Breaking the Pattern: A Status Report

Unbelievably, it has been six months since I started this blog.

And it seems as good a time as any to step back and review the list of goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year:

1. Go ice skating √

2. Go on a road trip

3. Learn to rock climb √

4. Go snow tubing √

5. Visit my out-of-state friends (specifically in Pittsburgh & Nashville)

6. Sign up for dance classes

7. Go horseback riding

8. Experience new cities √

9. Do more volunteer work

10. Get out of the house more √

Not too shabby!

As hoped, putting the list ‘out there’ has really kept me focused on my goals. And now that I am open to doing new things, the Universe is responding with so many more opportunities and experiences than I had ever expected.

Plus it feels great to finally do some of the things that I’ve talked about for years! Snow tubing will always be one of the funnest experiences of my life and one of the reasons why I won’t be as sad to see summer and fall end this year.

It’s been so much fun working through the first half of the list, I can’t wait to get started on the rest!

Chasing the Wind

While still on vacation, my sister called me with an offer I couldn’t refuse.

Did I want to take a windsurfing class?

Um, yeah!

Okay, so I actually didn’t agree that quickly. I still had vacation brain and couldn’t quite wrap my head around what it would take to windsurf.

And then I realized it didn’t matter. The goal of this year was to start living life…and this would certainly be another step in the right direction.

And so today, I found myself on Gunpowder River taking a windsurfing instructional class…in 95-degree weather. Thankfully we spent most of the four hours in the water.

And it was awesome!

Granted there wasn’t a whole lot of wind today - and that’s kind of a big part of windsurfing (duhr) - but I still had a lot of fun practicing the basic pose, sailing position and self rescue.

And now I feel ready to catch some real wind!

Like the Birds, I’ve Headed South!

Just as sleep can be healing for our physical bodies, vacations can be restorative for the soul.

As I sit writing this, I can hear the ocean waves and the sounds of families on the boardwalk outside my hotel room.

It’s a wonderful sound.

And vacations are a wonderful thing…more to come upon my return to civilization.

Quote of the Day

“Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time’, is like saying, ‘I don’t want to’.” - Lao-Tzu

Lately, I feel like I’m constantly lamenting the fact that "I don’t have [the] time” to do everything I need to do. On one hand, I’m happy that I have more events and activities going on during the weekend and weeknights. But on the other hand, I’m often left feeling like my nights and weekends just disappear and I’m not being productive enough with the spare time in between.

But perhaps Lao-Tzu is right. Maybe I do have all the time I need to accomplish something everyday, I just need to want to use that free time in a productive manner.

Somehow that seems a little easier said than done, but I’m going to keep this in mind and push forward because I want to make a change.

World Cup Passion

More than any other sport, soccer is a game of passion – for the players and the fans. And that’s nowhere more evident than during the World Cup, the largest sporting event in the world.

Fans from every continent spend thousands of dollars to fly thousands of miles to support their national team. And it is an amazing thing to see.

Someday I will witness that passion in person (it’s on the bucket list), but for now the television coverage will have to do.

It also helps that I can live vicariously through my boyfriend and his family who unfailingly support the Mexican national team through their ups and downs - and there were plenty of both during the opening game today.

In the end, Mexico and South Africa both rallied and the game ended in a tie.

For the next month, the world will unite to watch 32 countries fight to win the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

And, for a world that is often at war against each other, that is a wonderful thing.

Dinner Party 102

“Love attending dinner parties but not confident enough to host your own yet?”

Not anymore!

Two weeks after my first cooking class, I was jonesing to recreate the experience. So on Saturday night, I hosted a dinner party with a cooking requirement.

We picked out a menu and spent the two hours before dinner slicing, dicing, stirring and cooking. We even recreated one of the dishes from the class so we could test our newly found skills. And it was so much fun! We all took turns practicing our knife skills and helping each other through the recipes.

Once the table was set, we then took turns taking pictures of our masterpiece before sitting down to finally eat our fancy feast:

MENU Spinach Salad with Caramelized Pears and Goat Cheese – Steak Kabobs with Onion, Red Peppers and Green Peppers – White Rice – Raspberry Fizz Drink with Sorbet – Vanilla Custard Parfait

And would you believe everything tasted good? It was all amazing, even the drink came out better than expected! I can’t wait to get back in the kitchen!

I Wake Early for Good Causes

Over twenty-five years ago, Nancy Brinker watched her sister Susan G. Komen struggle to beat cancer. As Susan neared the end of her fight, Nancy “promised her sister she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever.”i That promise has evolved into a $1.5 billion source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the global fight against breast cancer.

Yesterday, I joined 40,000 people downtown to take part in the 21^st annual Susan G. Komen Global Race for the Cure®. It was the fourth year that I have walked for the cure and again I was touched to see the survivors walking in their bright pink t-shirts and the young and old walking in celebration or memory of their family and friends who had fought the fight.

I count myself blessed that I don’t have anyone to walk in memory of, but I am still impacted nonetheless. Seeing tens of thousands of people come together to support one cause is an amazing sight, especially when you consider that it was the culmination of one woman’s promise.

Which made me think. I am also one woman and I have already made a promise to myself…to better my own life and the lives of others through awareness and philanthropy.

I wonder what I can accomplish in twenty-five years?

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i http://ww5.komen.org/AboutUs/AboutUs.html

Quote of the Day

“It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not.” - Anonymous

Brilliant. This quote made me stop in my tracks and really think hard about the truth of the statement. I know deep (deep) down that I am capable of achieving anything I put my mind to, but on a daily basis I let the inane chatter in my head doubt my abilities.