Have You Ever...

From Ali's & Lisa's blogs... my 150 in red

1. Bought everyone in the bar a drink - My friends were the only ones in the pub at the time
2. Swam with dolphins - only at a distance... been much closer to otters, stingrays, baracudas and sharks
3. Climbed a mountain
4. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
5. Been inside the Great Pyramid
6. Held a tarantula - our Boss Game Studios office mascot, Kirby
7. Taken a candlelit bath with someone you love
8. Said "I love you" and meant it - If I say it, I always mean it...
9. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris - why Paris specifically??
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea - been in the middle of one, at the helm... pretty effin' scary
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg - it was a glacier, but yeah
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby's diaper - often
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne - often
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
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger - about a year ago, the night after our fire... can you say "insecure"??
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster - grew up going to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and Great America
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day - British and Australian, both as acting exercises
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer - only TWO??
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country - no, but got drunk with strangers in a foreign country, and might've danced, but can't recall
44. Watched wild whales - California grays, orcas and minkes
45. Stolen a sign - I didn't steal it, but I am in possession of a sign that may or may not have been procured by a friend as a wedding gift
46. Backpacked in Europe - rode in a backpack through Europe as a wee lad
47. Taken a road-trip - SCA member for a decade... road trips galore!
48. Gone rock climbing - Pinnacles National Park
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland - honeymoon
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow - cousins had a dairy farm
56. Alphabetized your CDs - it never lasts... now I group by genre
57. Pretended to be a superhero - as a kid, I had two alter-egos: Rainbowman and Dart-Man! Evildoers, beware!
58. Sung karaoke - Just Like Heaven by The Cure
59. Lounged around in bed all day - in the golden days before children blessed our lives
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving - former NAUI certified skindiver (i.e. everything but the tanks)
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 - since age 14, I have been involved in at least a dozen start-ups
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken - is that even possible??
69. Toured ancient sites - American Southwest, UK, Ireland, Greece
70. Taken a martial arts class - Heian Karate, back in Santa Cruz
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight - 6 hours?? Pussies. We did marathons throughout high school and college that went 12 or 14 hours in a stretch, totalling 24-36 hours in a single weekend... and I can say it proudly, knowing I was still getting laid (in fact, Sam was often in the game group) - and D&D is soooo junior high... we'd moved on to Cyberpunk, Call of Cthulhu and Star Wars by then
72. Gotten married - you know it... best day of my life (aside from being there when my kids were born)
73. Been in a movie - several
74. Crashed a party - and they were all the better for it
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice - the gondolas in Venice are a friggin rip off... water taxis and water buses are the way to go
80. Gotten a tattoo - Samantha's winged heart icon, right calf; India ink pen dot, left thumb (long story)
81. Rafted the Snake River - not the Snake, but the American, Colorado, Stanislaus, and Rogue.
82. Been on television news programs as an expert
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage - holy Jeebus, yeah
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music - again, holy Jeebus, yeah
87. Eaten shark - tacos pescados on the wharf in Ensenada
88. Eaten fugu (pufferfish) - that's just crazy
89. Had a one-night stand - it was a one-day stand, but yeah...
90. Gone to Thailand
91. Bought a house - same one I'm living in now
92. Been in a combat zone - no, but I live 3 blocks from White Center (unincorporated King County, whose major exports are heroin, crack, $2 blowjobs and murder)
93. Buried one/both of your parents - scattered my dad off Santa Cruz, CA
94. Been on a cruise ship - Alaska, 1999
95. Spoken more than one language fluently - first spoken language was German, but my fluency has declined terribly... wie schade
96. Performed in Rocky Horror Picture Show
97. Raised children - still a work-in-progress... check back with me in ten years
98. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over - Seattle, 1991... a decision we never regretted (and I still don't regret)
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge - used to cut school and drive up to San Francisco... that was a good day
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking - in fact, I cranked the window down and gave the snooty bitch a free concert
103. Had plastic surgery - cyst removal, right shoulder... and of course, the then-common infant male cosmetic surgery (but I didn't have a say in that)
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived - about age 2, went head-on into my grandfather's windshield (don't hold a toddler on your lap, people!), put a huge spiderweb into it, should have done terrible damage to the poor noggin, yet didn't even break the skin (but might explain some other things); age 14, hit-and-run while riding my 10-speed bike (by a woman in a Mercedes - to this day I will not drive one), threw me out into oncoming traffic; about age 14, riding with both siblings with my dad in his MG (don't cram 3 kids into a 2-seater sportscar, people!), hit passenger-side by a speeding cadillac, threw our car into the air to land on the sidewalk almost 360-degrees, miraculously no injuries; age 21, on the way back from Mexico, rear-ended on the freeway by an ex-con doing over 90 mph in a "borrowed" car with no insurance... we could have easily been flipped into the neighboring lanes, but Randy is an awesome driver and recovered quickly - then we chased him down and made him wait for the cops (how about that adrenalin??)
105. Written articles for a large publication - "large publications" in the game industry, sure
106. Lost over 100 pounds (45.5 kilograms)
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback - held Samantha when she was having a bad shroom trip
108. Piloted an airplane - my cousin's Cessna, for about 5 mins
109. Petted a stingray - up close and personal, Virgin Islands
110. Broken someone's heart - not my best day ever
111. Ridden a bike - I grew up in 1970s & '80s suburbia... remember the kids in E.T.?? That was us!
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone - finger & toe fractures only, nothing major
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol - all of the above
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild - many varieties eaten with meals at B&Bs all over the UK, plus some psilocybin in high school
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had surgery - impacted wisdom teeth, subdermal cyst removal, hernia repair
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states - wow, I guess so!
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days - rafting on the American
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad and the Odyssey
135. Selected one important author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating - just fish, nothing with legs
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language - used to work landscaping with Mexican day laborers
139. Been elected to public office - don't think VP of the high school Thespian Club counts somehow
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care - readers of this blog sure know the answer to this
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ - in college, some friends and I were collectively known as the Music Fascists
148. Shaved your head - almost... pinfeather marine buzzcut for South Pacific
149. Caused a car accident - driving a delivery truck I couldn't see out of (no injuries, thankfully)
150. Saved someone's life - stopped a horse from trampling a kid at summer camp; treated a woman for shock at the scene of a remote car accident in the Oregon mountains