Fun Monday

Our Fun Monday hostess this week is Tiggerlane and she's chosen to make us blog with our minds and not our cameras this week. (Thank goodness. I can find my mind).



She's asking us to write ( a la The Bucket List) about five things we want to do before we die. The wilder and crazier the better. Well, I don't know about wild and crazy, but here's my list.


#1. Live on the beach for a year. And by beach I mean ocean. And more than a year is okay, too. And I mean smack on the beach, as in walk across some sand and hit the waves. The kind of closeness to the water where you aren't sure if your plumbing is acting up or the tide is coming in. I'm not picky about where, although I'd prefer warm, swimmable water. I could possibly combine this with #3 and kick two buckets at once.



#2. Attend a Grand Slam tennis final. I've wanted this one for so long it's almost become a joke. That doesn't mean I don't still want it, however. I would be fine with either of the four (Australian, French, Wimbledon and the US Open), although if I had to really fess up the French would probably be my last choice. But...I do love clay court tennis, so maybe I have to take that back. The US Open has Super Saturday, which is the single best day of tennis all year, Wimbledon is...well, Wimbledon and the Australian is...well, in Australia. All my rationalizations are moot. I'd take whatever I could get.



#3. Live in another country for a year. Again, I'm pretty open minded about where. There are a lot of places I'd love to have the chance to really explore and very few locations that would automatically make me say no. My language skills are iffy, which would probably limit me. Nine years of French, travelers Spanish and the ability to cuss like a rabid sailor in Arabic probably wouldn't get me far. As long as it got me out of the country it would be far enough.



#4. Plant a really successful vegetable garden. I don't know why something so simple has such appeal to me, but this one just keeps eluding me. We had a few gardens when I was growing up and I remember how much I enjoyed the results. (Of course, I did none of the work). My grandparents in Alabama had a big garden and I was always lobbying for my favorites to be planted. But I've never had a real vegetable garden as an adult. Either my lots were too shady or I was away too much in the summer and couldn't keep it up or some other silly thing. The kids and I have been talking about trying one this summer. We'll see.



#5. See my kids fall passionately in love. With anything, not necessarily a person, although that would be okay, too. I want to be able to watch them when they discover what it is they want to do with their lives and be there when something grabs their attention so hard they don't ever want to let it go. (And video games don't count). I don't have the idea that all of my kids need to do amazing things with their lives. I just want them to be well-loved and happy. But I truly believe that if you're doing something with your life in a field you love you're generally going to be happier than the person who hates their job but needs the paycheck. I want my kids to find that field. And I want to be there to see it.