This all started here, and it's changed everything for me. I'd love to read yours too. Make your own Mighty Life List, and send your URL to maggie at mightygirl dot net with the subject "Mighty Life". My list:
Go dog sledding
Safari in Africa
Scuba dive
See the salmon run in Alaska
Ride a camel in the desert
Pyramids at sunset
Tango in a milonga
Cross the Canadian border
See Cuba
Have a croissant at a French cafe
Try escargot
Take a road trip across the U.S.
Watch the sunrise over the Agean
Whiskey at a pub in Ireland
Linguica in Portugal
Open a Swiss bank account
Stay in the ice hotel
Visit that church made entirely of bones
Make butterscotch from scratch
Go on a multi-day biking trip
Fund and finish my art project/store
Gather a few dozen people to blow bubbles from the Golden Gate Bridge
Attend the San Francisco Black and White Ball
Grow vegetables
Learn to roll in a kayak
Publish a piece of fiction
Know basic French
Know basic Mandarin
Set foot on all seven continents
Set foot in all fifty states
Help someone get into or through college
Stand atop the Great Wall of China
Stand inside the Taj Mahal
Host an annual party when the fruit trees bloom
Go clamming again
Do two pull ups
Go berry picking and make pies
Meet Ms. Winfrey
Have a dog again
Take tap dancing lessons
Section hike the Applachian Trail
Make my own perfume
Launch a new Mighty site
Take Hank camping
Make a peaceful living space for our family
Institute chocolate and champagne Tuesdays
Tithe
Do a “10 Things You Don’t Know About Women” feature for Esquire
Attend TED
Give $100 to a violin-playing busker
Wear a large hat at the Kentucky Derby
Taste durian
Sparklers with Hank and Bryan
Get in the habit of grand loving gestures
Live in a house with a window seat
Parasail
Have a portrait done of myself in the style of a portrait of my grandmother
Swim with bioluminescent plankton in Puerto Rico
See the floating fire lanterns
Ring a church bell
Attend services at Glide Memorial
Take photos of the little girls twirling outside the Nutcracker
Organize a gathering for strangers I’d like to meet
Rewire a lamp
Use my work to improve lives
Form a workplace with people I love
Repay the woman who let me live with her in college
Participate in a giant food fight
Know San Francisco like the back of my hand
Pretend we’ve had a power outage once a month
Go a day without speaking
Plant a tiny orchard
Carve our initials inside a heart somewhere
Write another book
Watch Hank eat his first ice cream cone
Write thank you notes to my teachers
Own land
Throw a block party
Remove money as a concern
Write a million dollar check to a charity
Help decorate Hank’s bike for a neighborhood parade
Take a two-week vacation without computers
Attend my sister’s nursing school graduation
Zip line through a canopy
Lemonade on the front porch swing, warm summer night
Finish up or give up all the unfinished projects in the house
Play imaginary games with the kiddo
Buy a stock on my own
Make a quilt of Hank’s Christmas annual jammies
Supply an excellent dress-up chest
Have a big wedding anniversary party
Dinner at the French Laundry
Finish the baby book
Christen a boat
Read or attempt every book on the book list I started in high school
Remove toxins from our food and environment
Do something I think I can’t do (marathon, sky dive, hang glide, movie script)
Plant bulbs in a public space
Have a family portrait taken
See a glacier
Live in another country for a year
Do one of Miranda July’s projects
Excellent finds from Sunday’s Alameda Flea Market:
-A little yellow dish for keeping hair bands and such on my dresser
-A black and white ruffly hair cover, which I’m going to pin up and wear as a collar
-An incredible Bill Blass ball gown ($14!). I think I may cut it off at the waist and wear it as a shirt, because I’ll get so much more use out of it that way.
-A little yellow silk shift with a bow at the waist
-A small blue cashmere sweater, which has hooks on the waist, so you can wear it as a solid waist band, or have little meal-accommodating slits on the side.
-A pink silk cami, which looks like a reproduction of a ’30s style.
-A pretty handpainted silk scarf to wear over wet hair, Grace Kelly style.
-A Pendleton Blanket to add to my collection for the cabin.
-A Villeroy and Boch glass hedgehog.
-A collection of little trucks for the little guy, all of which passed the lead paint test.
Satisfying! Time to throw some things in the donation bin to make room.
For the sake of efficiency I’ve removed all the fortunes, tiny scraps of artwork, receipts for indecent things, currency from other countries, cowboy business cards, pretty leaves, and notes to myself to help me remember all the important things I no longer remember. And now, my wallet is tiny.
I made a sunny necklace, and it is adorable. Hello! Hello, little necklace.
In college, I worked at a bead store, where I logged many hours with a pair of tweezers organizing mixed up beads. You’re bored just hearing about that, aren’t you? Wrong! Sorting beads is crazy satisfying. Like cleaning out your purse, or painting your toenails. When you’re done, that one little corner of the universe is perfect again. Then you can take a nap.
The time has come to buy new underwear. However, since having that cute baby and then losing the pregnancy weight, something has gone awry. All currently fashionable underwear is now made to go up my butt.
Bikini undies? Sure! If you like them up your butt. Tap pants? Sounds good, assuming you enjoy that extra material nestled up your butt. Boy shorts? Why waste effort walking around for 10 minutes? Just wedge them up your butt immediately so you can tug uncomfortably at your jeans for the next eight hours.
Listen, I’m already wearing shoes that make my feet bleed. The underwire on my bra is probably jabbing my ribs. You don’t want me any more irritated. It’s taking all my willpower not to cut someone. Introduce up-the-butt pants to this precarious scenario, and I can’t be held responsible. I also probably won’t be able to operate a motor vehicle.
Do you hear me, Universe? Take me to your comfortable yet stylish underwear! You drive.
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