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...

Why do they stand up there and say that when they are just lying?

That extra-long title is courtesy of my nine-year-old and was something she uttered during "Say Yes to the Dress" on Friday evening. I watch very little reality TV, but I make an exception for this show because I like to look at the dresses. And sometimes, the stories are heart-warming. Typically at the end of the show, a snippet of a wedding is aired. In this particular show, a woman who was confined to a wheelchair was exchanging vows with her fiance. After the two of them finished, J made her comment. I asked her what she meant as I must have been on the computer while the TV was on, and she explained that because so many people just get divorced, why do they even say "as long as we both shall live"? That is tough one, kid. I tried with what I thought was a sound explanation: Most of the people who get married truly believe they will be together the rest of their lives, but sometimes it just doesn't work out. But if you don't think that you will be ...

What a year 2021 has been (Day 7)

I have almost no words for what happened yesterday at the Capitol. Protesting is one thing (though I truly think it is and has been time to move on). But to storm the Capitol? A friend on Facebook said, quite simply, " Almost 20 years ago a group of people on an airplane sacrificed themselves to protect the Capitol. How far we have fallen!" Indeed. And, yes, it IS storming the Capitol. I have seen numerous videos of people knocking down barricades/fences, pushing police officers, and breaking windows and climbing through them. That is beyond protesting. And even if a protestor did not do those things, if they followed those seditionists past those barricades and into the building, they are just as guilty. I did not support the violent protests this summer that resulted in damages to businesses and public property (I was in full support of the actual protests). But I also acknowledged as a white person, I cannot truly put myself in the position of a black person who is angry a...

Disenfranchised Republican

When I went to vote this a.m., I handed my ID to the guy, since my last name can be tricky. He looked for several minutes in the box with the cards. Then he asked if I was in the right place (there is another area in this room, for people in a different neighborhood, I presume). And I told him that this is where I have always voted. He then reviewed the bound paper list, found my name, but could not figure out why it was there, yet not in the box with the cards. Then he realized what was going on and rather exclaimed, "Oh, you are a Republican!" One of the ladies sitting next to him said, "Oh, one of those." I said I assumed they had not seen too many of "my kind" that morning, and she said I was the third. Then, being the open person I am, I eagerly said I was coming to rock the vote and vote for Ron Paul. One of the women commented that she liked some of the things he had stood for, perhaps to try to make me feel as if I was not voting for a terrible per...

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