Dear Kings,
Everybody is checking stuff off their list. They saw the Jack Nicholson-Morgan Freeman movie about cancer and it was on. Everybody wrote down their dreams, life goals, and wildest adventures and made plans to make it happen.
They have their woo-hoo! moments throughout the year and share them on Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the social media monster.
Everyone appears to be a successful adventurer. Apparently there are no failures when you’re on a Bucket List Quest.
Well … I’ve broken the mold. I’m the first Bucket List Adventurer Failure of the universe.
It’s a hard being the first one.
Failure … I don’t handle it too well.
It sucks. But I’m here to tell you … you can still survive a Bucket List downfall with the help of little Ben & Jerry’s … well maybe a lot.
I know you know. You couldn’t have gotten to where you are without failure. That’s probably what made you so resilient.
But if you want to know, I finally managed to peel myself off my laminate floor, squash my frustration, and get on with my day. There’s really nothing else you can do other than try again … you know if the opportunity ever presented itself again. And I guess that’s why I’m writing.
There are some items on your Bucket List that you can’t do alone. You have to rely on someone or a group of someones in order for you to take your leap.
In my case?
It’s you.
You made the opportunity happen. You made it happen for a lot of sports fans.
It’s every sports fan’s dream. The championship parade. You need your team to win in order for the parade to happen. You need them to survive the first round of playoffs, the injuries, the adversity, the sudden-death overtimes. You need them to win it all so that you and the rest of your city can celebrate them with the parade.
This is where I wanted to be …
So it happened for me. You held up your end of the bargain.
Not once, but twice.
However, the first time I had given birth to my second child a few months prior, so I couldn’t very well take a newborn with me. I was sad, but knew it was unrealistic. I thought if it ever happens again. I’ll make it. I’ll be there with the players, the coaches, the fans, the music, the speeches, the confetti, the atmosphere. I’ll be there to relive the season on that Jumbotron. I’ll high-five my son when we see Doughty, Carter, Brown, Williams, and Quick. I’ll take pictures. We’ll all smile and I’ll check one off the list.
Dude.
Failure.
I didn’t count on my kids waking up on the wrong side of the bed.
I didn’t count on running out of Multi-Grain Cheerios and having my daughter flip out.
I didn’t count on them preferring to watch another episode of Disney Jr..
I didn’t count on tiny tot tummy trouble because she didn’t have her regular breakfast.
I didn’t count on having to clean up tiny tot tummy trouble disaster in the bathroom so early in the morning.
I didn’t count on the Mega-disaster of the missing LEGO Microfighter.
I didn’t count on loading up the kids, snacks and stroller into the truck only to have it turn on with the gas tank on E … I mean E to the Extreme. Like when the light goes on and you don’t know if you’re gonna make it to the corner.
I didn’t count on going to the gas station and not finding my wallet. I didn’t count on looking all over the house in a manic state trying to find my beat-up old wallet. I didn’t count on not finding it.
I didn’t count on searching for that “emergency” $40 dollars you keep in the house for emergencies such as these and not finding that money either.
As a mother of two and a member of this-is-not-your-life-right-now-you’re-just-in-the-George-Costanza-phase-of-life club I normally count on disaster happening. Usually everyday. But not today. Not that early. Not when a Bucket List item was on the verge of happening. I hadn’t counted on it and that was my mistake.
But I guess there was a bright side. Two hours later I got a call from the local supermarket … apparently I had left my wallet at the register. I walked to the store picked up some Ben & Jerry’s and made it back in time to see the parade on television.
Again. On television.
Listen … I don’t mean to put any more pressure on you guys, I mean you just won The Stanley Cup, but if you could pull off a repeat … I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks,
Your Favorite Guatemalan Fan
The Wish Factor 