-marathon
• Mastered crow pose (yoga)
• Learned a martial art (Tae Kwon Do, green belt!)
• Built a PC from parts
• Built a 3-bit computer with transisters! (It could count to seven in binary! Like this: 000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110, 111)