It’s a little embarrassing to tell you how long I’ve been working on this Life List.  I was inspired by several I’ve seen around the web and I initially thought it seemed like a pleasant diversion – something I could do instead of grading papers or the like.  I think I actually started  it while proctoring a final exam at the end of the last Spring semester.  Now here I am finally finishing it in the middle of proctoring a fall semester midterm.

The reason I spent so many months finishing the list was that I began to see it as such a self-defining task. It became something other than just a list of 100 things I wanted to experience. The things we want out of life — our goals, our plans, our aspirations — are nothing if not the most obvious signifiers for how we want to see ourselves. I had felt such strong emotions reading other people’s lists — admiration, inspiration, envy, and even sometimes a little smug disdain (it’s not pretty, but it’s true) — that I began thinking quite critically about my own.   Who am I now? Who do I want to be? What are 100 things I can do to get there? Or, what 100 things will signify to me, after I’ve done them, that I am who, where, and what I want to be? It’s a lot to think about.

[It’s also a little awful to think about wanting to do things because doing them will make you the kind of person who does those things, but, well.  That’s a philosophical question for another time.]

Although I wound up sorting the list into categories as you see below, the very first item on the list was also the very first item I thought of: right there in the number-one slot.  “I’m making a Life List,” I thought to myself, “and you don’t have to ask me twice what goes in the top position.” Articulating that number-one goal will, I think, give me some direction in the months to come.  All in all, making the list has been a very revealing exercise for me, so I thought I’d share.

What would go at the top of your list? I would love to know!

BUT FIRST: Notes and Disclaimers. I have actually completed some items since I started drafting the list, so I left them on for the satisfaction of striking them out. I have starred the items that I am currently working on.  Also, of course, it probably goes without saying that some of these may wind up becoming less relevant to me in the future. As for right now, though, this is the list.

I. LIVING

1. move back to the West Coast

2. live in a modern house

3. have a dog-friendly yard

4. have as many dogs as I want

5. make my house as environmentally friendly as I can*

6. drive a very fuel-efficient car that is also accomodating of tall people

7. live near a body of water, near the mountains, and where winter snow is easily accessible

8. banish all carpeting from my home

9. find and acquire the perfect office reading chair

10. design/build the perfect book shelving system

11. have a seriously great stereo system

12. design/build/live in an Earthship

13. have a beach/vacation house on the Oregon Coast

II. SPORTING

14. run a 5K

15. run a 10K

16. complete a triathlon*

17. cycle a half century (and maybe then a century)

18. run a half marathon (and maybe then a marathon)

19. get my (running) mile pace under 10 minutes*

20. take surfing lessons

21. learn the Ashtanga yoga practice*

22. sail the 400 Danish isles

23. start swimming for exercise

III. TRAVELING

24. spend the night of my birthday in the Ice Hotel in Sweden

25. visit Iceland

26. visit Greenland

27. visit Denmark again

28. visit British Columbia

29. visit Russia

30. visit France again

31. visit Germany again

32. visit London

33. visit Scotland

34. visit Ireland

35. visit Alaska

36. visit Yosemite again

37. visit Morocco

38. take a trip by train through the U.S. (and then maybe one through Europe)

39. take a trip by boat

40. take a cycling trip

41. take a truly leisurely road trip

42. take a first-class flight

IV. ARTS AND CRAFTING

43. write a narrative book (i.e. a novel or memoir)

44. work seriously on my photography again*

45. see and photograph a glacier (and then maybe the aurora borealis and a moose)

46. hang my own art in my house*

47. design the interior of my house in a clean and efficient way*

48. finish knitting that one scarf (and then maybe do a sweater)

49. start playing saxophone again (and then maybe play at least once with a band)

50. learn the guitar

51. learn web design, photoshop, CSS, etc. (enough to design my own site)

52. write more poetry

V. HAVING FUN DOING STUFF

53. sing more karaoke

54. learn some badass breakdancing moves

55. achieve excellence at vegan baking

56. have a vegetable and herb garden at home

57. train the dog to do more cool tricks, including not jumping on my guests

58. train a therapy or assistance dog, or help someone do this

59. host a fabulous dinner party

VI. WORKING

60. get a tenure-track job*

61. get tenure

62. publish that one article* (and those other two)

63. publish the book (and then start the next one)

64. learn Russian

65. learn Spanish

66. get in a position to mentor doctoral students in a way that is actually helpful to them (i.e. unlike how my program “mentored” me)

VII. GROWING UP

67. pay off credit cards*

68. pay off student loans*

69. set a secure retirement plan*

70. meet and ensnare a man I can stand

VIII. HEALTHY LIVING

71. eliminate all animal products from my diet*

72. lose the dissertation weight*

73. banish soda from my diet*

74. quit smoking

75. go all organic*

IX. ACTIVISM AND VOLUNTEERING

76. spend a week volunteering at Dog Town

77. volunteer at a local food bank or food kitchen

78. get involved in local or state politics through volunteer work

79. volunteer or donate to the local humane society

80. volunteer for a community education or outreach program of some kind

81. convince at least one friend to go vegetarian

82. donate time or money to a farm sanctuary

83. help support the cause of gay marriage through some kind of volunteerism

X. CONCERT-GOING

84. see Bob Dylan

85. see Dinosaur Jr. yet again

86. see the Pixies

87. see Morrissey

88. see Neko Case

89. see Death Cab for Cutie

90. see The Decemberists (and then see them again)

91. see Paul Simon

92. see Rilo Kiley

XI. ACQUIRING

93. get a nice DSLR

94. find and get the perfect pair of black heels

95. have a sailboat

96. find and get the perfect suit

97. get a bike

98. finally get that dissertation celebration tattoo

99. get a pair of high quality, perfectly fitting jeans

100. get a new laptop

I’ve now been writing here at Zemblan Grammar for five years and I can hardly believe it.  As you all know (and as one of my taglines states), it’s not about grammar.  What I have discovered, finally, after going through five years of posts in an effort to make some kind of hits list, is that it does seem to be about food fairly often.  I didn’t think I really wrote about food that much, but even if that’s true it’s still undeniable that many of my favorite posts have been about food.  How odd.

At any rate, here’s a list of some hits of the past, roughly in chronological order. These are all either posts that I just plain enjoy or ones that chronicle something important in my life or ones that should tell you a bit more about who I am – or maybe just who I was at the time.

I am Not Part of the Solution – As you can see here, I’ve often been pretty frustrated by certain elements of teaching.  Even then, though, I was aware that my snarky attitude wasn’t really helping.

Open Letter to the Federated Sandwich Makers of the World – My deep love of sandwiches, my deep hatred of messy cole slaw and lettuce.

Open Letter to My Heartburn – I really fucking hate heartburn, don’t you? But is your heartburn a character in a David Lynch film?

The Hippy Series: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three – Three separate posts chronicling some of my observations during my many years spent living among the hippies. Yes, they are also apparently about food.

Ain’t No Thing but a Chicken Wing? Surely Not. – In which I delve into more of my many psychological issues surrounding food, specifically why I hate touching it.

Case of the Conscientious Bandage – A slice of my grad-school nightlife: drinking too much and being clumsy and unsafe. Yup.  Lucky I survived those years.

Open Letter to Popcorn – More food issues.  Popcorn takes the special place at the top of the list of foods I really fucking hate.

Hand Me Down – An old post imported from another old blog (so one many of you may not have read). It started out being about a hand-me-down tee shirt and ended up being about a late, great friend of mine.

Ninety-Nine Problems and This Couch is One – “I’m the [lady] who sucks, plus I got depression.”

Case of the Canned Asparagus – Canned food, especially asparagus, is notorious in my family’s kitchen.  My brother and I were just discussing canned asparagus the other day, in fact.  Read about it’s mysterious allure/repulsion here.

It Don’t Take a Token to Get on the Soultrane – I tried, I really tried to write about my love for bebop.

On Love, Tulips, and a Clean Bar of Soap – Why I love being single.

Some People Ain’t Got No Couth – Ask Culture vs Guess Culture, or why I am a conversational wimp.

Anniversaries – My 3-year blogging anniversary, getting hit in the head by a tree, and moving across the country (twice).

Open Letter to My Twenties – Some of the things I said here are still true! Seriously, though, the thirties continue to be the best decade ever. So far.

Back to Black – Getting undepressed: I recommend it.

Grade Inflation: Safer than a Punch in the Neck – A little slice of life at my new job, and why my job security relies on convincing the little whippersnappers of their own brilliance.

Case of the Scintillating Acid Flashback – How I discovered I had migraines.

On Love, Food, and Business Opportunities – Another rumination on love and relationships that turned out to be (once again) mostly about my food issues.

An Explanation of the Title Zemblan Grammar – Just what it says, dude.

Easy Passive-Aggressive and Anti-Social Behaviors you Can Try Today! – Or, with the satire stripped away, “How to Piss Me Off.”  And of course, I posted this passive-aggressively on my blog, which is read by everyone I know who acts this way but whom I don’t want to complain to because I am, as previously mentioned, a conversational wimp.

This is Actual: An Extravaganza of Semester’s-End Student Emails – Another slice of life at the new job.  My whippersnappers are sometimes just not to be believed.

The Project – How changing what I ate changed everything about my life (yes, more food issues).