43 Things...

Ok, I’m hoping that this post makes up for a week of really sub-par entries. That wasn’t my goal, it’s just that my life was surprisingly uneventful this week. Here we go…

A few weeks ago I heard about this website called 43things.com. Like every other page on the web, it’s a social networking site but the idea behind this one is that you list 43 things that you want to accomplish and they connect you to people with the same goal. It’s a little neater than saying, “Hey we like the same band, let’s be friends.” I haven’t joined the site yet, mainly because they are owned by Amazon.com and hence I have a horrible feeling that this is just a really complicated way to sell more self-help books. But, I love the idea and have spent the past few days sketching out my list. Here it is, all that I want to accomplish in my life, more or less in order.

1) Learn how to juggle
2) Watch the sunset from a beach in Australia
3) Write a novel
4) Run a 5K in a time that is less than my age
5) Open and close a bar (incredibly I haven’t done this yet)
6) Have Technorati rank this blog as one of the top 200,000 on the interweb (currently I rank 600,000 and change)
7) Follow a band on tour for at least a week
8) Learn how to play guitar and be able to play a) Damien Rice’s “Delicate”, b) Uncle Tupelo’s “Still Be Around” and c) Ryan Adams’ “Monday Night”
9) Participate in an open mike poetry slam
10) With the woman of my dreams, recreate step for step the path taken in Paris by Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke in the film Before Sunset
11) Appear on a game show
12) Attend either the opening or closing ceremonies of an Olympic games
13) In one day, watch all of the Star Wars films back to back to back to back to back to back
14) Read every Shakespeare play
15) Learn how to dance (in any way, shape or form)
16) Singlehandedly complete one of those massive 5,000 piece jigsaw puzzles
17) Weigh less than 190 pounds, marking the first time in years that I will not be technically considered overweight
18) Get a bachelor’s degree in English for no reason other than I think it would be cool
19) Meet either Jay Farrar or Jeff Tweedy and thank them for providing me with a soundtrack for the past decade of my life
20) Own a tuxedo
21) Become very actively involved in one of my three major causes/charities. For the record, they are autism research, health care for musicians and Katrina rebuilding efforts.
22) Learn how to make a killer pot of gumbo
23) Read Finnegan’s Wake, thus completing my path through all of Joyce’s major works
24) Get my car washed (not a major goal, more like something that just really, really needs to be done)
25) 30 concerts, 30 different bands, 30 days
26) Travel to the Boxing Hall of Fame to see the plaque honoring my great-great uncle Jack Root, the first light heavyweight champion of the world
27) Go to Vegas and on a random Tuesday in the summer, walk into the sports book and bet every baseball game on the board and spend the rest of the day sitting back and watching the games
28) Make an attempt to grow a goatee, if just to prove to myself that it is impossible for me to grow one
29) Stand on the field at Notre Dame Stadium
30) Get married, preferably to the woman of my dreams mentioned in #10 but barring that the cocktail waitress met in #27 will suffice
31) See the Northern Lights
32) Buy a house
33) Find a job that inspires me every day and where I leave every night knowing that I have made the world a better place
34) Order up a round of drinks for an entire bar
35) Break 100 in a round of golf
36) Make one serious attempt at a world record
37) Come up with my own catchphrase
38) Travel to Prague and be in the one place on the planet where people will actually be able to correctly pronounce my last name
39) Attend either a) the Final Four, b) the Super Bowl or c) Wrestlemania. Probably the latter, if only because I’ll be able to get better seats
40) Hike a portion of the Appalachian Trail
41) Be allowed to pour my own beer at a bar
42) Go on a walkabout, traveling until I find my purpose and then returning
43) Write a list of 43 goals

Hey look, I’ve got one done already! Sure, some of these are basic but I still think that it is a good list. And thoughts?