Bucket Lists...

When did bucket lists become so popular? I've had a mental list of "things I want to do before I die" ever since I was a 5 year old, but I've never put them in writing. I don't know if it's because I haven't been interested in tracking my progress or because I know some things are not really that important and if I wrote them down I would then feel guilty for not doing them.

Maybe bucket lists became popular because people are more and more interested in searching for external happiness. Maybe our culture is constantly reminding us that the grass is greener on the other side or that we need to constantly accomplish to be well-rounded human beings, or that our self-worth is tied to achieving. I’m not sure.

Some of the things I wanted to do, I’ve done … live in Los Angeles was on my mental bucket list since I was 13 and here I am. Being in LA since 2008, has helped me appreciate and love this crazy, traffic-ridden city. I didn’t always like it – that’s a story for another day – but now I’m in love with this city. Seven years have almost gone by and I realize that there are still corners I have never explored.

During the last 30 or so days I discovered the Gamble House and The Huntington. I am embarrassed to say that I had never heard or visited either one of those places. I'm lucky I have a friend to thank for inviting me to visit them. I even went to the Shrine for the first time this year! EMBARRASING! The one I’m most excited about was discovering REAL CHOCOLATE at L’Artisan du Chocolat!

But lately I have felt the need to explore LA even more … maybe because I’m giving my stay in this city an expiration date? I want to explore other countries, which means I am making myself run away from Los Angeles in about 3-4 months. (Will I?) Since LA is so expensive, I was thrilled to find thillist.com’s 47 Totally Free Things to Do in Los Angeles. I’ve already checked off a few of the items on their list, but there were some free things I had never heard or known about.

So that ‘s what got me thinking about bucket lists. Do I start an excel sheet where I can track my progress to those? I can get all geeky with excel and link maps, create a sort of Gantt chart to schedule my milestones and track my accomplishments. Uh, NO!

Do I truly even need a bucket list?

A quick and lazy Google search guided me to bucketlist.org and within seconds I had an account. They asked me to select my interests – of course mine are traveling, experiences, and skills. Then they wanted me to list goals or mark some goals as complete from a pre-made list. "Visit Rome" was on the list, so I marked that one as complete. A pop-up came up saying congratulations and encouraged me to share on Facebook or Twitter. Of course, how can I not brag about completing an item on the bucket list. I close the pop-up and I just hit next ignoring the "add goals" and "mark as done" section. And there it is…my own bucket list tracking site.

For some odd reason I’m not excited about it. I don’t even know if I’ll use it. But there it is, one more free membership I’ve accumulated from the “free world” of social media. Yay.

Maybe I should add the 47 free things to do in LA to the list. Or maybe that thrillist.com post should be linked to bucketlist.org so that I don’t have to enter all 47 items myself.

Either way, I want to go to the Lummis Home and drink some free wine at the San Antonio Winery before I leave LA.

#losangeles #bucketlist #freethingstodo