I was homeschooled up until High school. Which means I was a total bookworm. Our curriculum had the greatest books. Tales of faraway lands with endless adventures... Fiction, non-fiction. It was all there. These books took place everywhere around the world and described in detail places like Ireland, Egypt, Morocco, Russia. There were so may places I knew I had to see for myself!
Last year when I went with my husband Up North to our family resort (my parents used to take us there yearly since I was ten days old) I found the cabin journal on the mantel - each cabin on the resort has one. Turns out I had written in this one when I was 16. So did my then 18-year-old sister and yes I definitely called her to make fun of her hilarious teenage musings.
So anyway, while pursuing my over-a-decade-old journal entry, I read that I had wanted to travel pretty much everywhere.
Fast-forward to now. I have never been out of the country.
I did go to a private college in the big city like I had wanted, then was very sick and pregnant when I had only two classes left. I never finished those classes and defaulted on my loans. Combine that with a failed business venture - the store my husband and I tried to start-up in Minneapolis when we were 25 (it was fun and we had a good run!) - and well, we've got some debt. Only a little. Up to our eyeballs.
But I still have my dreams! And where there's a will there's a way. Hence, the bucket-list.
1. Move somewhere in the South and live there for awhile. somewhere with dry heat. Nothing humid (go home Miami) Because I live in Minnesota and we live in Winter Land forever.
I just wanna experience a year where we don't have to wear a parka to get to the mailbox for months and then humid summer comes for 2 seconds in the form of a giant swarming mosquito cloud.
2. Rescue a few dogs. Because deep and wide is my love for dogs. This has been a long-time dream of mine since I was a teen. I still have the articles I had cut out about people who adopted rescue dogs or had non-profit ranches rehabilitating abused ones.
We have another year and a half in our rental agreement here and in the contract we are allowed no other dogs except the lab we already have. but if we buy this place down the road I would love to begin rescuing!
3. Tour Ireland. I myself am in fact Irish. One-eighth. Mom's Grandfather was an Irish-railroad-worker (now say that fast).
"If we go to Ireland then we have to go to Scotland" says my husband.
Fine. I just want to get some drinks at an authentic Irish pub and then go spot a selke.
4. Travel to see Corrie Ten Boom's childhood home, the Beje' in Harlem Holland.
Corrie Ten Boom has been my hero since I was 17. She was a rebel ringleader of the underground Dutch resistance against the Nazis during world war II. Her raw faith and vulnerable endurance through all hardships was a shining example to me during my own personal trails.
All my kids will definitely read her book "The Hiding Place" one day. I read it 3 times myself. I have always dreamed of seeing the little house with the add-ons and nonsensical nooks and crannies that she wrote of, and the secret other rooms where she bravely hid Jews when lesser men were afraid to.
Damn she was a badass.
5. Learn to swing-dance and salsa-dance... um, again (because I knew how at 20 but now somehow don't) - and (gasp) do so with my husband.
I'm not sure if this is doable while the kids are still small. pretty sure it's not. So yep, looks like we're gonna be those 40-somethings... bustin' a move on the dance-floor with our bad selves.
6. Go on a grand tip to somewhere just with my sister and I. We work great together. It would be epic.
And of course as always, some kind of natural disaster or native emergency would happen while we are on said vacay. Such is our luck when together. We know not why. But then we will do our thing of awesomeness and unite to save the world as usual.
7. Laser Hair Removal. Because I am super white, with really really dark hair... Ok ok, TMI? I'll stop
But it bears mentioning that I need that in my life. (Thanks for those stellar French genes mom).
8. I really wanna go to Africa someday.
9. Achieve zero debt.
10. Go back to Angelfire New Mexico and the Enchanted Valley. Cool story, when I was 18 my parent's and I were vacationing in Taos New Mexico and someone on the street gave us discount coupons to a ski resort up on the mountain. so we went. but it was during a drought with wild fires everywhere. once we we wound our way up the mountain, the wildfires had closed in and was raging 50 miles away in every direction so we were trapped there for 3 days. the resort was on top of the mountain in whats called the enchanted valley - the natives say its enchanted. it was a magical place!
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