#73 - Eat Indian food on Devon

I had Indian food for the first time in 2010 in San Francisco with Miss Rachel Felson. It was delicious. Since then, I've been a big fan of the Trader Joe's Indian Food and naan. Easy meals.

I have been a little disappointed in myself for working so close to Devon (Chicago's "Little India") for around six years and never eating Indian food there. Luckily, Davisson Benson, one of my students, harasses people to go to a place called Shairra Punjab all the time. So I figured he was the one to go to.

We had a little lunch date and ate all kinds of delicious Indian food on the buffet, plus warm, wonderful naan, all rounded up by some floaters. Okay, that might not be the technical name, but that's what DB calls these little doughnuty things with rice pudding.

I can't wait to start bugging my coworkers and other students to go there with me now.

#8 - continued again

I'm sure there are a few more but I'm out of bracelets for now :)

#18 - Go Camping

Okay, I have to admit this one was a little weak. We just camped on campus.

I just had to do it though. For years and years, especially this year, folks have told me they will take me camping. It's always the same conversation:

"I've never been camping."

"You? YOU've never been camping?"

"Nope."

"You'd love camping!"

"I probably would."

"I'm going to take you camping."

"No, you're not."

"Really, I'm going to take you."

"You won't though."

"Seriously, you'd love it."

"You're not though. You say you will, but you won't. You're only the 8th person to offer this week. No one ever does. I'm just saying."

So once Norris Narsa suggested we just stay for the Eagle Overnight on campus, I jumped on it. And by "jumped on it," I mean, I wavered a bit and then gave in and then freaked out that he wasn't serious.

We had a delightful Peace Fire. I can't really talk about it because the first rule of Peace Fire is that you don't talk about Peace Fire. You just have to be there. I can say I had some delightful bonding time with Davisson Benson, Trysha Solis, Andy Solberg, and Norris. Oh, and Erin Claudio was around somewhere. Probably snoring up a storm in his tent.

While I didn't want to count this one, we didn't even sleep in tents, just on a tarp under another tarp, just shaped like a tent. That's pretty hard core.

Thanks for getting Norris and me through our first camping experience, friends!

Some Fails

I thought it was only fair to mention my recent failures, if only to convince myself that I'm not running behind schedule... some stuff will just take some time and won't go well the first time! #88 Eat in Chinatown I had plans with Ed Cruz, Edric Cruz, and Nader Elmasri to head to Chinatown last Thursday. Edric & Norris Narsa wanted us to wait until later due to homework and work. Nader just wanted to watch the Bulls game somehow. Ed wanted to go early because he had "something else to do later." Now that I know what that something was, I should have just gone with Edric, Nader, & Norris. But alas, instead it's postponed. Hopefully we will attempt again on April 21 or 28. Edric won't commit though. He lives his life minute by minute. #80 Complete a Triathlon I was going to count the Red Bird Challenge at Illinois State University as my triathlon as it included a 2-mile canoe, 8-mile bike, and 3-mile run. I went with 3 students: Sarah Tyre, Matt Madia, and Davisson Benson. However, the morning of the race, the organizers annouced that the 25-mile-an-hour winds were going to eliminate the canoe portion. So instead, we portaged (carried canoes) for a MILE AND A HALF. It was ridiculous. Then we ran 3 miles with some "mystery challenges" - using ropes to get across mud, doing a cargo net climb (that was bunched up due to the lack of canoeing), army crawling through mud - and then biked 8 miles, with some "mystery challenges" - tying our bikes together in pairs, doing some weird orienteering / crossword event that took forever, and then a blindfolded Lego challenge that we dominated. We don't know yet what place we came in but we did beat one ROTC co-ed team. I'm not counting it as a triathlon since there was no water portion. Bummer. (Pictures to be added once Sarah posts them. We were a delightful, muddy mess.)