Listing

I like to make lists. They are simple, concise and follow a theme. I make lists all the time, in fact, I carry in my back left pocket at all times a small notebook and pen that I fill with random reminders, email addresses, thoughts/ideas, quotes, and perhaps most importantly, lists. I’ve been carrying these things around for years and the lists can vary from “To Do” lists, “People to Call/Email” lists to “Things to Buy” lists. They also tend to include lists of random things I think about that can be put into list format. Just the other day when I was cleaning some stuff out of my room I found a list I made when I first arrived in Xebe titled, “Things I might be able to do in the seemingly copious amount of free time I am about to have.” There were 14 items listed, three of which were, “Write (make lists),” “Wittle,” and “Sharpen knives for wittling.”

Despite my affinity for list-making, I was thinking the other day that there are a number of lists I haven’t made that I would be fascinated to see but it is too late to make them because I lost track of what I wanted to list. Then I started to think of all these other lists that are not too late to make and maybe someday I will elaborate on them and even turn them into blog posts, although that is pretty unlikely. So, without further ado, a list of lists that never were or someday will be:

1. List of how many “Chicken Buses” I’ve been on and for how many hours/days total.
2. List of all of the books I’ve read.
3. List of all of the movies I’ve seen. (On my lap top, of course, because the list of movies I’ve seen in the theaters would be a list of one: Inception. Which was mind blowing, by the way.)
4. List of reasons why it’s a bad idea to eat a chicaron papusa—corn tortilla with bits of pig skin stuffed inside and (probably unwashed) cabbage on top—from a lady selling them out of a dirty food cart on the side of the road.
5. List of what happens to your body when you eat said chicaron papusa.
6. List of medieval tortures I would voluntarily subject myself to instead of having #5 happen to me again.
7. List of pies that I miss and list of socially and morally reprehensible things I would do to obtain one, especially Granny’s Life Altering Strawberry Rhubarb Miracle Pie (yes, it deserves to be capitalized and copy written) which she had been perfecting for about 90 years now.
8. List of reasons why it is a bad idea to volunteer to ref a Guatemalan girls’ basketball game, or as I like to call it, Dr. James Naismith’s worst nightmare.
9. List of reasons why Peace Corps should allow us to own/drive/ride motorcycles and other rule changes that would make my life so much easier.
10. List of the effects of 500 years of oppression, racism, and gender discrimination.
11. List of the effects of 500 years of not having ever produced even a semblance of a counter-culture.
12. List of excuses for not blogging more often.
13. List of ways I’ve rationalized how often I bathe, or rather, don’t bathe.