Day 15 – A picture of something you want to do before you die

 New York City. There have been songs written after it, movies and TV shows set in it, its known as the Big Apple, and its home of some of the best (from what I have heard) pizza in the world.

I'm sure to you, none of this makes sense. Honestly to me it doesn't make much sense either. I don't know where my obsession with the city came from. In fact, until 2001 I didn't know much about the city at all.

I can't remember the year, but I sat on the couch one evening and my mom had the lighting of the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center. I watched in complete awe as famous singers sang Christmas songs, dancers performed with extreme precision, and the countdown began.

I couldn't tell you exactly what happened next, but when the tree was lit for the first time my jaw just dropped. The tree was magnificent, so clean, so tall. I admired this tree, the people it took to put together, everyone that made that one moment possible.

It was from then on I knew I wanted to be there one year when it happened. I wanted to see the Christmas Tree be lit. I want that memory to be with me and my children. There could never be anything like that.

For a few years, mostly before high school ended but after CSI:NY started, I dreamed  I was going to live in New York City. I didn't care where or when. But I wanted to be there, in all that hustle and bustle. I wanted to walk to and from work, take the subway home and pick up fresh produce every night for dinner. All part of the experience, right?!

But after a bit of a reality check, as in money, and a new boyfriend that dream slowly faded into just another long lost hope.

When I was trying to decide what to write for this blog, my mind went wild. I really don't have a bucket list. Mostly because I plan on living forever, but because I never really gave much thought to it. Most people want to live in a foreign country (check), go to an exotic place (check), see all sorts of European tourist attractions (check, check, check). So I really never had much of a desire for a bucket list. My mind bounced to skydiving, scuba diving, and para-sailing.

But I never quite understood why someone would want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.

The only other time I ever went scuba diving it ended badly, so that thought kinda freaks me out. However it was in 6th grade, so I wouldn't mind doing it again but not bad enough to put it on a bucket list.

Para-sailing would really be neat, but I'm not a huge boat person. So I'm not completely sure how that would go over.

But now, now this would be amazing. Going to NYC, seeing all the different tourist attractions, eating delicious food out of carts on the streets. I want the full experience.

I want to go and stand in Times Square and just turn around and around. Take it all in.

More than anything I want to make sure my Little is old enough to experience all of it too. I want to make sure she has as much fun as I will.