2. read one vonnegut novel (31x31)

Finished Slaughterhouse V or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death today during my lunch break. Everyone was right, I do like Vonnegut.

where did I underline?
the preface: To Stephen Hawking and all others younger than myself I say, "Be patient. Your future will soon come to you and lie down at your feet like a dog who knows and loves you no matter what you are."

"And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep."

there's a band name in there, "If The Accident Will"

'Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops."

"It was a quiet, patient sort of fire - like the burning of punk."

"Here was light opera."

word I needed to look up: nacreous... mother of pearl, syn. iridescent.

8. go to a professional sport's game (31 x 31)

When I showed Lenny my Flyers cap, which I had acquired from Melissa at Jenna's clothing swap-o-rama/birthday party back in January, I had no idea that it would get me into front row seats two hours later. He said, "Huh, yesterday a buddy of mine was asking if anyone wanted to go to a Flyers game, giving away his tickets." A few texts later, we had the most amazing seats ever! right behind one of the nets!

Apparently, hockey fans - maybe sport's fans in general - get heify about loyalty and winning and are very territorial. Knowing full well that I am supposed to be a Washington Capital's fan, I attended a Philadelphia Flyers game. I posted it on facebook, because, well, that's what you do when you go somewhere - anywhere - these days. This is how we all stay connected, and I think for the most part people are accepting and adapting to the new way of maintaining parasocial relationships. I digress. Who knew that a simple post such as "Let's Go Fly-ers! Let's Go!" would nearly ruin friendships with four Washingtonians and even my relationship with my brother is strained (not really)! It was really a very interesting experience, aside from the sport, the response to my betrayal. Why is everyone so anti-Philly?

On a more superficial note, hockey is fantastic. There were almost a couple fights, no one took off their gloves. I sat next to a wonderful season-ticket-holder couple. Janice told me that they hadn't been to the last few games because she had just become a grandmother and her husband was recovering from surgery, but otherwise they are very faithful fans. Confession: I could hardly understand her because her accent was so heavy and the fans in that stadium are so loud. Lenny told me the history of the Flyers and how they acquired the nickname The Broad Street Bullies, there's even a documentary about it (http://www.hbo.com/sports/broad-street-bullies/index.html) which I will be watching in the near future.

16. learn how to water ski (30x30)

This was tweeked slightly. I missed the waterskiing window by a couple months, so decided that cross country skiing was a plausible substitution since it is still skiing on water; just frozen, flakey water. The same weekend that I went to Vermont with my Dad and Mart to go on the dog sled run, we also went cross country skiing. I didn't like it at first because I fell down. You don't go very fast, at all. There are no edges to the skis which means that turning is very difficult. I thought I would be very cold, because downhill skiing gets cold, so I put those hand warmers in my gloves. Half-way around the trails I had to take my gloves off completely, I was on fire! Once I changed mindsets and thought of cross country as an endurance sport and not a sprint sport, it was much easier.




Cross country also affords much more time to stop and appreciate the trees and the beautiful day.

2. go on a dog sled trek in vermont (30 x 30)

My dad took me up to Vermont for my birthday this year and we went on a dog-sled trek. The Husky Works Mushing Company is run by Laura and her husband, Jeremy. They really care for the dogs, took a about an hour to explain how they started and all about the dogs, where they came from, the temperment of huskies. It was like a rollercoaster going down the hills, watching the dogs just take off!