What I Love About Sunday

This morning I went to the City Park Farmer's Market. I've never been there before. I sometimes play softball there and I've been to the zoo and museum, but not the market (or the south entrance where this fountain is). Took the dog, had some limeade and enjoyed the sunshine.

To recap the past week of new things, since returning from California:

#11 Playing Left, Right, Center for money

#12 Visiting Heritage Square in Golden (who knew there was a pseudo Victorian village in the foothills where you can ride the Scrambler)

#13 Wearing flip flops on a chair lift (Alpine sliding is not new, though I 've never done it in Colorado and the last time I did it was in Queenstown, New Zealand)

#14 Lying down on train tracks

#15 New Restaurant: El Senor Sol

#16 Going to the City Park Farmer's Market

15 Seconds of Fame

Maybe I can add it to my something new list, because I don't know that I personally have been featured on You Tube. But it's for a good cause, so no complaints.



You can donate to the cause by clicking here and scrolling down to my name on the team list.

New Part 2

So putting family, sunshine and wine together in the same place has all kinds of possibilities.

Including the opportunity for new things. Although some things I debate if they qualify and may list them as temporary...if better, more exciting new things come across that's ok.

#6 Going Wine Tasting in California
(wine has definitely grown on me and I have endeavored to taste wine in other places, like New Mexico, Illinois, South Africa, Germany and Australia. But California is a beautiful place to drink wine....one right after the other)

#7 Making Sangria ~ I've only even drank Sangria once or twice, but after trying it at the Callaway winery, I then endeavored to make my own on Saturday night. Delicious!

#8 Eating Dwight's Famous "Strips" on Huntington Beach. Dwight's has been serving people for 77 years. I'm not sure if the famous strips have always been there, but even a complete stranger verified that what made the strips famous was the sauce. Their sign says "Have you striped today?" As everyone knows, striping and stripping are two different things. I'm not sure which I did yesterday morning.

#9 Wearing a dress for an entire day and not for a special occasion (graduation, Mother's Day, church, etc). I wear skirts periodically, but I actually did the sundress thing for a day. It didn't kill me. I may do it again.

#10 Enjoying a Pacific front ocean view hotel room. Been to California, Oregon and Washington and have seen the coast, but never from my hotel room. (*disclaimer: hotel rooms in Hawaii don't count....that's "south pacific.")

California Girls

To celebrate Memorial Day and a milestone birthday for my mom (as she said, her "thirtieth") we went out to Huntington Beach, California for a girls weekend. The Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach is a beautiful property (and the room rate, free, couldn't be beat!). We went wine tasting in Temecula, drank sangria and margaritas, and enjoyed the sunshine and palm trees. As adults, shockingly, we all enjoy each others company and getting together on vacation is the way to go. More highlights to follow!

Starting Slow

Last Saturday started my endeavor of trying 50 new things (and keeping track, too). I leave for California on Friday and since I haven't spent much time in So Cal, I know the opportunity for new things exists (even something as mundane as the fact that I've never been to the Pacific Ocean on Memorial Day....but that would be a cop out).

So what's "new"?

#1 I went to a baby shower. Where I could take my dog. And we drank tequila (well, not the mother to be). Earlier last week I bought a stroller for the first time in preparation for this party.
#2 I learned to play Texas Hold 'Em (note: this immediately followed the baby shower)
#3 I created my first radio station on Pandora : Island Country
#4 I had a sopapilla as an entree (and for dessert too, but the stuffed sopapilla entree at La Loma was yummy!) At the same time I feel like learned more about my boss as a person than I have in over 2 years of working with him.
#5 Today I bought 2 dresses. Buying dresses is a novelty. I even plan on wearing them both in the next few weeks. Go me!

Vagabonding

Perusing the travel shelf at Borders (which always has me thinking about the next trip), I found two books, by Rolf Potts. The one with the catchy title was Marco Polo Didn't Go There. However, the book that I was actually able to get from the library was Vagabonding. Rolf describes how to plan for, finance, and enjoy extended travel, which incidentally, is different from vacation. Americans are starved for vacation compared to other industrialized countries, and even then some people don't take their allotted 2 weeks (what's wrong with them?).

On vacation you try to cram as much as possible into a short period of time (supporting the tour bus industry). Traveling gives you more time to relax, enjoy, and on occasion, not do anything. My trip to Thailand was the closest I've been to having a vagabond experience and it makes me hungry to do it again. Soon.

One of the quotes in the book, from a vagabonder herself (L. Spalding in Arizona), was "My family and friends often say to me, "I'm living vicariously through you." Don't ever live vicariously. This is your life. Live."

Sugar Makes a Comeback

Recently both Pepsi and Snapple have been advertising new versions of old products. What's the change? Sugar. Sugar is becoming popular again. High fructose corn syrup has too many syllables and everyone knows that processed foods and ingredients aren't usually as good for you. Similar to butter and eggs, people are realizing that in moderation, sugar won't kill you.

A friend used to tell me that she liked to order Coke when she was in Mexico, because it tasted better because it was made with sugar. Check out a Pepsi Throwback on your next trip to the store and judge for yourself.

Things, New

Previously I had commented on life lists in connection, one author's challenge to try 40 new things in 40 days. Seeing that summer is coming and it's an ideal thing to try new stuff (restaurants, hiking trails, festivals), so I've decided that my endeavor will be 50 new things in 50 days, ending on July 4 (which means that I start this coming Saturday). I'm not limiting myself to 1 new thing per day. If there is a weekend of new, that will balance out a Tuesday of nothing exciting. Hopefully all of them will be fun (as breaking a bone would be new, but not so enjoyable).

Yesterday I could probably classify 3 new things: Camping in the Snow, Visiting Blue Lakes, Wearing a hat made of alpaca wool. Not life changing, but a good day nonetheless.

As with any topic, there is a market for trying new things, and listing things, on the web. www.43things.com lets you put your list up, share with others who have the same goal, and indicate how it made you feel. Currently 320 people have "try new things" on their life list. Personally I think that is a little too vague for life-listing purposes.

Even the geneses at www.ehow.com have step by step instructions on how to try new things. Come on people, it's not rocket science (but if that was something new you wanted to learn....knock yourself out).

Summer Decline

I'm not a big TV person in general. Tonight I saw a preview for one of the summer shows on NBC called "I'm a celebrity...get me out of here." I think they're using the word "celebrity" awfully loosely, as I only recognized 2 names, and one of them was Sanjaya. Take a semi-famous person, drop them in the jungle and America gets to vote on what happens. Good times.

Summer is the experimental TV season, bringing out shows like "The Singing Bee." Long running shows, like Survivor, started in the summer. The summer that Survivor premiered, I was living in a cabin in Yellowstone with no access to TV. I heard about the show in newspapers and from friends as it was becoming a cultural phenomenon.

I would never have thought that "I Survived a Japanese Game Show" would be returning for an encore this year. I may just have to watch. It could be my token show for the summer. It's either that or the infamous big balls on Wipeout.