Things I Want to Do

100(ish) things I want to do before I die.*

  1. Go to the Final Four
  2. Finish writing that novel
  3. Return to Ethiopia Mission Accomplished! (12/2015)
  4. Learn to play guitar
  5. Complete my Master of Divinity degree
  6. Watch a meteor shower
  7. Visit a movie studio
  8. Take a week-long vacation with just my wife
  9. Attend the Indianapolis 500 Mission Accomplished! (5/2022)
  10. Throw out the first pitch at a baseball game
  11. Secretly bring friends in from out-of-town for a big surprise party
  12. Learn to speak Kembatta
  13. Find an alien in Roswell, NM
  14. Build a well in Africa
  15. Walk a portion of the Great Wall of China
  16. Actively support a new church plant
  17. Have a candlelit dinner on the beach
  18. Memorize a book of the Bible
  19. Visit Mt. Rushmore
  20. Help build a house
  21. Eat a cheesesteak from Geno’s Steaks
  22. Watch a Tennessee Volunteers game with 100,000 of my closest friends at Neyland Stadium
  23. Finalize my will
  24. Give away $100,000
  25. Make a movie
  26. Catch a home run ball
  27. Advocate for the fatherless
  28. Give a voice to the voiceless
  29. Visit the Martin Luther King National Memorial
  30. Build an igloo
  31. Visit Abraham Lincoln’s tomb
  32. Tend my own garden
  33. Discover the secret to creating the perfect pitcher of sweet tea
  34. Learn how to preach a message without using notes
  35. Take a storytelling class
  36. Attend the National Storytelling Festival
  37. Celebrate the 4th of July at Boston Harbor
  38. Watch the Madison Regatta
  39. Research more information about my family tree
  40. Go to an Old Oaken Bucket game
  41. Go to an IU vs UK basketball game
  42. See the return of the Norris Family Reunions
  43. Serve as a poll worker during an election
  44. Visit my first grade teacher and thank her for the impact she had on me
  45. Learn to play the hammer dulcimer
  46. Attend the Heartland Film Festival Mission Accomplished! (October 13, 2011)
  47. Host an art show featuring local artists
  48. Write and record a love song
  49. Go Christmas caroling in my neighborhood
  50. Discover how to grill the perfect steak
  51. Be one of the first 100 people in line for a Chick-fil-a grand opening and get free Chick-fil-a for a year so I can Eat Mor Chikin.
  52. Eat at a restaurant that Guy Fieri visited on Diners, Dine-ins, and Dives Mission Accomplished! (October 13, 2011)
  53. Find and play (and possibly purchase) the enclosed sit-down version of the  Star Wars arcade game (from the 1980’s, not the re-booted game from the late-90’s)
  54. Sit in the audience of the Late Show with David Letterman The show no longer exists.
  55. Be an extra in a disaster movie
  56. Watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade – live and in person
  57. Host a podcast
  58. Find someone – anyone – who can help me fix my slice in golf
  59. Have a family portrait painted
  60. Convert our family home videos to DVD
  61. Establish a college fund for my kids Mission Accomplished 
  62. Sing in the rain
  63. Tutor a child
  64. Transfer my seminary notes to digital format
  65. Get lost in a painting
  66. Throw a dart on a map of the US and take the family wherever it lands
  67. Cook a dessert that has to be set on fire in order to finish it
  68. Beat Christy at Scrabble
  69. Visit the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame and meet an inductee
  70. Climb an active volcano
  71. Get Taco Bell to bring back the Bacon Cheeseburger Burrito
  72. Explore the Catacombs
  73. Worship with the underground church
  74. Bury the hatchet
  75. Memorize a poem and pass it on
  76. Test drive a car I can’t afford
  77. Pretend to be invisible
  78. Attend Game 7 of the World Series
  79. Get a poem published
  80. Paint a layer on the World’s Largest Ball of Paint
  81. Watch a tornado touch the ground (from a safe distance)
  82. Take Alyson to the Kentucky Derby
  83. Take Aiden to a Colts game Mission Accomplished! (8/19/2011)
  84. Watch the space shuttle  a rocket launch. Space shuttle is retired. 
  85. Shake Peter Mayhew’s hand Sadly, Peter passed away April 20, 2019
  86. Make a return performance at TubaChristmas
  87. Visit the old family homestead in Kentucky
  88. Build a model rocket with my kids
  89. Launch and recover the above-mentioned model rocket
  90. Hire a skywriter to…well…write a message in the sky
  91. Finally keep my promise I made to Christy on our honeymoon and take her to Nova Scotia
  92. Shave my head
  93. Be a peacemaker
  94. Learn to dance like no one is watching
  95. Find out which restaurant makes the better burger: Five Guys, In-n-Out, or Steak ‘n Shake
  96. Go 200 miles per hour in a car
  97. Own a dishwasher Mission Accomplished (11/2011)
  98. Discover better ways to communicate with Christy in her love language
  99. Attend a black tie event
  100. Watch The Dam Busters, Seven Samurai, and Hidden Fortress
  101. Attend a Presidential inauguration
  102. Visit the Holocaust Museum Mission Accomplished (February 27, 2020)
  103. Attend Drums on the Ohio
  104. Rock out at a Bon Jovi concert Mission Accomplished (March 22, 2017)
  105. Headbang at a Metallica concert
  106. Cross 5 things off this list every year
  107. Add 10 new things to this list every year

What’s on your list?

What should I add to mine?

* I totally ripped this idea off from my friend Joe of Lutheran Grilled Cheese fame. Go give him some love.

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Howdy. I'm Matt. My wife, Christy, and I have four kids and two dogs, I'm passionate about orphan care. I'm a die-hard fan of the Evansville Aces, the Indiana Hoosiers, and Star Wars. I'm trying to live life by the Todd family motto: "It behooves us to live!"
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23 thoughts on “Things I Want to Do

  1. I got yer #33 right here for you. Add a pinch of Baking Soda to 2 cups of boiling water. Add 6 teabags (or three of the large ones)and let steep for 15 minutes. (Note: that means let the bags soak off the heat. Don’t continue boiling.) In a gallon pitcher, add 3/4 cup of sugar to half a gallon of water and dissolve. (Real southern style tea drinkers will double the sugar, I don’t like mine so syrupy.) Add tea concentrate to pitcher and then fill the rest of the way with water. Chill and enjoy…

    The secret is in the baking soda. Glad I could be of service. 😉

    1. I’ve never tried baking soda! I’ve tried brown sugar and I’ve tried honey, but never baking soda. I’ll definitely have to try it!

      While I’m more Southern than most folk around here, I can’t imagine 1 1/2 cups of sugar for a gallon of tea. Might have to do 1 1/4 😉

      Thanks for the advice!

  2. Is it sad that I’m excited because I’ve crossed things off your bucket list? I’ve seen Letterman (I left the Broadway production of Les Mes to do it!), eaten a cheesesteak at Gino’s (I’ll tell you about that in a less public forum :), tutored a child and married a dishwasher. 🙂 (Actually,we have an electric one, too, but I like my human one.) Your list brightened my day and reminded me of happy times!

    1. Nope. Not a sad thing. At least you’ve got stuff crossed off of someone’s list. 😀

      The cheesesteak item was actually inspired by your trip to Philly a few years back.

      We were oh-so-close to seeing Letterman, but he wasn’t filming the week we were in NYC. I have a picture somewhere that I probably should post at some point of me, Christy, and my brother standing outside the locked front door with overly-pitiful faces. I don’t know if I’d actually think Letterman was funny anymore, but it’s been a goal since we missed out on him 13 years ago.

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