LIFE EXPERIENCES MEME

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink –do not drink.
02. Swam with wild dolphins – no, but once at Cedar Point I got to be part of the Dolphin stage show
03. Climbed a mountain – Boy Scouts. Philmont Scout Camp, NM. 2 weeks of fun!
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive – why a Ferrari? Corvette, yes. Porche – yes.
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula - I beat the hell out of a Black Widow once…
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said 'I love you' and meant it - frequently
09. Hugged a tree – also kicked a tree, climbed a tree, fell out of a tree, got blind-sided by a tree
10. Bungee jumped – only if I would be drunk. See #1
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea – would huddling in a leaky tent while two thunderstorms collide above the campgrounds count?
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game – every game at the ‘Shoe is a huge game. BIG 10 rules!!
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables – and had the pleasure of weeding the garden they were in too
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars – on the side of a hill after sliding out of the tent during a rain shower
20. Changed a baby's diaper- what Einstein thought this one up?
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon – got gypped out of one during my vacuum cleaner salesman days
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne – See #1. At most ½ glass on New Year’s Eve
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment – I was being fired from a ranch in Colorado. I went back 2 years later to a different ranch and completed the summer.
27. Had a food fight – I was the 2nd of two boys. The food was raw and plucked from plants in our garden…
28. Bet on a winning horse – I was actually 13 and not allowed to be but picked 3 trifectas in a Row. My uncle and grandfather only bet on the last. They split $700 each. I got my hair tousled and a firm ‘atta-boy’
29. Asked out a stranger – I am male and once single (then I was married and this became moot)
30. Had a snowball fight – both with and without pebbles in the snowballs and sometimes without the iceballs
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can - high school football. No really since
32. Held a lamb – and ate lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse - in middle school
34. Ridden a roller coaster- never since high school and only then because I was still more asleep than awake when I was strapped in...
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking - only for the imps.
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day – I actually spend each and every day trying to hide my Ohio hillbilly accent
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment - every day
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states – at last count I was in the low 30s
41. Taken care of someone who was shit faced – actually got someone shit faced and then left the party to try and get more victims friends to come over
42. Had amazing friends – is this ‘had’ as in the biblical sense?
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country – does Tennessee count?
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign – from a trash heap
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing – Philmont Scout Camp
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving – see #10 above
51. Visited Ireland – why Ireland? Why not other Islands like Greenland, Iceland or Bimini? I have not been to any of the above either.
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love – male and puberty
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow – most milking, even among the Amish are done via machines. Fed milk to a calf tho’.
56. Alphabetized your cds – and then used them. They need re-alphabetized now..
57. Pretended to be a superhero - I have kids. And also enjoy the odd RPG
58. Sung karaoke – I was booed offstage at my sister’s wedding by my neice
59. Lounged around in bed all day – ahhh, the benefits of a college education
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken - married once and am still married
69. Toured ancient sites – the walled city in the Philippines
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie – home movies—No, not the Paris Hilton kind of home movies!!
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch – before I found out about the hazards of raw eggs this used to be fun…
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo – might as well ask if I have done other permanent damage like body piercings
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage – see #58 above
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music – sent wife imp a tape with my singing…I must be in love
87. Eaten shark - always a better idea than doing the reverse.
88. Had a one-night stand – Hello!! Male college environment!!!
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently – how many words count as fluent?
95. Performed in Rocky Horror.
96. Raised children - currently progressing to 'raised'
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Created and named your own constellation of stars
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over – the business failed leaving us with a mortgage, rent on two apts., one storage unit and two car payments
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge – I have been driven across a few times..
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking - who doesn’t?
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived. – birth count?
105. Wrote articles for a large publication – former newspaper reporter with lots of front page exposure
106. Lost over 100 pounds – am working on losing 30 right now
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback – had a girlfriend in college and was rounding third and heading for home when she flashed back to a time when she had been raped in high school. No, this was not forced. She had been harboring major feelings of guilt this was the moment she unloaded them. We stayed together for almost 2 years...
108. Piloted an airplane – does Flight Simulator on the PC count?
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone's heart – male, college—remember?
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone – every toe on both feet
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced – jeez, why not stain your skin with tattoos, shave your head and join a cult!!
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol – I was once ranked ‘Pro-Marksman’ with a .22 caliber rifle
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild – yes but not gathered by me
118. Ridden a horse- I rode herd on a stampede of horses
119. Had major surgery – Yes, Tonsils
120. Had a snake as a pet – we captured a Garter Snake and turned it loose in our yard…
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours – good old college days and back spasms with prescribed drugs (I did mention the drugs were legal??)
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat – Deer, rabbit, squirrel, ostrich, buffalo, snake, goat (at least they told me it was goat)
127. Eaten sushi – actually I am strongly encouraged by my doctor to not eat sushi and not for the reasons most people would assume…
128. Had your picture in the newspaper – high school football. As a reporter I twice was asked to take a photo to accompany my story and had my car in the background..
129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school – two college degrees
131. Para-sailed – see #1
132. Petted a cockroach – I then tossed them into the bathtub and fried them with aerosol flamethrowers (more college memories)
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad and the Odyssey – and all the Shakespeare plays, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Beowulf and Dante’s Inferno and Paradise Lost/Regained
135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language – this often led to one night stands (pre-marriage)
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language – this is only for the uber-geeks! (I am merely a has-been geek)
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream. – however there is still room for improvement
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts - with help
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146: Dyed your hair - see the entries for body piercing and tattoos
147: Been a DJ
148: Shaved your head – had a headache after work one day and told the woman to use #2 clippers front to back and top to bottom. One would have thought I pulled out a gun and asked for all her valuables…
149: Caused a car accident – fell asleep at the wheel with cruise control locked at 65 mph. Pavement looks less appealing when it is sliding past over one’s head at high speed...
150: Saved someone's life

If anyone would like to see me expound on any of these items, shoot me an email and I'll try to answer them in a future entry.