Finding Anchors in the Storm

My Living List

It’s like a bucket list, but not.

It’s a list of experiences I want to experience while I am alive so that they can continuously inspire me to keep going.

No offense to bucket lists everywhere. But that just sounds so doomy and gloomy.

Why do we wait until the end to live?

2022 8 Experiences Experienced
2023 20 Experiences Experienced
2024: 1 Experiences Experienced so far

1. Apply to be featured in a local photography exhibit
   1. Done. 12.11.22
2. Learn how to box
   1. Done – Chief Cornerstone Boxing
3. Try Sushi
   1. Done 10.13.22 with AmyJo and Sarah
4. Attend a Full Moon Ceremony/Ritual
   1. Done 12.7.22
5. Cannonball without fear into the pool
   1. Done
6. Polar Plunge – Rose City PDX
   1. Done 2.26.22
7. Publish my 1st Book
   1. Done! The Lost Traveler’s Secret – 12.21.22
8. Learn to longboard!
   1. Done – Stronger Skatepark – 9.12.22
9. Go ice skating
10. Learn how to professionally wrap presents
    1. Done. 12.19.23 with I. A.
11. Participate in a demolition derby (as either a passenger, driver, or both)
12. Learn how to aerial dance
13. Help my girls find adventure in everything they see, touch, feel, hear, taste, smell
14. Write a second book
    1. Done! 11.30.24 – actually wrote a trilogy. Next step: publish
15. Laugh until the sun rises, cry until the moon goes to sleep, smile as the sun pirouettes across the horizon, love as the world passes us by
16. Stay overnight at a haunted location
17. Inspire one person and watch them (secretly?) pay it forward
18. Visit all the waterfalls in the PNW
19. Hike all, or part of, the Pacific Coast Trail the year I turn 40
20. Live in Alaska for 1 year when the kids are over 18
21. Learn how to surf in Pacific City, Or
22. Snowboard again
23. Learn about my past lives
24. Spend 2 weeks at Disneyworld
25. Jump out of a perfectly good airplane through Skydive Oregon and feel the wind push me as I fly
26. 16mi solo (or not) overnight hike
    1. Done. 5.20.23. Lewis River falls trail
27. Hike all 30ish miles of Wildwood Trail
    1. Done!!! 5.16.23
28. Learn how to take night sky photos
29. Enter a National photography contest – not to win, but just to be included
30. Become Tarzan(a) at Tree 2 Tree adventure Park in Hagg Lake, Or
31. Stay in an ice hotel
32. Wear a two-piece bikini
33. Make a beer bong
34. Play beer pong
    1. Done. 2.3.24
35. Indoor skydiving
36. Buy a storage locker at an auction
37. Skinnydip
38. Follow the Iditarod from beginning to end on the ground, in Alaska
39. Ride a sled dog team in Santa’s Village, Finland
40. Sleep in a glass dome under the Aurora Borealis
41. Watch the sunset on New Years Eve in Pacific City, Or and then drive to watch the sunrise on Jan 1st as high up on Mt. Hood I can get with a view (or maybe at the bottom of the mountain with a view?)
42. Take a boat ride to watch lava meet the ocean around Hawaii
43. Zipline
44. Rock climb
45. Go tubing through a Hawaiian sugar plantation
46. Learn Muay Thai
47. Learn MMA
48. Go bungee jumping off a bridge because my friends (ahem me) told me to
49. Learn Krav Maga
50. Go paintballing
51. Cliff Dive (Maybe just VR)
52. Attempt wakeboarding and/or water skiing
53. Wilderness First Aid Class
54. Drive from Newport, OR to Boston, Mass on Route 20, in one go! Straight through. Then, enjoy the sights on the way back
55. Get a Brazillian
56. Learn how to make a fire with 2 matches
57. Go to a Motorcross event
58. Go to a Rally Cross Race
59. Watch Rocky Horror Picture Show
60. Watch a live-action play of Rocky Horror Picture Show
61. Attempt to Burp the Alphabet (in one sitting or 100)
62. Buy knee-high boots
63. Buy shitkicker boots
64. Beta or ARC read at least 4 books
    1. Power of emotions by Judy Dyer – 1.23.23
    2. Awaken the Starlight Within by I.C. Robledo – June 2023
65. Attend a marching band competition in the south
66. Learn how to apply a face full of makeup
67. Loose skin repair (?)
68. Take a pole dancing class
69. Get Boudoir photos taken
    1. Of myself
    2. As a couple
70. Earn $3K/mo consistently
71. Commit to writing in a journal, with a pen, every day, for a year
    1. Done. 1.1.24
72. Hike 52 Hikes in one year
73. Be featured in a local photography exhibit
    1. 1.24.23 – Awarded a solo show for Nov to Dec 2023
    2. Done!
74. Sell ONE of my photos
    1. DONE! 2.28.23
75. Learn how to make coffee
    1. Done! 11.11.23
76. Write and publish 250K words (only including the zero draft of my novel)
    1. Done! Nov 30th, 2023
77. Lose 170 pounds
78. Go to the UFO festival at McMenamins in McMinnville (May 19-20)
79. Learn how to do night photography (similar to 28, but not sky photos, just photos at night)
80. Reclimb Sand “Hell” Hill in Pacific City, Or
81. Do Ape Caves again
82. Learn how to shave my face whiskers
83. Go to Vegas, kidless
84. Go to an NFL game
85. Learn Runes
86. Take a DNA test
87. Attempt stand-up paddleboarding
88. Make a trip to Crater Lake (preferrably on a Full Moon) for next book cover, maybe even pitch the lodge
89. Take a couples massage class
90. Retake infamous ferris wheel photo (iykyk) (during Rose Festival, from in front of where Camera World is or used to be)
91. Practice being more present
    1. Done! But ongoing
92. Visit unclaimed baggage
93. Attend an airport auction
94. Buy a bodycon dress
95. Rock the shit out of that bodycon dress
96. Muddy princess
97. Visit higher self in pdx
    1. Done. 12.24.23
98. I want to learn how to write like a journalist
99. Get a pedi from someplace that has those fishies
100. Renew our wedding vows at a destination location with closest family and friends on our 20th anniversary (together, not married) – Dec 9th to Dec 13th (+ a few days if wanted, 2025.
101. Portland winter light festival
102. Find a Lincoln City glass float
103. Take a cool photo of lightning
104. Adventure through the Nike Forest
105. Brownsville, Or in April to see the 100yr old blooming wisteria tree
106. Befriend a crow
107. Tree of life near forks washington
108. Attempt the flow rider but don’t die
109. Watch swallows at Chapman elementary school – all Sept, 1hr before sunset
110. Shamanic Peyote Journey
111. Go crabbing in the ocean and off a dock
112. Swim in a cenote
113. Fire walk but most definitely not glass walk or lego walk bc I do have limits
114. Enjoy a hot springs
     1. 8.4.23 Umpqua hot springs – Elsa and
115. Visit Moffat, Scotland during the dark weeks in Jan
116. Stand in a big puddle in swimsuits next to a road and let cars splash me
117. Try Boba tea with B
     1. Done. Oregon state fair 2023
118. Hang out in the dugout during a Bananas game
119. Sea of Stars – Maldives
120. Attend PDX Pride Parade – July 16th
     1. Done – 7.16.23
121. Attend a March for The Alphabet Mafia and LGBTQIA+ rights
     1. Done – 3.31.23
122. Attend a march for Women’s rights
123. Attend a march for Black Lives Matter
124. Watch PDX adult soap box derby
125. Leavenworth, WA during the snowy holidays
126. Dignity of Earth and Sky – Chamberlain, SD
127. 4 Corners Monument – Arizona, Utah, Colorado. New Mexico
128. Watch a live drag show
129. Visit the beach with the airport runway that ppl try to keep standing upright behind the plane.
130. Find a hag stone in the wild
131. Visit the Woodburn tulip festival
132. Cosmic campground, Mogollon, New Mexico
133. Attend an event as a photographer/media
134. Have a pie thrown in my face
135. Dunk tank
136. Oregon County fair
137. Ren faire
138. Food challenge
     1. Done! 9.2.23 Oregon State Fair 2023 (Marionberry) pie eating contest
139. Learn moon walk
140. Showcase photo(s) at OSF
     1. Done. 2023. St Johns Bridge and Green Abyss
141. Visit Rome and say “when in Rome” an annoying amount of times
142. Trivia night at a bar
143. Walk across the Golden gate Bridge
     1. Done! 9.30.23
144. Visit alcatraz
     1. Done! 9.30.23
145. Winchester house
146. Steam train ride through the redwoods
     1. Done! 10.1.23
147. Hot air balloon festival new mexico
148. Neon museum in Las Vegas
149. Climb and hop over a fence
150. Do 1 pullup
151. Watch paddleboarding witches (PDX)
152. Be part of a live audience on a game show or TV show
153. Manitou incline colorado
154. Attending the Macy days Thanksgiving day parade
155. Visit a black church
156. Learn how to play chess
157. Go to burning man, even if for just a day
158. Visit the last blockbuster
159. Sleep in an ice hotel/castle/palace
160. Learn how to throw a football properly spiraled
161. Bucket List Cafe – Center Ridge, AR – pancake challenge
162. Graffiti tag a procrastidoodle legally. Or not…
163. Hike a mountain
164. Obtain a jeep with removable top, paint it black and purple
165. Wear a ball gown grocery shopping
166. Viking village, Iceland