99 Things I Ought To Have Done

Saw this on

http://weintribe.blogspot.com

Thought it would be fun.


Copy the list, bold the ones you've done (with explanations if needed), share with friends.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland (Went to Disney World in 1978, going back for the first time since then this spring)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a thunder and lightning storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child (Looking forward to doing so)
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train (The Crescent from Charlottesville to New Orleans)
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (ie. Mental Health Day)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon (only a 5K so far. Working towards a 1/2 marathon.)
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run( does Wii count?)
32. Been on a cruise (5 total)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors( Isle of Wight with my Dad, Aunts, Uncle and cousins)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted (My wedding portrait)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (Samoas are my favs)
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone (my left wrist, a metacarpal on my right hand and tore my knee up in a skiing accident)
78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (my first car-Nissan Sentra XE)
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 (does a soft crab count?)
88. had chickenpox (twice)
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous (do politicians count? I met John Warner just after he and Elizabeth Taylor divorced)
92. Joined a book club
93. Got a tattoo
94. Had a baby (I wish)
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

The Year of Giving-continued

In honor of the New Orleans Saints winning the Super Bowl, Mardi Gras and the great city of New Orleans, I have decided to donate to the Brees Dream Foundation this month. I received an email from the president of my alma mater, Loyola University New Orleans, announcing that the Saints quarterback, Drew Brees, will be the commencement speaker for the university this May. Here is a little of the announcement.

"Brees dedicated the team’s recent Super Bowl win to the City of New Orleans, his adopted home since 2006, coincidentally, the same year Loyola’s graduating class enrolled in the university. The parallels between the class and Brees don’t end there. Both our graduates and Brees invested themselves in New Orleans when the city was at its lowest point. And both had faith that it would come back stronger than before.

Like our graduating students, Brees made a decision to come to New Orleans four years ago. Through his leadership of the Saints and his work in rebuilding the city, he has been a leader in the renewal of New Orleans just as our students have been leaders in this renewal through their work and volunteer service exemplifying Loyola’s commitment to service, learning, and the City of New Orleans."

After visiting the city back in November for the first time since Katrina, I saw how far the people of New Orleans have come. I also witnessed how much more needs to be done. I wish I was in a position to take a week off from work and go down there to volunteer in the rebuilding that is still going on. But a donation to this organization will have to suffice.

I was able to experience the Mardi Gras season (no, it's not just one day) vicariously through web cams, the media interest in NOLA and my friends pics on Facebook. New Orleans is back, baby! Laissez les bons temps roulez.

Pity Party

I am in serious need of a giant pep talk this week. My PMA (positive mental attitude) has up and left the building. I'm sure part of the problem is the lousy weather. I am having a hard time being positive about our adoption journey this week.

We've been keeping in touch with the agency once a month by email since going on the waiting list last May. The social worker that did our home study left last July. We did not get a new one until September. We decided we should meet her at some point and decided to give her time to settle in and for the holidays to pass. We were supposed to meet Tuesday after rescheduling due to the weather last Friday. Unfortunately, her son became ill (of which I am totally sympathetic to) and we canceled the meeting again.

She did her very best to be helpful and encouraged me to ask her any questions we had over the phone. Well, I would have preferred if Hunter had been home at the time. But I did have 2 pressing questions so I went ahead and asked. One was about how long our home study was valid. The other had to do with all this networking or "advocating for ourselves" that the agency had so strongly encouraged us to do. I asked what do we do if someone approaches us with a possible adoption.

The answer was given very enthusiastically. We just needed to call the agency. They would give us a list of adoption attorneys to contact to do the legal work. The agency would do the required amount of counseling for the mother. But everything else would be through the lawyer. Oh and don't worry about having to call an attorney, I was told. People get worried about how much it costs to hire a lawyer. But, it was stressed to me, this type of adoption costs less than an agency placement and really is the most common form of adoption today.

I listened in silence absolutely stunned. I was confused, but without Hunter there I did not want to say or hear anymore. I relayed the conversation to him later and he had the same reaction. If finding your own adoption situation is the norm of adoptions today, why on earth are we signed up with an agency? We were led to believe all you had to do was sign up, be patient and the agency will take care of the rest.

We actually went to another agency the very next day. We were going to have a one-on-one session with them to see what other options we might have. I hadn't planned on bringing up our current agency situation, but couldn't help myself. As I explained the conversation my voice rose and my arms flailed as if not connected to my body. "I don't understand" I kept repeating. The nice woman we met with was able to calm me down. She explained that this is the reality of domestic infant adoption today and her reasons made perfect sense. She did explain that some agencies still advertise as doing agency placements as their primary option, but parental placement is now the norm.

She said it was a shame for us to have come this far in the process and only now come to understand. I am glad we went for a second opinion. We probably won't switch agencies. But it is so depressing to know just how much more there is to this process. And nobody can seem to help you. It's like negotiating a maze with a blindfold on. You only figure out you're doing something wrong when you hit a wall. And hitting the wall makes you reluctant to continue for fear of making yet another mistake and wasting more time.

Super Bowl

Good luck to both teams tonight. But I will be cheering the Saints. They have had a terrific season. They don't even need to win tonight to prove that. It must be crazy in the city today. It is the middle of Mardi Gras. They would have had parades all weekend long. I heard there is no school tomorrow in anticipation of a win. Look out French Quarter! It's gonna be a loonngg night. I don't know all the technical stuff. But what I do know is the Saints have the most devoted fans. This is a crowd gathered at the Moonwalk prior to a game at the Superdome last November. Incredible. Bless you boys!

Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day was last Tuesday. Today I feel like I might as well be in the movie. Another Saturday, another snow storm! This one is not packing the wallop of the one last weekend. This time last Saturday we had a foot of snow. Today it's more like 2-3 inches. North of us they are not so lucky. My brother reports 20 inches so far. He says it's not much fun when you have a dachsund with only 2 inches of clearance from the ground. Our cat has got cabin fever as well. She has had to rely on the dreaded litter box for a week. That's not much fun for me either. As for Hunter and me, well, it's getting to be a little too much togetherness. To quote Jimmy Buffett - "This morning, I shot six holes im my freezer. I think I got cabin fever. Somebody sound the alarm." I gotta go where it's warm!!!