Bucket List under Attack!

So, I've started a bucket list. It's still a work in progress, a living document if you will, but I was re-inspired to get it done.

Here's the story:
I met this incredible woman who is bar tending on a beach in Rhode Island with a friend of mine. She is very sick, with a very rare disease, and doctors are saying she may only have a few more years. When she was 14 she made a bucket list (before MTV made that show and before anyone was talking about these sorts of things). Since then she's done a LOT! Traveled the world and just really lived life to the fullest. One of the items on her list was to work on the beach for the summer, so three summers ago she got this gig bar tending and now she does it every summer - and until recently this meant she was commuting two hours each way! There is a surgery that she can get that will help delay her death but it's expensive, there's a long recovery time, and she'll need the surgery again every few years and still it may not work. She's currently thinking she's going to forgo the surgery and just make the time she has left. She recently ran into a long-lost love (another incredible story!) and he is dropping everything and then are going to travel together and try and get through her list.

Needless to say I was crying when her story was finished... and feeling guilty about all that I take for granted and complain about. I need to get it together and make the most of my time too!

Which gets to why my list is under attack - SHARK ATTACK!!! Literally.
So, there are lots of things on my list, places I want to go and see and whatnot but the top three right now are:

1) Learn to drive a stick-shift. Anyone want to volunteer their car and time to teaching me?

2) Speak Spanish fluently. Meaning I can get a job in a Spanish-speaking country and be a functional, contributing member of whatever organization for which I work.

and

3) Learn to surf. Not anything too crazy - just stand up, balance on the board, and ride a wave. That's it.

I've been excited because Rhode Island could be a great place for this goal. The waves aren't too big, it's nearby, lessons aren't too expensive and most importantly sharks aren't really a concern. Or so I thought. I am VERY VERY VERY afraid of sharks. Maybe irrational but it is what it is.

A new friend from my grad program just send me this:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/07/chatham_closes.html


What the what?! I know Chatham is not Rhode Island but they are close and there are not supposed to be sharks up here...especially Great White Sharks!!!! Such a dilemma...