#14 - #19

I know, I know I have been terrible about posting! A life list is not as easy as you would think it would be to keep up with. What I’ve realized is that I have been extremely blessed in my life in that I have already accomplished a lot of typical life list items. For example, I have:
- Swam with stingrays and dolphins
- Gone on multiple cruises
- Been to Canada and Mexico
- Gone sky-coasting
- Been to the beach
- Gone skiing
- Parasailing
Anyway, you get the picture. So creating my life list has been harder than I thought it would be. I have done a few things in the past couple of months though and attempted others that were list worthy. Here we go...

#19 Throw a toga party, jell-o wrestling included

I have always been adventurous and my list has pushed me to explore all creative options. When summer came around this year, I knew I wanted to host a fun party for all my friends. It worked out perfectly to have it in August because it was Kelly’s birthday, his best friend Frank’s birthday and our buddy Ryan was graduating from college. What could possibly be more fun than having everyone over in togas and celebrating them as Greek gods? Nothing! So we did just that. Everyone showed up in their finest sheets and we had a fabulous time. To make it all the better, I surprised everyone with a pool filled with special jell-o for jell-o wrestling. The idea was that when in Rome, we would do as the Romans did. We had several battles and all ended up looking like green goblins. Needless to say, it was fantastic! How many people can say they have wrestled in jell-o? I challenge you that!

#18 Up, up and away!

I haven’t been to a balloon festival since I was really little. I saw on the events calendar that the annual Gatesway Balloon Festival would be coming up in August so I marked the calendar. I was worried Kelly and I wouldn’t be able to go because we were so busy working on the blue house. I asked my sister if she wanted to go, but they were already booked for the weekend. It ended up working out though. A couple of our friends invited us to go on Saturday night. Saturday night was going to be the most fun anyway because it was going to be glow balloons (a night time display of the hot air balloons glowing in the dark). We headed out for Claremore which was supposed to be a 30 minute drive. We couldn’t figure out which way we needed to go so it took as twice as long to get there. We were running late enough to miss the whole thing. When we finally arrived, we found out that we had missed nothing after all. It had been too windy and none of the balloons had taken flight. I was completely bummed. I’m not sure I can exactly check this one of my list just yet considering I didn’t get to see a single balloon go up in the air. Maybe next year!

#17 Frosty Keg Float

I had been hearing about this alleged FKF for a couple years now. A couple of Kelly and I’s friends went last year and talked about how much fun it was. Not wanting to miss out and check something off my list, we signed up and of course I decided to go all out. The theme was red white and brew so I got Kelly and me patriotic outfits to wear all weekend. I was really nervous about camping all weekend and keeping up with everyone else. The weekend consisted of camping out down by the Illinois River on Friday night then floating early in the morning on Saturday. The float alone can be exhausting! It took us about 6 hours to float 6 miles! I managed just fine though and we had a blast. I also accomplished doing the most beer bongs while floating down the river!

#16 “Wax on, wax off.”

I know it may be hard to believe but I have never seen The Karate Kid. I finally watched it and here is my review: Sadly to say, I thought the movie was not quite what it was cracked up to be. I thought it was very 80s (bad acting and the plot was pretty lame). I also thought the kid playing the karate kid looked about 12 instead of a high school kid. At least I know now what it means to wax on and wax off. That’s about all I will take from it!

#15 “There will be generations because of what you did.”

Continuing on with my quest to conquer popular movies that have gone unseen, I rented Schindler’s List. I made myself move it to the top of my Netflix queue so that I would have to watch it when it showed up in the mailbox. I knew it wasn’t going to be the type of movie I would be in the mood to watch. I’m glad I decided too though and I sat through all 193 minutes of it. It made me feel blessed and fortunate and realize that we are always taking for granted everything we have as Americans. It was an inspiring story and I recommend everyone to watch it.

#14 Don’t miss out!

One of my favorite comediennes is Kathy Griffin. She came into town last year and I had something going on that day and missed out. When I heard she was coming again this year, I knew I didn’t want to miss it. It was going to be around the same time as my sister’s birthday (also a fan) and I thought it would be the perfect gift. Normally, I would hesitate with this kind of thing or forget to buy tickets only to find out they’re sold out when I finally get around to it. I saw the commercial on TV, went straight to the computer, didn’t look at the price, and bought two tickets. Just throwing caution to the wind and doing what I wanted was list worthy. Plus, the concert was so much fun!

#13 Make a New Recipe

Book club is off the ground and running, just not very fast. Tonight I am hosting book club meeting #2. We got together last month for our initial meeting to select the first book. Unfortunately for tonight, two members are sick and we are pretty certain two have bailed! Oh well. It might take some time to get a steady group together. Our first book, as mentioned before, is entitled “The Next Thing on My List.” In the book, the main character June gets in a car accident with another character Marissa. Marissa dies in the car accident and the last thing she is doing before she dies is giving June a copy of a Weight Watchers taco soup recipe. So in honor of our book, I prepared the taco soup recipe for book club tonight. (Along with an excellent recipe for margaritas I got from Mollie last week at Bunco). It’s an idiot proof recipe, unlike one of my items on my list which is to try out a Martha Stewart recipe. All I had to do was open a bunch of cans, mix, heat, serve and voila!

#12 What we have here is a failure to communicate

So I’m continuing on…in the hopes of become America’s Next Top Model! Just kidding! I started with that and couldn’t resist. I’m continuing on with my quest to watch a ton of really popular movies that I’ve never seen before. I started with “The Godfather,” as you know, and moved on to “Cool Hand Luke.” I had heard A LOT of people say this was there favorite movie and it made some of the best movie of all times lists, so I put it on the Netflix queue. Turns out, it’s about a guy, named Luke, that goes to prison for vandalizing city property. They call him cool hand Luke because of the way he bluffs when playing poker. It was a little boring but mildly entertaining. Movies were definitely different in 1967 than today.

I did learn that Kelly’s best friend Keeling loved the movie and I can see why. Keeling was always making bets about stupid stuff he could do. (I.e. drinking a gallon of milk under a minute, getting kicked in the nuts a million times, etc.) In the movie, Luke makes a bet that he can eat 50 boiled eggs in under an hour. Next movie on the list: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Side Note: The other night my husband was reading (the first book he has read since he was required to in college) and came across the abbreviation e.g. followed with a list of examples. He leaned over in bed and asked me if I knew what e.g. stood for. We both knew that it meant examples were to be followed but neither of us knew what i.e. or e.g. was abbreviated for. Out of curiosity and in honor of my life list, I decided to look both up to become more knowledgeable and clear the air. Here is what I found:

The abbreviation i.e. stands for the Latin id est, which means "that is." It is followed by an explanation.

The abbreviation e.g. stands for the Latin exempli gratia, (meaning "for example").

After finding this I didn’t feel so dumb for not knowing. It’s all Latin to me!

#11 Take a hike

I put a variety of adventurous/outdoorsy activities on my list. A big part of my list includes getting that adrenaline rush and pushing me past my limits. Hiking is one of the more mild activities on my list but, nevertheless, it’s on the list.

I was already in the middle of accomplishing one of the more adventurous tasks on my list, camping, when hiking became possible. The state park where we were camping out had family friendly trails easy enough for my 3 year old nieces. We hit the trails with little expectations. Really, we were just looking to pass the time. It was mildly fun, but a little lame. I can say now that I’ve gone hiking although I will probably attempt it again with a more difficult hike.

#10 Go camping, on the ground, in a tent

I have zero memories from my childhood about camping and haven’t bothered to ask my parents if I’ve ever been. I’m going to assume because I have no recollection, that I have never really been camping before. We did a lot of traveling when I was a kid, but we stayed in hotels everywhere we went. My sister and brother-in law went with my Dad and stepmom a few years ago but I opted out. My brother-in law called me at the beginning of last week and mentioned they would be going again and extended us an invitation. I was supposed to be getting my wisdom teeth out on that Friday so I told them we would have to go another time. It’s not like it was something I was looking forward to or really had any interest in doing.

The dentist’s office called me Tuesday or so to let me know the doctor had a conflicting surgery for Friday and I would need to reschedule. Thursday rolled around and I got to thinking about my life list. Camping just happened to be on the list and here I had the perfect opportunity to cross it off and was not even going to take it. I talked to my easy going husband and had no trouble talking him into it. I called my sister and got the details and told her we changed our minds and would love to come.

We had to do some rushing considering it was Thursday night and we were going to be heading out to Greenleaf State Park the next day after work. We managed to throw enough things together and hit the road Friday around 5:45 pm. It took us about an hour to reach the camp site where we found our tent already setup. I was only slightly bummed that I wouldn’t have the experience of setting up a tent. Oh well, plenty more camping experiences to be had.

We arrived just in time to get the hot dogs cooking for dinner. We did the whole sit around the campfire and eat smores just like I had hoped. I mentioned to Kimberly that I knew a ghost story and ended up getting suckered into telling my lame 1st grade scary story around the campfire. Slightly embarrassing, but at least I did some REAL camping. We headed off to bed around 12:30 am which is when the true camping experience kicked in. At 3:15 am I had to trek off to the bathroom. I got back to the tent to go back to sleep only to hear the most annoying bird ever. The damn bird chirped for half an hour before it finally stopped long enough for me to fall back asleep. It wasn’t 3 hours later when it was time to get up and start the day. I hadn’t been up that early since high school!

We had muffins and bacon for breakfast then headed down to the fishing dock to try our luck there. My 3 year old twin nieces were with us and they got bored of the fishing concept about 5 minutes after we started. We girls decided to abandon the fishing and go look for the hiking trails, which was perfect because hiking is on my list!

We hiked, rented paddle boats, grilled some burgers for lunch and had had all the camping any of us could take. We took a group photo, said our goodbyes, and hit the happy trail. I have to say that the first camping trip was quite successful. Maybe even enough so that I will try it again, or maybe not?

#9 Eat at Tulsa’s #1 Restaurant

I found it hard to believe that a pizza joint made the top restaurant in Tulsa out of 671 restaurants according to tripadvisor.com, but it did! Hideaway Pizza tops the chart of restaurants in Tulsa. They’ve been in business for 50 years so they must be doing something right! I can recall eating there once before years ago so I thought I needed to give it another go. This time, I wanted the full experience. I’m pretty sure last time I had them make me a pizza like I would get from Pizza Hut delivery. I ordered plain old pepperoni I think. This time, Kelly and I decided to have the “Paradise Pie” which included: Alfredo sauce covered with a blend of mozzarella and smoked provolone cheeses, grilled chicken breast strips, smoked bacon, fresh sliced mushrooms, fresh spinach and diced Roma tomatoes. It sounded amazing! We also ordered side salads and I got a glass of Chardonnay and Kelly got to try a beer brewed right here in Oklahoma (gotta support the local economy every chance we get). We got our pizza and I’m going to have to say I was underwhelmed. It was fairly good pizza but hey, I’ve had New York and Chicago pizza and Hideaway just has nothing on them. Maybe I just ordered the wrong pie but it was pretty under seasoned as far as just salt and pepper goes. It didn’t have the subtle flavors I was hoping for that are usually found when eating a white sauce and it definitely wasn’t rich like Alfredo sauce tends to be. It was a nice meal out, but I will only be returning when my husband insists because he quite likes Hideaway Pizza.

#8 Go to a movie premier

Nothing was more exciting Saturday than anticipating going to my first movie premier! I’ve been doing a lot of research online checking out local events to complete things on my list. I came across an independent film screening party. How fun! I looked it up online and they even had a REALLY cool website for it. The whole movie was shot here in Tulsa. Like I said, I’m collecting celebrities in my pocket! (Don Corleone collected politicians in his pocket). I imagined a whole red carpet event, then immediately dismissed such a silly notion. On the website there was a link to purchase tickets to the showing. I went to do so at $7 per ticket only to find they were sold out! I was completely bummed but did not give up. The ad for the event I had seen was on craigslist so I decided to e-mail the person that posted the ad. Turned out to be the script supervisor. He was more than willing to help find me tickets. He knew someone who had bought four tickets and ended up only needing two. By the end of the day, I had FREE tickets! I think I was having the luckiest day ever with all these freebies. Kelly and I decided to get a little dressed up since we weren’t quite sure what to expect. The cast members ended up looking like they were going to the Oscars while everyone else was pretty much in jeans and t-shirts. The movie was a full length film and quite impressive. It was a Christian based film so a little preachy but overall pretty amazing. I give it 3 ½ stars. The only disappointment, no popcorn! Enjoy the trailer and spread the word. You can buy the movie online at http://www.findmethemovie.com/

#7 Go to an open house

Saturday morning Kelly and I got up and headed to a garage sale. We were out and about and ready to start the day. I’m not sure he realized what all I had planned! After the lame garage sale, we were cruising around listening to the radio and killing time before the book signing at 1 o’clock. I always hear on the weekend about local radio stations doing give-a-ways and what not and this weekend they were promoting a new neighborhood close to where I spent the first 20 years of my life. Go to an open house was on my list so I thought why not? We were already only a mile away from it so I headed that way curiously. We pulled up and I saw the KVOO radio van parked out front. There were quite a few people moseying around so we parked and got out. The radio station had a table setup in the driveway of one of the model homes. We signed up for a drawing and even got a free CD! I was thinking to myself, “why the heck do we not come get free stuff ALL the time?!?!?” We grabbed our free CD and headed into the first home where we were eagerly greeted by a realtor. That’s the reason I didn’t want to go to an open house. I hate being bothered by people like that and I feel bad at the same time leading them on to believe that we would be interested in buying one of their homes. Kelly’s like, “babe, we don’t buy new homes!” The houses were really quite nice considering new homes these days. They all have that cookie cutter look but the upgrades in these helped them to stand out. After looking around, they were begging us to eat free burgers. It just kept getting better and better! Free lunch too! Kelly grabbed what the guy said was “the best burger in town” and I settled for a hot dog. We ate up and continued on our Saturday journey. Anytime the radio says they are somewhere from now on, I’m there!

#6 Go to a book signing

I was so anxious to get started with my list that newfound opportunities seemed to be popping up everywhere! I managed to check three things off my list on Saturday alone. The first thing on my list wasn’t too exciting but I feel as if I probably made someone’s day while supporting my local community so that can’t be a bad thing! While scanning local events online, I ran across a book signing by a local author that was going to be held at a local bookstore. I’ve never been to a book signing before and I definitely have it on my list with us having recently starting a book club. Kelly and I showed up at Steve Sundry’s book store, one of the oldest family owned book stores in Tulsa, where there were maybe five people in the store. I saw the book I was looking for right when I walked in the door but didn’t see anything that appeared to be a book signing. I guess I imagined people waiting in line and that whole bit. I’ve seen too many movies! We walked around a bit and Kelly mentioned he actually had a book he wanted to see if they had. I was shocked because he doesn’t read! Anyway- he whispers in my ear a few minutes later that the author is in the back sitting at a table to sign books. I marched back there with my book and told him who I was and started chatting about the book. That alone is something list worthy! I usually get soooo nervous talking to people I don’t know. He told us his story about writing the book and I thanked and congratulated him and we purchased our books and headed on our merry way.

I was a little bummed because the original plan involved my sister coming with me. It would have been more appropriate because she’s actually in my book club and probably would have had more interest in it. Plus, we were going to eat some good ole fashioned food and shakes while we were there. Oh well, still turned out fine and let me tell you, I’m collecting local celebrities in my pocket! (And quotes from “The Godfather”!)

#5 Monday, Tuesday, Thursday!

Part of my list is to watch all those movies that have famous quotes that are often heard in new movies, books, etc. I hate being ignorant when someone says something from a classic movie and I’m clueless. I pulled up one of those lists online that have the best movies of all time. I didn’t necessarily agree to their list completely so I decided to pick and choose from the list. I pulled about five movies from their list to start and added them to the TOP of my Netflix queue (which was hard to do because I’ve been dying to see the move “He’s Just Not That into You” which was just released not long ago). At the top of the queue, “The Godfather.” It made a lot of those lists number one pick so I figured it would be a good start. Plus, I was dying to know what it meant to “go to the mattresses”! I was skeptical about watching it because 1. It’s 2:55 long and 2.my girlfriends that have seen it said it was soooo boring! I went in with an open mind though and I have to say I can see why people think it’s such a good movie. I thought it was pretty entertaining even though there were some slow parts. It was funny to watch though without all the modern day graphics used in film making. Some of the fight scenes were pretty unrealistic. Besides that, I was pretty disappointed in the lack of use of the famous quotes. There were probably three times in the whole movie that I counted common-to-me quotes. The most shocking part was that the “Monday, Tuesday, Thursday” quote was said by a chick in the movie! I thought that was pretty cool. I found out that going to the mattresses meant that they needed actual mattresses for everyone to sleep on at one location during a time of war with another powerful family. I was overall very satisfied. Below is Kelly’s favorite quote from the movie.

"Now listen: I want somebody good -- and I mean very good -- to plant that gun. I don't want my brother coming out of that toilet with just his dick in his hands, alright?"

#4 Plan a weekend trip for my friends

Memorial Day weekend was coming up and I decided I didn’t want to sit around and do nothing all weekend even though that’s exactly what I wanted to do! I thought about all those people though that would be having a ton of fun and decided I would be one of them. First, we thought about taking a road trip with two of our close couple friends but that just seemed too pricey. After a little bit of thinking, I came up with the idea to rent a house down at the lake and invite as many of our friends as I could think of. I spent the whole week before trying to find a place and calling people and making plans. I was so worried and all uncomfortable thinking how the weekend would turn out but I was proven pretty wrong. We ended up only getting 7 people together but it turned out to be a blast. Everyone pitched in and it was a very memorable weekend. Plus, we spent it exactly with and around the people we should when remembering the person we want to remember the most. He may not have served our country, but he definitely made a huge impact on our lives and remembering him on this day will probably become an annual tradition.

#3 Go for a lovebird walk

Kelly and I’s councilor Maria gave us a list of things to do to bring more intimacy into our relationship. One of the things on the list was to go for a walk holding hands. She refers to it as a “lovebird walk.” It seemed easy enough and I figured I could please her and cross one off my own list at the same time. We ventured out one gorgeous evening and just strolled the neighborhood. I brought my camera along so we could take pictures of yards in the neighborhood that we liked since our yard is pretty much a blank slate. It was pretty nice and peaceful. We’ve already gone once more since then and I have to say our level of intimacy is definitely increasing! Especially since we get to go home and wash off after the walk ;)

#2 Paint my fingernails and leave the polish on!

Not all things on my list are life-changing. This one for instance is something I have been trying to achieve for a longtime. Very trivial, yet I knew I needed to accomplish it. It was Friday afternoon for Memorial Day Weekend and we were heading out to the lake in a couple of hours. I had like always, put things off until the last minute always squeezing in too much stuff in too little time. I rushed from work over to my nail place. Unfortunately for me, everyone else had the same idea. It was packed! I waited about ten minutes and knew that making us late for the lake was too selfish. I told Mary I had to go and would come back later. They hate it when you get up and leave because they always need the business. I got home and pulled out a bottle of polish I got for "free" from purchasing a bunch of clothes from Forever 21. It was a pretty pink and would have to do. Knowing I would screw up, I grabbed the bottle of nail polish remover too. I don't even know what the deal is. How hard can it possibly be to paint fingernails? For some reason every time I have tried before, they never look good enough to me and after twenty minutes of working on them, I remove the polish and give up. I think working on my need to be “perfect” will also find its way onto this list! This time I knew if I wanted pretty girly nails, I would have to succeed. I think just putting my mind to it and promising myself success actually made it happen! My nails turned out quite great! I managed to only barely mess up one nail. As nails go though, they only looked great for one day which is probably why I shouldn’t be wasting money getting them done anyway!

#1 Start a Book Club

I've always had a short list of things I wanted to accomplish. I'm just as cliche as everyone else so yes, skydiving was on my list. Along with go to a big parade and the circus. That list was fine but now I'm ready to get serious. We all know life is too short and too boring most of the time. Starting a book club wasn't even my idea but it definitely became list worthy. It started when I realized I only had one lame selfish hobby, bunco group. My husband and I were constantly getting into arguments about how his hobby, golf, was taking up too much time. Instead of complaining, I decided to work on finding my own hobbies. Thus, book club was born. Yes, it's kinda nerdy but I'm into reading. I love the escape. I found 7 other girls to join and we have already held our first meeting. I had to push myself into a level of discomfort by having to host the first meeting. I'm not real big into public speaking even if there were only 7 women present. I managed though. Now I'm just hoping everyone shows up for the next meeting! We are currently reading the inspiring book, "The Next Thing on My List."

My Life List

After being inspired by a current book I'm reading, I've decided to start my life list. It's not going to be as daring as the authors, but it's a start. She says you have to put your list down on paper but I'm just not ready to do that. I know that putting the list down on paper makes it real but I'm too worried it will scare me away. She completed something off her list almost every day for an entire year. I'm going to start a little slower and just see where it goes. I've already completed several things off my list before starting this blog. The whole purpose of the blog will be to document my list. Wish me luck!