MASH

Do you all remember playing the game MASH growing up? Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House? You know… the one where you wrote down names of the people you wanted to marry, number of kids you wanted to have, places you wanted to  live, what kind of car you wanted to drive, and what jobs you wanted to have and then your future was whittled down to one item in each category?

In the many, many times I played the game I usually ended up living in a shack with the boy in school no one wanted to marry as my husband and our 264 kids, driving a punch buggy in Antarctica, supporting my family with my career as a bodyguard. 

Although the outcome tended to be less than desirable (although quite entertaining), it also made me think about others things I wanted to do when I grew up – places I wanted to travel to, languages I wanted to learn, people I hoped to meet.

Now that I am older, I am happy to report that my real life is playing out even better than I could have dreamed of when I was playing MASH in middle school. I am married to the best husband in the world, I drive a cute blue Honda Civic, I have a pretty sweet job, and we live in lovely apartment in DC (hey – it’s way better than a shack!). When the timing is right we will get to the kid thing, but I am pretty sure we will have less than 264. 

I have also begun to revisit the other things I wanted to do once I grew up – especially the places I want to travel to. After traveling to Europe for our honeymoon for the first time last August, I was bitten by the traveling bug, hard, and have begun to again think about all the places I want to visit.

Some of you know that I have deemed 2012 as the year of Jesse and Jess, since the past two years were out of control, insanely busy for both of us, and Jesse will soon be back in out of control, insanely busy mode when he heads back to school this fall, so we are going to make the most of the time in between, which includes some traveling. Traveling is also number seven on my 30 for 2012 list so I have to start thinking about this a bit more. Therefore, I have come up with the top 10 places I would like to see in 2012, which includes some of the places we are definitely traveling to, some places I have already visited, but enjoyed so much I would like to go back to, and some places I would love to visit for the first time. Additional suggestions welcome.

In no particular order:

Key West

Denver, CO

Savannah, GA

Mexico

Paris, France

Grandfather Mountain (North Carolina)

New England

Chicago, IL

Canada

And of course, the Happiest Place on Earth - Disney World!

Oh, and I played MASH online to see if my fortune improved any - yep, the game is high-tech now - and the good news is I get to stay married to Jesse and live in apartment, but apparently I am destined to have 264 kids. Fortunately, I will be working as a Marine Biologist in California and can drive my kids, a few at a time, around in my orange limo.