99 Things

99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall -- pop art print Astoria

It's a rainy Saturday in Los Angeles, and Gretchen at SecondBlooming posted this meme. I thought it would be fun and it was. You're supposed to bold the things that you've done and add some commentary. Here goes:

1. Slept under the stars
2. Started your own blog. 
3. Played in a band. (I attempted to sing with an old boyfriend's band, but that's a scary memory I won't give details about and for a brief, utterly nerdy time, I played the flute in the school band)
4. Watched a meteor shower. 
5. Given more than you can afford to charity.
6. Visited Hawaii (for two nights when I turned forty, thanks to The Husband)
7. Been to Disneyland. (more times than I'd like to have gone -- I'm an amusement park grinch)
8. Climbed a mountain (I went on a kick-ass camping trip in the Adirondacks when I was in college and climbed a bunch of peaks)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo  (in fourth grade I played Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz and sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow in a tiny, cracked voice and I used to sing my babies to sleep every single night, if that counts)
11. Bungee jumped (no way, ever)
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a thunder and lightning storm (I grew up in the South where the greatest storms, I do believe, happen)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (is knitting an art?)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning (my main memory is lying on the bathroom floor with my cheek pressed into the floor, wishing that someone would come in and just shoot me, my children be damned)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables (I actually attempted this in Croton on the Hudson, NY, but the deer ate everything)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France (over-rated experience given its size, the fact that it's behind glass and there are hordes of people standing around it)
20. Slept on an overnight train (the trip to Europe after college with friends and backpacks, chocolate and bread)
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not really ill.
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Visited Africa
27. Gone skinny dipping
28. Run a marathon (and I have absolutely no desire to)
29. Ridden a gondola in Venice
30. Seen a total eclipse (with my little shoebox)
31. Watched a sunrise/sunset
32. Hit a home run (this one makes me laugh, such is my athletic prowess)
33. Been on a cruise (I'm only 46)
34. Seen Niagara Falls (after a cross-country bus-ride with a bunch of very high fellow students)
35. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (the ones from southern Italy -- not the ones from Syria or Scotland)
36. Seen an Amish community
37. Taught yourself a new language (sadly, I majored in French in college and remember virtually nothing and my husband is Swiss and is multi-lingual -- I can't speak one word to him, either, in his native language)
38. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (a year or so back, someone very generous gave me enough money for full-time help for my daughter and that was perfect. Sadly, I don't get it anymore, though...)
39. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person.
40. Gone rock climbing.
41. Seen Michelangelo's David (and was forever changed, I might add!)
42. Sung karaoke (Que Sera, Sera is my go-to song)
43. Seen Old Faithful erupt
44. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant (it's been done for me, though!)
45. Visited Africa (wasn't this already mentioned?)
46. Walked on a beach by moonlight
47. Been transported by an ambulance (the first time when I was in a bad car accident in high school and all the other times with Sophie but I must add the cute EMTs are almost, almost worth it)
48. Had your portrait painted 
49. Gone deep sea fishing
50. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
51. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower
52. Gone scuba-diving or snorkeling (Cancun and Hawaii)
53. Kissed in the rain (after the movie Diva in Newport, RI)
54. Played in the mud
55. Gone to a drive-in theater (somewhere in the middle of Lake Placid, NY and got eaten alive by mosquitoes)
56. Been in  a movie
57. Visited the Great Wall of China
58. Started a business (not for the faint of heart)
59. Taken a martial arts class
60. Visited Russia (I just have no desire to, either)
61. Served at a soup kitchen
62. Sold Girl Scout cookies (hundreds of boxes as a child)
63. Gone whale-watching
64. Got flowers for no reason (most recently from someone mysterious -- anyone?)
65. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
66. Gone sky-diving (and hopefully, never will)
67. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
68. Bounced a check 
69. Flown in a helicopter
70. Saved a favorite childhood toy (do books count?)
71. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
72. Eaten caviar
73. Pieced a quilt
74. Stood in Times Square (and preached on top of a telephone book -- just kidding!)
75. Toured the Everglades
76. Been fired from a job (only once and the boss stole my recipes)
77. Broken a bone (only a finger while playing volleyball -- remember I'm not much of an athlete)
78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle (with a crazy Englishman in college)
79. Seen the Grand Canyon
80. Published a book (I have had quite a few essays published in books, though!)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand-new car (I'm a leasor)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year's Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chicken pox
89. Saved someone's life 
90. Sat on a jury (an abysmal assault case in NYC that ruined my view of the justice system)
91. Met someone famous (I live in Los Angeles)
92. Joined a book club
93. Got a tattoo
94. Had a baby (three, actually)
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee