My Before 30 Bucket List

Lately, I've been struggling a lot with the idea of what it means to be successful. Mainly because I don't feel remotely successful at all. I always thought that after graduation, two years to be exact, I'd be so much farther along in life than I am. Still being in a dead-end temp job with no leads in the job search, I feel like I have so much catching up to do, even though I'm not quite 24.

My roommate and I have this discussion a lot, mostly because we're both in the same boat. Neither one of us are where we want to be/where we thought we'd be at this point in our lives. These pity parties for two then develop into the "I'm scared to turn 25 and/or 30" conversation. I've come to the conclusion that the people who have the issue with hitting those dreaded numbers are always the people like us, worried about where their life is headed and why it's not headed there fast enough.

So I've come up with a Bucket List for myself of things I want to accomplish by the time I'm 30. Something to hold myself accountable for not falling into any more of a slump. In no particular order:

• Have at least 1, preferably 2, fiction pieces published
• Work for a non-profit
• Visit my mom in TN as much as possible
• Take at least one big vacation
• Visit at least 6 restaurants in my Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives book (one a year)
• Visit my family out on the East Coast
• Have at least 1,000 views on each blog, or whatever blog I'm working on
• Get married
• Put a significant dent in my student loans

Sucky and Super Not Sunday

Sucky:

•  Over the weekend, Man Friend's mom had to be brought to the ER twice. She developed a pretty severe migraine that just didn't go away. At the hospital, she got an IV for the pain and anti-nausea medication. When the pain didn't subside by the next day, she had to be brought to the hospital by an ambulance. Man Friend found out she recently (in the last year or so) has had 11 mini-strokes. It was really scary, and I know he's been worried about his mom. Watching your mom get hauled off on a stretcher isn't exactly something that you can forget easily. She's been getting a lot of sleep and seems to be feeling a little better. She's also had an appointment with a neurologist, so fingers crossed that they figure something out.
• Monday was the first anniversary of one of my friend's passing. I knew Friend through my sister and is actually how I met Man Friend. Even though I wasn't as close with him as my sister or man friend, it's never easy losing a friend, especially someone as young as 20. The day was pretty difficult for all his friends and family, but a small group of us visited his grave with a little Jack Daniels (his famously favorite drink) and went out to dinner. As much grieving that went on, it's just as helpful to be able to celebrate his life and remember him as more than just sick and/or dead. 

Super:  

• Over the weekend there was a mini crisis at work. Before you ask why a work crisis is listed under the Super category, keep reading. Said crisis involved a massive influx of consumer e-mails. For the first time in the year I've been there, I was put on dedicated e-mail time. I only had to sit on the phones for about two and a half hours the whole day. It was a wonderful and much needed change of pace. Also, I left work not wanted to jump off a cliff. Success.
• I've been doing a lot of volunteering lately, and for the first time Man Friend joined me Saturday. We worked with the Healthy Kids Day put on by the Y to kick off summer. It was one of the most fun events I volunteered for. The free even featured college basketball and soccer players, a bounce house, face painting, a magician, healthy choices tables, MMA demonstrations, hula hooping, a trail mix bar, arts and crafts, rock climbing and a children's run. We served over 8,000 families that day. I helped with he trail mix bar, and holy shit, did we go through a TON of food. Cases of each: goldfish crackers, cheerios, marshmallows, raisins, pretzels, and sunflower seeds. 

Sucky and Super Saturday

Sucky:

• It has been cold and rainy this week. I hate weather changes, and hate being cold even more. I also lose any and all motivation to do anything with myself when the weather is crummy. I just want to curl up in bed and watch tv. For eternity.
• Work hasn't gotten any better. In fact, it's gotten worse. Last week we were so busy I was taking between 75 and 85 calls every day, got shouted at by consumers for the long wait time, and had far too many nasty calls. I left work in tears almost every day, was so frustrated I was just ready to give up, have been having nightmares, lost sleep, and was even fighting with man friend because I was so stressed out I turned into a crabby, irrational bitch. 
• The hot flashes have started back up. They calmed down and even went away for a week or two, and I thought I was in the clear. I was wrong. I start flashin at super inconvenient times, and get so overwhelmingly hot I just want to rip my clothes off. If I ever get health insurance, I can go to the doctor and see what the fuck is the deal.

Super:

• Wednesday was my man friend's birthday. We hung out at the Stadium bars, he got his free drinks, and we hung out with his coworker, friends and cousins. I wrote him a little piece and got him a rotating picture frame (it looks like a ferris wheel and I'm fascinated by it) and printed off pictures of us for it. For being in the middle of the week, it turned out to be a great night
• Thursday I went out as well. Two nights in a row, especially during the week, is almost inexistent for me. I met up with some friends I hadn't seen in a while and had a really good time. I'm really glad I went.
• I FINALLY got a laptop! My desktop had been giving me a lot of problems ever since it got "fixed" by the campus IT people when I was in college. For the last year, I've pretty much just been borrowing other people's computers. It's so nice now to be able to job search, write, and just simply surf the Internet whenever I want and not have to rely on someone else. It's equally as fantastic being able to take my laptop with me somewhere and not having a stationary desktop.
• Last weekend, today and next weekend have been/will be filled with volunteering and goodness. I spent the day at Camp U-Nah-Li-Ya, you can read about it here, today I participated in the March of Dimes walk for babies and next Saturday I will be volunteering for the YMCA's Healthy Kids Day. It feels so good to be donating time/money to such worthy causes. My volunteer work is the only thing keeping me from going crazy about my lack of success after college.  

Camp U-Nah-Li-Ya

Last Saturday was the end-of-session day trip to Camp U-Nah-Li-Ya with Girls Night Out. To conclude each session, the GNO groups from all the Green Bay Ys spend a day at camp. This particular trip was rather small, only two groups. It ended up working out just fine that way. 30 sixth graders is a tad more manageable than 60.

This was my third time up with GNO, and maybe the best. Certainly better than in December, that's for sure. The girls were super well behaved and seemed to really enjoy themselves. There was only one minor meltdown when one of the girls had a giant spider land on her and she started crying. Otherwise, a definite success.

The weather was beautiful, better than what we had anticipated. The sun was out all day, it was decently warm after lunch and there wasn't any snow. Because it was so nice out, we actually got to spend the whole day outside, whereas the last two trips we spend at least half the day inside.

The day was broken into two main chunks, survival skills and canoeing. My group did the survival skills section first, and the staff guy had made it a Hunger Games theme, which I think the girls really liked. It was cool to be able to make it into something relatable for them. I feel like survival skills were more appealing to them when they could think of it in terms of a movie instead of just because.

The girls learned how to build a fire, and became part of the one-match club. They split into two groups and had to use their new knowledge to build a mini fire. Each group had an area to build in between two steaks in the ground and a string tying them together. The first group to get their fire big enough to burn their string won.

When the fires had been put out, they moved a little farther into the woods and learned how to build shelters. Of the three trips, this group of girls had the best teamwork by a landslide, and thus, had the most successful shelters. I've found that typically one or two girls designate themselves to be leaders and completely take over while other girls stand in the background. Last Saturday, the girls communicated great, shared the work, and followed instructions to result in working shelters.

After some large group games/icebreakers and lunch, we headed out to the lake for some canoeing. I'm not even going to pretend like I was excited for this. In fact, I was really hoping we wouldn't go. Well, we did. One of the girls was really scared too, so we got paired together. At first I thought putting two scared people together was probably the dumbest idea ever thought of. Neither one of us really wanted to even get into the canoe. We both just stood there, trying to think of excuses for why we couldn't get in. I think we both realized at the same time that we weren't going to get let off that easy. Trembling, I got in and sat down.     Although we didn't master turning as well as most of the other teams, and we were still uneasy, we managed

to get out to about the middle of the water and we saw the giant snapping turtle.

When we finished canoeing, there was a little extra time left and the instructor took us on a nature walk through camp. We got to see some the brand new buildings, and got to see a bunch of turtles. The instructor told us that in the middle of the afternoon, the turtles like to come out of the water and soak up the warm sun, so if we were extra quiet, we would be able to see him. Believe it or not, 15 sixth grade girls managed to stay silent and we got to see at least 20 painted turtles and five or ten of the big snapping turtles. It was a phenomenal sight to see (pics coming soon).

Sucky and Super Saturday

It's been quite some time since I've posted on this blog...I've been focusing much of my energy into becoming a foodie and updating my new blog, Learning to Cook. This edition of Sucky and Super spans a much larger time frame than the typical week.

Sucky:

This was left in our mailbox. My roomie drives a black car
and I drive a red one. We're left with solid neighbors.

• I've developed a little bit of a cold, and in combination with allergies starting up early, it's made me rather miserable. Last Saturday was the worst: I was so stuffy I could barely breathe, and I'm about 95% sure my face nearly exploded. I actually had to go home early on St. Patty's day, it was so bad. I've had a difficult time talking on the phone all week at work, which makes my job a smidge difficult.
• This week at work was terrible. Between people training in new areas, and people being on vacation, our phone staff was short at least six people on any given day all week. Six people may not seem like much, but it made us so wicked busy. Taking 75+ calls in a single day is terribly overwhelming. And of course, everyone was crabby as shit they had to wait on hold so long for someone to pick up. First of all, if you're waiting 10 minute to complain about your toilet paper, perhaps you have other issues to address. Second, have you ever waited on hold for a real problem, like a loan? It's way longer. Also, everyone just seemed to be extra nasty, no matter how nice or helpful I tried to be. Not to mention extra inappropriate comments. For the very first time, walking out actually crossed my mind.
•  The only good neighbors we have moved out a week or two ago. Now we're stuck with the people who won't talk to us and the crazy guy we call White Trash. The real kicker? White Trash upped his crazy ante by shooting at a passing car. I'm almost positive he shot at his black neighbors, because they're you know, black. He managed to spend a whopping two days in jail before coming back home.

Super:

• We've been having unseasonably nice weather and I love it! For about two weeks, it was at least 70 degrees every day. It even hit record highs in the 80s. Absolutely unheard of, but I'm not complaining. Not one bit.
• St. Patty's was a fantastic day/night of friends, food and drinking. Since it was so nice out, we were able to spend the majority of the day hanging outside, enjoying the beautiful weather. My friends/the hosts of the party and I made tons of food, most of it St. Patty's day/alcohol themed, including green cupcakes with Bailey's frosting, beer brats, curry fries, beer and buffalo chicken strips, mint m&ms, beer dip and cheese and crackers. After it cooled off and got dark, we headed in for the night and rocked out to SingStar. 
• I've really enjoyed learning to cook and becoming a bit of a foodie. Every Sunday I go grocery shopping for the week and make two to three recipes to last the week. It's been something I've really started to look forward to every week. Now I know why my mom always says it's a stress relief. I've been making tons of healthy recipes, or altering recipes to make them healthier. It's great knowing I can actually make food that tastes good, not to mention knowing exactly what I'm putting into my body.
• Last Friday, my man friend spoiled me rotten, and we had the best date night we had had in months. I got surprised with flowers (my favorite color of course), and Ghirardeli chocolates to start the night. We ate at Red Lobster (which we actually planned together, so I was really looking forward to it) and I had the most delicious meal of lobster, mussels, oysters, shrimp and pasta and it lasted me a good two and a half meals. Yum! Then we ended the night with another surprise of going to see Dr. Seuss's The Lorax. Seriously, such a good movie. If you say otherwise, you're just an idiot who can't appreciate a solid piece of art. And I probably hate you anyway.
• In combination with the nice weather, Day Light Savings Time means more hours of daylight each day. I've felt so much more motivated to get stuff done, don't feel quite as tired, and have been able to go on  nice long walks after work.

There is no better exercise for your heart, than reaching down and helping to lift someone up*

I've been spending a lot of time at the Y lately, and my time there has become something I really look forward to. This week, I've been there three evenings, and those few hours each night have been the better parts of my week.

Monday - GNO week 2

GNO was really fun this week. I think the girls, and the volunteers, enjoyed themselves quite a bit. This week is one of my favorites of the whole program every session, especially since we did completely different activities than we have in the past two sessions. The theme of Hopes and Dreams is really great to see the girls start to open up. We learn what they're passionate about, what they want for their future. As a group we read Oh the Places You'll Go, and had two smaller activities in which we discussed how to attain goals, the difference between long and short term goals, and how sometimes you can't always achieve all your goals and how to deal with that. Our physical activity was kick-boxing. The girls seemed to really enjoy it and, much to my delight, all participated again. The instructor told them they were the best group she's taught so far, and I'm certain she meant it. I'm so proud of them already. It's relieving to not have to constantly scold or argue with them. I really enjoyed kick-boxing and it was a great workout. It totally kicked my ass in a good way. Unfortunately, my stupid leg couldn't handle all the jumping associated with the workout and I was only able to participate in about half of the activity.

Tuesday - Strong Kids Campaign kick-off

A few months ago, I asked the lady in charge of GNO if there were any other volunteer opportunities. She got back to me about a fundraising campaign that helps bring in money to GNO and other youth programs. I jumped at the opportunity and chose the online option. After just under two months of anticipation, the kick-off was last night. The biggest reason for the kick-off was so the phone campaigners could start making their calls, but it also started the annual fundraiser and gave really strong information about how the program works and who it benefits. This fundraiser helps send kids to the Day Camp, brings in money for activities and supplies for GNO, and gives scholarships so people can keep memberships. After hearing personal stories from children and families who have benefited from the Strong Kids Campaign, I was even more excited to start raising money. It's so incredibly rewarding to know I'm helping kids participate in programs they otherwise may not be able to. I'm also very excited to be able to bring some donations for my girls. As a program, there isn't much they have for themselves. We share supplies, rooms and equipment with the daycare programs. The hope is also that donations will reduce the fee that each child has to pay to participate. I couldn't be more excited to be part of such a great institution as the Y.

Wednesday - Zumba

I've been going to Zumba (nearly) every week and I'm so glad I found this class/instructor/exercise. Basically, I was given a bunch of free passes to attend just her class since I don't have a membership, but do an assload of volunteering for the Y. I have so much fun that sometimes I forget I'm even working out. It's a great full body workout that doesn't aggravate my tempramental leg too much. This week the instructor brought back some old songs from a few months ago and even a brand new one. "The best part about doing a brand new song is if I screw up, you guys won't know!" I can tell I'm finally starting to get in shape because I wasn't so out of breath, and actually wasn't even feeling tired until the tail end of the 45 minute class. I'm also starting to get more flexible and was able to stretch a lot further.

*Bernard Meltzer

GNO week 1

Good morning, dear readers! Last night started up a new session of Girls Night Out, and so far, I'm very excited. Each session is with a new group of girls from a different school. This semester, I'm working with girls from the middle school that I went to and that my younger sister is attending as well. While it may be too early to tell, this group of girls already seem more behaved than my last group. My biggest hope for the next two and a half months is that they really are this well behaved and their behavior stays this way.

I'm working with another advisor this session (three different advisors thus far) and she seems to be really good at her job. She said it's her fifth year in the program and I can definitely tell. She's very firm, and starts off like that so there will be no questions later in the program...but not bitchy firm. I can tell already I'm going to like her. She relates to the girls well, but makes it known she has a low bullshit tolerance. The perfect balance, if you ask me.

The first week is like the first day of the semester in school. We explained the program, introduced ourselves and talked about the expectations of GNO. After a few ice breaker activities, our physical activity was Zumba. I was really excited for the Zumba, especially because the class was taught by the lady whose class I take every week at the Y. Most of the girls seemed to really get into it. After the night ended, a friend/dance teacher at the Y actually wrote on my page that the Zumba instructor told her how impressed she was with the girls. We're off to a great start! The only problem that I had was not realizing we were going to be doing a physical activity on the first night. I wore Chucks instead of quality tennies and was a tad dehydrated. Which means that today my calves are killing me with every step I take. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

The advisor told us some of the other physical activites that we're going to be doing, and I'm really excited for them as well. Some of the activities are repeated every session and some are new, to me at least. We will be doing yoga, step, kick boxing, and relay races, among others.