About that "not able to stay away"

Hi y'all...

For those of you who cheered me on seven years as I completed by "30 things before I turn 30 in 3 months" challenge, I wanted to let you know that I'm kicking off a new challenge... and it's available to follow on Florida-fied.com.

Hugs and love!!

~Kim

I couldn't stay away

Team Kimmy:

You have been faithful readers for the past three months as I worked through 30 things to do before I turned 30.  And I had so much fun providing you with content to read...

So I decided, I just can't let this end.  I love doing this.  So, introducing my new blog... 30 things to do now that I'm 30!!  30 more challenges, and a little bit more time to get them all done...

Follow along until July 2013, as I work to meet all the new challenges on my list!!

Gooooooooo TEAM!

#10 Blog each of these posts

So this may not seem to be the most interesting or exciting post (in terms of things to do), but #10 Blog each of these posts is the most important for me because it's the culmination of 13 weeks (3 months) of utter incredibleness (FYI: that's not a word, I just made it up).

Over the past thirteen weeks, I've toiled and labored (HA!).  I've spent countless hours (and many dollars, but let's not think about that right now), all for your reading pleasure.

Haha, let's not kid ourselves... I didn't do this for you guys... I did this for me.  And I HAD SO MUCH FUN!!! 

Did I complete everything on my list?  No... (I got really close... I completed 29 out of the 30).  And while working on the 30 things, I learned a lot about myself in the process.  Oh, and did I mention I had a ton of fun?

 
Now, what surprised me most is that YOU all actually enjoyed the fun right along with me.  I really didn't think anyone was reading my little blog... Or had any interest in my ramblings... but over the past few weeks, I've had so many friends, colleagues, and friend-of-friends mention to me, and to my friends, that they actually read my blog.  And not only do they read it, but they appear to be enjoying it!!!  Imagine that...

So thank you, dear reader, for following my crazy adventures.  Thank you to all my friends who helped along the way.  And thank you to my family for being such big supporters of me, no matter what I do!

With that said, I challenge you... create a list of things that you want to do (fun things, not chores), set a (reasonable) time limit, and then GO OUT and DO THEM.  We all work hard, we all pay bills and have responsibilities, and sometimes we need to force ourselves to have fun, and to remember what's really important.  We should take the time to enjoy this life that we're living, and not be so "busy" (This article sums it up nicely!)

You can start with my list for inspiration, or start from scratch with your own list.  I've already created a list of "30 things to do now that I've turned 30", and I can't wait to get started working on them!  This time, I'm giving myself 12 months to complete them all.  Should I blog about those too?? :)

Just in case you missed any posts, without further ado... the 30 things I did before I turned 30:

1. Go skydiving
2. Guest bartend
3. Get certified in spinning
4. Spend a day at a spa
5. Eat at a 3 star Michelin restaurant
6. Learn to drive stick shift
7. Bike in the Gran Fondo (NYC)
8. Run my first 5K in 2 years
9. Cook 30 new recipes
10. Blog each of these posts (no link, you're reading it now!)
11. Travel somewhere on my bucket list
12. Do 30 hours of community service… or give $10 for each hour un-donated
13. Take a day and take advantage of NYC
14. Hang out at the Jersey Shore
15. Go to Lucky Chen’s
16. Go on a date… with a fireman!
17. Try a new food
18. Hire someone to do something that I don’t like doing…
19. Host a BBQ and watch the Macys Fourth of July firework show from my roof
20. Be healthy. 
21. Get bottle service at a NYC night club and dance the night away
22. Splurge on something sparkly.
23. Dress like I’m a (fashionable) 30 year old.
24. Quit something I do a lot for 30 days.
25. A picture a day for 30 days. 
26. Learn how to poach an egg.
27. Go visit a psychic and get my cards read!
28. Complete a  counted cross stitch piece
29. Read 30 books.
30. Learn the “Single Ladies” dance. (Did not complete)

Once again... THANK YOU, and Good night :)

#21 Get bottle service at a NYC night club and dance the night away

NYC is well known as having an incredible nightlife. When I first moved here, I used to go into the city every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night and party til 4am.  And then, that started to get old (or maybe I started to get old...)

So this challenge #21 Get bottle service at a NYC night club and dance the night away started out as a way to let me relive my younger years and get crazy and dance til dawn.

I started by searching for the perfect place to host a party.  I enlisted friends to help give me ideas or to put me in contact with promoters. I researched night clubs in the Meatpacking district, I looked at roof top bars and clubs, and I even investigated renting a hotel room to get access to the hotel's posh club.  At the end of the day, I kept getting the same story - either no response, or "girls only".

I got fed up.  NYC is awesome, don't get me wrong, but the snooty, silent treatment I was getting from these clubs was way too rich private high school for me.  I had enough.

With a week to go before my birthday and still no plans, I tweeted: "I need to figure out what I'm doing for my birthday?!?!"... And one of my followers responded with "Whatever makes ya happy :-)"

Huh... novel idea, right??  Do what makes me happy!  But, the reason why it's novel... is because it's true.  I was getting caught up in the whole challenge of "I need to do this because it's the cool thing to do and everyone else is doing it and they'll expect me to do it, and plus I said to the world through this blog that I was going to do it!" instead of focusing on what's actually going to make me happy.

So what makes me happy?  Easy - a great meal, good friends, and dancing the night away.  Also, a short walk home on tired feet ;)

So I decided to do dinner at one of my favorite places in Hoboken - 3 Forty Grill - and then dance at one of the most fun bars in Hoboken - The Shannon. 

The great view of the NYC skyline, right in front of 3 Forty Grille

As you can see, I wore my Grecian goddess dress, which I bought SIX YEARS ago in LA while visiting my great friend Marcia... in fact, I actually bought it on my birthday six years ago and wore it out that night to the clubs and danced then, too!  This dress has since become a staple of any Girls Weekends :)

But I digress... back to my birthday dinner!  Dave and Katrin, Cindy and Chris, Ellie, Jon and Fran all joined me for an incredible meal. We ordered the Crab and Shrimp Nachos as an appetizer (SO FREAKING YUMMY!!!), and I had the Steak Salad as my entree (SOOOO GOOOD!!!!).  3 Forty Grill is known for their martinis, and I had two - a peartini and a Key Lime Pie martini, which had a graham cracker crust and which was almost as delicious as the martini I had in Key West!

My roommate and I!!!

For dessert, I received a complimentary brownie with ice cream and a candle, and my friends sung happy birthday to me... Awww!!!

After dinner, we went to the Shannon for dancing.  I ordered a round of Bud Light bottles (that counts for "bottle service", right??), and I danced.  And laughed.  And had fun.  And danced again.  I had a great time!
Now, the story of the night happened when we were on our way home.  Enter two key players in this story, Joe S (a friend) and a boy who will be known only as "Ellie's Stalker."  He's not dangerous - he's just crazy... not in a mental health way (or maybe he is, who knows).  Regardless, Ellie is not interested in him and has made that pretty clear... but he doesn't seem to get the message.  (Poor guy, we've all been there, right?)

So here's the story: Ellie and I decide to leave so we can get away from Ellie's Stalker.  Ellie's Stalker asks Joe S where we live and Joe S (GUILTY!) informed him of the cross streets... and then apparently Ellie's Stalker races out of the bar and sprints to said cross street.  Now, the bar is a good 10 minute walk away from our apartment, and we had about a 2 minute head start... but we were walking.  This guy apparently ran.  Thank goodness Joe S thought it prudent to shoot a text message to Ellie to warn us of what was coming our way...

As we got closer to our apartment, we discussed ways we could avoid Stalker (walk two blocks east, then two blocks north, then walk two blocks west and then 1 south to our apartment?), and, as we were figuring out our course of action, we walk past a big, tall dude who overheard our plight.  And you know what he did?  He offered to walk us home.  Awww!!!

The good Samaritan that walked Ellie and I home...

Good thing this guy offered to walk us home, because, as we passed the cross street that Joe S had told Ellie's Stalker about, HE WAS THERE, WAITING FOR US.  Cray-cray.  He was literally leaning against the wall of the pizza shop, just chilling. 

Because the big Good Samaritan was with us, Ellie's Stalker decided not to approach us with such a big bodyguard walking us home!  Smart guy, even if he is a Stalker.  We made it home safely, and Stalker did not follow us, but we were slightly tipsy enough to be freaked out... so, after entering our apartment and locking the door behind us, we applied the chain, and also moved a few things in front of the door.  Because (clearly!) using the deadbolt and applying the chain wouldn't be enough to stop one crazy guy.  We had to put chairs in front of the door, too... LOL!

So at the end of the day, did I get bottle service at a NYC night club?  Nope.  Did I do what I wanted instead of what I felt I should do?  Yup.  Did it turn out to be amazing?  Yup. You gotta do what makes you happy, my friends... including avoiding crazy stalkers ;)

I'm a happy girl!

#4 Spend a day at a spa

There's something utterly indulgent about spending an entire day at a spa... First, it's incredibly relaxing to have a person pamper, massage and polish your body for hours on end, from tip to toe... and second, since spa treatments tend to cost some serious cash, splurging on yourself like that is simply... extravagant. 

That's why I wanted to do #4 Spend a day at a spa - I wanted to live one day like an overly extravagant and flamboyant Hollywood star and/or rich Upper East Side lady.

The dilemma I was having, though, was that the past 3 months have been a bit expensive. Not sure if you noticed or not, but a lot of the items on my 30by30 list cost money... sometimes large dollar amounts.  And so I couldn't justify splurging more for a day at a spa when I've already splurged and indulged for 3 whole months...

So to satisfy this challenge, I opened up shop.  I turned my bathroom in to Spa Kimmy!

Some of my spa gear - pre-candle lighting, that is...

I went through my bathroom cabinets and found anything that could be applied to the body as some form of "pampering".  I found a lot of stuff that I had forgotten about: face masks, sugar scrubs, nail treatment oil, deep conditioning mask for the hair, body butter.  Before I started applying all this goo to my body, I used a foam roller to roll out my muscles (that counts for a massage, kinda).  I even lit a candle and played some Enya!  I spa'ed it up.



And you know what?  It only added an extra 15 minutes on to my normal shower routine.  This is something that I could incorporate into my day, maybe not every day, but once a week or so.  And while it definitely wasn't a full day, I did apply a face mask, exfoliate, and lotion my body to where I felt pampered.  Which I think is the point of this challenge (and the point of the 30by30 challenge in its entirety!) - to focus on myself, and indulge...

Now I just need to find someone to give me a foot massage :) 

#24 Quit something I do a lot for 30 days

We all have bad habits.  Some might smoke. Some might bite their fingernails.  Me?  Well... I love to sleep.  So in the morning, instead of getting out of bed, I hit the snooze button, several times... and it's unproductive, and sometimes ends up making me more tired... I know I should get out of bed when the alarm goes off the first time... but the thought of snuggling in bed and sleeping just a few more minutes... I love it.  I do.

So... #24 Quit something I do a lot for 30 days... it's hitting the snooze button.

And I'll come right out - I failed.  I kept hitting snooze, and I enjoyed those extra few minutes.

I think the reason why I failed in this challenge is because my heart wasn't in it.  I probably should have picked something else, like "No alcohol" or "Don't check Facebook", but then how would I have been able to tell you guys when I had a new post to share?

And then I came to thinking - maybe I should have just said, "Quit feeling like you have to change who you are." I love to snooze.  I purposely set my alarm 20 minutes earlier than I need to get up so that I can snooze.  If I have to get up at a certain time, I can do it... but if I don't, I snooze.  I admit that there are some mornings where I wished I hadn't snoozed, as I end up feeling more tired and groggy than when I had first woken up, but snoozing generally doesn't hurt me physically, or anyone else for that matter... so maybe the real lesson here is that I should allow myself to have the simple pleasure I get from snoozing in my super comfy bed... and stop worrying about changing who I am.  Just be me, instead of being who I "should" be.  :)

ZZZzzzzzzz......

#28 Complete a counted cross stitch piece

I grew up in Huntsville, Alabama... and my family vacationed in Longboat Key, Florida, which is an hour south of Tampa, FL.  And it was a 12 hour drive to get from Huntsville (which is at the top of Alabama) to LBK.

As a young kid, 12 hours in a car is miserable.  So I did a lot of reading (probably one of the key reasons why I like to read so much), and, for variety, my Mom also taught me how to do counted cross stitch, which is a type of embroidery where you make tiny little x's out of colored threads to form a pattern.  Unlike needlepoint, where the design is imprinted on the fabric, with counted cross stitch, you start with a blank white cloth and have to count the little squares to know where to begin with the various colored fabrics... hence the term "counted cross stitch."

To learn counted cross stitch, I began small and worked my way up to larger pieces.  One of those larger pieces is a swan in a blue pond with lilly pads... I completed it in high school as part of those long road trips back and forth between Alabama and Florida.  It's currently hanging in my sister and brother-in-law's stairwell in Pittsburgh:

The second larger piece that I completed is very meaningful to me.  I completed it during the summer after my junior year in high school, when my parents and I were road-tripping around the USA on college visits.  I finished this piece right around the time we arrived in the great city of Pittsburgh... which I find is telling in a subtle way, considering that I finished it at the destination where I would live for the next four years...

So you can see, I've done some large and complicated pieces.  But, similar to my story about why I don't read that much unless I'm on vacation, I haven't spent much time working on counted cross stitch.  I am currently working on a Christmas stocking, and I take it out every once in a while and work a few rows of stitches, but I haven't made noticeable progress. So this challenge - #28 Complete a counted cross stitch piece - originally started so I could motivate myself to make some serious progress on the Christmas stocking...

...but then the rest of the challenge took over my life and I continued to make no progress.  I was thinking of calling this one a failure, and then, when I was cleaning out a drawer, a tiny little counted cross stitch piece fell out... one that I've been carrying around with me for YEARS... it's a small piece that is great for a beginner.  In fact, it's similar to one of three others I completed as a beginner. These pieces turn in to ornaments, and the other three always decorate my Christmas tree every year.

When I saw that unopened package lying there, I had an "AHA!" moment where I realized that I might actually be able to pull this one off!

So I began to work on it...

The blueprint and the blank slate...

Just starting out....

Making progress...

Finished with the colors!  Now I need to add the outlines (known as "backstitch")

Done with the backstitch!  Cross stitch complete!!!

And now it's been mounted, framed with "garland" and ready for Christmas...

So the moral of this story? If at first you bite off too much to chew... see if you can do something smaller instead :).  Now, I've satisfied another item in my challenge, and I'm one step closer to being done!!!