Holy Buckets!

I started writing my bucket list today. My second bucket list, actually.
I wrote the first one junior year as an assignment for my College Psychology class, but I think I was trying to make it entertaining because there are things on it like:
43. Spend a night in jail
82. Find out how many licks it really takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop
You know, I really don't want to go to jail. It's an experience I can die happily without. And I don't even like Tootsie Pops. Why would I want to sit around and lick one all day?

So anyway, here's the new and improved bucket list (or what I have so far). I'm trying to make this one more serious, and also more achievable. Not that I'm limiting myself, just that I'm not including anything that I cannot ever see myself doing. I'm dreaming big, but I'm choosing meaningful, important dreams instead of random, unHollylike ones.

My Bucket List (Started August 15, 2010)
1. Visit all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder houses/sites (Pepin, Walnut grove, De Smet, Mansfield). Burr Oak is lame, and they didn't do much in Kansas-I’ll skip them.
2. Meet an author I truly admire and have a book signed by him/her.
3. Read a Russian novel.
4. Write a book.
5. Have a library in my home (with leather chairs and a globe).
6. Attend the Academy Awards.
7. Volunteer regularly.
8. Give blood at least twice a year for the rest of my life (or for as long as I am able).
9. Ride in a hot air balloon.
10. Visit Grandma and Grandpa Gruntner’s graves in St. Paul.
11. Camp in the Boundary Waters.
12. Go on Jeopardy (or at least make the auditions).
13. Climb a mountain (doesn't have to be extremely high or require oxygen, but it has to be a legitimate mountain).
14. See a play on Broadway.

It just occurred to me that the danger in keeping a list like this is the same as the danger in keeping my ever-growing books-I-need-to-read list; since it's an ongoing thing, it's impossible to ever check off every single item. I'll never feel like I've completed all of my goals because goals will continue to be added.
But I guess that's not such a bad thing. Even though I won't necessarily get the same satisfaction I would have gotten from crossing off the final item, I'll keep doing wonderful things and reading wonderful things because I'll keep dreaming up wonderful things. In the end, I don't think you should ever truly be able to put a cap on something like this. What a boring life you might lead if you did!

I'm going to end with a fun fact I discovered yesterday while Googling (wow I love that "Googling" doesn't come up as misspelled in the spell check; it's a real word now).
Laura Ingalls Wilder (aforementioned resident of aforementioned towns, author, pioneer, my hero, etc.) was only 4 feet 11 inches tall! And her husband, Almanzo Wilder, was only 5 feet 4 inches tall!
I know that people were shorter back in the 19th century, but jeez! I've always dreamed of going back in time and meeting Laura, but I would probably just tower over her awkwardly with my 5 feet 10 inches and embarrass myself.
I strongly suspect, however, that compared to her immense character and talent, her height wasn't so very striking after all.