Thursday, September 15, 2011

Bucket List, Texas Style

Do you have a bucket list? I don’t, but not for lack of trying.

I’ve started a bucket list at least six or seven times. I always begin the list with “visit the Grand Canyon”, and then I can’t go any further. It’s not that there aren’t places I’d like to visit, adventures I’d like to have, and goals I’d like to accomplish. It’s that in writing them down, I set myself up for failure. What if I acknowledge that I’d like to write a book, and then for one reason or another never do it? Will I always feel like my life was less than it could have been because I wasn’t able to cross that goal off my bucket list? I know it’s silly, but the anxiety surrounding not completing my bucket list paralyzes me.

I’ve decided to give it another go, and this time around I’m tackling my bucket list a little differently. Instead of creating a master bucket list in one sitting, I’m going to add a few goals to the list every now and then. I’m also going to add – and immediately cross off – goals I’ve already accomplished so I don’t feel like I’m starting from square one at age 32. (I’m not embarrassed to admit that I add completed errands, chores, and house projects to my to-do list just so I can cross them off a moment later. Wait – you don’t do that too?) And I’m going to break down my goals into smaller groups to make them seem less overwhelming.

One of those smaller groups of goals will be “things I’d like to do/see and places I’d like to visit while living in Texas”. Here’s what I have so far:

- Attend a professional baseball game. This could be either a Texas Rangers or Houston Astros game, but seeing as how the Astros are pretty much the worst team in baseball, I’m thinking one of their games might be the way to go – cheap tickets!

- Buy myself a pair of cowboy boots. And I’m not talking about a pair of cowboy boots from Target. I want the real deal, even if it takes me six years to save enough money and I finally buy the boots as the moving van heads out of town.

- Visit the (inside of the) new Dallas Cowboys stadium. I should have done this last winter, when my Packers played in – and WON – the Super Bowl in that stadium, but for a number of reasons a trip to the game wasn’t in the cards for us at that point in the year.

- Swim in the Gulf of Mexico. Tom just reminded me that the waters in the Gulf of Mexico were greatly polluted by the oil spill a couple of years ago, so we might wait another year or two before tackling this one. It might also behoove us to wait until Hallie weighs enough to not be washed away by the ocean lapping at her feet.

- Watch a football game at Kyle Field (the TAMU football stadium), widely recognized as one of the most spectacular places in the country to cheer on a football team. We’re actually heading to a game at Kyle Field next month, but the game is between the College Station and Bryan high school football teams. (Every year these two local rivals play at Kyle Field because the number of fans who want to attend the game exceeds the capacity of the high school stadiums.) This game will count, but I’d like to see a TAMU football game at Kyle Field as well.

- Watch the TAMU Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band perform. The TAMU band, whose 400 musicians are all members of the TAMU Corps of Cadets, is the largest military marching band in the country and is nationally known for its precision military marching style, which I’ve heard is just incredible to see live.

- Spend the day playing in the wave pools and riding the water slides at Schlitterbahn Water Park, otherwise known as the “Hottest, Coolest Time in Texas”, in Galveston. Tom and I are pretty sure we’re going to love Schlitterbahn, if for no reason other than their unbelievably addicting theme song/commercial. I know all of the words, and have come to believe them as truth. Click on the Youtube link below to listen for yourself and then try to tell you don’t want to make lots of memories at Schlitterbahn.



- Attend a rodeo. Yes, we took our kids to a rodeo a few months ago. But because we took our kids, Tom and I weren’t able to actually watch many of the rodeo events. We’d like to throw on our cowboy boots and chaps (well maybe not chaps – I don’t have any idea what chaps even are), leave the kids with a babysitter, and head out to the Expo Center for an evening of bull riding and calf roping.

- Learn what chaps are.

- Visit the Riverwalk and the Alamo in San Antonio. Both Tom and I spent time in San Antonio, and visited the Riverwalk and the Alamo, more than 10 years ago, but we’d love to go back. I think the kids would enjoy a boat ride on the Riverwalk waterway and learning about the Alamo, and I know I’d enjoy a date night with my hubby at one of the Riverwalk’s outdoor restaurants.

- Take a frame-able/frame-worthy photo of either Bluebonnets or Indian Paint Brushes.

- Visit a Texas zoo and aquarium. I’ve heard good things about the zoos and aquariums in Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin, and while I don’t figure we’ll be able to visit these attractions in all three cities, I’d like to make it to at least one zoo and one aquarium.

And that’s all I have, at least right now. Those of you who live in Texas, have lived in Texas, or have visited in Texas – what am I forgetting? What else should I add to my list?

1 comment:

  1. I am not sure what you are forgetting, but now I want to go to Schlitterbahn, ay oh! Only too bad for me, there's not one in Illinois...I smell a visit :)

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