we like lists: list # 5: alternate realities

Our last list recounted fantasies that money can buy. Today we'll list the ones money can't buy. (I promise the next list will be less wistful and more affirming, but let's do this one first.)

Name five things you wish you could do but can't or won't. Not something you can't afford - that's the lotto list - but something outside your capabilities or your life path - activities or lifestyles out of your reach, but that you would love to be able to do.

Here's my list. Only the first item makes me sad. The rest are just dreams.

1. Write a truly great novel, something read for generations.

2. Sing with a band. When I was younger I wanted to be Chrissie Hynde. Now I'd go for Lucinda Williams.

3. Be athletic enough to play any sport reasonably well. I'm not talking elite-level here. Just to be competently athletic, enough to have the confidence to try any sport or physical activity without fear or embarrassment.

4. Have no fixed address. Be a perpetual traveler, living wherever I set down for a few months, then moving on.

5. Run an animal sanctuary. Have a huge plot of land where dogs, horses and other animals that were going to be killed could have a safe, loving home - especially dogs considered unadoptable.

You?