Is it just me or is death everywhere this last week? Sydney Pollack?? Oh my God. Who even knew he was ill? Yves Saint-Laurent. Bo Diddly. A friend of friends of ours at 40-something from colon cancer. A friend of one of a guy I went to lunch with – also 40s – of ALS.
It’s all making me want to cross the street very carefully and look to establishing a firm grip on my legacy. I’m white-knuckled about that on the best of days, so grasping on even tighter is making my hands hurt.
You know how they say you should stop and smell the roses? That you should live each day as if it were your last? That’s a lot of pressure. It also doesn’t leave a lot of time for things like sorting through sixteen boxes of books you have in storage, which I will admit with a blush that I find very satisfying. Also, smelling the roses is not what I’d do if this were my last day. I would probably frantically finish my play. I think I must be missing the point at least a little.
Maggie Mason over at Mighty Girl posted a Things To Do Before I Go list recently (list is at the bottom of the left nav) and recent events have prompted me to get going on mine. What do you want to get done before the hand in the sky reaches down for you?
Things I Want to Do Before I Go
1. Dive on the Great Barrier Reef.
2. Get a massage on a beach in Thailand.
3. Read all the books I own.
4. Produce one of my plays.
5. Go to Iceland.
6. See the Northern Lights.
7. Romp around Italy for a month.
8. Learn to surf.
9. Eat healthy most of the time for a month and enjoy it.
10. Find the perfect pair of sunglasses.
11. Speak French fluently and without my American accent.
12. Have someone ask for my autograph.
13. Take a boat around Stockholm.
14. Renovate a place so that I want to be there all the time.
15. Learn to make crème brulee.
16. Find knitting relaxing.
17. Learn to meditate (at least a little).
18. Have those little designer chocolates in Belgium.
19. Buy something design-y in Copenhagen.
20. Write that piece on superhero movies that I’ve been meaning to write forever.
21. Have the adoration of the masses. Or even a small mass. That would be fine.
22. Be able to give someone I trust a lot of money when they need it.
23. Move back to New York.
24. Own a Mini just because I love it and not because it’s the best car out there.
25. Make my grandmother’s Swedish rye bread without leaving dough on the walls.
Displaced 
You make me feel so suburban. My list would include such “lofty” goals as buying a house with move-in condition plumbing, finish one of the graduate degrees I’ve started over the years, and have enough babies to necessitate the minivan that I really want.
i was just at a yoga class tonight and she told us to make a list of things that we take pleasure in: i could almost promise you that sorting thru 16 boxes of stored books is on my list.