You don't experience life by watching other people live it.

A few years ago I created something I like to call a "Bowl List." It's similar to a Bucket List, but it has a much smaller deadline so you can't put things off, and it is typically shorter. More shallow than a bucket, so it is a bowl. A bowl list typically consists of things you would like to try, learn, do, or experience. Well, my last list was pretty long. There are quite a few things I never got to. But there are a lot of things that I DID do.

My last bowl list:

• Go to the top of the Sears Tower. (check)
• Go to a shooting range (check)
• Take a pole dancing class (check)
• Learn a new type of dance (check)
• Go to a Baseball Game (check)
• Go to a Hockey Game (check)
• Learn how to play guitar
• Learn to use a sewing machine
• Learn Sign Language
• Obtain one of the plastic maps that hang in subway trains for every line of the CTA (almost check. I think I'm only missing 2) 
• Go paintballing
• Go Snowboarding
• Take a Yoga class

I know there are more that I'm not currently remembering but when I find my list I will add them here. I did learn one thing with my last list. I never had a deadline. That was my fault. If I had a deadline, I feel like I would have done more. This year I have a deadline. I have until December 31, 2014 to do these things.

My current bowl list:

• Try Ethiopian Food
• Get my FOID card
• Learn guitar
• Learn to ski
• Learn to ride a motorcycle
• Take a Yoga Class
• Go paintballing
• Learn to use my sewing machine
• Get a booth at a craft fair
• Start/Join a new book club
• Attend a NEW Renaissance Faire
• Try a new local restaurant once a month
• Play Whirlyball (We have coupons for this...we should probably use them)
• See all of the movies on John's Movie List*

(If I think of more things, I will update this as well.)

*JOHN'S TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2013* (John is a friend of mine. He should be a movie critic. He has great taste in movies. He watches popular films, indie films, independent films, foreign films, etc... I have made it one of my goals to watch every movie on his Top 10 of 2013 List)

10. Prisoners
9. Blue Jasmine
8. Captain Phillips
7. Her
6. Inside Llewyn Davis
5. Gravity
4. Nebraska
3. American Hustle
2. The Wolf of Wall Street
1. 12 Years A Slave
Some of these I have never even heard of, some I had no desire to see, and some were already on my own list to see. But, it's part of the list.. Gotta do it.


 If you're reading this and you can think of something I should add to my list, please comment and give me your suggestion.

If this is something you'd be interested in trying, I encourage you to GO FOR IT! What would you put on your list?

Life is too short to say "what if" and "I wish." You don't experience life by watching other people live it.