Life List pt 2

Time to re-post and re-update my Life List – bday is coming up and I wanted to add some more things.

1. Do Roller Derby
2. Own at least 7 days of matching bras and panties
3. Go skydiving (maybe this summer..)
4. Finally learn Spanish. And brush up on my German, French & Italian.
5. Visit Montreal and see a sunset.
6. Send my parents on a trip
7. Learn calligraphy
8. Frame my g*d artwork – done! well partially, but at least the main ones I wanted framed are done!
9. Visit Edinburgh for Hogmony
10. Own a dog
11. Write one of those strongly worded letters I’m always going on about.
12. Teach a (my?) child to ride a bike / tie their shoes / blow a bubble
13. Disconnect for a full week – no phone / net / tv
14. Learn to knit – FINALLY
15. See the pyramids at dusk – Orions Belt
16. Surf in Byron Bay, Australia.
17. Do the NYC thing: Empire State Building / Times Square / Central Park / Broadway / see an off Broadway show
18. Hot air balloon ride (anywhere, tho definitely would like to do it over Iowa – where I first saw them)
19. Road trip to the Grand Canyon – stopping at the tiny towns along the way (note: bring own sheets).
20. Scuba dive – NOT in a pool or lake (preferably be certified)
21. Plant (and keep up) an herb garden
22. Make my own bread, routinely
23. Sew curtains
24. Travel to all of the places I have lived, again.
25. Keep writing – even if just for myself, for the memories
26. Surprise my mom on her birthday
27. Surprise my dad on his birthday
28. Learn to shoot a bow and arrow
29. Throw an elaborate dinner party – in the woods, on a roof, someplace random.
30. Take a photography class and finally learn what Fstop and ISO mean.
31. Spend an entire day naked.
32. Walk on hot coals (cliche? I’ll take it!)
33. Run a mini-marathon in every state (Indiana – DOWN)
34. Visit every state in the US.
35. Hire a breakdancing bear
36. Go to the top of a lighthouse.
37. Do something utterly outrageous and grand in honor of a friend.
38. See a rodeo
39. Buy a beater Jeep – just old school, no top necessary.
40. Full out decorate my bedroom – make it as awesome as I deserve.
41. Write emails to some of the writers of blogs I read routinely – let them know they matter. Say… 10.  I’ll list em here.
42. Catalog all my books (sound tedious? yep, but I guarantee I’ll pry love doing it. And love even more having them all on there!)
43. Learn glassblowing.
44. Join a wine club. – done! did this just the past Friday.
45. Take a weekend away – high class hotel and spa. Indulge
46. Take a weekend away – cabin in middle of nowhere. Preferably with a hot tub and write almost all weekend.
47. Get a massage. I put it on here because I won’t do it for myself otherwise.
48. Set up patio with lighting, more chairs and make it party-friendly.
49. Strip and refinish grandmother’s writing desk.
50. Buy a house.
51. Rock an outrageous hat at the Kentucky Derby.
52. Get a right-hand ring to celebrate paying off my student loans.
53. Visit a black sand beach
54. Go to Music Festivals: Bonnaroo, Rothbury, 10kLakes, Coachella, Red Rocks Concert, Lollapalooza
55. Picnic in Yellowstone Park – picnic basket required. Yogi – optional
56. Stomp grapes in Italy
57. Host a movie festival for friends
58. Watch a game at Wrigley from the bleachers

still in progress.

My Life List

Coping off the fabulous Maggie Mason (www.mightygirl.net) , I present: My Life List… finally transcribed off my blackberry.

27 seems appropriate, as I’ll turn that this year, on the 27th. Maybe thats my number this year.

1. Do Roller Derby
2. To have at least 7 days of matching bras and panties
3. Go skydiving (maybe this summer..)
4. Finally learn Spanish. And brush up on my German, French & Italian.
5. Visit Montreal and see a sunset.
6. Send my parents on a trip
7. Learn calligraphy
8. Frame my g*d artwork
9. Visit Edinburgh for Hogmony
10. Own a dog
11. Write one of those strongly worded letters I’m always going on about.
12. Teach a (my?) child to ride a bike / tie their shoes / blow a bubble
13. Disconnect for a full week – no phone / net / tv
14. Learn to knit – FINALLY
15. See the pyramids at dusk – Orions Belt
16. Learn to surf
17. Do the NYC thing: Empire State Building / Times Square / Central Park / Broadway / see an off Broadway show
18. Hot air balloon ride (anywhere, tho definitely would like to do it over Iowa – where I first saw them)
19. Road trip to the Grand Canyon – stopping at the tiny towns along the way (note: bring own sheets).
20. Scuba dive – NOT in a pool or lake (preferably be certified)
21. Plant (and keep up) an herb garden
22. Make my own bread, routinely
23. Sew curtains
24. Travel to all of the places I have lived, again.
25. Keep writing – even if just for myself, for the memories
26. Surprise my mom on her birthday
27. Surprise my dad on his birthday

I need to go grocery shopping first…

They call me ‘Betty’. In a teasing fashion – after Betty Crocker. Because at my age, in this time, I like to cook. Not all the time, and not necessarily fabulous dishes – but I can make a mean stuffed pasta shells dish, sourdough waffles, homemade mac & cheese.

It makes me remember cooking with my grandma, “helping” ever so much by banging on pots and pans on the floor. Of her measurements consisting of holding my hand and putting spices in them. “This much”, “this little”, “just keep tasting”. It reminds me of how little time I actually had to do that. To learn the recipes that she had perfected over years of cooking for a huge family, where leftovers were unheard of.

I can’t make her rolls yet. While most of my recipes are easy and quick (or at least are after the third try) the rolls have a certain knack and take a good half day. My mother had to be married to my father for five years before she learned all the secrets – for me to make them now, alone in my apartment… seems wrong. Like I’ve broken the tradition. That being said, when my mother visits I beg her to make them. To make the apartment smell like Grandma’s. One more time.

She left us last February. She was an only child in a family where all of her parent’s siblings had multiple children. Like me. I was the only child of her first born. There was a connection. Even in the last year when she had no voice – her eyes would say exactly the right thing, at exactly the right time. I didn’t go home for her last Christmas. Or her last Thanksgiving. I was busy “settling into my life” 10 hours away. I was the only part of our family to live outside our home state, and often couldn’t get back for holidays – new jobs, new apartments, no funds, no time, etc.

Their house will always be home to me. The one house that stayed the same throughout all my years – a very important thing when you consider I moved about 5 times (always to new states) in about 7 years. Before college. But that house will always be home, the tiny kitchen with the now new cabinets. The glass milk jar filled with peppermints for upset stomachs and nightmares. The downstairs library with swinging saloon doors that always smelled slightly of mold and still, to this day, is one of my favorite spots on earth.

That house will always mean family to me. It held so many family reunions, holidays, dinners. And there was always something on the stove, in the oven. Cooking, for my grandmother, was part of family. I look back, and I’ve always cooked. But, now, I realize it was last March that I started cooking more, actively trying new recipes, digging through her old cookbooks, deciphering her handwriting. Because every time someone I cook, I can still hear her “you take about *this much” as she places ingredients in my hands to measure them out.

I feel like cooking tonight.