Maggie of Mighty Girl is making a list of “100 Things to Do Before I Go” (part one, part two, part three). She has some pretty lofty stuff on there, like “know basic Mandarin,” “safari in Africa” and “stay in the ice hotel.”

When I first saw her list, I decided that I didn’t want to make one of my own. I like to be able to cross things off my lists, and I didn’t want to have a list full of things like “See the Kremlin” or “Visit Petra,” “learn to fly” or “have Jeff Tweedy over for dinner.” I also didn’t much like the thought of coming up with 100 things to do. But then I thought, “Heck. It’s my list. Think smaller!”

So instead, here’s a list of 20 things to do before Nov. 4, 2018. On which date I’ll turn 40.

1. Make my own cream soda. (Done! And then I couldn’t stop doing it for awhile, because it was so delicious.)
2. Spend a week in Paris with Rockford.
3. See Wilco at the Ryman.
4. See Wilco in Chicago.
5. Make a quilt.
6. Spend a night on a train. (It wasn’t an overnight trip, but it was 11 hours long. And I did fall asleep for a bit.)
7. Spend a week in NYC with Rockford.
8. Karaoke.
9. Pay for a stranger’s dinner.
10. Buy a house.
11. Be an extra in a movie. (A Wes Anderson movie, if I’m dreaming big. Which I’m not supposed to be doing.)
12. Make a wedding cake.
13. Work on a Habitat house.
14. Take the White House tour.
15. Grow my own vegetables.
16. Participate in TV Turnoff week without cheating.
17. Lose 30 pounds.
18. Write a short story. Let someone other than Rockford read it.
19. Build and furnish a dollhouse.
20. Go somewhere tropical and lovely. Relax.

Do you have a life list, or a 10-year list, or anything like it? What’s on it? What have you already crossed off?