T Plus 1 Day...Finally

The Last Challenge

So, I know I promised this a while ago but what can I say…my first couple of weeks of 30 have been really busy! It’s probably a fairly natural response, whenever you hit a milestone in life, to reflect on your life. I’m no different but I’ll spare you ALL of the thoughts that went through my head on my birthday. Rest assured, some of them were pretty crazyJ. And some of them made me a bit weepy…in a good way. I’ve been a very lucky girl...well, woman. I guess since I’m 30 I should start calling myself that even if it sounds weird to me. I was already sure of what I’d be doing today to meet the challenge but first I’m going to let you in on how I got to this decision.

I was able to take half of the day off of work and get a facial…you know, so I could look younger than 30. It should have worked because the lady thought I was only about 26 BEFORE she did my facial. And then I spent the evening with some great friends enjoying some delicious steaks, drinks and my absolute favorite DQ ice cream cake. They’ve gone through great lengths in the past to get me one of these on my birthday, so I’m glad it was fairly easy this time around. I’m pretty lucky to have friends that are willing to find a DQ  between Salida, CO and Denver, CO to buy an ice cream cake (even if it was half melted in a rental car trunk by the time they got to Denver) and make sure that I was unaware they were getting it (that’s how it went last year).

When I showed up for dinner at my friends’ house, I told them I had been a bit weepy that afternoon and didn’t really know why…so I blamed it on the alcohol I’d already had… Well, that’s not entirely true. For some reason, this 30 day challenge has really made me reflect on how lucky I’ve been. I’ve met some really incredible people and gotten to have some really amazing experiences in my life. And, I’m lucky enough to know that I have a strong and supportive network of family and friends literally spread across the world. We’ve shared some absolutely ridiculous and hilarious experiences, from little moments to epic nights and weekends. (I will apologize now but I’m going to reference some inside jokes. There should be at least one for all of you…if I know you…some of these have happened a lot more than once, or twice, or even three times...):

•  “Jon, ARE WE UP?!?!
•  getting a ticket for driving on a road in a federal park…hello court summons that says United States of America vs. Megan Sip
•   the numerous amounts of stag parties in Ireland
•  “Uh, no, I can’t go out tonight, I have to be at work at 6 a.m.” and then getting dropped off at home around 4:30 a.m.
•  vacation mojo
• “Don’t use ‘double fisting’ in Ireland”
•   Peachy keen
•  Ivanabitch
• The Hop
• Halloween as some soldiers’ French liberated whore…I still can’t drink Long Beach Iced Teas
• Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy
• Saran Wrap
• Let's do some shots!

We’ve had some happy experiences and some not quite as happy experiences. There have been break-ups, illnesses, marriages (of friends, not mine!) and kids (of friends, not mine!), divorces (again…not mine), dream jobs (not many people are lucky enough to have counted themselves among flight controllers for the U.S. Space Program)… I could go on forever but I think you get it.

One of my favorite movies is The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. If you’ve never seen it, I highly recommend it. The basic premise is being able to erase your memories after a bad break-up. It seems like a good idea but in the movie, you can only erase ALL of the memories from a time period. So, that means erasing the good memories with the bad memories. While it would be nice to not have to have lived through some of the less fun experiences of the last thirty years, I wouldn’t give them up at the expense of also losing the fun experiences. Those are what have made me the person I am today. And while I may not be perfect, I’m pretty happy with how my life is as I start my thirties.

I watched my Grandpa on my mom’s side die from Alzheimer’s and it was pretty devastating for the entire family. By the time he passed, he didn’t recognize anyone. I think this is probably the cruelest way for anyone’s life to end because our memories and the people we love are what really make it worth getting up every day. Why the sudden bout of unexpected seriousness? Where am I going with this? My final ‘Random Act of Kindness’ for this 30 Days to 30 Challenge was a donation to the Alzheimer’s Association. Hopefully, there will be a cure found for this one day and no one will have to face the end of their life with the absence of all of their memories and not recognizing the people that love them.

P.S. While on the website, I noticed there’s a fundraising walk coming up in October. So, just a warning to those of you around Houston…I’ll probably be seeing if any of you want to participate and help raise some money. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

P.P.S. This has been kind of fun. So, I’m considering continuing some sort of challenge to make 30 just a bit more entertaining. Maybe something new twice a month or something… Thoughts?

T Plus 1 Day

T Plus 1 Day: Wednesday, August 15, 2012: I'm 30

Well, I made it. I'm 30. I have a pretty fun evening with some great friends planned, so I'll post the update on the last day of my challenge tomorrow.

This has actually been pretty fun and is making me think I might want to do some sort of challenge for myself throughout my 30th year. Not a daily challenge but maybe monthly or twice a month...

T Minus 0 Days

T minus 0 Days, Tuesday, August 14, 2012: "Be a Kid"

First, no, today is not my birthday. Don't let the '0' fool you. Look at yesterday's post about the numbering...July has 31 days. It screwed me up.

Today is the last day of my twenties. Kind of weird... I've been in my twenties for a long time! And a lot has happened, good and bad, that has brought me to where I am in my life. Of course, I wouldn't have minded spending the majority of my day doing something other than what I was doing. I spent most of the last day of my twenties doing requirements tracking and sitting in meetings. On the bright side, that means I have a job...

On to the fun stuff! I slept in this morning (thank God for flexible schedules!) and then I stayed up super late watching a movie. I watched 'Mirror Mirror' with a friend and it was actually pretty entertaining. When I was a kid, I used to love getting to stay up late and watch a movie. So, my last night in my twenties was spent doing just that. Of course, I had an adult drink with me while doing that. I'm pretty sure that's different from when I was younger...

T Minus 1 Day

T minus 1 Day, Monday, August 13, 2012: "Be a Kid"

First, I feel like my countdown days are screwed up because tomorrow isn't my birthday. But, I went back and counted and I've got all of the numbers from 30 on down. And then I realized that July really has 31 days... So, I should have either started the challenge on July 16th or called it the 31 days to 30 challenge...which isn't exactly as catchy. So, instead, you'll be getting some weird countdown numbers the next few days. Get over it, I'm old, I can't be expected to remember these kinds of details!

On to today's challenge. The "Be a Kid" thing could really be called "Be a Toddler" today because that's totally what I did. I had dinner with some friends that I hadn't seen in a ridiculously long time. They have a super cute kid who's 20 months old (I'm not sure I want to calculate how many months old I am...)

First, it was nice to be able to catch up with them. Second, it was great to be able to have real dinner since I don't have any food in my house because I just got back from San Diego. And the dinner was delicious! Before and after dinner, I played with their son. He was a little shy at first (I find most kids that age generally take a few minutes to warm up to people) but he got over that really fast when I asked him to show me his toys. He's really into trains, so we played with some little ones for a while. Then we played with one that he can sit on. Then I made some fresh whipped cream for dessert and let him lick the beaters (he loved it, who wouldn't??). Then it was his bath time and after that we played with more toys.

He showed me his giraffe, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, horse, tiger and monkey. He also made sure I knew what they all said. We jumped just for the sake of jumping. Then we jumped on one foot to show that we could. Then there was some spinning. I can't spin nearly as long as he can...it's hard when you're old like me :P

Then, it was bedtime. And, I had to go back to being an adult and went to the grocery store. But, those few hours of jumping, spinning and show and tell just for the fun of it were pretty awesome. I've said it before but I highly recommend spending time with young kids as much as you possibly can. They remind you to just enjoy things for no other reason than it's fun.

T Minus 3 and 2 Days

T minus 3 and 2 days, Saturday and Sunday, August 11 and 12, 2012: "Be a Kid"

Yeah, that's right, this is going to be another one of the two-fer posts. Mostly because the activity I did on both days was fairly similar so I didn't think it was worth making two separate posts about. On these days, I'm chalking up my beach play to being like a kid. We spent a lot of time hanging out on the beach in the San Diego area. On Saturday afternoon, we hung out in the Ocean Beach area. And, some other good friends drove down from where they live north of LA for the night with their two kids. I was so excited that they were able to make it down for the weekend!

Of course, since they have two kids, they also brought a lot of beach toys! We got some use out of the boogie boards and this beach ball/frisbee ring contraption. It was a lot of fun to throw around in the water because if you missed it, it would just float like a beach ball. Their six year old son enjoyed it because the waves would wash right back up to him near the shore.

Sunday, we went to the Mission Beach area in the morning before we had to get ready to go to the airport. We were able to get in a couple of hours on the beach and it was awesome! I honestly think it was my favorite time of the whole weekend, including the surfing. I had a great group of friends around me, got to play in the sand and waves with the kids, we tossed the ball/frisbee ring thing around, had a race to the buoy with three people (and I totally beat them all to the buoy :P) and just general beach laziness. I did notice that most other adults were just laying on the beach... I can't really just lay there for a couple of hours, so the "kid" type beach activities were the perfect way to fill the time.

It was an absolutely perfect way to finish the weekend. We got a pretty good group picture of us before we had to head back to the hotel to get ready for the airport but two people bailed out fast so they aren't in this one...bummer!

The last morning after enjoying some kid activities on the beach.

T Minus 4 Days

T minus 4 days, Friday, August 10, 2012: "Be a Kid" and "Random Act of Kindness"

Today was the first full day in San Diego and it was a blast. There were six of us here at this point and we all started off with surf lessons. Well, minus one person who already knew how to surf but whatever. This is what I'm chalking up to being like a kid. We first spend some time on something called an Indio board that was to help us get used to the balance part and I can tell you that we all fell and we all laughed about it. It was pretty entertaining. Our instructors were also pretty entertaining and regaled us with some pretty awesome jokes. I'd put them on here but the punchlines need to be said in a certain way, so I'd hate to ruin it for you!

Anyhow, the surfing was super fun. We all stood up on the board a couple of times and of course felt triumphant! The only bad part was all of the sea weed in the water...I just tried to pretend it wasn't there. Which was a little hard when my feet got tangled in it but whatever. Unfortunately, since we were all surfing, there aren't any pictures of us actually surfing. But, this gives you an idea of how good we looked:

What can I say, we're fast learners :)

After we were done surfing we went and checked out this pretty cool lookout, cliff area called Sunset Cliffs. It wasn't sunset but it was still a pretty spectacular view.

The cell phone picture really doesn't do the view justice but it's still pretty cool.

A few of us climbed down part of the cliff area and contemplated the possibility of jumping into the water.

Hello up there! They didn't want to climb down where we were. I guess they had no desire to contemplate the success rate of jumping...

We were pretty sure it was deep enough but none of us were brave (or stupid...either way) enough to go first. So, we didn't jump. But, I did pick up some garbage from the cliff and threw it out on the way back to the car. I can't understand how hard it is for someone to carry their trash 50 feet away to a garbage can. So lame to dirty up a beautiful place with trash.

Then we got a pretty good group picture. Ignore the fact that my shorts are so baggy I look like I'm packing something extra in there...

If we look exhausted it's because we spent all morning surfing. See the picture above!

T Minus 5 Days

T minus 5 days, Thursday, August 9, 2012: "Random Act of Kindness"

In case you haven't noticed, the random act of kindness has probably been my favorite thing to do. Usually, it's pretty simple to complete but gives me a nice boost for the day...so it's actually kind of selfish. But, whatever!

Today, I flew to San Diego to spend the weekend with a bunch of friends. We were celebrating my last weekend in my twenties and it was an absolute blast. I arrived about seven hours before everyone else from the Houston area did and my friend Tara picked me up at the airport. We went and checked out Coronado Island and it was beautiful!

Coronado Island. It's a little nicer than the beaches of Galveston.

One thing I learned about California is that the parking is ridiculous! On Coronado, there were parking meters everywhere and from what I've heard, the parking tickets can be a little high. So, while Tara and I were getting ready to leave, I saw a parking meter with only about 15 minutes left on it. So, I put some money in it and gave them an extra half an hour on the meter.

Of course, the person could have returned two minutes after we left and wondered why the heck they had so much time on the meter still. But, that's fine with me. Challenge complete! Tara and I went and go ourselves a few drinks as a reward :)