This is a page that is really just for me, although you are welcome to read it, too. It might tell you more about me, or at least who I wish I could be and what I wish I could do. Some are beyond the realm of possibility—I know that, but a girl can dream.

I just thought it might be interesting for me, several years down the road, to look back and see if I have accomplished any of these things. Maybe having a list will encourage me to actually do these things. Then again, not doing them may make me think I’m a failure (gulp!). If I really do any of these things, I’ll be sure to update it.

So, in no particular order of preference, here is my “Wishlist.”

• I’d like to kiss the Blarney Stone. I want to go to Ireland and see the land from which my people sprang.
• I’d enjoy sitting down to eat a meal cooked by Emeril, and getting to hear him say, “BAM.”
• I wish I could take a summer off and help build a house for Habitat for Humanity. I don’t know what help I’d be … but I’d like to try.
• I’d like to stand in a field filled with Monarch butterflies, just to feel the magic.
• If my husband and I could learn to slow dance together, I’d be delighted.
• How cool would it be to see a Shakespeare play at the Globe Theater? Very.
• I’d like to go on a horseback ride in the mountains. Any mountains, I’m not picky. I love horses, and always wanted one, but Daddy wouldn’t get me one. Probably because we lived in town, but also because he figured he’d have to scoop out the stall!
• But, I’d also like to ride a camel (if someone will muzzle it so it won’t spit on me).
• And, an elephant! I want to ride an elephant!
• Chicago could be my kind of town. I’ve never visited, but I want to do so. When it’s warm!
• Then again, I left my heart in San Francisco. I wish I could visit it regularly. It’s about the only place I’ve found that would make me willing to move from Texas.
• I think it would be a blast to take a month long tour of Old Route 66, take pictures, and eat at any diners that are left along the way. If all the bacon I eat doesn’t give me a heart attack, that diner food sure would.
• I want to take painting lessons. I’d have to call it “modern art,” because I doubt I have any skill, but I’m willing to try.
• I’d like to get all my family photos (I have three generations of them!) and the ephemera (Daddy’s love letters and such) into albums and preserved. That might take several generations to do!
• I want to go up, up, and away in a hot air balloon!
• But, I’d gladly ride on a Mississippi Riverboat, too.
• Riding on an Amtrak Train wouldn’t be so bad either, or would it?.
• In fact, I’d like to make a list of all the historic trains in the U.S. and ride every one.
• I’d like to hear Keb Mo in concert. I’ve “almost” gotten to hear him several times, but it hasn’t happened yet.
• Bonnie Raitt is my hero. I wish I could sit down for coffee with her.
• I wish I could own a Nash Metropolitan, before my legs are so crippled up with arthritis that I can’t fold myself into one!
• It would be interesting to live for a week (no more than that) as the early settler’s to Texas did. If I had to live without air conditioning and a refrigerator for a week, I might appreciate what I have.
• It would be glorious to spend a week at a really expensive spa being pampered silly (er).
• When I was younger, I could sorta read music, but the skill is lost to me now. I wish I would find an on-line tutorial and learn to read music again.
• Maybe if I learned to read music again, I could learn to play the flute. I make a gosh-awful sound when I try.
• Theeeeey’re OFF! I want to go see the Kentucky Derby. Did I mention I love horses?
• I’d like to spend one Christmas where it is white with snow … as long as I have a warm coat and chestnuts roasting on an open fire!
• Maybe that Christmas could be in historic Williamsburg! I’ve never seen that either.
• A jeep tour through the mountains of Colorado visiting ghost towns wouldn’t be so bad.
• Or, I could stay in more “haunted hotels” and see if any ghosts appear.
• The fall foliage in New England would be a wonderful sight to see.
• While I’m there, I could visit Boston.
• I could go to the other coast and visit Vancouver, B.C. again. My husband and I could take the ferry to Victoria for high tea at the Empress Hotel.
• Then we could board a cruise ship and tour Alaska. I’m not one of those Texans who harbor a grudge against Alaska for being a bigger state than Texas.
• I even want to see Hawaii, but I’d have to be willing to be seen in a bathing suit. That one may have to wait awhile.
• Because, I want to be able to fit the “skinny jeans” that I have hidden in the back of the closet. Menopause is not kind to me. Or, maybe it’s all that bacon?
• I’d like to set up a monthly Bingo game to give prizes to the residents at a local home for people who are HIV positive with no “resources.” I did that once, and it was one of the best experiences I have ever had.
• Gourmet cooking lessons would be fun. My husband would probably like for me to take them!
• Feeling the wind blowing in my hair riding down the highway on the back of a Harley would be a “trip.” Of course, I wouldn’t do feel the wind in my hair, because I’d have a helmet on. I don’t want to “drive” the Harley—I just want to ride.
• A Broadway play in New York City would be dandy!
• While I’m there, I want it to be the 4th of July, so I can view the fireworks popping in the sky over the Statue of Liberty.
• If New Orleans ever recovers, I’d like to see it again. I could drink a Hurricane on Bourbon Street…but I don’t want to see a hurricane, and I don’t want to see the destruction that one left behind.
• If no hurricane would visit while I was there, I’d spend a summer in Key West. Again, there is that problem about the bathing suit…
• I’d go to Savannah, too, but not in the heat of the summer. Southern girls aren’t supposed to sweat; instead they “dew.” I guess I’m not a purebred, because I sweat something fierce.
• With a pocketful of money, I’d visit Las Vegas once. I would hope to come home without losing my shirt.
• In Galveston there is a clipper ship called The Elissa. It sails a couple of times a year. I’d love to sail on it, but you have to take a month long course to learn how to be a “shiphand.” I’d probably get seasick, anyway.
• The King Biscuit Blues Fest would be right up my alley (what’s not to love about biscuits? or, the blues?)
• I’d enjoy pottery lessons. I took a class in pottery in college; it was the only course that threatened my 4.0 grade average! If no one was grading me, I’d do it again.
• I want to see Eddie Izzard perform.
• I’d go to Australia in a heartbeat.
• Or, to New Zealand.
• Touring Scotland and England wouldn’t be bad either, but I don’t like warm beer.
• You wouldn’t have to twist my arm to make me go tour Tuscany, either.
• Give me a couple of weeks and I could tour part of the Smithsonian. Give me a month, and I could tour half of it.
• There’s a garage sale that is billed as “The World’s Longest,” which stretches through several states. If I could go on that with a big truck, a wallet of cash, and my husband to tote the heavy stuff I would have a blast.
• I could walk for a day on the Appalachian Trail.
• The Aztec Pyramids would be a wonderful sight at night.
• Before that trip, I’d want to learn Spanish. I’ve only wanted to do that for forty years or so. Yo no tengo muchas palabras de Espanol en mi cabeza. I don’t write it very well either, and it doesn’t seem to be in my computers dictionary. Oh, well.
• I want to go somewhere elegant in the back of a limousine.
• Maybe the limousine would take me to the Cannes Film Festival, and I could be one of the “in” crowd.
• I wish I could knit without my hands starting to ache.
• I’d go on a photo safari in Africa.
• The original Riverdance would have been fun to see, but I’d go see it anyway, if it would come around here.
• A canoe trip down a scenic river (not a lot of rapids, please) would be fun.
• It would be great to get to visit every single National Park in the U.S.
• Or spend a week in Cape Cod.
• The best wish of all would be: to be able to do all these things, write about them, and GET PAID to do it! I would love to write for magazines, but know that I would never have the courage to even try.