My "To Do" List

I've always considered making my "Life's To Do List". Back in senior year, my friend Jon Hensley and I each made one, but I didn't put a whole lot of thought or energy into it. Well, now that I am 8 years older and wiser, I'm going to try again. I've lived, loved, learned, and I think I now know what I truly want to accomplish before I die.

1. I want to meet and marry someone wonderful. Someone with an incredibly witty, sweet, charming, laidback personality, a sense of humor, a strong work ethic, and the desire to be a wonderful husband and father. I want to fall madly in love and stay that way for the rest of my life. I want to have the "white picket fence" kind of life, and someone to share that same dream with.

2. I want to go to Africa. I want to lounge on the coast of Egypt, visit the pyramids, see wild animals roaming free as God intended, and explore the exotic wilderness.

3. Speaking of vacationing, I want to go on a cruise. I've always fantasized about setting out to sea, exploring foreign islands, and sunbathing next to the pool by day and partying it up by night. I want to go on one of those all inclusive cruises through the Caribbean or Mediterranean, with someone special, of course. Maybe on my honeymoon?

4. This one is pretty simple, but I would love to be able to return library books on time. No matter what I get, how long I have, or how many times I drive past the library, I never return them on time, and I always have the fines to prove it.

5. I've never had a professional pedicure or massage...and I want them!!! I want to set aside one entire day to pamper myself. I also want to try this aromatherapy thing. I just want one day- just for me- to devote to complete and utter relaxation.

6. I want to get a really nice telescope. Alex dreams of being an astronaut, and I've always been totally fascinated by the night sky, so I would love to explore space through the lens of a really good telescope.

7. I want to sit in the front row of a late night talk show- preferably Leno or Conan. (The icing on the cake would be on a night when Denzel Washington was the guest).....

8. I want to own a sailboat. Growing up, my parents had a really nice sailboat- a 20 footer maybe- that we would take to Carlyle Lake every summer. I want to give my kids these same memories.

9. I want to buy a weekend/summer/beach house; just somewhere I can go to escape. Whether it's a house in Florida or on Myrtle Beach, or even a cabin at Innsbrook, I would love to have the opportunity to enjoy quiet weekends or summers away from the noisy, smoggy city.

10. This one is a given, but I want to meet Denzel Washington- somehow, some way.

11. I want to live on the edge a little more; I want to work up the nerve to go skydiving. I want to learn to waterski, and even parasail. I just want to get out and feel the adrenaline rushing a little more often.

12. I want (at least) one future student of mine to come back years after graduation, a successful member of society, and have me to thank for it. Without being the kind of teacher who inspires and changes lives, what's the point?

13. I want to reconnect with my father. We haven't spoken in 8 years, and I would love to soon be able to re-establish a relationship and meet my new family- stepmom, and little stepbrother and stepsister, Seth and Zoey. I feel that part of me is missing when I don't have contact with that entire half of my family. I want to do this before it's too late; my Grandma Jewel was always there for me while I was growing up, and I want to be there for her before it's too late.

14. I want to run a marathon.

15. I want to take a pottery class.

16. I want to learn to ballroom dance, salsa, tango... any dance that would be fun and different.

17. I want to learn how to play tennis or golf. Technically, I already know how to play, but I suck.

18. When the Titans make the superbowl, I want to be there cheering them on.

19. I want to go to L.A. and visit the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I want to place my hands inside the prints of Denzel's.

20. I want to join the Mile-High Club, a.k.a. have sex on an airplane.

21. Speaking of clubs, I want to start a book club, where other people with similar interests and I can gather once a month and discuss good literature over a few bottles of wine.

22. I would love to actually, fairly and squarely, beat someone in a game of pool.

23. My teeth are pretty white, but I'd like to get them professionally whitened. I've just never done it and always wanted to.

24. I really have no desire to go to Paris, but I would love to visit the Louvre and have my picture taken in front of the Eiffel Tower.

25. Last, but not least, (for now), I want to have one of those seemingly perfect houses, like the ones from the pages of "Better Homes & Gardens"- beautifully decorated, a massive backyard with a pool and fountain, surrounded by flowers and flawless landscaping.