AMAZING LIFE LIST (a work in progress)

There are so many days filled with stuffy noses, Mr. Potato Head parts, whining, wiping bottoms, emptying diaper bins, picking up spaghetti off the floor, laundry, more whining, more laundry, more spaghetti, cookie crumbs in the couch, Sponge Bob and so on… Sometimes I just have to stop and remind myself of how special and amazing this life can be. I was inspired by Mighty Girl to make a life list of sorts.

AMAZING THINGS I WANT TO DO
Ride on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, write a book, visit Morocco, return to Bali, learn to play the piano, live in Japan again, learn to speak French, illustrate a children’s book, learn to make furniture, find the perfect Chicken and Dumplings recipe, go fishing, vacation at a cabin in Maine, take my sons to Disneyland,

AMAZING THINGS I HAVE ALREADY DONE

Swam fully-clothed across the Seine in Paris at 2am, walked on a glacier in Argentina, seen penguins in Patagonia, lived in Paris, married a strange foreign man (literally he is both foreign and strange), given birth in Tokyo, given birth in Madrid, scaled the walls of the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City, Utah (okay, so I didn’t get too far up but still…), seen Madonna perform in person, danced next to Usher in a Las Vegas nightclub, walked barefoot on the Brooklyn Bridge right after getting married, eaten fondue in Switzerland, visited an underground salt cathedral in Colombia, ridden on the back of a motorcycle in Cuba, thrown a party with a mariachi band, spent the night in the Plaza Hotel, had an essay published in The Washington Post, driven across the USA in a car I was given for free by a stranger, seen a Spanish bullfight, seen the opera at the Met, seen the New York City Ballet perform, walked on The Great Wall of China, gone snorkeling in Colombia, Mexico, Cuba, Thailand and Okinawa, attended a rodeo, lived in a warehouse in Brooklyn, gone skiing in Switzerland, ridden on a bus full of Indians on “the most dangerous road in the world” in Bolivia, visited Machu Picchu, danced the tango (badly) in Buenos Aires, hiked to a mountain-top village in Southern France, gone to a casino in Monaco, spent the night (by accident) in a Singapore Love Hotel, won a costume contest in Japan, learned Spanish well enough to use the subjunctive correctly at least 50% of the time,  overcome more than one addiction, made friends from all over the world, learned to clean and fillet a fish, attended a live-sex show in Amsterdam while pregnant, sung the ABCs with Chinese strangers on an overnight train from Shanghai to Beijing, been serenaded in Colombia,

AMAZING THINGS I AM DOING RIGHT NOW

Living in Barcelona, raising two beautiful little boys, attending culinary school, speaking a foreign language on a daily basis, writing a food column for an international newspaper.