My Very Annoying Bucket List

Recently, I read the book “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin. It was very inspirational and left me with many things to ponder in my own life.

One of the “happiness increasers” (that’s my word, not Gretchen’s) that she shares in the book is how delicious it feels to really commit to a goal—and then, of course, accomplish it!

So I got to thinking about my goals—and then about my own personal bucket list.

For inspiration, I Googled “bucket list” to see the ideas that other people had.

Here were some examples:

--Break a world record
--Experience weightlessness
--Extreme skydiving
--Feed the sharks
--Ride a camel
--Ride in a hot air balloon
--Be a contestant on Survivor

Yikes! I don’t think that’s quite what I had in mind. For one thing, I really really really really hate heights and especially flying. Also, I’m scared of sharks, I heard that camels spit, and I am a huge wimp who could never last more than a day in the wilderness without my allergy pills, my microwave oven, and my sweet-smelling herbal shampoo.

Besides, I was thinking more about those types of annoying and/or seemingly insurmountable tasks that I often think that I’d like to do, but somehow never get around to it.

For example:

-- Clean out our hall closet and ditch or recycle stuff—like the green bar of soap shaped like a boot that I got in a White Elephant Christmas gift exchange at work a few years ago.

--Go to the doctor for my plantar fasciitis pain and get that damn cortisone shot, already!

--Clean up my blog links and get rid of old, inactive links—as well as add some links to blogs I’ve been enjoying but keep forgetting to link to. (Bad Alice and Yellowdog Granny, I’m thinking of you two!)

--Organize our bookshelves and get rid of books that I will never, ever, ever read.

--Somehow convince Iwanski to get rid of the books that he will never, ever, ever read. (This would truly be a miracle. Iwanski is an even bigger packrat than I am.)

--Finally take the three big garbage bags of “to donate” clothes that have been sitting in our bedroom for two months to Goodwill or Salvation Army.

--Tear the house apart looking for the tiny key (which has been lost for two years) which opens the locked filing cabinet in our living room

--After failing to find the tiny key, find out how to pick a lock so that I can open aforementioned filing cabinet.

--Clean out said filing cabinet.


Whew! I’m exhausted just looking at this list.

However, in less than a week I am going to check one item off the list. I FINALLY made a doctor appointment for my plantar fasciitis. And dammit, I’m going to get that shot, even if I have to scream “I WANT CORTISONE!” at the top of my lungs. I’m sure the doctor would love that…but I am SO ready for this pain to go away.

So hell, at least I am doing one item on my Very Annoying Bucket List.

So what should I do next? Clean out the hall closet? Organize our bookshelves? Find out how to pick a lock?

Whatever I decide to do, I think I will have to approach the task with an open mind…and an open bottle of wine.