1.  Got married (believe me...it's a miracle).

2.  Semi-conquered my fear of flying.

3.  White-water rafted.

4.  Earned my bachelor's degree

5.  Earned my master's degree (the diploma is MINE in just a few weeks!)

6.  Volunteered hundreds of hours at an animal shelter.

7.  Ridden a motorcycle, and loved it.

8.  Had a room full of children completely in love with learning.

9.  Became a Christian.

10.  I think there's lots left to come...

congrats on that Master's Degree!

1. Getting married on a beach just down the road from where my soon-to-be wife and I were living at the time - we walked, hand in hand to our wedding with a procession of friends behind us.

2. Swam with, and hand-fed, a pod of dolphins.

3. Played in a support band on the bill of one of my favourite American bands - Pavement.

4. Snorkelled on the Great Barrier Reef.

5. Spent a wonderful day at a bird sanctuary with my wife.

6. Getting tattooed - might not be cool for some but I love the process.

7. Having a song I wrote the music for played on the radio for the first time.

8. Having a song (different one) I wrote the music for used in a television show (a cable show but still cool).

9. Having a short story published in an international (online) magazine.

10. Dived on massive kelp forests in Tasmania.

thats some cool stuff, Dynomaso

Hehe... not a long list, I am more the geeky type. But these are some of the things that make my life different (I have a fear of living a boring life):

1. I Moved to Ireland from Germany just after high school for my first job. Then I moved back to Germany to study and back to Ireland to work. I live in Ireland since.

2. I studied Hebrew in Haifa, Israel, during the 2006 Lebanon war and was evacuated to Jerusalem. (This was my first war.)

3. I visited Iraq in September this year and saw the insides of a former secret police headquarters, the outsides of a PKK camp, the outskirts of Kirkuk (where there is still fighting), and the city centres of Arbil and Sulimeiniya. (That was my second war.)

4. I got stood up in both Jerusalem and Krakow BY THE SAME GIRL. This is not technically "cool", but I prefer to see it that way now.

5. In 8th grade (in Germany) I skipped two years of English and repeated two years of Latin because a new school I went to didn't have a Latin class for me to join.

6. I have friends all over the world, from Sudan via Iraq to Malaysia. Making those friends was cool.

7. Although I was a total academic failure I found an excellent job.

8. I can train budgies. (Well, _I_ think it's cool.)

9. I started a blog I am quite proud of. (It's not the JU one.)

10. I studied in four universities/colleges in three countries. I dropped out twice and finished only a two-year certificate and some Hebrew certs. (Dropping out of college is not cool any more?)

That is Awesome!  You are a hopeless romantic!

For me, the interesting things I've seen/done:

1.  Married my highschool sweetheart.  4 kids and 14 years later, we're still going strong. And still as devoted to each other as the day we married.

2.  Worked for the same company for almost 14 years now, providing services to our soldiers to make THEIR jobs easier.

3.  Gone hiking through the Bavarian Alps - in both summer AND winter.  Nothing like the view from the the top of Zukspitz  (butchering the spelling there.  ) in the winter time.

4.  Raising an autistic child.  There's nothing like the insights into life and living that slap you across the face when working with a child that sees everything (especially life itself) in a different way.

5.  Travel these United States.  The opportunity to see just how many opportunity our vast natural resources give is is amazing.  I've managed to visit 40 of the 50 states.  Alaska, Utah, North/South Dakota, Indiana, Idaho, Michigan, Wisconsin, Montana and Illinois are the only one's I've not visited for one reason or another.

6.  Travelled world wide.  I've visited over 40 countries on 5 of the 7 continents, including several that (technically) no longer exist.  Got lost in Moscow and had the KGB escort me back to my hotel.

It's certainly very interesting and makes a very good story.  At least it does in my imagination.  Do you still keep in touch with this woman?

I think training budgies is interesting.  What do you train them to do?

I trained my siamese fighting fish to jump up when I held my finger over his bowl.

Chaos Mangager,

you also have a pretty intersting list.  I think raising an autistic child takes a lot of emotional stamina.  I'm really curious as to some of these insights.

I'm so impressed with what people have written.  It's not just that these things are interesting, but also the choices people make when choosing to write their list is just as enlightening.

I'm so glad to see romantic, committed guys like Dynamaso and Chaos Manager.  Reminds me of my husband, my dad, my brother, but I know so many guys who aren't like this that sometimes I wonder if these men in my life are a little aberrant.  Glad to see there are lots of wonderful guys left in the world.

No. (The shortest word I have ever used to summarise a very long story.)

In high school we had to create a television (video) commercial as a home work. My team (myself and let's call them Chris and Sam) decided to go for a mobile phone commercial. Chris did the technical stuff (camera, cutting etc.), Sam came up with an idea and a slogan ("as wireless as a bird"), and I made a budgie land on a mobile phone. He came flying in from behind the camera, landed on the phone, hopped around it a bit; and that's when the slogan was displayed.

It's a trick. I grew up in a household that kept lots of birds. My family have traditionally been zoologists (but we have been engineers for three generations now). I used to know many tricks related to making birds (feathered such) do stuff.

In no particular order:

1. Been present at the birth of both of my sons

2. Had a short story published in a national magazine

3. skydived (twice so far)

4. owned 2 harley Davidson motorcycles at the same time

5. took custody of a man who came in off the street and confessed a murder to me.

6. Knew a woman (now deceased) who was a nurse in Parkland hospital's E.R. and assisted in surgery when both JFK and then Lee harvey Oswald came in.

7. prevented a suicide.

8. ran 13.1 miles in 2 hours, three minutes, and fifty-five seconds (hey! it was cool to me!)

9. Paid off my home!

I like to think of myself as a renaissance man, capable of both getting his hands dirty and keeping his nails clean.  Hmm, you've given me food for thought, though.  Thanks!

1.  Learned to drive a semi-tractor trailer, forklift, bobcat, and lots of other heavy equipment.

2.  Worked with explosives (C-4, blasting caps, det cord, conventional bombs, missiles)

3.  Won "Best Actress" Award in College

4.  Married in the Philippines

5.  Had two babies (this may sound easy, but both times there were circumstances which almost led me to dead babies)

6.  Had many stories I wrote published by the Associated Press

7.  Talked to a woman who was killing herself while a 911 operator/dispatcher...and was able to get an address from her right before she bled out...back when cell phones didn't have locater thingys

That's all I can think of for right now.

4. 

Let's see

Went to the Kentucky Derby but still regret that I didn't have a fabulous hat for the event.

Was in a television commercial.

Taught myself to face paint.

Had my stamp and collage artwork published and even on the cover of a magazine. 

Played paintball.

Moved away from home when I was 18. 

Drove a $400 car, beige with one blue fender, on a thousand mile trip.

Birthed three spawnlings including one humongo ten pounder.  I am woman.  Hear me roar.

Oh...saw the space shuttle, ran around the bases at the Ballpark in Arlington, saw George Strait, Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett at Texas Stadium stone cold sober - fail!  I was completely shitty, went kayaking...was crappy at it but I went anyway, let them write my weight in our meeting room for our biggest loser challenge at work - probably the bravest and most daring feat of my life, swam in the ocean

My list of things I want to do is more impressive than the list of things I've done. 

1.) Got married at the hitching post in N. Idaho and it stuck! Ten years and going strong. My limit before was 1 1/2 years, with a couple of relapses and went back for a secong 1 1/2. Should have known.

2.) Gave birth to three boys. I know, but my first son was the first diaper I ever changed. I never baby sat, so it was quite scary.

3.) I Zip lined in Hawaii.

4.) Touched Richard Simmons sweaty leg. Ha, it was gross, but pretty darn funny.

5.) I was chef of the week on the local news show and did a cooking demo of Focaccia bread.

6.) I learned how to snow ski after growing up in South Florida.

&.) One time at a gym I saw a leg, I thought it was a mannequin leg. I led a marching parade of fools, (my friends) when I was done a lady came out of the pool and asked for her leg back. No lie.

9.)When I was 18 I won $2000. at the dog track. I was so bombed and happy. I passed out 3 $100.oo bills to strangers. It was a great feeling.

10.)I have made some amazing friends on JU!