November 4, 2010

Oh, the places I've gone...

Last week in our CORE (our school's new-this-year advisory period), we made a bucket list. You know a bucket list right, it's a hackneyed idea that I'm guessing whoever planned this week's theme got from a movie.

(I'm assuming that next week we'll be helping our students Pay It Forward and maybe find out that this is As Good As It Gets.)

Snarkiness aside, I actually enjoyed coming up with a half dozen things that I'd like to do before I kick the...
  • Visit all 50 states
  • Get back to Europe
  • See a Grand Slam (tennis) tourney in person
  • Play tennis on a grass court
  • Go to a Final Four game
  • Hike through the Grand Canyon again
The first on the list got me thinking about which states I have left.  So far, I've visited (in alphabetical order)...
  • Arizona (a bunch of times)
  • California (once for a wedding, once for a disastrous and abortive vacation)
  • Connecticut (briefly, kinda drove through)
  • Florida (a trio of times, I think)
  • Georgia (for a couple of conferences and driving through)
  • Illinois (bunches of times to Chicago and driving through to St Louis)
  • Indiana (more than any other state, I'm guessing)
  • Iowa (big South Dakota vacation a decade and a half ago now)
  • Kentucky (in the top three for most been in)
  • Louisiana (flew in once for a conference - thanks, LLS)
  • Maryland (mostly to visit DC and catch a ballgame)
  • Massachusetts (a couple of vacations)
  • Michigan (just a stop-over in the Detroit airport)
  • Minnesota (visited Gamer a few years back)
  • Mississippi (Gamer's wedding)
  • Nevada (on the way to AZ each time)
  • New Jersey (on the way to NYC)
  • New Mexico (honeymoon and trip west a couple of years ago)
  • New York (Niagara, NYCx4, Geneseo)
  • North Carolina (to see The Best Man and THort)
  • Ohio (why, I'm there right now, in fact)
  • Oklahoma (on the way to the Canyon a couple of years ago)
  • Pennsylvania (two baseball parks, and driving through)
  • Rhode Island (a night in Providence)
  • Tennessee (should be in Nashville this coming month...bargh...)
  • Texas (flown into Dallas twice - good times)
  • Vermont (visited The Girl on the Appalachian Trail)
  • Virginia (visited The Girl on the Appalachian Trail - and went with mom as a kid)
  • West Virginia (mostly on the way to DC)
  • Wisconsin (visiting Gamer)
  • Wyoming (had to get to the Devil's Tower from the Black Hills)
That's thirty-one taken care of.  A few more to check off before I can complete that one.

And, in case you wanted to know, the countries I've been to...
  • These Here United States of Amurika (see above)
  • Scotland (all over the place - mostly Aberdeen)
  • England (London, York, Salisbury)
  • France (into Calais, on to Paris, through a couple more train stations)
  • Austria (couple of days in Vienna)
  • Italy (Rome and Florence)
  • Spain (Barcelona & somewhere near a beach)
  • Switzerland (just passing through at night on a train)
  • Canada (Niagara Falls for an afternoon)

8 comments:

joey said...

dude... Nashville is awesome. if you want rec's get at me

there's also a certain gingerly-haired guitar/violin player from my grade that goes to Belmont and would prob know more.

PHSChemGuy said...

Thanks, Joey...sadly this "should be" is because I won't be. There's an NSTA conference that I had put in to go to but got denied by the district. Otherwise I'd be looking up that ginger to see what's happening in Music City.

cmorin said...

i have a good chance of ft. campbell (40 min from nashville) being my first duty station. if thats the case, i'll try to live somewhere between the two. im pretty excited.

joey said...

ohhh killer. nashville is one of my favorite cities (outside of NYC, which is far and away #1)

CrimsonMirage said...

I approve of the tennis bucket list items. Playing on a grass court is weird though.

PHSChemGuy said...

Crimson - where and when did you play on grass? There aren't - my understanding - that many grass courts around anywhere to even see much less play on.

CrimsonMirage said...

It was some country club in the east that my Aunt belonged too. I was kind of younger and totally wanted to show off the fact that I had been playing all summer. But then when I tried to play on the court I wasn't very good cause they balls kept bouncing very weirdly (a lot lower than normal) and I wasn't used to it. Sad.

PHSChemGuy said...

Crimson - you know I'm envious of you now, right?