River: Once In a Lifetime?

[mdlbear]

A lot of once-in-a-lifetime events have aged off of my bucket list, most recently yesterday's total eclipse. I was in the middle of a radiation treatment for prostate cancer -- which I certainly hope will be a once-in-a-lifetime event. But it wasn't on the list.

I could have seen the total eclipse in 2017 except that I procrastinated travel planning until it was too late. 99% was pretty exciting, and I got to share it with N -- it was her first. But it could have been... My next opportunities will be in 2026 and 2027 -- both of those will be visible in Europe, and I plan to be there if I don't kick the bucket myself first.

I procrastinated travel planning for my 50th high school reunion in 2015, too -- I think that was because of anxiety, burnout, and depression -- that's when things were going badly downhill for me at Amazon.

I did get to my 50th college reunion in 2019, largely because I swore not to make the same mistake I did in 2015. I may very well skip my 55th this June, mainly because of COVID, but I'll probably regret that too.

But last year I blew off the 50th reunion of Columbae, the co-op where I lived my last years at Stanford. I don't know what I was thinking. I opted to go to OVFF, which was good, but I still regret that choice.

I went to Mom's 95th and 99th birthday parties, which were a blast. She cancelled the 100th herself, by dying two months early.

I'm not sure what the point of this exercise was.