Pre.mortem

Go on a sailing vacation

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Learn to rock climb

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Go to a ball

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6 continents on 1 passport

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Fly in the Concorde

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NYC to London (round trip) in 1997. I went to England for 24 hours to see my friends run in a track meet. Dad took me on a free companion ticket because I missed England so much when we moved to America in 1996.

Visit Russia

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15-29 May, 2002.
Moscow & St. Petersburg.
I had drinking chocolate every morning, snuck out while my father was napping to ride the metros alone, ate rum raisin ice cream for the first time (8 cents!), met Cossacks, went to a chocolate factory, saw an opera in Russian in an old palace, ate lots of borscht and saw Russian high school graduation.

My father knew a women there from his days in business so she took us to some of the sights in St. Petersburg. She was raised in Soviet Russia so her perspective on civil society was markedly different from our own - it was an eye opener to see the generation that was disenfranchised when capitalism appeared there.

Decorate my own living space

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Own a performance car

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Visit Africa

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Have my own library

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Visit Thailand

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Oct-Dec 2005
Bangkok, Koh Tao, Koh Samui

I earned and used my PADI Divemaster while living on the island of Koh Tao. My time there included the festival of Loi Krathong, which is the water festival (pictured). While there I contracted a kidney infection (ask me about trying to get medical care at 3am on a 5x5km island) and when I came back I tested very positive for TB (I never had an active infection).

I made my visa runs in Burma (aka Myanmar) and took lots of local transportation (always interesting). Thai massage really is all it's cracked up to be and so is the food. I miss sour mangos and sticky rice.

(also on this trip: Japan)

Ride in a helicopter

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July 2008 in Juneau, Alaska.

We rode in a helicopter up to the Mendenhall glacier where we trekked and climbed for most of the day; then helicoptered back out just as the weather rolled in.

Visit India

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Fall in love

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Visit China

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Own a real piece of artwork

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Visit Australia

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2-18 June, 2004
Melbourne, Sydney, Cairns

In Melbourne I hung out with some friends of a friend doing very normal things like playing pool and attending a birthday bash. Sydney was more touristy - taking in the opera house, Federation Square (pictured) and the governor's mansion. From Cairns I headed out on a sailboat (pictured) to dive on the Great Barrier reef (we slept on the boat too). The night we got back was the England-Switzerland Euro cup match so we hit up a local bar to get rowdy and cheer on the Brits until dawn.

(also on this trip: Fiji & New Zealand)

Skydive

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13 July, 2002
Cleveland, OH

A tandem jump with, of all things, a Dutch man (my family is Dutch). We did the training and the jump entirely in Dutch, just to make it that little bit more interesting.

All I could think during freefall was "breathe out!" because the air is going up your nose and you feel a bit like you're choking. Then the chute engages and you unlatch the clips at your hips (so you're attached only by two clips at the shoulders) and glide down for a peaceful 15ish minutes.

Be a teacher

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Go scuba diving

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Fiji (2004), Australia (2004), Thailand (2005)

Ride in a glider

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Own superhero underwear

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Bought spring 2004.
I'm not putting up a photo of these, but they had the superman logo on them. Awesome.

See an amazing band in concert

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The Clarks (Pittsburgh, 2001)
Blues Traveler (Pittsburgh, 2001)
Alkaline Trio & Hot Water Music (Pittsburgh, 2001)
Weezer (Pittsburgh, 2002)
Bob Dylan (Columbus, 2002)
30 Seconds to Mars (Cleveland, 2003)
Queens of the Stone Age (Pittsburgh, 2003)
Jurassic 5 & Little Egypt (Pittsburgh, 2003)
French Kicks (Pittsburgh, 2004)
Interpol, The Cure & Scissor Sisters (New York City, 2004)
the Stars (New York City, 2005)
Pearl Jam (Washington DC, 2008 - pictured)
Blue Scholars & Hieroglyphics (Ann Arbor, 2008)
U2 et al (Washington DC, 2009)

See a solar eclipse totality

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Get a graduate degree

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Work abroad

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Own a horse

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Backpack somewhere exotic

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Own Wellingtons

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Bought May 2008. They provoke quite a bit of commentary when I wear them.

Learn to cook

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Ride in a hot air balloon

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Summer 1999
Cheltenham, England

Best first date ever.

Own a pet

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Be published

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1. Chen, Licht, Smith, Agner, Mason, Wang, Silvestre, Detre, Zimmerman, Ichord, and Wang. “Arterial Spin Labeling Perfusion MRI in Pediatric Arterial Ischemic Stroke – Initial Experiences.” JMRI. 2009 Feb;29(2):282-90

2. Petit, Rome, Wernovsky, Mason, Shera, Nicolson, Montenegro, Tabbutt, Zimmerman, Licht. “Preoperative Brain Injury in Transposition of the Great Arteries is Predicted by Oxygenation and Time to Surgery, Not Balloon Atrial Septostomy.” Circulation. 2009 Feb 10;119(5):709-16

Become accomplished on an instrument

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