I don’t really like the term ‘bucket list,’ as those are usually the types of things you want to do quickly right before you die and I believe you should not wait to do things, because no one is guaranteed a long, happy, or healthy life. But a Life List is a fun and stress free way of keeping track of things that you might want to do to add a little more fun on the journey. Plus they say putting things in print makes them more tangible, more real.
In no specific order:
Finish my PhD – finished in 2021
Change all document to “Dr. Melissa Aho” – done
Join the Explorers Club – became a member (MN ’12) in 2012
Become a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations
Become a Member of The Baker Street Irregulars (BSI)
Get my private pilot license
Get a helicopter rating
Get a float plane rating
Get my instrument rating
Get my drone certificate
Pilot a blimp or zeppelin
Pilot an airplane in each of the 50 states – 3 so far: MN, WI, and AZ
Fly an airplane around the globe
Write and publish a book “The Machiavellian Librarian” was published in October 2013
Write and publish a Sherlock Holmes book
Write and publish a Sherlock Holmes short story “The Personal Diary of Mrs. Martha Hudson, Housekeeper to the Famed Detective Sherlock Holmes” in The Norwegian Explorers 2016 Christmas Annual, No. 15: The Miss Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Ray Riethmeier and Phillip Bergem, Editors. Minneapolis, MN: The Norwegian Explorers of Minnesota, 45-50.
Write and publish a book of bad poetry and photographs
Write and publish a book on female pilots
Translate an old book or saga and publish it
Have a photographic exhibition
Be an extra in a movie
Have my name in the credits on a movie IMDB credit for being an production intern on the HGTV show TIPical Mary Ellen and I was “thanked” by the Finnish movie “The Fencer”
Be an extra on a TV show – I interned on a HGTV show TIPical Mary Ellen (first season) and my hands were in a episode
Have my name in the liner notes on an album – In the liner notes for donating to Marian Call’s album Something Fierce
Be on a Podcast – 1/2 completed. My song suggestions were on ‘Off The Shelf’ podcast and I was mentioned by name.
Host my own Podcast on Books and Reading Book Talk with Melissa Aho started in 2017
Buy a book in a bar in Iceland
Visit the oldest bookstore in the world: The Bertrand Bookstore in Lisbon, Portugal
Go on safari in Africa – Went on safari in Kruger Park in August 2007
Travel the Trans-Siberian Express or what’s left of it
Scooter through Vietnam
Vespa through Italy
Visit Holland during tulip season
Visit McMurdo in the Antarctica
Stay at an ice hotel in Scandinavia
See and go inside the pyramids of Egypt – December 1996
Take a cruise down the Nile – December 1996
Visit Machu Picchu – January 1995
Sail across Lake Titicaca – January 1995 and had lunch with my sister on Isla del Sol
See the Door of the Sun at Tiwanaku, Bolivia – January 1995
Climb the pyramids of Tikal (aka Yavin 4) – July 1992
Go to the top of the Empire State Building
See the heads at Easter Island
See Stonehenge with or without druids
Surf in Easter Island
Walk around Pompeii
Cross the Australian Outback by car or airplane
Circumnavigate the globe
Climb Kilimanjaro or Mount Kenya
Travel Cape to Cairo
Visit Greece and the Parthenon
Spend the night in a “real” castle
See an opera at La Scala
Salsa in Havana, Cuba – July 1998
Tango in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Drive the ALCAN Highway
Sail down the Mississippi River from the Headwaters to NOLA
See the Taj Mahal
Walk along the Great Wall of China
See the Grand Cannon
Visit Oshkosh (the Holy Grail of airplane shows- camping under an airplane optional)
Go to the Kentucky Derby and wear a fancy hat and drink a mint julep
Storm the beaches of Normandy
Travel though each of the 50 states – 18 so far: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Virginia
Visit 100 countries – 15 so far: Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Canada, Cuba, Egypt, France, Germany, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Lesotho, Mexico, South Africa, and United Kingdom
Ride the Vomit Comet
Attend TED
Attend a Presidential Inauguration (had tickets for the 2021 Presidential Inauguration of Joe Biden, but did not attend)
Snorkel with manatees in the Florida springs
See a quetzal or a narwhal in the wild
Become fluent in Arabic, French, or Japanese
Buy a piece of Louis Vuitton luggage or a Hermes bag/scarf
Learn to play the violin or mandolin – took a few mandolin lessons in June 2013, tried playing the ukulele in August 2015, and made a 3D violin in September and October 2018
Play chess in New York City’s Central Park
See the Mona Lisa, in the Louvre in Paris – July 2013
Go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower – July 2013 and had champagne
Have my fortune told by a real fortuneteller
Start a business – had a few little businesses that did not work, including Minnesota Expats (the bag biz which closed down), but Second Goldfish (the publishing business) and Melissa Aho LLC (social media biz) still going