#64 - Rock Climb (Outdoors).

The only climbing I'd done before this year is on NEIU's indoor wall.  I probably only did it twice.  I worked there 6 years.  I went up on the indoor high-ropes course maybe 3-4 times.

Each time, I'd suit up and then casually start the climb up to 35 feet.

From the moment both my feet left the ground and every foot after that, I'd freak out.  I'd swear, sweat, curse myself for thinking I'd enjoy it.  I'd come down legs a little shaky, frustrated that I was being such a punk.

So why not try it outdoors?

Lucky for me, the caving trip included about an hour near the end of climbing up cliff faces out of the sink hole that housed the caves.  And this was an hour after 4-5 hours of caving and an hour or so before that of "training," hiking, zip lining, and repelling.  We were already exhausted.  And then had to climb out.  There was no other option.

It was a bit simpler as there were o-rings in the cliffs at the steepest parts, so this wasn't an experience where I had to find hand and foot holds in the rockers.

But dang.  It was crazy steep.  When I'd look down the 100+ feet below, my heart raced.  We were scaling cliffs.

We were clipped in but about half the time, I felt like I was otherwise completely alone.  I could only see others sometimes and hear them a little more often.

I finished exhausted, bleeding, and so thankful for the experience.

#63 - Go Caving

Once we decided to go to Puerto Rico, I asked around for advice from others who had been there.

Conveniently, my friend Al, the originator of the list, had gone to Puerto Rico in 2011.  He suggested spelunking, something he had done for his list.

I sent out his blog post and link to the company, Adventuras Tierra Adentro, to the group, and eventually Laura & I decided spend one of our days on that beautiful island in a cave.

We had both skimmed Al's blog and quickly clicked around the site, but somehow the only two things that really stuck out to me as really difficult were 1) the 5:45am departure and 2) the spiders.  I had been up that early a couple times in my life before, mostly for races, and I could do it again.  And at least the spiders didn't have thick, hairy legs.  I wouldn't let them stop me from a little adventure.

What I didn't realize was that it was going to be a BIG adventure.  

We left San Juan at 5:45am and didn't return until close to 4:30pm.  Here's what I remember happening...

(I hope to add more pictures if we ever develop our disposable cameras, but most of the pictures are outside of the cave.  See Al's blog or the website for more general pics.)

Laura & I set our alarms for 4:30am so we could get up, call the cab company repeatedly (our hostess Noyda at the Coqui Del Mar said that we should keep trying because the companies don't always pick up reliably that time of the morning, but they were there), wait for the cab, and then head over to a park in Condada to wait for our group and our ride.  What actually happened was that they answered the phone within 30 seconds during Laura's first try at 4:45pm and a cab arrived 5 minutes later.  Luckily we had everything packed the night before.

We arrived at the park shortly after 5am.  And then we waited, watching the partiers heading home or still raging at the bars in Condado.  (Bars in some areas stay open until everyone leaves.)  We sleepily chit chatted, mostly about how we could have slept in longer.

Then Brian, a fellow Chicagoan and adventurer-for-the-day, joined us.  Then Tamara and Chris.  Then some others.

The van rolled up, just like Al described, with the Indiana Jones theme song blaring.  Then they rolled out a red carpet.  Then they did a whole schtick full of information and jokes.

The show continued on the bus where we introduced ourselves and learned about the trip and our guides for the hour-or-so-long ride to a bakery, where we would pick up our gear.  We had some snacks and suited up.  By the end, I had on my hiking boots, running capris, knee pads, and my rash guard with my helmet, lifejacket, and backpack ready to go as well.

It took us maybe 15-20 minutes from there, another ride full of joke-filled information.

Then we very quickly hiked down to the training area, which was very, very muddy.  We put on our helmets, learned how to clip in with our caribiners and all of that other good stuff.

We then hiked a bit further to the zip lines.

We zip lined 3 times, lower and lower into the sink hole where the river ran through the caves. 

Beautiful.

Then we repelled over the lip of the cave to the mouth.  

(That's actually me.  Thanks, Tamara!)

We then put on our lifejackets and gloves to protect us from the water and the spiders, scorpions, and cockroaches inside.  We flipped on our lights and as a group, headed into the cave, almost immediately entering calf-deep water.

Soon after, the bracelet I still held as a gift to our Adult Development class from Tara Edberg broke off my wrist.  It was a slight, blue string with a charm that said "hope."  

We saw our first bats quickly.  Then cockroaches.  Then giant spiders.  I saw one scorpion that our guide pointed out.  I love bats.  I told myself I would just have to coexist with the rest.

We were in and out of water.  Calf deep.  Thigh deep.  Waist deep...  Shoulder deep...  Then so deep we had to swim.  In murky cave water.  Weird.

Our time in the cave entailed lots of hiking, bouldering, wading, swimming, jumping into cave water, a jump into darkness, swimming through a tunnel that only had a foot or so of space between the water and the ceiling, a candle-lit lunch, more bouldering and swimming, a race through thick, deep mud, and eventually a little drift down stream back to the mouth of the cave.  It must have been 4-5 hours later.

Then we learned we would have to climb out.  Like, out, up the cliffs we had zipped and repelled down.  I'll save the description of that for the next post...

But eventually we arrived at the top exhausted and victorious.  

And somehow rallied to party in Condado that night.

Champions.

#88 - Spend the Night on an Island.

I had completely forgotten about this one until I reviewed my list in Puerto Rico.  And how about that?  Puerto Rico is an island.  Check.

(Yes, Puerto Rico is a large island, but to the best of my recollection, I have never slept on any sort of island ever.)

Dino found us a place using airbnb called Coqui Del Mar.  I would happily recommend it to anyone looking for a low-key place with wonderfully accommodating and helpful hosts.  The place we stayed in would be particularly good for a large group.

#10 - Go to a new state or #11 - Go to a new country.

I didn't go to a new state or new country, but I did go to a new territory of the United States, so I'm counting it as #10.5.

I have always hated my birthday.  I cried all but one year from 1997 to 2003.  And when I tried to have a gathering of some sort, I was so preoccupied with who didn't show up that I didn't fully appreciate the people who did.  That wasn't fair.  And a belated thank you to those who did show up.  I wish it had meant as much to me then as it should have.

So starting in 2009, I have scheduled weekend trips for my birthday.  That way, as long as one person was with me, I'd have fun.  Plus, if I left town, I already knew who would show up and who wouldn't.  And I had no hard feelings towards those who didn't because I couldn't and didn't expect everyone to drop their lives and spend money on wherever it was I wanted to go.

In 2009, 4 of us (Beth, Jen, Jen, & I) went to Las Vegas for my 29th birthday.  I didn't even know one of the Jens and we had all a great time.  Plus, 2 of my guy friends (Dino & K Rob) who lived in San Diego surprised me and showed up the first night.  Awesome.

In 2010, 7 of us (Masters, Virus, Alicia, Lindsay, Reiko, Beth, & I) went to Louisville for my 30th birthday.  The first night we went to Churchill Downs and the rest of the time we just bummed around Louisville.  Lovely.

In 2011, 3 of us (Masters, Alicia, & I) went to Kalamazoo for a night then drove to Ann Arbor where I saw many friends pre- and post-football.  I was surprised by what a good time Kalamazoo was.

In 2012, I drove up to LA, stayed with Shehrzad, whom I hadn't seen in years, and went out with her sister Sheila, whom I also hadn't seen in years, and some of their family and friends in Hollywood.  I do not like Hollywood.  I really like Sheila & Shehrzad.  They were so sweet and fun.

This year, one evening, I was wondering aloud where I might go this year.  Dino said if my birthday were the same weekend as the Puerto Rico Tip Off, we should go cheer on Michigan there.  So I looked it up.  It was the same weekend.  We did a bit of casual exploring to see if it could happen.  Then we decided it could.

It ended up being Dino, K Rob, Sanjiv, Masters and me off to Puerto Rico for 5 days.  We went to 3 Michigan games, Old San Juan, some forts, some restaurants, the beach, and Masters & I did some caving.

The stadium was strange.  There weren't many people there for the first couple games.  The Puerto Rican Michigan fans were fantastic.  Especially the Banana.  Plain clothes vendors sold beer and pina coladas.  If you ordered a pina colada with rum, you drank a bit and they topped it off with rum from a clear, plastic bottle.  There were fried balls and things to eat.

Old San Juan was beautiful.  The forts had incredible views, and that part of the city is so colorful and with small, cobblestone streets reminiscent of some old European cities.  We had a great meal there.







The beach and water were warm.  The others spent a bit of time at the beach.  I'm not a beach person so I put my feet in the water, soaked in a few minutes of sun, and then headed back to do homework on the porch.












The caving will have it's own post.

Driving was a disaster but that seems to be my only complaint.

Thank you to Dino, K Rob, Masters, & Sanjiv for being a part of my most adventurous birthday trip!

Coqui.

#17 - Read All of Vonnegut's Published Works.

Well, this certainly took longer than anticipated.  It's been on my list for 3 years.  And I'm a reader.

The tricky part was, every list I saw had different works listed.  Then, even more difficult, some of them seemed unavailable.  In particular, his plays.  So, I read everything I could absolutely find...  by searching and ordering on Amazon.

Since I did not keep tidy notes, I will not go through each book and review it.  Here is a general review for any of the ones I read: "Vonnegut is so wonderfully, simply, funnily insightful.  I loved this book."

Instead, here is a favorite quote from each.  I do write in books, so this was a little easier to do.  I tried to just include a few but it felt a disservice to the other books I loved so dearly.

One other note: the "new" doctoral student in me needed to list citation in APA format but it's only half-assed.

Slaughterhouse-Five or the Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death
(SH5 was my first Vonnegut reading.  It also contains my longest favorite quote.  I remember posting this quote -- as much as would fit -- as my AIM away message in the week after 9/11.)
"Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this:
"American plans, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England.  Over France, a few German fighter plans few at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen.  They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.
"The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames.  The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes.  The containers were stored neatly in racks.  The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes.  They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes.  But there were still a few wounded Americans, though, and some of the bombers were in bad repair.  Over France, though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.
"***
"When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals.  Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work.  The minerals were shipped to specialists in remote areas.  It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again.
"The American fliers turned in their uniforms, became high school kids.  And Hitler turned into a baby, Billy Pilgrim supposed.  That wasn't in the movie.  Billy was extrapolating.  Everybody turned into a baby, and all humanity, without exception, conspired biologically to produce to perfect people named Adam and Eve, he supposed" (Vonnegut, 1969, pp. 93-95)

Breakfast of Champions or Goodbye Blue Monday!
(This is my FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME.)
"'This is a very bad book you're writing,' I said to myself behind my leaks.
"'I know,' I said.
"'You're afraid you'll kill yourself the way your mother did,' I said.
"'I know,' I said" (Vonnegut, 1973, p.198).

Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage
"Any time I see a person fleeing from reason and into religion, I think to myself, There goes a person who simply cannot stand being so goddamned lonely anymore" (Vonnegut, 1981, p. 196).

Armageddon in Retrospect
"'The wreckers against the builders!' said Elmer.  'There's the whole story of life!'" (Vonnegut, 2008, p. 124).

We Are What We Pretend to Be
"My father did with words what Fred Astaire did with his body, something out of this world that no one else could possibly pull off.  Even as an old man my defied gravity and did the audacious thing of creating something out of nothing" (Nannette Vonnegut, Vonnegut, 2012, p. xiii).

Galapagos
"In a sense, too, this man had already been hit by a meteorite: by the murder of his mother by his father.  And his feeling that life was a meaningless nightmare, with nobody watching or caring what was going on, was actually quite familiar to me.
"That was how I felt after I shot a grandmother in Vietnam.  She was as toothless and bent over as Mary Hepburn would be at the end of her life.  I shot her because she had just killed my best friend and my worst enemy in my platoon with a single hand-grenade."
"This episode made me sorry to be alive, made me envy stones.  I would rather have been a stone at the service of the Natural Order" (Vonnegut, 1985, p. 134).

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
"' Hello, babies.  Welcome to Earth.  It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter.  It's round and wet and crowded.  At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here.  There's only one rule that I know of, babies--:
"'God damn it, you've got to be kind'" (Vonnegut, 1965, p,. 129).

God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian
"...an ideal so Earthbound and unmajestic that I never capitalize it.  As I have used it here, 'humanist' is nothing more supernatural than a handy synonym for 'good citizenship and common decency'"  (Vonnegut, 1999, p. 12).

Wampeters, Foma, & Granfalloons
"Dear Reader:
"The title of this book is composed of three words from my novel Cat's Cradle.  A wampeter is an object around which the lives of many otherwise unrelated people may  revolve.  The Holy Grail would be a case in point.  Foma are harmless untruths, intended to comfort simple souls.  An example: 'Prosperity is just around the corner.'  A granfalloon is a proud and meaningless association of human beings" (Vonnegut, 1965, p. xiii).

Happy Birthday, Wanda June
"My two siblings didn't like his gunplay, either.  One time, I remember, my brother looked at a quail Father had shot, and he said, 'My gosh -- that's like smashing a fine Swiss watch.'  My sister used to cry and refuse to eat when Father brought home game.
"Some homecoming for Odysseus!"  (Vonnegut, 1970, p. x)

Bluebeard
"A moderately gifted person who would have been a community treasure a thousand years ago has to give up, has to go into some other line of work, since modern communications put him or her into daily competition with nothing but world's champions.
"The entire planet can get along nicely now with maybe a dozen champion performers in each area of human giftedness.  A moderately gifted person has to keep his or her gifts all bottled up until, in a manner of speaking, he or she gets drunk at a wedding and tap-dances on the coffee table like Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers.  We have a name for him or her.  We call him or her an 'exhibitionist.'
"How do we reward such an exhibitionist?  We say to him or her the next morning, 'Wow!  Were you ever drunk last night!" (Vonnegut, 1987, p. 82).

Mother Night
"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be" (Vonnegut, 2009, p. v).

Like Shaking Hands with God: A Conversation about Writing
"'...literature is the only art that requires our audience to be performers.  You have to be able to read and you have to be able to read awfully well.  You have to read so well that you get irony!  I'll say one thing meaning another, and you'll get it...'" (Vonnegut, 1999, p. 16).

Look at the Birdie
"'I suppose I'd commit suicide after a while,' I said, 'because nothing anybody's said or done has made any sense at all.  The human system can only stand so much of that'" (Vonnegut, 2009, p. 43).

Hocus Pocus
"I read about Wold War II.  Civilians and soldiers alike, and even little children, were proud to have played a part in it.  It was impossible, seemingly, for any sort of person not to feel a part of that war, if he or she was alive while it was going on.  Yes, and the suffering or death of soldiers and sailors and Marines was felt at least a little bit of everyone.
"But the Vietnam War belongs exclusively to those of us who fought in it.  Nobody else had anything to do with it, supposedly.  Everybody else is a pure as the driven snow.  We alone are stupid and dirty, having fought such a war.  When we lost it served us right for ever having started it.  The night I went temporarily insane in a Chinese restaurant on Harvard Square, everybody was a big success but me" (Vonnegut, 1990, p. 165).

Bagombo Snuff Box
"Now lend me your ears.  Here is Creative Writing 101:
"1.  Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
"2.  Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
"3.  Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
"4.  Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.
"5.  Start as close to the end as possible.
"6.  Be a sadist.  No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
"7.  Write to please just one person.  If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
"8.  Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible.  To heck with with suspense.  Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages" (Vonnegut, 1999, p. 12).

Cat's Cradle
"As Bokonon says: 'Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God'" (Vonnegut, 1963, p. 63).

Slapstick
"Since Alice had never received any religious instruction, and since she had led a blameless life, she never thought of her awful luck as being anything but accidents in a very busy place" (Vonnegut, 1976, p. 14).

The Sirens of Titan
"Earth was the most fertile where the most death was" (Vonnegut, 1959, p. 219).

Welcome to the Monkey House
from the short story "Harrison Bergeron" a.k.a. Atlas Shrugged in 7 pages
"The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal.  There weren't only equal before God and the law.  They were equal in every which way.  Nobody was smarter than anybody else.  Nobody was better looking than anybody else.  Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else" (Vonnegut, 1998, p. 7).

Canary in a Cathouse
I took no notes, so here are the first and last lines.  (They are all short stories.  They don't ruin anything.)
"Let me begin by saying I don't know any more about where Professor Arthur Barnhouse is hiding than anyone else does" (Vonnegut, 1976, p. 7).
"He could hardly wait to see what was going to happen next" (Vonnegut, 1976, p, 160).

Fates Worse than Death
"The message I got from the play, I went on, was that it was better to love something other people might think was ugly than not to love at all" (Vonnegut, 1991, p. 68).

Jailbird
"I thanked him, andI made a small mistake we irony collectors often make: I tried to share an irony with a stranger: (Vonnegut, 1979, p. 165).

Player Piano
"Finnerty shook his head.  'He'd pull me back into the center, and I'd want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over.  Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.' He nodded. 'Big, undreamed-of things -- the people on the edge see them first" (Vonnegut, 2006, p. 84).

While Mortals Sleep
"The theater lights were coming on, taking from her elation and importance and love she really had no claim to" (Vonnegut, 2011, p. 88).

Deadeye Dick
"That is my principal objection to life, I think: It is too easy, when alive, to make perfectly horrible mistakes" (Vonnegut, 1982, p. 6).

Letters
"I had a psychiatrist tell me that shyness is a form of hostility.  They tell everybody that, you know.  That was a couple years ago, so I have had a long time to think about it.  I have persuaded myself that it isn't true.  It's fear and laziness and realism.  It's an embarrassed apology which says in effect: 'Hey -- I'm sorry, I probably don't like life as much as you do'" (Vonnegut, 2012, p. 197).

List of Works


Vonnegut, K.  (1959).  The Sirens of Titan.  New York: Dell Publishing.

Vonnegut, K.  (1963).  Cat's Cradle.  New York: Dell Publishing.

Vonnegut, K.  (1965).  God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater: Or Pearls Before Swine.  New York: Dial Press.

Vonnegut, K.  (1965).  Wampeters, Foma, & Granfalloons.  New York: Dial Press Trade Paperbacks.

Vonnegut, K.  (1969).  Slaughterhouse-Five: Or the Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death.  New York: A Delta Book.

Vonnegut, K.  (1970).  Happy Birthday, Wanda June.  New York: A Delta Book.

Vonnegut, K.  (1973).  Breakfast of Champions: Or Goodbye Blue Monday!  New York: A Delta Book.
(This is my FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME.)

Vonnegut, K.  (1976).  Canary in a Cathouse.  New York: Bucaneer Books.

Vonnegut, K.  (1976).  Slapstick.  New York: Dell Publishing.

Vonnegut, K  (1979).  Jailbird.  New York: Dial Press Trade Paperbacks.

Vonnegut, K.  (1981).  Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage.  New York: Dial Press Trade Paperbacks.

Vonnegut, K.  (1982).  Deadeye Dick.  New York: Dial Press Trade Paperbacks.

Vonnegut, K.  (1985).  Galapagos.  New York: A Delta Book.

Vonnegut, K.  (1987).  Bluebeard.  New York: Dial Press Trade Paperbacks.

Vonnegut, K.  (1990).  Hocus Pocus.  New York: Berkeley Books.

Vonnegut, K.  (1991).  Fates Worse than Death.  New York: Berkeley Books.

Vonnegut, K.  (1998).  Welcome to the Monkey House.  New York: Dell Publishing.

Vonnegut, K.  (1999).  Bagombo Snuff Box.  New York: Berkeley Books.

Vonnegut, K.  (1999).  God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian.  New York: Washington Square Press.

Vonnegut, K. & Stringer, L.  (1999).  Like Shaking Hands with God: A Conversation about Writing.  New York: Seven Stories Press.

Vonnegut, K.  (2006).  Player Piano.  New York: Dial Press Trade Paperbacks.

Vonnegut, K.  (2008).  Armageddon in Retrospect.  New York: Berkley Books.

Vonnegut, K.  (2009.)  Look at the Birdie.  New York: Delacorte Press.

Vonnegut, K.  (2009).   Mother Night.  New York: Dial Press Trade Paperbacks.

Vonnegut, K.  (2011).  While Mortals Sleep.  New York: Delacorte Press.

Vonnegut, K.  (2012).  Letters.  New York: Delacorte Press.

Vonnegut, K.  (2012).  We Are What We Pretend to Be.  New York: Vanguard Press.

#38 - See a Shark in Open Water

I started this story in the previous post about snorkeling.  And before you get your hopes up that I was just out in the open water snorkeling and a big shark swam up coincidentally, well... don't.  I was on a shark tour in La Jolla Cove.

Every August and September leopard sharks swarm La Jolla Cove to, um... breed or something.  I forget.  But it's some combination of the shallow, warm(ish) waters of the cove and the proximity to food sources.  There are leopard sharks in there during other parts of the year too, but August and September, when the water is the warmest, has the most.

I bought a Living Social deal for a shark tour before I moved here, but...  I let it expire and then never looked at it again.


Then, a couple months ago, I found another deal on Groupon.  $40 for a 2-person shark tour with La Jolla Water Sports.  Click.  Mine.

Grace, in her determination to make the top 10 list, called dibs on joining me.

It did take me a very long time to book it.  This summer was much busier than I anticipated.  I wish we could have timed it to go with Tara & Emma but we didn't.

Our guide, Eddie, was chipper and chatty.  I liked that.  He got us suited up, went over safety stuff, and pointed out the animals we might see on our swim.

We walked out to the beach and then backwards into the water doing what they call the "stingray shuffle."  You see, that section of La Jolla Cove is also called "Stingray Alley."  "Why?" you ask.  Well, you shouldn't because it's fairly obvious that it's because there are a ton of stingrays there.  They're not going to seriously injury or kill you, but they will give you a very nasty, very painful sting if you step on them.  So, do you avoid it, you just walk backwards, shuffling your fins along the bottom.  The vibrations in the sand disturb them enough that they swim away before you get too close to where they are.

Around waist-deep water, I started swimming.  Within a minute I saw my first shark.  My heart jumped into my throat.  It was 4 or 5 feet long.  Just swimming.  Like 6 feet from me.  It swam into the murkiness and I jumped up.  "Um...  I just saw one."  Eddie said, "Already?"  And I questioned whether or not my mind was playing tricks on me but then he went down and popped back up and said, "Yep, they're here."

I know a lot about sharks.  And I know that as long as I don't step on a leopard shark, they're not dangerous to me.  I also know that there's no way they'd let me step on them.  They're more much attuned to their underwater surroundings than I am so they'd sense or see me before I'd see them, and they'd swim away.  But still...  That was a big animal.  And it was in waist-deep water.  In an area with people everywhere.  It caught my breath to think about what kinds of animals are all over when I'm out surfing and not looking underneath the water at all.  Then I reminded myself that we were in the cove, where these animals are plentiful, and that's why we were snorkeling there instead of Mission Beach.  And then I reminded myself that I was on a shark tour and I should keep my eyes moving and mind still and enjoy myself.

Soon after we saw a bat ray.  It was just flying along the bottom.  So pretty.

I saw a few other sting rays.  A few other sharks.

I could stay present for the rays but inwardly panicked each time I saw a shark.  I wanted to pop up and tell someone instead of just keep my eyes down and watch it beautifully swim away from me.

I think a few things were throwing me.
1. They're big.  I mean, not big, like I'm big.  But really, most animals you just run into in their own habitats are much smaller than a person.  Back in the Midwest, especially the parts I've lived in, even seeing a deer is a bit jarring, though I suppose not scary.  Everything else is much smaller than a deer though.  A skunk.  A hedgehog.  A squirrel.  A chipmunk.  Once I saw a coyote.  This was an animal only a foot or so shorter than me, and I was in its space.  It reminded me a bit of seeing a loose dog, one that you know is probably docile and friendly, but maybe it's a species that's notorious for being aggressive.
2.  The water was murky.  That alarmed me as soon as my face went in the water.  In all my 20+ years watching Shark Week, I know the situations where you're an idiot and if you get bit, it's your stupid fault.  One is murky water.  And now I was there, in murky water, with sharks.  I could probably only see 6-8 feet in any direction.  It was even tough to tell if sea weed and rocks were animals until I was right over them.


We swam towards an artificial reef.  By the time we got there, I was nauseated.  I had not even considered that I might get motion sick.  And I was.  I was trying to stay calm in the murky water, swimming over rocks that might or might have animals in or around them, and feeling tossed around, seeing these rocks get closer than further.  Plus, I hate breathing through snorkels.

I swam over to tell Eddie I had to head in.  He had a lobster.  I touched it.  Then I swam to the beach, which took awhile and I didn't see anything but fish on my way in.

I was bummed I wasn't out in the water seeing more sharks.  It has been a dream of mine to swim with sharks in open water, even if they were just leopard sharks.  But, I was sick.  And, now that I know where they are, I don't need to go on a tour.  I can just suit up with Tara and we can go again.  Maybe after popping some Dramamine.

#35 - Snorkel

  I am, and likely many of my friends, colleagues, and even acquaintances are, surprised I haven't done this one yet.  Though...  after doing it, I'm not sure I'm a snorkler.

I've always wanted to snorkel... and also to swim with sharks.  I found a Groupon for a Shark Tour for Two in La Jolla Cover, which is where the leopard sharks gather every August and September.

Grace Bagunu was again my company in this endeavor.  I'll give the whole experience in my next post so as not to be too repetitive.

I will say that I was totally freaked out most of the time, with the murky water and with the large and stinging animals that were everywhere, the first of which I saw at only 3-4 feet deep: a 4-5 foot leopard shark.  There were people swimming and surfing and snorkeling everywhere in there.  I kept thinking, um... so are these creatures, like, everywhere when I'm surfing too?  Because um... probably!

I also got really, really motion sick probably 30 minutes in and headed in early.  I know I am sensitive to motion sickness but had never gotten motion sick outside of a vehicle.  Usually I'm in a car, plane, even on a boat.  When I surf or swim, I'm fine.  Well, floating and getting thrown around the in the tide and a hazy bottom sure did the trick.


I hope I'll prepare better and try it again.

#45 - Volunteer for a Mental Health Non-Profit

Starting from the application process of my doctoral program, I have been drawn to exploring mental health on campuses.  I grew up with parents who worked as mental health professionals, which likely inspired this interest in the first place.  I minored in psychology in undergrad but decided not to pursue a career in mental health.  However, this interest has stayed with me and each year I find myself more affected by the stories and experiences of others.

Since the shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007, I have been troubled by the trend of wishing to rid universities of potentially threatening students.  I worry that in focusing on identifying and removing students others find threatening, we will increase the stigma of mental illness so much that individuals who are not and will not be prone to violence towards others will be even more reluctant to seek help in fear of losing their academic lives and community.  I also worry about what will happen to the individuals who are removed from campuses and what kinds of follow up processes exist to prevent violence in another realm.

In 2012, the Dean of Students at my old university took his life weeks after learning his position would be eliminated.  Losing Mike was already overwhelming for many in our community to handle, but even more distressing for some was the administrative response.  I learned how important it is to care for everyone affected by mental illness, whether it is an individual directly, those who surround that individual indirectly, or an organization must respond after a crisis.

Less than a week later, I lost my cousin after he battled bipolar disorder for many years.  I had always known that phone call might likely come some day.  Brandon had attempted suicide several times.  But Brandon was such a charismatic, curious, thoughtful, hard-working person when he was well that I held onto the hope that he would defeat his demons and find peace in life instead of death.  

These personal and national incidents have kept me involved in examining mental health in communities and in caring for my loved ones.

This past year, after studying it and repeatedly articulating how important attention to mental health is, I felt disconnected between the research and academic work I have been doing and actual practice.  I decided to add this to the list so I could actually be contributing to improving mental health in some realm, somewhere.

Very sadly, the opportunity to connect concerns about mental health to my current campus of the University of San Diego presented itself four times already in 2013.  Our community has lost 4 undergraduate students to suicide since January of this year.  I have heard a rumor that we lost a part-time staff member as well, but I have not confirmed that.  Three of those deaths happened at the same time I was working on a literature review of the stigma of mental illness on campuses.  One happened very close to a subcommunity of which I am a part: Campus Recreation lost one of our student employees.  

While I did not know any of the students personally, I felt an emotional blow each time I heard the news.  I was also struck, sometimes paralyzed, at the way people talked about this tragic phenomenon we were experiencing and the way the community was inadvertently increasing the stigma of mental illness and seeking help during efforts to respond to these deaths.  I was incredibly aware, saddened, and tense about the lack of knowledge and dangerous assumptions that were being made at all levels in the response.

I finally found myself inclined to send an e-mail to the Vice President of Student Affairs office.  I did my best to simply offer the passion and commitment I have to this topic in connecting it to the practices and responses happening on campus currently.  I wanted to contribute to the community while also furthering my own knowledge and study of this topic.

It took awhile to get a response but I finally received an e-mail from Dr. Moises Baron in the Counseling Center.  He asked for a meeting with me.  

In the meeting, we discussed my studies.  He offered some research and ideas to help me study, and, more importantly than that, asked if I would join a newly formed Suicide Prevention Working Group.  While I feel strongly that campuses should be working towards creating caring communities, not just preventing suicide, this experience would be invaluable.  I would be able to contribute in practice and research while my campus community is recovering and responding to tragic events.

I have now attended two meetings with a third in the near future.  I have volunteered to assist in planning programming, including connecting our work to roles I already hold, such as potentially involving Campus Recreation in wellness and event planning.  I also hope that I can further my research on stigma and to think about ways we should be applying stigma-decreasing practices so that our community can better recognize distressing thoughts and behaviors and to seek help.

I am excited about this opportunity and look forward to staying involved as long as possible.

#94 - Wakeboard again

I suppose this isn't "new."  I didn't even try it anywhere new nor do anything new.

I did plan to find somewhere new to wakeboard, like here in California, but nope.

I just assumed it would be somewhere new because I wasn't going to camp this year, the one place I can just wakeboard if I feel like wakeboarding.

But then...

This summer was crazy stressful.  I was back coordinating aquatics 40 hours a week and with much less control than the previous 7 years I coordinated aquatics.  Plus, I never wanted to coordinate aquatics in the first place.  Nor teach swimming.  Nor lifeguard.  Yet I did so for around 12 years.  And now I had left it for good to go get my PhD... and yet found myself back in aquatics to help pay my living expenses this summer.

I was also struggling with some personal things that I couldn't even quite identify or articulate.

One night I was up late chatting with Grace about why I was having such a rough time.  She asked me what would make me happy.  The voice in my head immediately answered "camp."  I thought of a few other things but that's the one thing that was not only in my past but always in my future.  The problem was that I wasn't going to camp this year.  I teared up at the thought.

The next morning my mom called.  Early.  Too early.  At first I was going to "dismiss" the call and call her later.  But then I worried that she knew exactly how early it was for me and that it was important.  It was.

She called to offer to get me to camp.  She'd use her frequent flyer miles and they'd pay for me to go.  I felt an immediate relief.  I told her I had to check my schedule and flights.

I then had a rough day after a job interview for a job that wouldn't work because it was temporary but full-time, which I couldn't do.  I called my mom to tell her I would go to camp, right after class on Tuesday night.  She didn't realize I had class until Tuesday night.  She said it didn't make much sense to do that... to just go Wednesday through Saturday.  I felt heartbroken.

I then talked to my parents later and we decided to explore it.  We found a red eye on Tuesday.  I booked it knowing that this very intense (time, effort, energy, emotion, cognitive, interpersonal, all of it) class ended at 9pm and we were supposed to leave 30-60 minutes after the last 3 classes in case we ran long.  The flight they booked was at 10:50pm.

I talked to my professor the first day of class about this pull I was feeling.  He agreed it was the right decision and gave me permission to leave at 9:15pm the last night.

This isn't the space to discuss the class but it was incredibly meaningful and powerful.  I am so impressed and inspired by my classmates, our professor, and our teaching assistant.  I was so moved at what was shared that I didn't leave class until closer to 9:45pm and had trouble sleeping on my red eye to Atlanta followed by a flight to Albany because I was processing everything that happened the last night of class.

Back to this story, I got out of class at 9:45pm and my dear work friend Brian actually waited on campus for me until I called him even though I told him that I needed a ride at 9:15pm.  He got me to the airport just in time for me to board.

I flew to camp, reunited with family and friends and friend family / family friends.  I lived out my camp nightmare and it was really a dream.  I am in love with that place and have been my whole life.

Again, back to this story, I wakeboarded on Thursday morning... after getting up at 6:45am (Eastern.  3:45am Pacific) to canoe for a swim race that didn't actually happen until 8:45am.  I was tired and I hadn't wakeboarded since I had last been at camp in 2010.

It was a dream.  I got up right away and stayed up almost the entire time, including while practicing jumping.  I only fell once when my back and arms were exhausted from gripping for 10 minutes or so, using muscles in ways they haven't been used in 3 years.  I hit a bump, lost my grip, and just sunk easily into the water.  We all agreed a little float would be nice for a few minutes.  I then tried a few more jumps and made it all the way back to the dock with the top of my head still dry.

So thank you to Grace for helping me realize where I needed to be, Mom & Dad for actually getting me there, Brian for literally getting me there, and Zachary for giving me permission to go (though there are probably other experiences I had that mattered more in relation to class than this).  I really needed this this year.  So much that I forgive my mom for missing taking a picture even though she was waiting right there on the beach.

RETROACTIVE 2012 #33 - Pay off a credit card

Ditto from the previous post.  Thanks, Mom & Pops.

RETROACTIVE 2012 #32 - Pay off a loan

In an unprecedented move, my dad realized that he helped me do 2 things that I just assumed I had to do by myself but really, it was a big sacrifice, so he should definitely get credit.  My parents helped me pay off my car loan before heading to school.  Thanks, folks.

#67 - Perform a Marriage Ceremony.

 What a coincidence!  Chris & Casey asked me to be their wedding officiant!

Okay, maybe they had already asked and I put it on the list but I wasn't about to do this and not count it as a new thing for my list.

When they called, I was expecting to be asked to be in the wedding.  I was not expecting
Casey: "We were hoping you would marry us...  I mean, perform the marriage, not to actually marry us."
Me: "Good, because I don't it's legal for me to marry either of you in the state of Michigan."  (Though I'm hoping Michigan gets it together soon for same-sex marriage.  I'm okay without the right to marry my brother though.)
I was shocked but accepted.

I asked my dear friend Nick Smith how he went about getting ordained, and he sent me to the Universal Life Church.  It is frighteningly easy to become ordained.  No, I didn't have to take a test.  No, I didn't have to make any pledges.  I just had to enter my address and pay $7 to get a certificate.  I paid an extra $4 to get a card for my wallet because I sure wasn't going to turn that down.  That's it.  You know, because marriage is so sacred in the United States.  (There are different rules for each state though, so make sure you look into your state & county regulations if you're thinking of joining those of us of the cloth.)

I then sought out what to wear.  I told Chris & Casey that I wasn't going to be their homely, single, older, cat-lady sister marrying them in a pant suit.  I was going to be cute.  So I found a lacy dress from White House Black Market and colored it up to match the wedding party.

I put off writing my homily for a long time.  That is the part I was the most nervous about.  I have pretty much completely lost my fear of public speaking thanks to my physical education studies and years and years teaching at the college level and facilitating trainings.

I do, however, am terrified of expressing emotions in public.  I also hate letting people read my writing.  So writing something to read in an emotional situation was a little tough.

I took ideas from Kelley Oxley and Jeff Garri's wedding in Las Vegas in December 2012.  Kelley's coworker asked them a series of questions, such as describing their first date and when they first knew they were in love.  It was really sweet to watch them hear the kind words their partner had said about them.

So I did a version of that and then decided to tell it as a story.

I was still missing something though.  I wanted to leave them with a little message or advice or something.  But who am I, their older, never-married sister, to give them marriage advice

So I turned to their parents who have been married for a combined 70 years.  They gave me some small snippets which were just perfect.

The day of the wedding I was somehow just content and confident.  The only thing I would have changed was to find a better way to prep the audience than having them sit directly in the beaming Michigan July sun for 20 or so minutes before we started.  But shuttles are sometimes late.


The ceremony was quick and fun and so very authentic Chris & Casey.

I am honored that they asked me to fulfill such an important role in their day.  I am honored that the wedding guests were so attentive and kind.  I am thankful to Grace Bagunu and Angela Mioglionico who let me practice with them and gave me some thoughtful, kind feedback.

It was a really nice day.

Oh, and last but certainly not least...  I got to sign the marriage license at a bowling alley.  Perfection.

#40 - Go on a Blind Date

Why do I find this so embarrassing?

First I was super uncomfortable anytime anyone would even suggest setting me up on a blind date.  Luckily no one who suggested it ever followed through.  (So, by the way, if you suggest setting me up on a blind date, I'll agree, but mostly it's because I know you won't.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.  But you won't.)

So then I allowed my dear, lifelong friend Amelia Gomez to convince me to join Match.com and even let her edit my profile.  Including pictures.  She even insisted that I include a bit about how I have some really great friends I have been known for 20+ years.  You know, friends like Amelia :)  I suppose she should know though since she just married her love Carlos Cortez last weekend.  And wow, are they fun to hang with.  We had so much fun we forgot to leave the apartment when I visited them in Orange County in the fall.

I've traded a few messages.  A few times a guy asked to meet me for a drink or something, and a couple times I agreed.  And then I never heard from him again.

Wait, you might say, Match.com does not count as a blind date.  Well, you know what?  Remember that blind date you promised to set me up on?  Well, you never did.  And, no, you wouldn't have.  So this is as close as I could get.  And honestly, it probably made me even more uncomfortable than a real blind date because here I am agreeing to meet someone and no one is even vouching for this person.  Who knows what I'm getting into?

So this guy and I traded a few messages about trips and camping.  (And, yes, camping is still on my list because guess what, many of you have also been like, "WHAT?  YOU've never been CAMPING?!  How is that possible!?  We are going to GO!  Like THIS summer."  But just like the blind date you were going to set me up on, we didn't.  For a thousand reasons, none of them being that I'm not willing to go.  Camping does not make me uncomfortable like dating strangers does but it's not something I'm going to go do by myself the first time.)  So he made some camping destination suggestions and mentioned going to the new Stone location at Liberty Station.  I said I hadn't been yet and he suggested we go.

So we did.  I met him at Stone.  He was super friendly and full of decent conversation.  I had a couple beers, he had a couple beers and some food, and then we played some bocce.  He won and I tried not to be angry about that.

I suppose dating doesn't have to be as scary as I assume it will be.  It still makes me outrageously uncomfortable leading up to it.

Also, Stone at Liberty Station is flippin sweet.

I also want to give a quick thank you to my buddy Grace Bagunu who offered and followed through on sending a check-up text to make sure I was okay and offering to be my emergency out.  Thinking back, even if it were miserable, I think I would have felt way better just telling the guy I was going to leave than faking an emergency text.  But I appreciated Grace's love and support anyways.  So I went to meet her and Jessica after and we had some delicious drinks and stayed out way too late for a Tuesday night.

#98 - Get a Tattoo

So I just kinda assumed this one was on my list.  Apparently it wasn't this year.  But...  since it's kind of a big one, I just replaced another one that I didn't like anymore.  :)

Pre-2011
I never thought I would get a tattoo.  When the topic would come up in conversation, I would think, there's just nothing in my life that is really, really personal that I know I will continue to love for the rest of my life.  I'm not exactly a fickle person but I couldn't think of anything that had always been in my life, that would always be in my life, that I felt so connected to that I could see it everyday.  I mean, I liked playing volleyball.  Nope.  I like... strawberries?  Nope.  A block M?  No...  None of those things were personal or meaningful enough for me.  Plus, putting something permanent on my body seems so personal to me that I would never do something that was really about my connection to another person.  That may also be because I've lost some pretty meaningful connections in my life but also because the long-term connections I have just... dont' make sense in tattoo form.  So no tattoo.

2011
Um...  Duh, Megs.  Of course I have something personal and meaningful, something where my connection to it is just mine.  When I first tell people about it, they usually react with something akin to "um... okay..."  But the folks who have known me for a long time know that it's just part of me.  That thing is my love of sharks.  I LOVE SHARKS.  I love them.  I always have.  From the first day I watched Shark Week.  And yes, Shark Week became a hip thing to watch for a bit recently but I've been watching it since elementary school.  It was the only thing I was allowed to stay up until 10pm to watch... probably because I'd throw a fit if I didn't and we didn't have DVR back in the day.  So... a shark.  I'd get a tattoo of a shark.  It's so obvious to me now.

2012
If I get a shark, what kind of shark would it be?  I wanted a pretty shark.  The way I see sharks.  I wanted the feeling I get when I go to my Chicago Happy Place: the Shark Reef at the Shedd Aquarium.  I had a membership for 3 years, pretty much just because of that tank.  If I was having a rough week, I'd go to the Shedd, wander around a big, see my favorite snake (the Emerald Tree Boa in the Amazon), the poison dart frogs, maybe the jellies, and then I'd go see the sharks.  The big sharks.  The sandbar and black tip reef sharks.  The leopard sharks.  The guitar fish if I were lucky (which really only seemed to happen when I went with Laura Masters).  I wanted a tattoo that gave me that awe-full feeling I had in front of that tank.  They're so beautiful and incredible, especially when swimming out of the murky depths in the back of the tank to the window.  So fluid.  I wanted something that gave that beautiful shape and motion.  I couldn't find the design I wanted so I picked an artist at Deluxe in Chicago.  But then...

2013
... I decided to move to San Diego.  I decided to wait for San Diego for 3 reasons.  1) I was leaving Chicago partly to let go of some tough times, so why would I get something permanent that kept me connected just at the point when I was trying to let go?  2) Um... I was moving to San Diego, where tattoos are pretty standard and it felt like part of my initiation into the culture.  And 3) Yeah, moving to SAN DIEGO, you know, where there's the, like, ocean, with actual sharks in it.  Plus, I found my design.

I also thought a lot about the meaning.  I suppose I have a lot of connections to sharks.  I think they're beautiful, mysterious, resilient, misunderstood...  They have incredible sensory abilities.  They attack the weak and in doing so make the whole stronger.  They live in the moment.  They've been around forever and have only changed what's been necessary.  I just think they're beautiful animals.

Then, I had a lovely conversation with Grace Bagunu and our classmate Lucia about getting tattoos.  We decided to go get ours done/retouched together.  Then Tara Edberg joined the gang with the hopes of adding onto a previous tattoo.  Possibly some others were interested too.  It's tough to keep track.  People in San Diego get tattoos a lot.

So Grace found an artist she likes but he was far-ish.  Tara & I decided to hung around for places near us.  Well, Tara did.  I was too hungover to join in during the time we actually planned it.  So she did some hunting without me and then I joined her on Sunday.  We were going to go visit 3 places that were very highly rated on Yelp.

We first went to the Full Circle in North Park.  They were very friendly.  The woman at the front told us we could look through the portfolios and then either make an appointment or they might be able to get us in that day.  She introduced us to James, one of the artists, and he chatted with us about our plans.  He said he could fit us both in.  He took a tracing of Tara's tattoo and I e-mailed him my design, and he told us to come back in 20 minutes after he sketched them out.

Um... 20 minutes?!  I thought we were just shopping around, Tara!  We were supposed to go to 2 other places.  But...  then we talked more and I kinda run a swim program, and the pool was completely closed for at least another week, so if I didn't get it then, I'd probably have to wait until the end of the summer.  I did not want to do that.  So...screw it.

I called Grace because I knew she wanted to be a part of it.  She sounded sleepy.  She was sleepy.  I was quite torn between waiting for her to be there with me and wanting to stop putting it off and just do it.  (I have recently developed an INCREDIBLY low tolerance for people talking about doing things but not actually following through.  It's not so much the not following through that bothers me as much as the waste of time of talking about doing something and then not actually doing it.  So maybe it is the follow through.  But I'm tired of talking and not doing.  I want to do.)  So I decided to go through with it.  Grace, being the lovely friend she is, still came down.  She just missed my inking but was there for Tara's.  We probably should have switched order but Tara was worried that James wouldn't have time for both of us and wanted me to get mine done.  So Grace, again, my apologies.  You're a good friend.  I think I need to learn to trust my new friends' words that they are doers, not just talkers.  It may take me some time, but I'll work on it!

So I have a tattoo now.  I flipping love it.

#87 - Join a League in San Diego

Again, I forgot that this one was on my list.  That was probably partly because I have been on the USD Club Beach Volleyball team since the fall and we play in a league.  But when I wrote this goal, I meant join a league, as in just that, and play the whole thing.

I signed up as a free agent for a 4 on 4 co-ed competitive beach league on Wednesday nights.  I was a bit nervous about it because volleyball is one of the very, very few things about which I am a complete snob.  However, I never played on any official, organized team, in high school or anything.  I mean, I tried out in high school:  freshman year I got cut; sophomore year I quit during try outs and opted for indoor track instead; junior year I was in the last 6 cut from the varsity squad; and I guess I just didn't try out senior year. I was pretty into track by that time.  Strangely, I don't think I missed a single summer of volleyball camp though, and my last 2 years I was in the highest group, along with the varsity players, at Concordia's camp.  I was a weird kid.

So between my lack of organized-experience and snobbery, I have a little window of players I like to play with but who aren't too snobby to play with me (something I can appreciate).

I am so thankful that my Vavi teammates seem to lie right in that window.  So far I've played with Barry, Sam, Chelsea, and Jess.  Chelsea played D2 and is pretty good.  The rest of us seem to have a range of experience but enough skill that it's fun.

Plus, it's hard to do anything but smile and enjoy myself playing on Ocean Beach just before sunset each week.  The surfers, the bonfires, the volleyball, and just (pretty &) happy people.  San Diego life is good.

UPDATE: I was also invited to join the UM Young Alumni Kickball team, so thanks to Adam Borson.

#84 - Earn a Scholarship for Tuition

With the tuition at the University of San Diego (USD), I'm hoping I can do #84 a few more times, but I'm thankful for the first!

I was offered (and accepted) a USD School of Leadership and Education Sciences (SOLES) scholarship for summer 2013.  It just about covered my tuition... for 1 summer class.  But hey, it's a start!  And it's money I don't have to pay back!

#86 - Apply for NIRSA Involvement

I am pretty sure when I wrote this goal I had some idea of applying for office or the NIRSA Assembly, but since what I ended up with entails weekly conference calls, so I am counting it.

NIRSA is (newly renamed) Leaders in Collegiate Recreation, a professional organization for Campus Recreation students and professionals.  I have been involved since 2006, when DePaul Campus Recreation so generously took me along with them even before I was a Campus Recreation professional and before I started school at DePaul.

As quickly as I can tell it, I decided I wanted to be a Campus Recreation professional in 2006 after failing at finding a PE teaching job in Michigan, moving to Chicago, and disliking the recreation jobs I found.  I contacted one of the professional, Gerald Ashley, at the University of Michigan, where I attended undergrad.  He told me to contact the director, Bill Canning.  Bill put me in contact with Gale Stewart, who told me I needed to get my master's.  She also, however, put me in contact with Jen (then) Doughney (now) O'Keefe and Dana McPherson.  They gave me a couple part-time positions as a CPR instructor and a private swim lesson instructor, both of which I continued to work well after I started full-time work.  Jen then encouraged me to go to the annual NIRSA conference, that year in Louisville.  She arranged it so that if I could get there (paying the $600 some for attendance and driving down), she would make sure I had a spot in their room.  More than that, Jen introduced me around and found me as many free meals (even paying for one herself) as possible.  I am in incredible debt to DePaul Campus Recreation, and that's not even counting Moe McGonagle's help as my professional adviser and her continued mentorship.  Lucky for me, "paying a debt" in NIRSA generally means "paying it forward," something I now feel not obligated but energized to do.

I have now attended 8 NIRSA annual conferences and many state conferences, Lead Ons (student-led regional conferences), and extramural tournaments.  I love NIRSA.

I did do a stint on the NIRSA Sports Officials Development Program Soccer Committee.  I put in 3 years but I didn't feel like I actually contributed nor do I feel like it strengthened my connections with other professionals.  Well, maybe with the exception of Nicole Green, but she's a friend from undergrad and one of my favorite people in the world, so maybe our professional connection got a little stronger but I have a feeling we'll always be in each others' corners anyways.

T
his year I was determined to find a place to really serve NIRSA.  At the Region VI (west coast) Lead On in the fall, I connected with Chad Ellsworth, the Director of Campus Recreation at the Arizona State Downtown campus and our Region VI director.  He quickly folded me in and got me onto the Region VI Conference Planning Committee.

Five of us convene weekly over the phone.  We mostly get work done but I do enjoy the banter in between the work.  My job, besides attending the conference call, is to connect with the Program and Registration committees to make sure everyone is on the same page and we are all meeting our deadlines so we can have a great conference up at UCLA in November.

This is the first time I've been so active so regularly in a professional organization.  I was very active in IIRSA (the Illinois state organization) and put in some pretty time-intensive weekends during tournaments, but this is satisfying in a different way.  I feel like I'm committed and I want to make sure our regional conference is more than worth the time and energy of the students and professionals who will attend.

Thank you, Chad, for the opportunity!

#73 - Submit a Proposal to Present at a Conference

I assumed this one would be a NIRSA (Leaders in Collegiate Recreation) conference or even something for the Depression on College Campuses conference.  I have attended NIRSA 8 times and DOCC 2 times.  But thanks to some wonderful encouragement and support from Dr. Christopher Newman, Grace Bagunu, and Kenyon Whitman, I submitted a proposal for a roundtable at ASHE (Association for the Study of Higher Education).

I submitted a proposal for a roundtable to discuss connections between mental health research and practice on campuses.  Here is the abstract: 

The purpose of this roundtable is to discuss connections between campus mental health research and practice.  Practitioners and researchers have examined mental illnesses in college communities and how they are affecting campuses.  The roundtable would discuss how practices are, or could be, supported by research and suggestions for future research.

I am so thankful to have professors and colleagues who inspire and challenge me.  In submitting to ASHE I submitted a my first proposal for both an academic conference as well as a national conference.  

Thank you to Kenyon for planting the ASHE seed in my head.  Thank you to Dr. Newman for sitting down with me to discuss ASHE -- more than once -- and insisting I submit to present... and then taking time for a follow up call to make sure I met the deadline.  Thank you to Grace Bagunu for being the main member of my professional/academic/writing growth group.  I am so thankful for our Sundays  dedicated to our professional and academic intentions.  Love you!

UPDATE:

I also submitted 3 presentations to the NIRSA Region VI conference and 3 to the NIRSA Annual Conference, one jointly with Nicole Green, and all were accepted!

NIRSA Annual Conference

• (accepted) “Developing a Learning Culture: Professional Practices for Social Sustainability,” Nashville, TN, April 2014
• accepted) “Fostering a Learning Culture with Your Student Staff,” Nashville, TN, April 2014
• (accepted) “What I Wish I Would Have Known When I Was a New Professional,” co-presenter, Nashville, TN, April 2014

NIRSA Region VI Student Lead On

• “Fostering a Learning Culture with Your Student Staff,” Los Angeles, CA, November 2013

NIRSA Region VI Conference

• “Review of the NIRSA Sustainability Model,” microsession, Los Angeles, CA, November 2013
• “Fostering an Office Learning Culture,” Los Angeles, CA, November 2013