Crossing something off my bucket list (kind of)

Full disclosure: I don't have an actual bucket list, at least not something physical. And I don't have a lofty list of things I hope to accomplish partly because I am not that motivated but mostly because I am risk-averse. I would think people would have things like sky-diving or mountain-climbing on their lists.

For many years I wanted to travel to a few places, including New Orleans, California, and Hawaii. But since I hate flying, I have decided if I make it to Hawaii, that would be great. Beyond that, this homebody just does not have a travel wish or bucket list. I guess I should be glad I went to Europe when I was in high school (which also happened to be the first time I ever flew on an airplane).

I really don't know the kinds of things people even put on their bucket lists. I got married and had a kid.  I own a house (though as I have said many times that is not all it is cracked up to be). When I was in high school, I did not even care if I went to college, but when both of your parents did and your older brother graduates at the top of his class, and you are a straight-A student, it is pretty much a given. (And I am very glad I did.)

Since then I have put getting a second degree on my not-really a bucket list, but, as I have clearly established on this blog and in my life in general, I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, so there is no way I would go back to school. Plus there is the time factor. Thankfully I can get a huge chunk of my next degree paid for if I stay at my current job, so hopefully I will be able to get more collegiate someday.

But back to the point of my post. There has been something I had wanted to do since probably I was in high school. In fact I am pretty sure I blogged about it before. I had always wanted to sing the National Anthem at Three Rivers Stadium. When that stadium was imploded in 2001 or whenever it was, so went that dream with it. But by that time, I figured the chances of my singing in the replacement stadiums, PNC Park or Heinz Field, were pretty slim; I am just not that good. But somewhere in the back of my mind, I have kept the thought of singing the NA at some significant event. 

About a week ago, our choir director sent us an email about singing the National Anthem. I saw only the words "PNC Park," and thought my dream was coming true. When I read the email more closely, I discovered he actually was asking us to sing for the opening ceremonies for the Purplestride walk for pancreatic cancer, which happened to be near PNC Park. I decided this was about as close as I was going to get to my dream. But, as important, we would be doing this for a fellow choir member who lost her mom to this awful disease last year. 

So yesterday morning, a small but mighty group of us set off for Purplestride. And at about 9:25 a.m., I sang my heart out, in between Heinz Field and PNC Park (pretty close to the site of Three Rivers  Stadium, actually). I even got to hold one of the mics!

I might actually type up or hand-write a bucket list just to be able to cross off something that came pretty darn close to something I have wanted to do for so long. 

:-)

Below is a view from the stage just before we sang. Unfortunately I am on my mom's iPad and I could not figure out how to save a picture from email, so ignore the extra iPad crap. If only someone had recorded it...