My 101-item Bucket List

So I accomplished a lot of somethings today, but here is the something that took the most brain. :P I made my 101-item bucket list...actually, the idea of a bucket list is a little morbid. But I don't see it as a list of things to do before I die, but as a list of the things I want to accomplish while I live. There really is a difference, don't you think? Here's the definition of a bucket-list, per the Rachel Heffington Dictionary:

bucket-list: n. a list compiled by people who have random, interesting, ambitious, or simply a lot od things they wish to do during their lifetime and are afraid they haven't the brain to remember them all. ;)

Without further ado, here's mine!

1. Buy a pair of red shoes
2. Visit Scotland and get my fill of the accents, if that’s possible
3. Take a walk in the autumn rain and unexpectedly meet Someone who is very glad to see me.
4. Publish one of my books
5. Make a Charlotte Russe from scratch
6. Fall in love with a godly man
7. And marry the man I fall in love with
8. Ride on a galloping horse without falling off
9. Wear a soft white dress with a wreath of rosebuds in my hair to a dance
10. Receive a letter from a Secret Admirer who is just that—a secret—
11. Plant an orchard
12. Sit for a portrait painting
13. Read all of Charles Dickens’ novels
14. See an indigo bunting
15. Go to Paris
16. Watch a Broadway show on Broadway in New York City
17. Drink a cup of tea at the Plaza Hotel while there.
18. Wear red lipstick and a fifties dress
19. Take a road-trip to a place I’ve never been before
20. Be a bridesmaid in a close friend’s wedding
21. Own a peacock
22. Visit Hilltop Farm in the Lake District (Beatrix Potter’s home)
23. Spend an entire day out in public speaking with a British accent
24. Wear a hat to church
25. Hit the high note in “Think of Me”
26. Be rescued, somehow, somewhere without any ill-effects afterward
27. Act in a musical that we sell tickets to
28. Eat dinner at a five-star restaurant without forgetting the order of silverware
29. Eat a bowl of chili without getting the stringy cheese on my chin
30. Be asked if I am the writer, Rachel Heffington ;)
31. Take a stunning picture of…something.
32. Wear a necklace made of real diamonds
33. Attempt to walk a picket fence and hop off into someone’s arms like Josie Pye (It better be a strong someone…)
34. Eat an ice-cream cone while standing on the line between two states
35. Drive a Tin-Lizzy
36. Meet someone famous in an unusual setting
37. Overhear two people talking about me and walk out just as they are about to say the juiciest part.
38. Make a come-back worthy of an Elizabeth Bennett at a perfect moment
39. Cook an entire meal on a wood-stove
40. Hear my own writing read aloud without blushing and wishing I was a million miles away
41. Get a box of Winnie-the-Pooh themed checks and use every one of them
42. Change a 100$ bill into pennies at the bank, come home, and walk through the pennies barefoot, then return them.
43. Get rid of the strange dark spots on my knees
44. Tie a string to a June Bug’s leg and watch it fly around
45. Sing a solo for a talent night and not die in the process
46. Try swing-dancing
47. Learn to play something on the piano
48. Learn French. Tres Elegante!
49. Pin a butterfly to copy and paint without feeling mortally guilty
50. Wash my hair in a real waterfall
51. Memorize an entire book of the Bible
52. Drink an entire pitcher of hand-squeezed lemonade over the course of a day or two. (It needn’t be a huge pitcher)
53. Spend a night sleeping in a hammock outside with a buddy in the hammock beside me
54. Go for a trip where I stay wherever-it-was for at least two weeks
55. Make a surprise trip to a friend’s house, let myself inside, and hide somewhere before jumping out at her
56. Sing a duet with a guy who can sing. (“I See the Light”, wot-wot, Daniel?)
57. Be dipped while I’m dancing without being dropped or making a funny face
58. Dance a waltz in full ballroom gear with a dashing partner I am either related or married to
59. Make a 101 item bucket list
60. Sell a painting
61. Let someone kiss my hand
62. Get proposed to at least once
63. Play a game of “telephone” with enough people so it’s actually funny
64. Make a pulley/message system from our house to the Walkers
65. Learn all the words to “Benedy Glen” and make someone cry by singing it in pathetic tones
66. Get a hug from a monkey
67. Teach a parrot or other bird to say, “Miss Summerson is my Angel” and, “My name is Guppy”
68. Whistle “Dixie” while in the presence of a Yankee
69. Hum “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy” while in the presence of a Rebel
70. Buy something expensive and then return it, just for the fun of it
71. Make a mailbox that is an exact copy (in miniature) of our house
72. Use the internet without saying the word “blast” or “stinkin’ thing” when it vexes me
73. Design and sew a wedding dress
74. Use an old “Mary Poppins” era telephone
75. Walk into the Library of Congress and pretend I belong there
76. Acquire a pair of cowgirl boots
77. Use a Charles Dicken’s quote at an entirely random moment in a conversation
78. Drive up to a drive-thru window wearing dark sunglasses and poke a cane out the window to “read” the menu, then ask for a different menu in Braille
79. Catch and tame a cottontail rabbit
80. Find a real patch of mayflowers
81. Visit Boston again and eat some real clam chowder
82. Go on a missions/visiting trip to Pastor John Zaharia’s church in Romania
83. Visit Austria
84. Visit Germany
85. Get a French Manicure
86. Have a red-haired daughter
87. Write a book with a character named Catherine Durrant as the protagonist
88. Have an old-fashioned picnic at a historical house
89. Take a ten-mile walk on a brisk autumn day with a group of friends and sisters
90. Get pleasantly scared so badly I scream like a girl (wait…I think that’s happened already)
91. Plant a Queen Elizabeth Rosebush (two) and let it go crazy over an arbor
92. Name every house I live in once I’m married
93. Own a blue, black, and white parakeet and name him Admiral Boom
94. Keep a jar of fireflies on my nightstand
95. Raise a batch of tadpoles without letting them eat each other
96. Learn to play the mountain dulcimer
97. Have a cat that has a litter of kittens and name them all characters from books
98. Host a literary ball
99. Read all of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries
100. Solve a mystery using Holmes-like deduction
101. Eat an ethnic meal made by a person from that country

If you've gotten that far, then I applaud you! Bravo, and thanks for reading! :)