the reverse bucket list

Have you ever heard of a Reverse Bucket List? A compilation of things you have accomplished/done/seen/experienced. I started writing this list when I was in Venice Beach when I came across Erika's own Reverse Bucket List on her blog Chimerikal. It was also about the time I read Melyssa's post about why ex-expats need to tell their story on The Nectar Collective. Guys, I miss Italy. I really miss it. But even more so, I miss talking about it. Telling a 2nd grader during an art class that I've visited a particular spot on a map doesn't feel the same as finding another fellow travel addict or Italophile and just letting loose and gushing about our shared love for it. 

It's fun to think back over all the things I've seen/done/visited/experienced but I've never really sat down and compiled a real list of them. I've been pretty dang lucky these 26 years so far...pretty lucky indeed. It's also a good brainstorming activity to find things that I haven't done yet and want to add to my real Bucket List...which is getting pretty lengthy...

Erika said it pretty perfectly:

"sometimes we need to look back at the things we've already done and say, 'Wow. That's pretty awesome!'...And my intent is not to feel superior. My intent is to share and to open up. It's kind of a fun, 21st century blogging way to express some gratitude for some great things I've experienced in my life"

1. Road trip across the USA solo
2. See Mount Rushmore
3. Watch Old Faithful erupt
4. Go on a cattle drive and branding
5. Hunt for arrowheads and petroglyphs
6. Rent a boat and cruise the Mediterranean coast
7. Own a copyright 
8. Own my own small business
9. See the 4th of July from the air
10. Eat paella and drink sangria in Spain
11. Hike Antelope Canyon

12. Fly to a new country solo on an impulse (France)
13. Visit Death Valley
14. Surf in Hawaii
15. Fly from Belgium to Sicily in one day
16. Go to Disney World and Disneyland
17. Eat a 4 course, 4.5 hour long meal in Italy (for only 90 euro for two people!)
18. See a Broadway show in NY 
19. Study abroad for a semester
20. Live and work abroad
21. Nanny for an Italian family
22. See the Venice Biennalle
23. Race Go-Karts
24. Hear Elton John live in concert in Las Vegas
25. See the Grand Canyon in the snow
26. Graduate from college
27. Go backstage at a concert (Incubus!)
28. See Picasso's Guernica in Madrid
29. See the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris
30. Sail to Catalina Island
31. Meet one of my favorite artists (Arielle Alasko)
32. Find of one my designs on someone
33. Go to a commercial filming
34. Go to a movie filming (Death Proof)
35. Be introduced by Quentin Tarantino
36. End up in the extra bits on the DVD of a movie
37. Design a wine label

38. Be an extra on a TV show (Lizzie McGuire)
39. Camp on the beach 
40. Go to a concert solo
41. Take a defensive driving course at the Texas Motor Speedway
42. Go river-rafting
43. Sleep in a treehouse
44. Visit the Four Corners
45. Stay out all night til the sun comes up dancing at a discotheque
46. Get a tattoo in Europe
47. Go/get stuck in Russia
48. Live in a different state
49. Walk through Central Park
50. Be a bridesmaid
51. Get lost in Rome
52. Ride bikes through Ghent, Belgium by the moonlight on our way to a Chilean restaurant
53. Help with a wine harvest
54. Make gnocchi/pasta from scratch in Italy
55. Drink wine in the vineyard it was grown
56. Flirt in Italian
57. Learn bronze casting
58. Learn how to weld
59. Draw an 8' x 8' chalk drawing at Il Madonnari
60. Hike a rain forest

61. Visit the Caribbean
62. Go to a college football game
63. Find an underground network of tunnels
64. Pull a full all-nighter
65. Have an incident in Switzerland
66. Join a Bocce team
67. Finish a magnum of wine
68. Taken a tattooing class in Italian
69. See Lake Como
70. Kayak on a Bio-luminescent bay 
71. Visit the Sistine Chapel
72. Sketch Michaelangelo's David
73. Visit Pompeii
74. Find a FIELD of sunflowers
75. Roadtrip across Italy
76. See La Sagrada Famiglia in Barcelona
77. Drive a Vespa in Italy
78. Read the whole Dark Towers series 
79. Get onstage at a concert (Flogging Molly)
80. Shoot a bulls-eye
81. Go to a movie premiere
82. Learn how to drive a manual car
83. See a ghost town
84. Make/finish a full sketchbook

85. Sketch during a blackout by the light of a cell phone
86. Run a bar
87. See a World Cup game in person
88. Sew a dress and wear it
89. Go snowboarding
90. Visit Yosemite
91. Go to SXSW 
92. Go to ACL
93. Fly somewhere First Class
94. Walk across the Golden Gate Bridge
95. Visit Alcatraz
96. Walk through Muir Woods
97. Ride on a glass bottom boat in Mexico
98. Visit Sicily
99. See a Catacomb
100. Visit Carlsbad Caverns
101. Visit Roswell, New Mexico
102. Ride on a old fashioned train (Durango, Colorado to Silverton)
103. See Rainbow Bridge at Lake Powell

Have you ever made a Reverse Bucket List? What's on your Bucket List?