99 Things to Do Before You Die

(Photo by Anata  Nsg from Pexels.com)

I was going through mounds of paperwork several weeks ago and happened upon a folded-up copy of an article from years ago which had been given to me by a close family friend, Marianna. I have wrote about her before, she was one of my Dad's closest friends and went by the nickname Tia.

Tia was in the education field, a writer, artist and truly a romantic at heart. She was constantly spouting off euphemisms about living life to the fullest or how love trumps all. She was wonderful to have around and she remained close to my family until her passing. 

The article (with no byline) originally came from a Cosmo magazine from 1993 but I modified some of it so that it's pretty fun for anyone. Don't worry dudes, you won't melt just by reading an old Cosmo list! LOL.

I do not claim the list as my own and as I stated prior, have only modified it so it may appeal to both sexes or is more in tune with present times. However, a couple items were kept how they were originally written to show how much our times have changed. How many have you done? When Tia had given me the article, I had already done over 36 so I was on my way! I show my updated number at the end of the post! 😊

Here they are in no particular order with my comments following each. I divided each into sets of ten so it's a bit easier on the eyes for reading. Enjoy this fun list. It makes you think and gives you some ideas on what you could be doing with your life! 

• Give your mother 50 red roses and tell her you love her.
• Learn to speak a foreign language, make sure you use it.
• Go skinny-dipping  at midnight in the South of France. (Does a pond in Skook County count?)
• Have a love affair in Paris.
• Get dressed up and enjoy an evening at the opera, ballet, or symphony. (How about the Strausstown rodeo?)
• Spend a whole day eating everything you've been told is bad for you, without feeling guilty. 
• Be an extra in a film.
• Tell someone the story of your life, sparing no details. (Maggie's and my road trip to see Nance!)
• Make love on a forest floor or the beach. (Too much sand, trust me!)

• Make love on a train or a plane.
• Learn to roller-skate. (Or how about ice staking, snow boarding, or skiing?)
• Own a room with a view. (Nailed it.)
• Learn how to take a compliment.
• Buy a round-the-world air ticket, a rucksack, and run away. 
• Change your hairstyle totally or decide to grow/shave that beard!
• Tell some spin-chilling ghost stories around a campfire. 
• Have your portrait painted.
• Put your name down to be a passenger on the first tourist shuttle to the moon.
• Send a message in a bottle. (Mine came back empty. LOL)

• Discover your own personal style. (Nerd-jock)
• Terrify yourself by parachuting, white-water rafting, or rock-climbing. (How about bungee jumping? NOPE to all, LOL.)
• Ride a camel in the desert.
• Get to know your neighbors. (I'm SO lucky.)
• Swim with a dolphin. 
• Plant a tree. 
• Learn NOT to say yes when you mean NO.
• Make love on the kitchen table. (Note to self, clean table afterwards, LOL.)
• Throw an enormous party and invite every one of your friends. (I called the cops on my own graduation party in '88.)
• Have the ultimate luxury-hotel experience with champagne and caviar. (Done!)

• Write a fan letter to your all-time favorite hero/heroine. (Now what is Bugs Bunny's current address?)
• Visit the Senate and House of Representatives to see how Congress really works.
• Get your father to teach you how to waltz properly. (Wow very DATED. How about having your Mom teach you the Twist? My Mom did!!)
• Eat jellied eels from a stall in London. (NOPE.)
• Be the boss. (But don't let Diana Ross know, she'll be pissed.)
• Fall deeply, helplessly, and unconditionally in love.
• Ride the Trans-Siberian Express across Asia. (I'd settle for the Orient Express too!)
• Write that novel you know you have inside of you, compose, that poem, paint that picture. (Work in progress.)
• Go to Walden Pond and read Thoreau while drifting in a canoe. (Actually, I'd rather read Hemingway at Sloppy Joe's Bar in Key West!)
• Stay out all night dancing and go to work the next day without having gone home. (Done, several times. God I enjoyed my 20s!)

• Dress sexy, provocatively. (Ugh, I can barely make sure that I have no stains on my work clothes from lunch time.) 
• Sing as loudly as you possibly can from the top of a mountain. (How about just bad karaoke at a dive bar?)
• Dive off the side of a yacht into the turquoise Aegean. (Caribbean is good too.)
• Become someone's mentor. (Done! And a good friend is now MY mentor.) 
• Do a hair-raising lap in a race car! (Commuting to work does NOT count.)
• Pamper yourself with a facial or spa day. (Girls AND guys!)
• Shower in a waterfall.
• Ask for a raise. (For all you private-sector peeps.) 
• Learn to play a musical instrument with some degree of skill. (Done, piano! 10 years of lessons.)
• Blow all your savings and take a flight on the Concorde. (SO DATED! LOL How about just First Class?!)

• Spend a night in a haunted house - all by yourself. (NOPE. BUT I did grow up in one!)
• Stop hiding your true feelings and tell several people what you REALLY think of them. (YEAH! That means YOU! LOL)
• Read the Kama Sutra and put a bit of theory into practice. (I'm too clumsy.)
• Be serenaded from beneath your bedroom window. (And I don't mean by the feral cats of Lake Wynonah!)
• See the northern lights.
• Run a marathon. (Does running late into work count?) 
• Get passionate about a cause and spend time helping it instead of just thinking about it.
• Experience weightlessness. (NOPE.) 
• Ask someone you've only just met to go on a date.
• Drive across America from coast to coast. (We drove around America. I think that counts.) 

• Make a complete and utter fool of yourself. (Um, EVERY TIME I BARTEND.)
• Own one very expense suit, dress, shoes, bag, etc. (Ties count!)
• Make your will.
• Sleep under the stars. (Maine. Just beautiful.) 
• Take a ride on a roller coaster. 
• Learn how to complain effectively - and do it! (How about whining? I do that VERY well.) 
• Go wild in RIO during Carnival. (How about Mardi Gras in New Orleans?)
• Leave home. (Hear that Millennials? LOL)
• Spend a whole day curled up on your bed reading a great novel.
• Forgive your parents. (Done and with greater happiness as a result.) 

• Learn to change a tire.
• Write love letters to your gal or guy.
• Learn to juggle with three balls. (Most guys can't even handle two balls. 😉)
• Sunbathe naked. (Cover the jigglies so they don't burn!)
• Find a job you love! (For most people, sadly this does not occur.)
• Spend the holidays in December on the beach drinking tropical drinks. (I was on Sanibel Island over Xmas in my younger years. Does milk count?)
• Overcome your fear of failure. (Workin' on it!) 
• Sing (or be sung to) in a steamy smokey jazz club in NYC or New Orleans.
• Revisit your old school and old haunts from childhood.
• Donate money and put your name on something: a college scholarship, a charity brick, a bench in the park.

• Buy your own house, condo, rent an apartment, and spend time decorating it exactly how you want it to be.
• Appear on TV/Cable and enjoy at least 15 minutes of fame. (Hopefully not on the criminal wanted list!)
• Grow something from seeds! (I like to grow my herbs this way.)
• Take a cruise somewhere!
• Spend three months getting your body into optimum shape.
• Own a convertible and drive everywhere with the top down and music blaring. (At the very least, rent one like I did. I drove down the overseas highway from Miami to Key West!)
• Accept yourself for who you are. (Pretty good on this one!)
• Learn to give a speech in public. (You can't shut me up. Many have tried. LOL) 
• Scuba dive or snorkel!
• Go up in a hot-air balloon. (NOPE.)

• Attend a really huge rock concert. 
• Kiss someone you've just met on a blind date.
• Be able to handle: tax forms, telemarketers, your bank manager, your boss, your hairdresser, and power drills. (Power drills. Whaaat? LOL)
• Lose more money than you can afford to just one time at a casino in either Atlantic City, Vegas, or Monte Carlo! (Hollywood Casino in Grantville, PA does NOT count.)
• Attend a major sporting event: Wimbledon, the Indy500, the Masters, the Super Bowl, or the World Series. (Don't forget others like the Stanley Cup or the NBA Finals.)
• Walk along a seaside pier in the middle of winter eating hot salty French fries straight from the bag. (I haven't done it with French fries but with pizza!)
• Let someone feed you seedless grapes. 
• Kiss the Blarney stone and develop the gift of gab. (Again, I got the gift of gab. You can't shut me up. Where is that darn Blarney Stone???)
• Get dressed up and go to one incredibly swank party or ball. (Annual Henri David Halloween Ball in Philly!) 

Hope you enjoyed this. It was fun going through how many I've accomplished!  I recounted, and I have accomplished 58! Pretty cool.