Life's too short...

So, I was thinking about my own mortality. The passing of Tim Russert and Tony Snow has put me in a somewhat reflective mood. There was a particularly poorly reviewed movie, called "The Bucket List" that focused on things that you want to do before you kick the bucket. I'm not that old, but I'm coming to the conclusion that life's too short to just stay at the office and count what money or stuff you accumulate. So, I started thinking about some things I want to do...this isn't intended to be too overly serious...so let's not take this too seriously! Here's some of the stuff I am thinking about doing...

1. Spend July in France...I would really like to see the Tour de France...hang out up on some mountain road with a bunch of crazy international folk and have fun. I don't know why, but I want to wear a giant beaver suit and run out in front of the peleton for a short period. I see this old guy dressed as the devil with the pitchfork running out in front every year that I tune in to the tour. I want to be "the beaver guy" at the event.

2. I want to sit down for an evening of that sweet vietnamese coffee (you know...the kind with condensed milk)at a table on the beach (at a beautiful island resort) with Eric Clapton and Anthony Hopkins. I want to just talk about life with them and listen to the waves on the beach. Those guys probably have some tales to tell...and I just want to sit and listen.

3. I want to run a small tour and diving business in the Philippines. It would be great to learn everything I possibly could about a place and share that with people. Oh...yeah...baby that would be nice...Sun...sand...me...my boat...and tourists with sunscreen on their noses...

4. I want to try and do a standup routine at a comedy club. The routine would be about family...being a spouse and a parent. Heck...our lives are pretty funny. I might bomb, but who cares...My family provides so much good material. It would be a shame to keep all of that fun and weirness to myself.

5. Try to teach my wife to ski again. Since she only made it 1/4 of the way up the bunny hill last time, I feel it's my duty to get her up and going next winter. I know she's not going to be ready for anything close to the mountains of Jackson Hole, but I'm not giving up till she gets up that danged tow rope!!!

6. I want to see Dave Matthews in an outdoor concert during the summer with my wife. She's the big Dave Matthews fan, but I'd get a kick out of going too. I don't know how people would handle the geeky guy with a hawaiian shirt dancing in front of his lawn chair, but I don't care. I'm a dork...I like music...I wear bad hawaiian shirts...and most importantly...I dance, therefore I am.

7. I want to volunteer for a summer to work for a Korean Professional Baseball team. I would love to help the foreign players adjust to their new surroundings and make it fun...plus I get to hang out and watch baseball. I'd like to see if they pull pranks on each other like players do in the major leagues here in the states. If they don't I'd like to introduce them to the fine art of the shaving cream pie in the face or the dugout hotfoot. Maybe I can get some souveniers too...I've been thinking about seeing if I could get some Korean Baseball souveniers. Oh, I've switched teams...I'm cheering for the Lotte Giants now...

8. I have to say something silly...Hang glide nude over Dick Cheney's ranch in Wyoming. Whoops, maybe not...I could be the victim of an errant shot.

9. I want to be the voice of a character in a pixar movie. My voice sounds kind of dorky/silly, so it might just fit in...

10. I want to speak at Wartburg College's commencement ceremony one year...just to let them know that life's fun, a little weird, and way too short to be serious all the time.

You know...I don't know if I'll do any of those things...but what the heck. Why not dream...