My State Fair baking adventures got me thinking about other things I’ve vaguely wanted to do but haven’t quite gotten around to. And lo! Mighty Girl to the rescue! Her Life List project calls for making a list of 100 things one wants to make sure one gets done in life.

Coming up with 100 of anything challenges my attention span, so I’m going to start gradually and add as I think of items. It’s also a bit of a challenge that I’m not 22, so I’ve already done a few things. Indeed, having both caught a utilities employee lying about my not being home for a service appointment and won a battle for a serious refund from a different utility, I may qualify for having my own beer brand. (We’ll call it Ribald Rabbit.) Nonetheless, part of the fun here is figuring out how to earn one’s way to one’s goals — either by developing skills or by exerting charm — so let’s get started.

1. Be asked seriously who designed my outfit, when I sewed it myself.
2. Learn enough music theory to write a proper song. (It doesn’t have to be good. It just has to hang together.)
3. Write for a magazine.
4. Create a character so compelling that he/she/it gets licensed.
5. Cook a recipe from each of the 50 states (preferably something I’ve been nervous of tackling).
6. Participate in one of those interactive mystery theater events where the audience gets to solve the crime.
7. Take a random college course just from curiosity.
8. Climb Camelback Mountain. Also, get back down under my own steam. (Not everybody does.)
9. Get quoted in an article about the music industry.
10. Visit Japan.
11. Grow my own herbs.
12. See a World Series game in person.
13. Direct a play (right — everybody wants to direct).
14. Have my own brand of beer (well, it’s inevitable).
15. Win at blackjack (it’s the only form of gambling I’ll even consider).
16. Find out in person if Robert Venturi’s Learning from Las Vegas makes sense. DONE here, here, and here.
17. See a different more-or-less local band every month.
18. Try one of the local “best of” winners from the Phoenix New Times each month.
19. Write a publishable piece of local history.
20. Raise a child (jokes about taking my revenge on the school system are allowed).
21. Have somebody actually unpin my hair, take off my glasses, and discover that I’m sexy as hell (high selectivity about “somebody” is assumed).
22. Spend the night in a vintage trailer at Shady Dell.
23. Learn to belly dance (which means I have to remember to go to class on Sundays).
24. Volunteer for a community arts group.
25. Visit Paris with somebody I’m (mutually) in love with. (High selectivity once again assumed. I’ve already been there without that mysterious other, so it’s not like I’m putting my life on hold.)
26. Make all my holiday presents.
27. Press twice my weight with the glutes (that’s about 300 pounds — I’m now at 180).
28. Walk the entire length of Madison Avenue (from the uptown apartments to the rats in the basement, it’s not that far).
29. Publish something intelligent about romance novels.
30. Visit something local that’s abandoned, hidden, underground, or otherwise mysterious.
31. See a rock show from backstage, legitimately, without having snuck in, traded my maidenly virtue to members of the crew, or otherwise misbehaved.
32. Visit my relatives in Europe, preferably speaking their language (I could bring them vowels as gifts).
33. Have spaghetti carbonara for Thanksgiving, as Calvin Trillin insists we should.
34. Play games at one of the local bookstore/coffeehouse game nights.
35. Sit right there and have another beer in Mexico.
36. Go to an actual honkytonk with real cowboys and such.
37. Build a dollhouse that’s modernist (as opposed to my usual “contemporary”).
38. Finish Tiny Tara. (Start Tiny Tara.) Determined that my desire to do this project is dead. Sometimes that’s the lesson of actually working on something.
39. Live in the Midwest again (but not a repeat of Minnesota).
40. Drive across the dusty Southwest, stopping mostly at flea markets and obscure roadside attractions.
41. Learn to operate a power tool.
42. Pick an architectural phenomenon and do a whole photo series of every local example.
43. Learn to ice skate (yes, I lived in Minnesota for years and never did).
44. Serve on a jury (the attorneys always send me home during voir dire).
45. Grow something edible other than herbs.
46. Learn one of the really violent boxing-style aerobic workouts.
47. Contribute to a community potluck with people I don’t know yet.
48. Take a different online class every month for a year.
49. Learn to shoot straight.
50. Ride a horse. DONE! Read about it here.