#4 - Go to an Escape Room

A few months ago, I started working for a team building company.  At my first event, we had some down time and the guy in charge asked me if any of the rest of us had ever done an escape room.  I had never heard of such a thing.  Apparently they were gaining popularity in LA and were slowly creeping down to San Diego.

The idea is that you're stuck in a room and there's a puzzle or a series of puzzles.  I think, originally, the idea was to solve the puzzle in order to escape the room.  I'm imagining that scene in Star Wars when they're in that trash compactor (or whatever. I'm a fan but I don't remember details from movies well).  I'm not sure if there are any actually like that.  There is one in San Diego where there's a zombie chained to the wall and as time goes by, the zombie's chain gets longer.

I heard of escape rooms again from college students at work.  One of the student office assistants had done one and raved about it.  One of the sport club executive board members suggested it for our presidents retreat.

I decided to do some more research.  Then, I found a Groupon.  So I suggested it to Laura Masters who was coming to visit.  Since she and Vanessa Vadnal had met in Catalina a couple years back, we invited Vanessa too.

Vanessa bought us our Groupon and booked us to go to the Houdini room at Great Room Escape in downtown San Diego.  We waited in a big, plain, dingy room and watched facts about Houdini and the human body on a TV screen.  A group of about 7 other people soon joined us.  They did not talk to us.

Then, a woman came in to explain the basic rules and premise.  Houdini's soul was stuck between worlds.  In order to release him to the afterlife, we would hold a seance and would then need to unlock a trunk where his soul was trapped.  Those are pretty much the only instructions we got.  We had to figure the rest out on our own by exploring the room and looking for hints.  I won't say anything else here about the details in case anyone reading this wants to give it a go.

At first, it was quite frustrating.  We didn't know what the clues would look like or where we'd find them.  Plus, there were plenty of decoy hints all over.  And, the group of 7 still wouldn't really talk to us.  When we would ask them what they'd found, they'd glance over their shoulders like, "oh, you're still here?"  That was weird.

Eventually, we found some clues, and the staff member in the room (Houdini's wife) was helpful... sometimes.  Once Vanessa found something, and Houdini's wife exclaimed, "Oh! You found [that thing]!"  Vanessa said something like, "Yeah, in here."  And Houdini's wife said, "I've been looking for that" and proceeded to put it back away.

I really didn't think we were going to make it.  We didn't work as a team well, so there was absolutely no system.  We definitely repeated what others had already done over and over.

But... in the last 5 minutes, we completely unlocked and opened the trunk.  Yay us!  We won!

It was only an hour, but it was one of those situations where you feel like you've been somewhere forever and yet you're not anxious for it to end.  It was super fun and I would love to try another one.

Who wants to go escape more rooms with me?!

More tags for Dissertation Defenses

I couldn't tag everyone who was there in just one post.  Even though I only attended 2 defenses, USD colleagues were very supportive of both students!

#67 - Attend 6 Dissertation Defenses

I only made it to two, but they were lovely to attend!

Jenny Jones
Beyond Generosity: The Action logics in Philantrophy
2/16/2015

Nicole Schuessler
The Development of Intercultural Maturity in Second-Year College Students
2/18/16

#36 - Read 35 Books

Last year, I read 30 books, but when I put them in a list and then took a photo, I was disappointed with the content.  It was mostly school-related reading and shallow books.  Apparently the depth I was thinking for class made me crave no depth in my free time.  However, I decided that wasn't acceptable to my inner literary snob, so I vowed to read at least 3 books from the Modern Library top 100 for the 20th century list, and to beef up my reading list in general.  I am pretty pleased with my choices this year.  Below are the books I finished and a favorite quote, or, when lacking reading notes, the first line of the book.

1 - Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
1/17/15 (for the third time)
"That's when I make a list in my head of very act of goodness I've seen someone do."  (p. 390)

*2 - When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
1/18/15
"Not 'my nephew Keith' or 'Keith, who works at the filling station and is wanted in five states,' but 'just Keith,' as if we had read a book about her life and were expected to remember all the characters."  (p. 23)

3 - A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin
1/18/15, loaned to me by Kevin Robitaille
"'Dragons,' said Mollander." (p. 1)

*4 - The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
3/9/15
"But I was not reassured.  I remembered the fox.  One runs the risk of weeping a little, if one lets himself be tamed." (Chapter 25)

5 - The North Pole Penguin by Christopher Payne
3/20/15, borrowed from and written by Chris Zann

6 - The Petting Zoo by Jim Carroll
4/5/15
"All the trouble, of course, began with Velazquez,"  (p. 3)

*7 - The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho
4/5/15 (for the second time), gifted to me by Kevin Robitaille
"'...And that's where the power of love comes in.  Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are.'"  (p. 178)

8 - A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin
4/11/15, loaned to me by Kevin Robitaille
"The night was rank with the smell of man."  (p. 3)

*9 - A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
5/16/15
"A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head."  (p. 1)

*10 - The Book Thief  by Markus Zusak
5/27/15
"Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring the out like the rain." (p. 80)

*11 - The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
6/23/15 (for the umpteenth time)
"What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.  That doesn't happen much, though." (p. 18)

*12 - The Satanic Verses  by Salman Rushdie
7/1/15 (for the 2nd time), "borrowed" from Jerry & Kathy Krone
"He saw the tree explode into a thousand fragments, and the trunk crack, like a heart..." (p. 506)

13 - The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit by Thomas J. Sugrue
7/8/15, gifted to me by Jerry Krone
"The story I tell is one of a city transformed." (p, 3)

*14 - The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
7/18/15, loaned to me by Casey (Jordan) Krone
"And in that moment, I swear we were infinite." (p. 39)

15 - Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell
7/23/15, gifted to me by Kathy Krone
"Why is there a glop of macaroni salad next to the Japanese chicken in my plate lunch?" (p, 1)

16 - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
8/11/15
"And what is good, Phaedrus,
And what is not good --
Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?" (p.1)

*17 - The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
8/15/15
"How long could we remain true to the girls?  How long could we keep their memory pure?" (p. 182)

*18 - The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
8/31/15
"But then finally we had to go inside and almost the instant we did the spell was broken, and in the brightness of the hallway we were embarrassed and stiff with each other, almost as if the house lights had been turned up at the end of a play, and all our closeness exposed for what it was: make-believe." (p, 619)

*19 - You Are Here by Thich Nhat Hanh
9/1/15
"Breathing in, I know I am breathing in." (p. vii)

20 - Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture: Based on the Competing Values Framework by Kim S. Cameron & Robert E. Quinn
9/14/15, recommended by Dr. George Reed
"The implication in education is that we are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist, to use technologies that have not been invented, in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet." (p. 9)

21 - Snuff by Chuck Palaniuk
9/24/15
"One dude stood all afternoon at the buffet just his boxers, licking the orange dust off barbecued potato chips." (p. 1)

22 - My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
9/4/15, book chosen by the book club that Sarah Arn invited me to
"I don't want to be a tree, I want to be its meaning." (p. 51)

*23 - Yes Please by Amy Poehler
10/19/15
"She has lived a life of struggle and decided not to pick up the armor.  She teaches me about compassion.  She makes her journey about open hearts.  She is not ashamed. / Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou." (p. 79)

*24 - Euphoria by Lily King
11/6/15, book chosen by the book club that Sarah Arn invited me to
"'...The truth you find will always be replaced by someone else's.  Someday even Darwin will look like a quaint Ptolemy who saw what he could see but no more.'" (p. 51)

25 - Hawaii The Big Island Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook
11/29/15, book sent to me by Jerry & Kathy Krone for our trip
"The Big Island has it all." (p. 9)

*26 - Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie
12/14/15
"He felt the weights of things, of his body, his emotions, his hopes."  (p. 159)

27 - The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep by Carl Johan Forssen Ehrlin
12/21/15, borrowed from Evelyn Sommariva

28 - All By Myself by Mercer Mayer
12/21/15 (for the second time), read to me and her son by Evelyn Sommariva
"I can get out of bed all by myself."

29 - Excuse Me by Karen Katz
12/21/15 (for the second time), read to me and her son by Evelyn Sommariva
"Mommy says, 'Do you want peas for breakfast?'"

30 - Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
12/26/15
"'...Within him there is a secret something that is striving to grow.  It is the thing I let be killed in myself.'" (p. 30)

31 - Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay
12/27/15
"When you can't find someone to follow, you have to find a way to lead by example."

32 - Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
12/27/15
"I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story." (p. 1)

*33 - Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
12/28/15
"When I reached C Company lines, which were at the top of the hill, I paused and looked back at the camp, just coming into full view below me through the grey mist of early morning." (p. 3)

34 - Blink by Malcom Gladwell
12/29/15, loaned to my by Jerry Krone
"But it had one overwhelming advantage: allowing people to operate without having to explain themselves constantly turns out to be like the rule of agreement in improv. It enables rapid cognition." (p. 119)

*35 - The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
12/31/15 (for the second time), gifted to me by Jerry & Kathy Krone
"I relay it through printed words on crumpled newspring, words that they can read again and again, returning to the circus whenever they wish, regardless of time of day or physical location. Transporting them at will. / When put that way, it sounds rather like magic, doesn't it?" (p. 369)

*Some favorites.  Of the books I read for the first time, The Goldfinch was my favorite with Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Days being a close second.  A Catcher in the Rye and The Night Circus are already on my all-time favorite list, which is why I chose to read them again.

Fail: #63 - Do a Yoga Handstand

Honestly, I wanted to do this one just because it looks cool.  I want to be one of those people doing yoga handstands in beautiful places in my profile pictures.  That is so lame.  And totally the wrong reason for practicing yoga.

However, part of me is just inspired by the beauty of the movement.  That part I can stay connected to.

In hopes of learning this skill, I have been continuing the yoga practice I started regularly in January as part of this list.  I also attended a Grace in Strength workshop at Mosaic (thank you again, Sophie & Kevin!), where I learned the fundamentals of learning to hand stand... and also that I am no where close.  Now that I am practicing it at home regularly, here are some dated reflections as I pursue this item.

Sunday, July 19
As of this moment, I am not confident that I will achieve this item this year.  I am confident I will do it someday, but I'm struggling with my hamstring flexibility and a very troublesome lower back.  I also need to build up some upper body strength, but I think the lack of flexibility will be more important than the strength.  I do plan to keep practicing walking up the wall to learn the feeling of my head tipping past my hands.

End of Year

My hand stand hops and wall practice sessions are getting better.  I think I'm getting stronger and am better understanding my own balance.  I'm so happy I'm making progress!

Fail: #64 - Hold a Crow's Pose for 1 Minute

Wednesday, July 1

I should have been posting about this one since January.  But I didn't.  So.

I have never been able to get the hang of crow's pose.  I waver for a quick moment and fall.  In January, I kicked off my year by doing 7 days of yoga in a row.  I focused my practice at home and at Mosaic.  I fell in love with Mosaic and continued to practice there once a week, missing occassional classes only for travel or work.  I had done yoga before, once semi-regularly in Chicago, but everywhere else I've practiced, it's felt like a group exercise class.  Mosaic makes it feel like self inquiry practice and an honoring of self and other.  Every time I go it feels like a combination of church, therapy, and exercise.  I'm in love with the practice and what it teaches me.

Back to this list item, I was making slight progress on my crow's pose, but it still wasn't sticking.  Then, I had been enjoying my yoga practice at Mosaic so much that I signed up for a Grace in Strength workshop with my two favorite yoga instructors, Sophie and Kevin.  (As I mentioned in my Yelp review of Mosaic, that probably isn't fair because once I was introduced to these two, I haven't given the other instructors a chance.  But, to their credit, I've actually stuck to regular yoga practice, so...)  We started with a warm up and then went into crow's pose.  With just a little extra instruction, particularly on my gaze, I could balance.  It was awesome.

I can how hold the pose for around 10 seconds, actually balancing, feeling my weight shift slightly in my fingers spread wide.  I'm now just building balance, strength, and greater knowledge of my own body to hold it longer.  60 seconds seems like a long time, but I feel confident I'll at least get close by the end of the year.

Saturday, July 25

Because of work and sailing lessons, I took 2 weeks off of yoga class and 3 weeks off of Kevin's Tuesday class.  I was so thrilled to be back this week.  I wasn't feeling well just before class and sat on my yoga mat having an internal battle about whether or not to stay.  I really wasn't feeling well.  What if I got sick during class?  But I had been looking forward to rejoining that class for 3 weeks!  And I want to be the kind of person who chooses to tough things out when I want them.  And I could always leave in the middle of class.  But that's bad etiquette.  Eventually I took so long to decide that class started.  The sick feeling passed within minutes and I had one of the best classes I have had in a long time.  The main reason I'm writing about it here is because I stuck my crow's pose for well over 10 seconds even though I was physically exhausted and sweating more than I had ever sweat in that class (due to the summer heat and the number of bodies in the room).  I was also grateful that after class, when I told Kevin about the stiffness in my traps, he gave me some great advice and resources to work on it on my own.  I heart Mosaic.  So much.

Sunday, August 2

On Tuesday I held my first side crow!  I could really only hold it on my right side, but I managed a little bit of time on my left.  I was super sweaty this week, so it was tough to keep from slipping.  I held my regular crow for probably 10 seconds or so.

Monday, August 10

When practicing at home, I must have held my crow for at least 15 seconds and felt strong.  Progress!

Monday, August 31

Lately I've been struggling because either I'm not warmed up enough to hold the pose or I'm so sweaty that I slip.  I'll have to figure that one out.

Thursday, September 10

I held my crow particularly long in Sophie's class today.

Summary

I didn't get anywhere close to 1 minute and now realize that's likely an unrealistic goal, but I'm glad I improved so much.