FARMERS (MARKET) DAUGHTER

It was time for another mother/daughter field trip. We got Sarge to sign our trip slips (he thought he was signing the renewal for his Playboy subscription) and we headed to -- you guessed it from the title of this post, didn't you -- Farmers Market!

And it's not just any green market where farmers gather outdoors to sell produce to the general public; every nook and cranny city has that. But this is the original Farmers Market (no apostrophe!) in L. A. And guess what? The price was right: $Free.99, or as Baby Girl puts it, "If it's free, it's me."

Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax is a historic fixture that is over 75 years old. It's famous for celebrity sightings (we saw two film crews there that day) and now I know why: There's over 80 shops on the premises. You can find anything you want there. There's gourmet shops, vintage clothing stalls, a butcher, a baker, and a chicken-on-a-stick maker. The delicious aroma from Bryan's Pitt BBQ had our mouths watering, but we decided instead to eat lunch at a tapas bar called Little Spain. The crab croquetas Espanolas was mmm-mui magnifico!

We shopped and bought little trinkets. Shine Gallery specializes in vintage memorabilia from bygone eras. They have authentic Pez dispensers in the original packaging. I even found a button that had my name on it, and I never find things that bear my name. You'd think I was named Shataquaneka or something. (My apologies to any Shataquanekas out there.)


We spent a whole day walking, looking, eating aqua blue taffy. The last time I'd been to Farmers Market was a field trip during elementary school. this excursion brought back old memories, and Baby Girl and I created a new one.

Farmers Market, Number 130 on my Bucket List.

DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME

If you were a court reporter for thirty years because you went to steno school right out of high school;

If you wrote down trial proceedings in a high volume criminal court for eight hours a day because the judges you worked for were making a name for themselves on the backs of their staff and wouldn't take decent breaks, even for the love of God;

If you then developed carpal tunnel syndrome bilaterally -- that's in both hands -- and bilateral cubital tunnel (that's carpal tunnel of the elbows), and three of the discs in your spine began to rebel and protrude so much that you couldn't sit for prolonged periods of time except with excruciating pain;

If you then beseeched your employer for modified or alternative work to minimize your pain and suffering, and said employer told you to kick rocks and pound sand;

If you were then forced to file a worker's comp claim and sue said employer, and win. . .

Then you, too, could retire at 50.

But don't try this at home, folks. It can be dangerous to your health.

Retire at age 50, Number 13 on my Bucket List.

Bucket List, the Movie

Anything goes on FREE FALL FRIDAY here at Adventure Salon. Today, you can watch Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson star in Bucket List for free without downloading it here.

If you've never seen it, it's about a corporate billionaire (Nicholson) who ends up sharing a hospital room with a working class Joe (Freeman). They decide to forget that they are both terminally ill, and proceed to do everything they ever wanted to do, ever, before they kick the bucket.

If this doesn't inspire you to get your own bucket list, nothing will. Well worth a look-see!

Get to the Getty

It was Baby's day out -- even though my Baby is now a 25 year-old woman -- and she wanted us to go to the Getty Museum.

Good idea; we were two people who just wanted to surrender ourselves to the serenity of art and achieve a blissful state of enlightenment . . . that is, until we turned into the Getty parking lot and our sensibilities were assaulted by a swarm of bee yellow school buses. I could just imagine unruly kids running around ruining our day by making noises as annoying as vuvuzelas.

Undeterred, we trudged onward and upward. Literally. The five-minute horizontal tram ride from the lot elevated us out of our dread, and transported us on a cushion of air to a place that was like another world. The architecture of the place was stunningly symmetrical, which lends itself to a certain symmetry, and we all know symmetry soothes the savage beast. Symmetrically.

The Making of a Bronze Sculpture exhibit was fascinating. It had never occurred to me how sculptures were made and that they started with an iron skeleton. From Foundry to Finish is a must-see if you ever get to the Getty.

We stopped for some fine dining at The Restaurant. Yes, that's the name of it. For all the creativity in and around the museum, I guess they opted for simplicity when naming the restaurant.

Still Life Photography was next, and I found it intriguing how artists pose everyday objects to portray some meaning bigger than their sum total. I think I could do that (and by "I could do that," I mean watch someone else do it). We also saw some medieval and renaissance paintings and decorative arts, which I can never get enough of. The older the art, the more I like it. How they make a 700 year-old painting look like new I'll never know. They should have a tour on that. By the way, we opted not to take any of the organized tours, but you have the option of that, or the GettyGuide do-it-yourself map, which is printed in every language, in large print, and in Braille.

Also at The J. Paul Getty Museum (not the one in Malibu, mind you), admission if free! File that under Things You Could Have Told Me Yesterday And I Would Have Been There Sooner. It's also one of the few museums where you can take pictures of the art as long as you don't use flash photography.

If you ever visit L.A., make sure you get to The Getty Center and explore the splendor that is its 750-acre expanse. This is me crossing Number 118 off of my Bucket List.

A CLEVER MISTAKE

"I never make stupid mistakes. Only very, very clever ones." ~John Peel

Going to see Michele Obama up close and personal is Number 16 on my Bucket List. Well, by a very, very clever mistake, that dream was made real.

It all began when I heard Michele was going to be at Maria Shriver's annual Women's Conference in Long Beach, Ca., but the event was sold out. Michele is so popular! (Yes, we're on a first name basis, but don't be jealous, Oprah. I still love you.)

And then I learned our First Lady was hitting the campaign trail on behalf of California Senator Barbara Boxer, and would be appearing at the Wilshire Ebell theater here in L.A. that same week.

So with one of my BFF's in tow -- The Diva -- we ordered our tickets online, choosing the mid-level priced seating because we didn't want to be so far back that Michele was just a dot in the distance.

When we arrive, of course there's a line around the block, but eagle-eyed Diva quickly discerns that if you have a handicapped placard, you go to the front of the line. She does, so we did. That was a bit of a blessing, but now on to the greatest mistake ever.

We walk up to the check-in table, give our names, and -- wonders never cease -- they have erroneously bumped me up to VIP status. The bad news is they don't have The Diva's name at all.

Fast on our feet, a cheerful but serious exchange of words with the ticket lady occurs. After all, I don't want to lose my newfound VIP status, I just want The Diva to get hers, too. Talk about pushing it to the limit.

After some checking and re-checking, the ticket lady is persuaded to give us both VIP wristbands, then an usher leads us to the center section, third row from the stage! The Diva and I immediately start texting family and friends to share our good fortune, when all of a sudden a tap comes on my shoulder, as I am in the aisle seat. "Would you two like to sit in the front row?" comes the sweetest voice you've ever heard. The front row, I'm thinking to myself; but before I can finish the thought, The Diva is up and headed to the front row, with me now in tow.

When Michele took the stage, I was awestruck. She is as beautiful as she is tall. . . and a better speaker than the president. She could be a motivational speaker. In fact, she is.

Bonus! Babyface performed, and Dr. Jill Biden was there and spoke, also. All I can say is check out the pictures of our Second Lady from the slide show on the side bar; Joe married up.

I don't know what happened, whose mistake it was, or whether it was The Secret at work in the universe; I just know that now I can cross Number 116 off of my bucket list.

LOST in Kauai

Chickens and roosters run rampant on the island of Kauai, and they're pretty, too. Those are two facts I'm surprised to learn on my visit to the colorful island.

What Sarge and I don't see on the island is the iron hatch with the DHARMA Initiative logo on it, the Black Rock pirate ship, or any of the "Others" from the TV series Lost. Nor do we hear the steel-grating sound of the Smoke Monster, even though episodes were filmed on these very shores.

Okay, that's enough reminiscences for us Lost buffs and our bent towards unsolved mysteries. (Why DID the Smoke Monster make mechanical sounds?)

Flashsideways. What we do see in Kauai is very lush greenery, the most vivid horizon, and the bluest ocean I've ever seen; more vibrant even than the Caribbean, in my humble opinion. Maybe it just seems that way because we got our trip at half-price; the catch being -- and this is a plot twist -- we have to listen to a 90-minute timeshare pitch. Spoiler Alert! We end up buying the timeshare. Who knew, she said, throwing up her hands in wonderment.

Anyway, Kauai is a great place for lovers, so you'd better love the one you're with if you decide to come here because there's not much else to do. More than half the island remains uninhabited so visitors mostly lay on the beach and go to restaurants. We are not bowled over by the island's cuisine, though, except for Gaylord's Plantation restaurant. Worth every penny.

Also worth the price of admission is the Movie Island Tour where we see the film sites of Jurassic Park, South Pacific and some of the Elvis movies.

We didn't do any filming ourselves, but we did take photos. Check out the slide show in the sidebar. Sarge got some well-deserved rest, and I was able to cross off number "4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 32..." er I mean Number 78 off of my Bucket List.
(That's one last parting gift for you Losties)

What's on your bucket list?

One Krazy Kat

This is WARPED WEDNESDAY . . . where you supply the caption using the words "bucket" and "list." Kudos if you use both!



(photo courtesy of stewickie)

Bleeding at the Typewriter . . .

. . . is my day gig.

It is otherwise known as the art of writing. For the first time in my life, I wrote for a week straight, Number 113 on my Bucket List -- me and my writer pal Pamela Samuels Young.

If you're a writer trying to focus, sometimes you need to get out of your own way. Los Angeles is a great place to be if you're a mogul with your own movie studio or the governator of your own state, but if you're a writer trying to hone in on her story, you need to get away from distractions of Kardashian proportions.

So Pamela and I drove to Palm Springs, writing from the moment we arrived at the house, breaking only for meals, which we never took together. Pamela worked on her fifth legal thriller, while I pecked away at my debut novel, Sput Louie, Cherokee Freedwoman.

It's historical fiction about a freed black woman, Sput Louie, who is chasing the American dream of owning her own land when she suddenly finds herself back at the mercy of her former owner, a Cherokee Indian, himself in the throes of fighting for his own dream. But love, lies and a vicious murder stand in both their ways. When a third party arrives, it becomes a nightmare of a struggle between the land-rich, the land-poor and the land-greedy.

I said we wrote from the moment we hit the door, but that's not entirely true. Ah, the unreliable narrator rears her ugly head, and she didn't even comb it first. While Pamela was writing in the living room, I did my usual writing routine: first, I spread all of my research out on the dining room table, put it in alphabetical order chronologically, from smallest to largest according to color, height and weight. Only after that bit of procrastination did I begin to write. I wrote and wrote and wrote some more, and the story began to bleed out of me.

It was such an invigorating experience, I'm determined not to let the momentum subside. I know that my work is less than a fourth of the way done, so I've added a word-meter widget at the bottom of my blog to showcase the pace of my WIP. I just hope it whips me in line when I'm slacking.

Strike through Number 113 on my Bucket List. I wrote for a week straight and lived to blog about it. Next time, maybe a month?

Grapes of Laughs

A winery would be a perfect place to carry out a Bucket List Maneuver AND have an I Love Lucy moment with your BFF, your daughter, your mother or your sister just like this fun-loving bunch did.

What's on your Bucket List?

OPRAH WINFREY Doesn't Know She's My Best Friend

Now here's a Bucket List idea whose time has come, going to the taping of the final season of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

I can certainly understand why Going To See Oprah would be on anyone's Bucket List, but I may as well put Going To The Moon on there because Oprah tickets are impossible to score. It's trickier than Criss Angel over a swimming pool walking on water (like hubby Sarge thinks he does); trickier than me getting a three-book deal with Simon and Shuster; trickier than having a hit TV show that doesn't have the words Law and Order attached to it; trickier than me getting a job as a joke writer.

However, someone has been lucky enough or smart enough to cop the rare seat in Harpo Studios. You can read her story here.

What's on YOUR bucket list?

DWIGHT HOWARD

(Photo courtesy of Howardthedunk.com)

Periodically, on Martini Mondays, I highlight someone else who is living their dream, doing the do, practicing what they preach by scratching off their Bucket List item by item. Dwight Howard helped one woman to do just that. See how it all went down over at the Look to the Stars Blog
Kudos to them both!

BUCK-IT LIST

FREE FALL FRIDAY is where anything goes.

This post falls right in line with Monday's post about the Orange County Fair. Check out this Rodeo In Twin Elm, Texas (say that five times real fast) that had an event specifically for Bull Riding Bucket Listers!

What's YOUR Bucket List idea?

Remains of the Day

It's WARPED WEDNESDAY, folks, where you write the caption using the words "bucket" or "list." Bonus if you use both!

Earth, Wind & Fireworks

Whenever you escape to L.A., you must also make a break for the Hollywood Bowl. And be sure to go on a night when there's fireworks. It happens several times during the summer, and even though I've lived on the left coast my entire life, I've never seen their pyrotechnics in person. So it became Number 109 on my Bucket List.

My sister got us tickets to see the legendary R&B group Earth, Wind & Fire, and it just so happened that they were being backed by the L.A. Philharmonic. Take a moment and imagine that!

The Hollywood Bowl knows how to take care of their patrons. We took advantage of their Park & Ride where for five bucks, the Bowl Bus picks you up at designated spots in and around Los Angeles so that you don't have the hassle of driving and having to find a parking space. They make it real easy for us imbibers.

When we get to the Bowl, we unpack our picnic (cheese, wine and sandwiches) and chat/munch with friends who met us there. Pre-show, the arena is one big picnic area; like a small town community.

And then the show begins.

EWF has won six Grammy Awards throughout their career, and their music -- Reasons, September, After the Love Has Gone -- took me back to my time as a teenager. It was all done with orchestral accompaniment and bursts of fireworks in the backdrop. Very much like a Hollywood set. Sparkles flared and lit up the night sky followed by fountains, pinwheels, rockets, then repeat!. It was FANTACULAR, at once fantastic and spectacular. (I love making up new words.)

This won't be the last time I see fireworks at the Hollywood Bowl, especially since the whole event only cost me twenty of my budget bucks. Light a fuse and blast Number 109 off of my Bucket List.

What's on your Bucket List?

ME, MYSELF & ARLENE

So there I was at Lit Crawl 2, alone and afraid, on a Saturday-night-date with myself, Number 6 on my Bucket List.

Lit Crawl 2 is a read-off put on by PEN Center USA, a literary organization dedicated to stimulating interest in the written word. So they came up with the Lit Crawl, the antithetical sister to the Pub Crawl, where one mixes books with one's beer, and crawls from pub to pub. Not literally, of course.

I had picked myself up earlier in the evening, not the least bit surprised that I was a punctual date. I'd eaten a snack before I left so I wouldn't have to buy me dinner. I'm all about the cheap date, especially if I'm paying.

Arriving at The Echo, I discovered that admission was free. This night was going to be alright, I thought. And then I remembered that I was alone, and didn't know a soul there. I berated myself: whose idea was it to go on a private date in the most public of places? Poised in the middle of the standing room only crowd (because there were no tables or chairs) I was reminded of the first poem I ever loved:

I had a little tea party this afternoon at three
Twas very small, three guests in all, just I, myself, and me
Myself ate up the sandwiches, while I drank up the tea
Twas also I who ate the pie, and passed the cake to me
Author unknown.* Probably for a reason.

So there I was at my own little tea party sipping scotch. I quickly made friends with a lovely couple from South Africa by way of San Diego: she, a writer; he, a reader; me, a drinker. A match made in heaven. When she found out that I was a published author, she asked if she could kiss my feet, but before I could answer, the readings began and the night turned magical.

Eleven(!) authors read from their works, and it was nothing short of amazing. I was in my element. Sarge (the regimented spousal unit) would call it a geekfest, but so be it. I was in heaven. I discovered a new author to watch, Katie Arnoldi. She was the best.

Sated by the end of the night, I didn't feel the need to crawl to the next pub, and then the next one after that. Besides, Sarge had grilled salmon and chilled champagne waiting for me. When I arrived home, I asked myself in for a nightcap, then struck another item off of my Bucket List. I think my date enjoyed herself, and that makes me happy.


*Jessica Nelson North

10 Ways to Build a Better Bucket List

1. Be a swashbuckler. Do something outside your comfort zone. If buckling swashes is not for you, please see Number 2.

2. Forrest Gump-ify. Simple is as simple does. Take joy in life's simple pleasures. Sometimes, it's the little things that count; add them to your list.

3. Be a fearless flyer. Don't fear the unknown just because you don't know about it. You just might discover you aren't who you thought you were.

4. Be curious. Like when you were nine months old and could pass the time fascinated crumpling a sheet of paper. Remember how powerful that felt. Recapture that feeling. You were making yourself happy.

5. Talk to people. The quiet guy in your office that occupies the corner cubicle, you now, the one with the pocket protector and thick glasses -- he may have forgone Lasix just so he could afford hang gliding on the weekends. Get ideas from other people and add them to your list.

6. Get a bucket list buddy. There's nothing like being a wingman, a collaborator, a partner in crime on someone else's adventures.

7. Be altruistic. Being of service to others gladdens the heart and mends fences.

8. Be interesting. And not just to win friends and influence people, either! Interesting people do interesting things.

9. Be present and engaged. Live in the now, as Oprah would say. Close your eyes and think: what could I do right this very minute that I've never done, but always wanted to? Go on, then. Dance naked around your living room; just close the blinds first.

10. Surprise yourself. Allow your actions to speak volumes.

Once you've made your list (or added to it), tell others about it. Give voice to it. Shout out to the world and tell them these are the things I'm going to do before I kick the bucket. Then, SWOOSH, Just Do It.

What's on your Bucket List now?

LIVING THE DREAM

I don't know why I haven't written about this before now. It's so obvious that I forgot:

Create your own website, Number 51 on my Bucket List. Blogs count, too, don't they?

It all started one dark and windblown night a couple of years ago when I wondered, how do I create my own website at home? That's when I surfed the net and learned that blogspot.com was FREE, and I could have an internet platform from which to . . . well, do anything I wanted. Thus Adventure Salon was born, a place where I could write about the thing that is very close to my heart: living your best life.

It's taken me a while to really get the site going at maximum capacity, but with a little help from my friend and blog wizard Margo Dill, I set up blogkeeping in my own little corner of the Emerald Forest, and followed her yellow brick road to gadgets, and widgets and bears, OH MY!

I even dabbled in HTML, which I thought I knew NOTHING about, and it's all paid off. In the last month, I've gotten 30 new followers -- who for some reason don't register on my widget (my fault, I'm sure; HTML can be a wicked witch!) -- and had 53% increase in traffic, and Alexa ranks me number 6,034, 795 out of all the websites in the U.S. (Don't laugh; I take it where I can get it.) Of course, a lot of that is due to my ramping up my tweet time on Twitter where I pick up followers in my limousine and drive them over to my blog, no tip necessary.

And now I can blog about what's on my Bucket List any time I want, and hopefully encourage others to pursue their dreams, no matter how big or how small. Sometimes, it's the little things that count.

Unlike Citibank, I don't care what's in your wallet. What's on your Bucket List?

FREE FALL FRIDAY

There may be a multitude of sins, but there's also a multitude of . . . you guessed it: BUCKET LISTS!

Of course there's your usual travel Bucket List, but there's also a sports Bucket List, a beauty Bucket List, and even a sexual Bucket List. (But you get no link for that one :-))

Did you know there was a Christian Ministry Bucket List? How about a Family, golf or wish Bucket List?

If you're interested in hearing about all the foods you should try before you die, tune in to the upcoming TV show called The Bucket List.

And what about the Bucket List for old men? (Don't know much about that one, but I can ask my husband, Sarge.)

And last, but definitely not least, there's even a Bucket List for your dog.

What's your Bucket List idea?