DLS Designs

My Bucket List As Of January 2010

Blue Footed Boobie Originally uploaded by DLSDesigns

Recently, I have started thinking about the future and decided to start working on my bucket list. Thanks to my father I've already accomplished some of them. Here is my list with a few crossed off that I've already accomplished.

1. Witness the birth of a kitten
2. Witness the birth of a baby(hopefully my own)
3. Visit Antarctica
4. Ride in a hot air balloon
5. Walk a marathon
6. Learn to Box
7. Take ballroom dance lessons
8. Ride in a Submarine
9. Drive Across the US(from the east coast all the way to the west coast in 1 trip)
10. Drive Across Europe
11. Go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras
12. Visit Las Vegas, NV
13. Visit the Holy Land
14. Go Bead Shopping in Turkey
15. Stay in Cinderella’s Castle at Disney World
16. Discover What Makes me truly happy
17. Become a UCC Minister
18. Build a Habitat for Humanity House
19. Hire a Gardener
20. Have a piece of my artwork(a photograph, mixed media collage, digital collage, scrapbook page or some jewelry) published
21. Charter a Yacht
22. Find the love of my life
23. Get married
24. Have a child (preferably at least 2)
25. Have a real studio for my creativity
26. Be a dolphin trainer like at Sea World and be the person that rides on the dolphin
27. Spend a day on a working farm
28. Milk a cow
29. Ride a horse
30. Have my own outdoor koi pond
31. Own a summer home on Cape Cod
32. Own a winter home on Sanibel Island
33. Have a kitchen with gas stove and electric double oven
34. Hire a personal chef

    The Eiffel Tower at Night Originally uploaded by DLSDesigns

35. Hire a personal trainer
36. Learn how to meditate
37. Study Buddhism
38. Become a Marine Biologist
39. Become a Teacher
40. Go to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC
41. See the ball drop in Times Square on New Year’s Eve
42. Buy my Dad his dream Ferrari
43. Visit all 50 US States
44. Serve Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless
45. Go to Italy
46. Go to Australia
47. Go to Greece
48. Go to France
49. Go to New Zealand
50. Visit all 7 Continents (Asian and Africa are all that are left)
51. Go on an African Safari in the Comfort Zone
52. Visit Bora Bora
53. Learn to change the oil in my car
54. Read all of Louisa May Alcott’s books
55. Learn how to manage my stress
56. Learn some basic European History
57. Learn how to develop a business plan
58. Learn how to run a business
59. Understand Economics
60. Get Organized and learn how to stay organized
61. Learn how to nurture myself (I’ve always been good at nurturing others)
62. Buy a new car and pay with cash (No Lease)
63. Pay off my mortgage
64. Go Indoor Rock Climbing
65. Go Parasailing
66. Learn some basic Arabic
67. Learn to Belly Dance
68. See the Grand Canyon
69. See the Louvre in Paris
70. See the Uffici
71. See the London Art Museum
72. See the Simoni Homestead in Bologna, Italy or at least visit Bologna, Italy
73. Shave my head
74. Take a Helicopter Ride from Norwood, MA to SW Point, Hog Island, RI
75. Become a Grandma
76. Get a Tattoo when I become a Grandma
77. Learn to Rollerblade
78. Go back to Croatia
79. Go to Tuscon for the big bead show

Sometimes I feel like I have an angel on my shoulder

A week or so ago, I broke up with my boyfriend of 2.5 years. We had been living together first in Arlington and later in Dallas. Although I love him and always will, I knew that I couldn’t be with him forever. He loved me, but there were just differences between us I couldn’t overlook. I knew that I was going to hurt him and it was the most difficult thing I have ever had to do in my entire life. I knew however that I was leaving the next day to go to be with my family in Boston(Norwood actually), but that didn’t make it any easier. It just made it more bearable.

I was very worried that I wouldn’t be able to make it the entire plane ride without crying, because I hadn’t stopped crying since I had asked him to move out. When I boarded the plane, I took deep breath, but I was fighting back tears.

This is when I think my "Guardian Angel" stepped in. The woman sitting next to me and her husband weren't sitting together. The woman sitting next to her husband offered to move. Then the woman sitting next to her husband came up and sat with me. She had the cutest 3-month-old baby girl with her. I started to talk to her. She was only 23 years old and had come to the US from Nigeria via the Green Card Lottery. She was on her way back to Nigeria to give her daughter to her mother to raise, so that she didn’t have to put her in day care and so that she could work. My problems all of a sudden although still painful were no longer as important.

All my life babies have made me smile. The special atmosphere and mood around them make me feel warm. They make me feel good inside.

I feel like God sent the baby there to sit beside me, because he knew it would help me. I think God could feel my pain and wanted to help ease it. I told my grandmother this in the car on the way home from Vermont and she said she didn’t think God worked that way. Maybe he doesn’t, but I would like to think he does.