# 25 Have Another OTC Solo

Completed February 21, 2007

Off the Cuff (OTC) is my college a cappella group. Sophomore year I had the solo for Jimmy Eat World's "Futures" (photo of me singing above), and the one I got to complete this goal was for Del Amitri's "Roll to Me". If you'd like to hear me singing "Futures" you can purchase our first CD, Cartoonishly Irresponsible, for $10- email me at offthecuff@richmond.edu and I'll take care of it. We also have a CD coming out later this year which will have "Roll to Me" on it, so you can pre-order that one, too. Of course, you can always come see us in concert at UR!

# 28 Go to Boston

Completed June, 2007

My original plan was to get up to Boston to visit Jonny, but it turned out he was actually living at school in Maine when I was in Boston, so we missed each other. Anyway, when Dave came to visit from Australia, he thought I lived near Boston (not quite) and said he'd like to see the city. I made plans, put in a few calls, found us a free place to stay (Brandeis frat house), and drove us up. I really liked the city- there's a lot of American history there and it's pretty clean and visitor-friendly. If I only could have gone to a Red Sox game and checked off # 30 as well....next time.

Photo is me in the Boston Commons with the "Make Way for Ducklings" statues- I loved that book when I was a kid!

# 37 Go to Mardi Gras

Completed February 14-18, 2007

When I was growing up, I had a friend in my neighborhood during the summer who lived with his mom in New Orleans during the school year. I've wanted to go to Mardi Gras since he started telling me about it, and conveniently enough, my college roommate is from New Orleans. In lieu of a spring break trip, my mom bought me a plane ticket to 'the Big Easy' for a long weekend right before the actual "Fat Tuesday", but we got to see most of the biggest parades. Jessica (my roommate)'s grandma lived right on the parade route, so we just hung out at her house all day eating and drinking and going out to the front yard to catch beads when parades went by. We stuck mostly with the 'family oriented' part of Carnival, but one of these days I'd like to get back and check out the clubs as well as the parades. Good times!

Me, Bonnie, and Jessica between parades.

# 19 and # 20 Together

Completed January, 2007

I'm putting these together because neither are exciting enough to earn their own post.

# 19 I learned how to drive a manual car to the point where I was comfortable enough to drive from campus to the Fan- about a 10 minute drive (but I took about 20), and I think I only stalled once. I probably need more practice, though.

# 20 I sold a calculus textbook on eBay. I got like $40 for it. Very exciting.

# 18 Own Lonely Planet's Blue List

Completed December 25, 2006

I'm a pretty big fan of travel and of lists, so when I saw Lonely Planet's Blue List book I had to have it. They put out a new one every year, so I'll make sure I keep up with the latest. The Blue List has categories like "Best Tourist Destinations That Are Worth the Crowds" (example: Taj Mahal) and "Best Food and Place Combinations" (a hot dog in New York City). It's pretty interesting and inspiring to flip through- give it a shot.

# 13 Send Out Christmas Cards

Completed December, 2006

This one's pretty self-explanatory, too. I like that even if you don't keep in touch very well with certain people, you can still let them know that they're on your mind during the holiday season. I sent a bunch to people I'd just left from studying abroad with, too, so it was kind of special. Nowadays with all the text messaging and facebook wall posting, I think it's nice when friends take the time to send real mail *hinthint*. Anyway, we'll see if I stick with it again this year.

# 14 Run a 5K

Completed September 22, 2007

OK, I'm extra excited about this one for two reasons: 1) it's the first goal I've completed in 'real time' since I started this blog, and 2) not only did I run the 5k, but I got a silver medal!! My team of 5, "Team Jogging Somewhat-ish" (pictured above with our medals: Laurie, Meg, me, Beth, and Tracy) managed to place second in the Women's Over 17 age group.

The race was the Marine Corps Mud Run, and it was awesome. It started pretty normally, but then we ran under a road in a dry creek bed, along the river up to our waist for about 100 yards, through a mud pit up to our knees, up a giant hill, down the giant hill, through another small river, and finally, for the last 100 feet or so, we crawled/swam in a foot and a half of muddy water under ropes to the finish line (see the mud pit here). I've never been so dirty in my life, and it felt great. I had mud in my ears, my nose, my hair, everywhere. We went back to the river to swim and 'wash off', but I don't know how much it helped. We had no idea we'd placed, though we were hopeful of being among the top few. When they announced we got second, we were shocked, but so excited. My teammates really pushed me, and although I was in a lot of pain, I'm glad they did. I think we finished right around 29:15, which I'm pretty excited about- my personal goal was under 30 minutes.

Just because I had so much fun, and because I'm always looking for a new challenge (and 53 more goals!), I'm adding an 8 or 10k to my to-do list.