Working on a Bucket List

Remember the Bucket List? Maybe we’ve always had one in secret, but the Jack Nicholson/Morgan Freeman movie a couple of years ago allowed us to come out of the closet. Especially humor writer Sher Bailey, a young boomer who’s already getting going … just in case.

In 2009 and at age forty-five, I did a very “Craigslisty” thing. I met a couple of fun people on Twitter, flew to meet them, and started a web show where the three of us travel around checking off all the things on our bucket lists. We challenge each other, encourage each other, and above all else, we make each other laugh until we need adult diapers as a sponsor.

In a conversation with someone recently, they likened this Midlife Road Trip and our bucket list to an “Exit List.” In other words, we’re checking off the things we want to do before we exit this life.

For a moment, I wanted to hide under the bed and eat peeled M&Ms until I didn’t have to think about the Big Exit at the end of my road.

But then I realized that an exit list is certainly one way of looking at it. My Twitter friends and I are dedicated to squeezing every single drop out of life before we “exit.” I think at midlife, you start to look around and realize that the number of breaths you have are not limitless and you experience a sense of urgency that you likely didn’t have when you were twenty-four and convinced that life would go on forever–– despite what perfectly-decent older people said to the contrary.

I can say for sure that there are more than a few things that matter to me at forty-five about which I could have cared less in my twenties.

For example:

I was perfectly content to schlep my way up the outside stairs of a motel to room 207 with my brand new husband, on our honeymoon no less. In midlife, I’d sooner sleep on a park bench with a newspaper for a blanket. When it comes to hotels, I expect the pillows to be fluffy; the bathrooms spotless; the stairs conveniently located inside the building.

When I was twenty-five, someone asked me if I was pregnant. I wasn’t. Despite my weight of 105 pounds soaking wet, I stopped eating and bought every speed-dipped diet pill available. Now if someone were to ask me if I was pregnant, it could go one of two ways for them. It’s entirely possible I’d burst out laughing and tell them all about how my ovary factory closed its doors thirteen years ago, or, depending largely on whether the estrogen cream was properly applied to my forearm the night before, I would punch them in the windpipe.

And THEN I’d burst out laughing and give them the whole ovaries-no-longer-working story.

So I guess what I’m saying is yes. My bucket list is also, in reality, my exit list. There are things I want to do, must do, and can’t wait to do before I take the off-ramp into whatever comes next. I’ve earned that right just for breathing in and out as long as I have.

BUT, my bucket list is also my Happy-To-Be-Alive list and my I-Can’t-Believe-I-Wasted-So-Much-Time-Worrying-About-My-Hair-Wings list and my I’m-Only-Sleeping-in-Beautiful-Hotels-With-Inside-Stairs list.

Midlife is truly, so near as I can tell, a wonderful time. If you’re in it with us, hang on because Midlife Road Trip is going to be a blast. If you’re not there yet, Midlife Road Trip is still gonna be a blast–– not to mention a worthy education for your young self. And if you’re maybe working on your own “exit list” in those wonderful years past midlife, I hope we make you laugh and I hope you’ll cheer us on. Our next show is called “The Golden Years Road Trip.”

It’ll be the same show really, but my boobs won’t look as good.

You won’t have much trouble getting in touch with Sher. Part of her Exit List is to be part of the list in every form of social media known to woman and man. Some examples:

Facebook
Twitter
Flickr
Google Profiles
MidLifeRoadTripShow.com
YouTube
My blog

Tags: BoomerCafe, Sher Bailey

Category: Baby Boomers, Sher Bailey