Creating "I Like" Books

Writing the post on "The Wish List" reminded me of the "I Like" books my daughter and I decided to create.

We wanted to make sure we focused on the things we really enjoyed about daily life, including all of the little things which sometimes get overlooked. So, based on the format of "The Wish List," we bought journals that appealed to our own personalities (mine is on the right), and began to list things we like.

We started just about a year ago, and in my journal, I'm up to 599 things! The items we include on our lists are really any little thing we enjoy, or remember enjoying in the past. And, these are the things that usually don't carry a big pricetag. Then, when we need a refresher on how many great things are going on in our lives, we just read our lists.

It's also quite interesting to view another's personality be viewing their list. My daughter's list is very different from mine, and I really get to see the different facets of her personality as I read her "I Like" book.

My list includes things like:

• Wading down the Green River at Mount Hope Farm in Williamstown (and skipping rocks with all of the flat stones on the bottom)
• Sitting on a bench at Provincetown's Town Hall and watching the activity around us
• Learning how to do something new
• Walking down Elm Street to Jilly's for ice cream on a summer evening (mine will probably be a root beer float)
• A clean car - inside and out
• Wearing funny glasses and fake teeth and surprising people
• Tahiti Restaurant's pu-pu platter, with plenty of duck sauce and the little black flaming kettle
• Wind chimes
• The way Maude lived in the movie "Harold and Maude"
• Oscar night (it's our super bowl!)

Our lists continue to grow, as there are so many little things we like that happen every day.
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NY State Museum

A friend and I visited the New York State Museum in Albany today. I toured the museum years ago, but so much has changed since then. It seems like many other people thought a museum visit was the perfect way to spend a drizzly November day!

In addition to the terrific regular exhibits of natural and cultural history, they have a World Trade Center exhibit right now which is incredible. I really need to go back when I have more time to spend - there are so many audio and video facets to the exhibit that we just didn't have time for.

I had goosebumps as I viewed part of the jet engine that had been found in a nearby street. There is an entire firetruck that was pulled from the rubble, a battered door from a police car, bent and crumpled steel from the exterior of the building, and a steel beam that's pitted and scarred. One display case shows blackened gift shop trinkets featuring images of the towers, that must have been sold in an onsite tourist shop. There is an unusual, and heartbreaking, display of the many keys found at the site - keys that must have opened places of business throughout the buildings. Looking at the pile of keys...this ordinary detail of daily life...somehow felt so poignant.

I'm glad we went, and I definitely want to go back so I have a chance to listen to the stories in those audio displays.

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The Wish List

I came across this book a few years ago while shopping in Barnes & Noble. It's just a really long list of possible things to do in life. I like it because it gives me ideas I might not think of on my own, like:

• Eating at restaurants I didn't know existed, but would love to try.
• Visiting cool places I've never heard of.
• Trying a new hobby or sport, just for the heck of it.

To use the book, I put an X next to everything I'd like to try and I highlight the things I've already done. Some of the things I've already done include:

• Milk a cow (at my Uncle Marcel's dairy farm in Vermont)
• Buy my own house
• Have my "letter to the editor" published
• Host a Fresh Air child (Eternity has visited us for the past 2 summers)
• Drive through a dust storm in the desert (a dust devil in Buckeye, Arizona)
• Drive 1-80 from New York to San Francisco
• Do the Sunday crossword in ink
• Ride a helicopter to work (in a medevac helicopter when I was an Army medic - scary...we flew with the doors open!)
• Paint a portrait (I was an art major...long, long ago)

And, here are some things that are still on my list to try:

• Visit the Eiffel Tower
• Write a best seller
• Pay it forward
• Take up fencing
• Have 20/20 vision
• Calculate with an abacus
• Float down the Amazon
• Walk across the Golden Gate bridge (we visited San Francisco earlier this year, but just didn't have time to fit this one in!)
• Learn to kayak
• Make my own pickles (I've made jam and chutney, but no pickles yet)

My copy is rather battered, as I've read and re-read The Wish List so many times. It always goes with me on vacation and whenever I travel - it's great airplane reading. I like to remind myself of all the wonderful adventures waiting to be experienced. It's so easy to forget these things while dealing with all the details of day-to-day life.
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