50 years from now

My grandmother, Mimi, just turned 75 in early August. She was visiting us from North Carolina over Labor Day weekend and Nick, my 17-year-old brother, was determined to fit 75 candles on her birthday cake. A seemingly impossible task — oh, but not when Dad has a blow torch handy. This was the result:75 and it only took her two breaths to blow them all out. And she was so excited to see that many candles. I hope I make it to 75 candles.

Only about 50 more years until I'm that age. Thinking about that reminded me of this list I started keeping 2 years ago, "25 things to do before I die." I try to update it every once in a while. The last time I wrote it was about eight months ago:Publish book of poems
Backpack in Italy
Road trip to the west coast with Trey and Nick
Have a boxer/lab mix
Work in another country
Work for the Peace corps or a nonprofit
Work for refugee services
Live in Boston
Redo an old house
Have organic vegetable and herb garden
Live on a farm
Learn to play an instrument
Learn how to speak the basics of another language
Get married to someone I'm madly in love with
Learn how to ski again
Learn to surf
Hike a volcano
Have 4 kids
Adopt a baby from another country
Volunteer at a nursing home
Buy Dad a motorcycle
Travel to Ireland with Mom
Go hang gliding
Run a 10K
Travel to one new place every year
I'm realizing that in the past eight months time, I've actually crossed four things off this list: I've learned to ski again, run a 10K, traveled to two new places and have started working with a refugee service (volunteering).

Maybe the reason I keep this list, and the reason why I love lists in general, is the added sense of accomplishment they bring. When life starts to feel stagnant — when the weeks form familiar patterns, and long hours of working gunk up like plaque in my memory — lists like this one serve as a reminder that things do change, milestones come and go and each day is a chance to do something you haven't done before. (And yes, I am "that girl" who will occasionally write down an item on my daily to-do list after I've already completed it, just for the satisfaction of crossing it off.)

So it looks like I have a few open slots on my list of 25. Any suggestions on what to add?