A Nice "Check" Off My Bucket List!

Check. Ahhh (big smile that extends through my soul), one more marked off my Bucket List. Euphoria. Walking around without my feet touching the ground. Feeling like there is pure joy and happiness to be found in life -- a happiness that balances out all of the hard, yucky stuff. A high that can’t be touched by any drug. A treasured memory that can be replayed at will, for as long as I exist.

My post on facebook:

Bucket List: Where a dream + an opportunity = a reality :-D

People have been asking what I “checked” off my list. How do I protect that fragile memory, without someone crushing it with a simple, “Oh, is that all?!” So, I would like to put this Bucket List item into perspective, before I tell you what it is. Some smarty-pants out there may get it from the first sentence of my description. Others, who may not appreciate my long cerebral dialogue, have my permission to skip to the end for the answer (you're going to miss some good stuff though!)

Ten years ago (May 2001) I was watching the season finale of the TV show Alley McBeal. In the show, the main characters walked into a bar where a young man was singing, “You’re Still You”, in a delicious baritone voice. I was blown away, I thought, “Wow, I would love to see this young man sing in person someday!” Thus the journey began, but it was more of a "longing" than a "Bucket List item".

The years passed, and I kept seeing this artist pop up on TV, singing with the likes of Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli (which have both previously been checked off my Bucket List). My two children were babies during those years, making it hard to go to concerts. We had no one to leave them with for so long and so late into the evening. Funny thing, when something you want keeps eluding you, it makes you want it even more (smile).

In 2006 when he released his album entitled Awake, I was smitten. I listened to it over, and over again. To see him in concert was bumped up to a “Bucket List” item. Buttttttttt, at that time period, everyone else seemed to have the same idea. So, when his concert tour hit our area, the tickets sold out immediately. Sigh. I relinquished myself into waiting until the next time he went on tour.

Two years went by -- I watched, and waited. No tour. Another year went by, and I began to give up. I still saw him perform on TV, and make guest appearances on shows like Oprah, Ellen Degeneres, Larry King Live, Rosie O’Donnell, 20/20, and Glee (just to mention a few). So, I knew he was still out there, but why wasn’t he going on tour? Why wasn’t he releasing another album?

When my husband got cancer in September 2009, all Bucket List items were abandoned. Getting him better was the focus of attention, everything else was a luxury. Life has been a blur since then, trying to recover from the shell shock of that nine month battle. My husband is now remission. I am enjoying a life without constant fear, and one that allows for dreams again. And yes, that year passed by with no concert.

Okay, fast forward to a week ago. I was cruising through facebook, seeing what my friends were up to. One friend posted she was going to a Michael Bublé concert that evening. Cool. Another friend responded that she was going to see The Artist I have wanted to see for the past TEN YEARS in concert the following week! What?? He was going to be in concert here, and I didn’t know about it? Why hadn’t I heard anything? Oh yeah, I’m too busy taking care of my kids. First I felt a big sigh of resolution, and then panic gripped me. How was I going to make this happen? How was I going to get tickets, when the last time his concert sold out immediately? With the concert just days away, what were my odds? "Not very good," I thought to myself.

Four long years I had waited since his last concert, if I missed this one, how many more years would I have to wait? It was too late to try and buy tickets from eBay or Craig’s List. So, hubby and I decided to take a risk (dreams sometimes require that you know!) The night of the concert we went two hours early to HP Pavilion Box Office to see if anyone turned in any unsold tickets. We waited. The situation looked more impossible by the moment. The show time came . . . and it went. Minutes after the show had started, the man in the ticket booth anxiously called us over (he knew how much I wanted to see this concert). With a big smile he told us some front-stage-left tickets had just been turned in, "Would we like to buy them?" Yeeeesssss!!!

So, my dream finally met up with an opportunity, and it became a reality. The air inside the arena was saturated with mouthwatering music . . . my breath caught in my throat. You see, living a dream often does that to you. I could almost touch his voice in the air, as the sound waves washed over me and danced with my soul. A reality that made a welcomed "check" on my Buck List. To finally see this amazing, talented voice of an angel perform live . . . oh, his name? JOSH GROBAN!

Sooo, if you want to make fun of my Bucket List item, please don’t tell me, because I am still on a high. What’s next on the list? Hmmm, only opportunity will tell . . . . (smile). As they say, it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.

P.S. Some fun side notes of the concert. This was the only concert I have ever been to where I saw a Nun in the audience! And, considering how slow Josh often sings the words to his songs, I had no idea he talked sooo super fast, and had such a quick, comedic wit. I also didn’t know he was such an accomplished pianist as well as one wicked drummer! To see the drum solo we saw (but at a different concert location), go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUJUn0GXzBs

He also played a beautiful song from his new album Illuminations called "Bells of New York City". Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39TUCMPmVVM&ob=av2e

In the concert Josh told us at the young age of 17 his vocal coach introduced him to the Grammy award winning music producer/arranger David Foster. Josh began working as a rehearsal singer for Foster. In 1999 he was ask to stand in for Andrea Bocelli to rehears Foster’s “The Prayer” with Celine Dion. See this fun recount of the story, and the duet at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbviXG_56ss&feature=related

Here is a video clip I took that evening -- Josh Groban singing Neil Diamond's "Play Me":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUN-ZW-aTZs

Nature, Life's Best Medicine!

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.
~John Burroughs

Photos I took driving home from Henry W. Coe State Park one winter's evening.
(Click photos to enlarge.)

For more information about this beautiful park, go to:
http://www.coepark.org/

If I Were to Rule the World

What to throw away and what to keep? That is always a very difficult question for me. I would keep everything that remotely has any sentimental value if I could! Maybe it is because I feel that I don’t have many close relationships in my life, so those that I have, I treasure with every breath. Often “things” remind me of those priceless relationships. And that is where I get into trouble; there is not enough room in my house to keep every “thing” (i.e. ticket stub, program, special little gift, my child’s crayon drawings, etc.) Hmmm, I’m sure there is probably some psychological term for what I have.

Soooo, I was weeding through a stack of my son’s old school papers recently, trying to make more space up in our attic. The box I was going through had his school papers from 2009, when he was in 7th Grade. As I glanced through the numerous papers that still smelled like school, I ran into this jewel, a poem he wrote in English. I love this poem, because it captures the essence of who he was at age 13. Before I share this, I will give you a bit of background information to help you understand the poem better:

1. We had moved our son to a new middle school that year because his grades had dropped so much at his last school. He really didn’t like being at this new school and hated feeling the consequences of life.

2. He really didn’t like this English teacher.

3. He has always been a child that wanted to be an adult “now!” Thus, there were often power struggles between him and his teachers or parents—especially regarding homework.

4. He thought I watched too much Oprah on TV!

5. He was frustrated that we were only a one-income family (I was a stay-at-home-mom at that time) and he wished we more money to buy all the fancy toys so many of his other friends had. (But he did agree, having me home was better than having the extra money for the toys.)

6. My husband and I were older when we had him. I often felt a tinge of sadness from him that we were older and often more tired than his friend’s younger parents.

So, with that explanation, here is my 13 year old son's poem.

If I Were to Rule the World

If I were in charge of the world,
I’d cancel class, essays, English assignments,
And also pointless talk shows.

If I were in charge of the world,
There’d be reduced school,
Immense forests,
And pennies would be thicker than nickels.

If I were in charge of the world,
You wouldn’t have slow drivers.
You wouldn’t have people grow old.
You wouldn’t have green food.
Or, you wouldn’t have people telling you to say “thank-you”.
You wouldn’t even have manners.

If I were in charge of the world,
A bike would be an automobile.
All taxes would be paid by the government.
And a person who sometimes forgot to do something you’re expected to do,
And sometimes forgot to go straight to their seat when told to,
Would still be allowed to be
In Charge of the World.

The child that wrote this poem is now gone. He has been replaced by a very confident, charming 15 year old young man. Someone that has over the past two and a half years learned the rules of this world-- to become more in charge of his world. Amazing how much a just couple of years can make.

This poem will now go back in the box that lives up in the attic. I wonder when I pull it out next time, how much more of a difference I will see in my son? Whatever the changes are, I know I will always love him for who he is.