GISHWHES: Bungee Jumping

So, I was tasked with the bungee jumping item on the scavenger hunt. Even though the clip submitted was only 30 seconds of the jump itself, I decided to make a longer, more vlog-style post for all of you. Long story short: bungee jumping is awesome and I want to go again.

Bonus points: this means I get my Lifescouts badge for this, too!!

Lifescouts Friday: Growing Up

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday and enjoy the first (official) day of summer! I know I haven't been keeping up with my regular Lifescouts posts, life just seemed to get a bit too busy for the past couple of weeks. I'm going to do my best to keep up with posting on a more regular basis, I know I need to get back to a "schedule". This week's series seems to focus on Childhood and Growing Up.

 Baking Cookies

I love to bake. I loved to bake and cook things as a kid. This young love has translated well as an adult. I love baking cookies and cakes and pies and bread and various other dishes for people. Oddly enough, I never actually want to eat any of the sweets I bake simply because I don't like sweets. So I like to give them to people. I've baked cookies for bands that we know, friends that have been in town and even birthdays and shipped them out.

 Gymnastics

When I was younger, I took gymnastics. I really enjoyed it, the bar work was my favorite part. There was something amazing about leaping from low bars to high bars and back again and all of the flipping that you could do that I just loved. The balance beam exercises were always fun once we got past all of the basics. I wasn't as into the floor exercises, though. I was probably in gymnastics for a good four years, but then I moved and didn't pick it up in our new city.

 Juggling 

This is one of those useless talents I learned at a summer camp. I'm not very good, I can juggle three things (four if I'm having a good day) before whatever I'm juggling is dropped. While I have very little hand-eye coordination, I can still manage to juggle for several minutes until my brain remembers that it doesn't want to cooperate and I drop everything.

Jump Rope

Who didn't learn how to jump rope when they were a kid? I loved the days in elementary school that the teachers would just throw a bunch of random activities out and tell us to amuse ourselves (I have a secret suspicion that most gym teachers hate gym as much as the students). Learning to jump rope was just a part of elementary school, a part of school that stayed the same despite having to attend numerous elementary schools.

Climb a Tree

I always wanted to have a treehouse growing up, but I knew I wouldn't be in one place long enough to justify actually building one. So I made do with climbing trees. What kid didn't have that secret desire to learn how to fly? Just me? Okay... Climbing trees as high as I could was as close as I could get to that feeling. Especially when things got tough, it was nice to be able to climb as high as I could go and hide forever (or hours, they seem the same when you're young).

Lifescouts Friday: Growing Up

I know it has been a few weeks since I did an edition of Lifescouts Friday, but they are back. At least for a little while. For some reason my Fridays have gone from slow and easy to chaotic and insanely busy. I'm not sure which I prefer.

Ride a Bike

Like most people, I learned to ride a bike as a child. Since I wasn't able to drive for obvious reasons and I didn't want to be at my own house unless absolutely necessary, I would spend a lot of time at my friends' houses growing up. And the only best way to get there? Riding my bike.

Camping

My husband and I disagree as to whether or not I have really gone camping. My idea of camping is the time my parents rented a cabin in the woods. Sure, we may have had electricity and plumbing and possibly internet, but it was still in the woods. So it counts as camping. Right?

Fly a Kite

I don't remember exactly when I have flown a kite since it really isn't something that most people spend hours doing, but I do have distinct memories of flying a kite and running around trying to get it to stay up longer. The problem with having repressed much of your childhood do to trauma is that you only have snapshots of memories like this. I know it happened but I can't remember where.

Rollerskating

In the 90's, everyone thought it was the coolest thing to be able to roller-skate. In the late 90's when I realized I wanted to be cool and liked, I took it up as well. The last time I did was when I lived up in DC, so it was at least 10 years ago. I don't know why I stopped, possibly because it wasn't "cool" anymore, but I remember it was a lot of fun with my friends.

Yo-Yo

In the fifth grade, we had some sort of assembly about DARE and keeping off drugs. And what did they suggest to do instead of drugs? Why, yo-yo of course! In the late 90's, yo-yoing was still kinda cool for kids and we would all try to learn better "tricks" and have the cooler yo-yo. I'm sure if I could even find a yo-yo I would succeed in nothing more than knotting it up.

Lifescouts Friday: Growing Up and Music Interests

Wait, its already Friday? How did that happen? I feel like the week just started! This has been a wild week, not only because I graduated this week, but it was also my two year anniversary! It is also exciting to think that next week is the dance recital, I can't believe its already here! Dance has been a bit crazy this week, one of the girls that is in 6 dances broke her foot so we're having to re-choreograph all of them. At least it didn't happen day-of. We'll make it through this. Anyways, here is this week's edition of Lifescouts!

Birthday Party 

Like many kids growing up, I had birthday parties and went to birthday parties. There were sleep overs, movies, bowling, roller skating, all parts of growing up that convince you that birthdays really are important. When they really aren't after a certain age.

 Concert

I love music. I love supporting artists by going to their shows. Unfortunately, my brain doesn't always appreciate being in a small, packed venue with hundreds of people I don't know so close to me. Even though I have a hard time dealing with these situations, I probably go to 10-15 concerts a year. What can I say, I just love music?

Karaoke 

 I've only sung karaoke a couple times. I don't really enjoy standing in a room of people I don't know and singing. I don't mind making a fool of myself in the confines of a friend's house while we play Rockband and pretend like we are the best band out there and we should totally try to do this while sober. Then we all come to our senses and realize that would be ridiculous.

Write a Song

As a kid I loved writing. As I grew into my pre-teen years, I thought I could try my hand at writing a song or two and make myself famous. Because who doesn't want that? It seems like this is a pretty common thing for kids to do since a lot of people I know also did the same thing. I think it might be a good thing that we were never recognized for our songwriting ability, we were shit at it.

Vocalist

While I don't really enjoy singing in front of people I don't know, it doesn't mean I don't know how to sing. I was actually in choir in middle school and I was in the church choir through high school. Anytime I'm in the car by myself, it is pretty much guaranteed that I will be either A) listening to talk radio or B) singing classic rock as loud as possible. 

Lifescouts Friday: Here's some badges and stuff

This week has been hell. Not because anything bad has happened; no, it has just been insanely busy. At work, we're wrapping up a lot of projects and we also had an open house to show off our new offices (although, it really isn't that new since we moved in August). I've been trying to finish up all of my final projects for my Spring semester, I've put off a few major assignments for far too long and now I'm paying for it. Also, my dance recital is in two weeks, so practices have been longer and harder than usual. This week's Lifescouts doesn't have much of a theme, it's a bit scattered, just like I feel.


Cello 

Before I decided to take violin lessons, I wanted to play the cello. I took all of two lessons before I decided that there was no way I was going to be tasked with carrying an instrument that was taller than I was. I took violin lessons for a couple years before I decided to move on to the flute, something even smaller and easier to carry.





Programming 

This is more of a work-in-process badge. In high school I was in some sort of tech club and I learned a few basics, but really I spent most of that time hanging out with friends. Now, I'm trying to actually learn. I've been able to teach myself a few things (thanks, internet!) but I'll be delving into it fully come the fall when I start at UTD and actually start taking some real classes.





Harmonica 

What kid didn't get one at some point in their life? And after I saw "The Blues Brothers" for the first time, I thought that I would be able to be that awesome one day. Alas, that did not happen. And as with the cello, I quickly lost interest and moved on to other interests and instruments.

Safari 

One of the reasons people wanted to be in band in high school was because, every four years, the band would take a trip to Florida and march in the parade in Disney World and visit all of the parks. While we were in Disney's Animal Kingdom, a few of my friends and I went on the Kilimanjaro Safari tour thing. It might not be a real safari but I have a feeling that it the closest I will get for a long time.

Trombone 

I never tried to play the trombone; actually, I never really tried my hand at a brass instrument. I did briefly date a guy who played the trombone. It was a very short lived high school romance. Really, it wasn't much of a romance. I don't think it was long enough to be considered a romance. We also just kinda stopped dating without ever really breaking up. I'm not sure how that happened...

Lifescouts Friday: Musically Inclined (continued)

Another Friday is upon us. Finally. Has anyone else felt like this week has just dragged on? I have. This has been one of those uninteresting weeks that felt like it would last forever. So enjoy another musically themed Lifescouts!

Drums

When I was in junior high, I was in band. In order to prepare us for a high school that 80% of us military kids would never go to, we had various things in order to prepare us for high school and marching band. One such organization was a drum line. Even though I was officially a woodwind, I decided to try out (and made) the drum line.

Keyboard

Playing the keyboard really isn't too different from playing a piano. Since my family moved around a lot, my parents tried to eliminate the number of big, expensive, easily broken objects. One of which was out piano. Which was replaced with a keyboard that was easier to move and not as costly to tune.

Flute

While I was in my I-need-to-play-every-instrument phase in junior high and high school, I also took lessons and "officially" played the flute. I took lessons. I played the flute in orchestra. I went to band camp. I played it in the marching band. I had to practice every day for an hour at least. When I was kicked out for being  bisexual, I didn't think to take it with me and I haven't played it since then.

Trumpet 

Most of my friends in high school were in band. We all had to get to school early and practice during the summers and practice after school and travel together. And since I spent most of my time with these kids, most of the people I dated were in band. And I dated a guy that played the trumpet. It was a short-lived relationship that ended the day before Valentine's Day because he didn't know what to get a girl that didn't want flowers or candy or any other useless crap that is associated with the day.

Violin

Before I took up the flute, I took violin lessons. From grades 4-6 I took lessons and had visions of myself playing in concert halls. Eventually, I got lazy and wanted a smaller instrument that wasn't as cumbersome to take to lessons and school and home. It wasn't a lack of desire that made me switch to the flute, it was absolute laziness because the flute was small and I could just throw it into my school bag.

Lifescouts Friday: Musically Inclined

Happy Friday all! This week has really had its ups and downs. The Stars were eliminated from the playoffs and I had to take my car in to get serviced because it wouldn't turn on, but a lot of the work required to be done was covered under warranty. I was told that work would slow down after fourth quarter but I've yet to see any sort of slow down happen yet. But I wont complain (too much) because it is nice to be able to have a job and taking on more responsibilities that are more marketing/design centered. So I present to you this week's addition of Lifescouts! The next few additions are going to be about music. Enjoy!


Bass

As you all know, Justin taught me how to play the guitar. He also taught me how to play bass. In high school, I thought it was important to learn to play as many instruments as possible. In addition to actually taking lessons for various things, I took it upon myself to learn from people I knew. Not that it really does me any good now. I haven't played any sort of instrument since I left school.

Clarinet

In high school, if you made it to a certain chair in band, you had to audition for the state orchestra. You could do so as a soloist or coerce another poor soul to practice a piece and perform it with you (so you also had to rely on them to perform well in order to make it). My freshman year of high school, having never auditioned alone before, I was able to convince a friend of mine that played the clarinet to perform a duet with me. I also did learn how to play a bit as part of my I-need-to-know-how-to-play-every-instrument-known-to-man phase.

Perform on Stage

I was in band and orchestra. And in the state orchestra. And I was a part of a choir. We had to perform many times. That is a big part of being in each of these musical groups. You had to perform on stage.

Saxophone

Another part of my  I-need-to-know-how-to-play-every-instrument-known-to-man phase. Also, since most of my friends in high school were in band, a lot of the people I dated were in the band. One of these people was a guy who played the saxophone. Like most high school romances, it didn't last and we have grown apart and don't even speak to each other.

Piano 

I actually took lessons to learn how to play the piano. This was not part of my  I-need-to-know-how-to-play-every-instrument-known-to-man phase. I began taking lessons when I was five or six and continued until high school. Unlike most instruments I took up, I can actually still play the piano even though it has been years since I actually took lessons.

Lifescouts Friday: Dear god, I really am a nerd

Happy Friday, all! This week's Lifescouts is a continuation of the "nerd" theme from last week. A couple of these are well... incredibly nerdy. I never realized how much until I started to write about them. Even though I may have gotten teased as a kid for being a nerd and liking space and Star Trek, I've now that it is more than okay, its great, to be a nerd. That's probably why I love John and Hank Green and all of Nerdfighteria because I've learned it is okay to be a nerd because, as John has said, "because nerds like us are allowed to be unironically enthusiastic about stuff. Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-can’t-control-yourself love it. Hank, when people call people nerds, mostly what they’re saying is ‘you like stuff.’ Which is just not a good insult at all. Like, ‘you are too enthusiastic about the miracle of human consciousness’.”

Ukulele 

In high school, and even now, I loved art. My senior year, I tried to take as many art classes as possible (to make for an easy year of course) and many of these were art classes. Since I did this, one of my teachers wanted me to create something to submit to the state competition at the end of the year. One of my pieces was a scene I painted on a ukulele I found at a thrift shop. I was incredibly proud of it, even though it only got an honorable mention. When I was kicked out of my parents' house, I didn't take it with me and I have no idea where it ended up. I do have another ukulele that I plan to paint and decorate soon...

Observatory 
I love space and the stars and the planets. I think galaxies and super novas and black holes are incredibly fascinating. In high school, I took an astronomy course where once a month we would meet at a college campus to use the observatory to really get a good look at what we were learning about in class. I wish I had more opportunities today to take the time to look out into space and watch the planets and stars and everything else out there. Space is really quit breath taking. I'm actually in the process of writing a paper for a geology class about black holes and how they impact the universes and galaxies that surround them. And I can't seem to stop researching it. It is fascinating.

Scrabble 

Nowadays people play Words with Friends rather than Scrabble. But there's something great about sitting around with friends playing board games. And, unlike something like Monopoly where it can get quit competitive and evil, Scrabble is just fun. Because I love to read, I have a decent vocabulary and this gives me the chance to actually use obscure words that I've picked up. I may not be the best or always win but I still love Scrabble. Actually, I love game nights in general. I need to have more of them.





Bowling 

I'm not a big bowler. I don't particularly like to wear shoes that a million other people have worn. That's just gross. And I haven't gone bowling since high school (dear god, have I done anything since high school??) with my French class. Why did we go bowling? I can't honestly tell you. I think it was just something that the French club could organize to get us out of school early. I have heard that the next company outing is going to be bowling... I should probably try to brush up so I don't make a complete fool of myself...

Klingon 

Okay, so this is probably, by far, the nerdiest thing this week. When I was growing up, I loved Star Trek. Granted, I still like it, but I really don't watch it much anymore. But growing up I actually watched it so much that I taught myself Klingon. I spent a couple years actually learning Klingon. I thought I was something special because I could insult people without them knowing what I was saying (it did have the downside of people knowing just how much of a nerd I was and I would sometimes get teased and picked on).

Lifescouts Friday: Nerd Week

This has been a very draining week, but it is ending better than it started. With all of the emotional baggage of dealing with the 1st, followed by finding out I might need a root canal on the 2nd, I've been looking forward to Friday since... Tuesday. But its Friday. I made it through it all. These badges were part of the "Nerd Month" collection, even though I really don't see what's all that nerdy about them. 

Chess

While I'm not the greatest chess-player in the world, I can hold my own. Honestly, I wanted to learn how to play chess just because it was mentioned in Harry Potter (you, except it was wizard's chess and the pieces moved on their own). I was 11 and thought that it was just something I had to learn how to do. So I taught myself how to play.





Horse-drawn Cart

I don't know why, but in the South when the weather gets cold, apparently its a great idea to go on these hay rides drawn by horses. I don't understand the appeal. There's always a ton of hay that gets everywhere and too many people crowded into one cart and its either too hot or too cold to really enjoy it. Don't people in the South realize that sitting around a campfire is a much better way to start off Autumn?

Marching Band

As you have already learned, I was in marching band. I was in marching band through all of high school. The funny thing is even though I had to go to every football game for four years, I still don't know (and more importantly, don't care) anything about football. I really enjoyed band, though. It was a lot of fun and I always enjoyed the time I spent with my friends.

Video Games

I like video games, I just don't get to play them much. Growing up I loved to play. I would much rather play a video game hidden away inside than have to go outside and deal with people. I didn't own every game console, so I did occasionally become friends with certain kids because they had certain games. Yeah, I was that kid. But I grew out of it. Kinda.

Rubik's Cube 

I know that there is apparently some sort of step-by-step instructions somewhere that actually tells you how to solve the Rubik's cube, I never took the time to go find it. So when my sophomore Pre-Calculus teacher had one, it took me about two weeks worth of classes (classes that I should have been using to pay attention in class) to solve it. Really, that's not too bad considering each class was only an hour and a half, right? Whatever, even if its not, I still solved it.

Lifescouts Friday: I'm grumpy today

Well, we've made it through another week. This hasn't been an easy one, work has been crazy and I decided to quit smoking Tuesday (something I was planning on doing on the 1st). I'm exhausted and ready for a couple days off. It seems like most of these Lifescouts badges are things I really didn't enjoy, but maybe that's just because I'm grumpy and still having to deal with the whole not smoking thing.

Fishing

I find fishing both really boring and really gross. I went when I was at a summer camp as a kid. I didn't particularly enjoy sitting around waiting for something to happen. I didn't enjoy touching worms and the fish when we caught something. It was gross. But I also went deep sea fishing on my honeymoon and that was kinda cool. And we caught a HUGE marlin. I've done it, I don't plan on doing it again.

Drive In Movie

When I was a young teen, a guy actually took me to see a movie at a drive in. It was weird. But that's probably more due to the fact we were both young, awkward teens on a date that our friends had set up because we would just look so cute together. The idea of drive in movies is fun, in execution when you're awkward and 15, they suck.

Haunted House

I don't like being scared. I'm not a fan of scary movies. I don't like people jumping out and scaring me. I don't like haunted houses. I've gone to many throughout the years because apparently other people like to be scared. And I want to be around other people (sometimes) so I go as well. I don't really like haunted houses but I've gone. And that earns me another badge.

Swimming

Who doesn't know how to swim? I took lessons when I was a child (the first one consisted of my father throwing me into a pool before actually taking lessons). Nowadays when I go to the pool its mostly just lounging by the pool and drinking and enjoying the sun. This used to be something  I would do all the time during the summer, but now that I have a house sans-pool, I don't see much pool time this summer.

Zoo

I'm not the biggest fan of zoos. I understand that they can be a good thing and they can help endangered animals, but I hate seeing all of those animals locked up. Although, this may be because when I was less than a year old, my father took me to the zoo and while he was off doing god knows what and not paying attention to his child in a stroller, I tried to crawl out of my stroller and ended up flipping it over and crashing into a window and splitting my chin open which required stitches. So maybe there's still a bit of emotional scarring from that.

Lifescouts Friday: Animals!

Happy Friday all! This week's Lifescouts is all about animals. I hope you've all had a bearable week and have a great weekend!



Milk a Cow

I took French while I was in high school. Along with all sorts of French type things we did like eat French candy, bake yule logs, we also would take an annual field trip to Heifer International in Little Rock. I'm really not sure what this has to do with learning French or anything about French culture (really, why did we go every year?) but one of the interesting things we did there was actually milk a cow.

Horse Riding

I've ridden a horse many times. I've also owned a horse. And when I lived in DC, there was a stable just off of the military base where I lived. I would occasionally go on weekends to ride the horses and just enjoy the feeling of being in a stable, even though I was in the middle of the capital of the US. I'm also trying to set up a time to go horseback riding with one of my friends, Mel, for her birthday in a few weeks. She loves horses and I'm not sure if she's actually gone or not. But I know she'd like to go and it will be a lot of fun.

Own a Pet

As absolutely shocking as this is, I've owned many pets throughout my life. I got my first cat when I was in kindergarten and had him until I moved to DC. My parents always had at least two dogs and two cats at any given time. And now, as an adult, I have two cats and a dog. I've had Gatinha since she was a tiny kitten and we've been together for about seven years. I've had Sox since she was about two and has been with me for about three years. Samwise is the newest, he's now about 11 months old.

Rainforest
When I was growing up, I couldn't just pack up and go for a weekend at grandma and grandpa's. It was a trip that we had to plan for several months in order to get a visa in order to stay in the country for six weeks. why? Because my grandparents lived in Brazil, in Porto Velho, the capital of Rondônia. Porto Velho is in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest. It really was a beautiful place. I was really wishing I could make it to Brazil for the World Cup, but I don't think that's a possibility. But hopefully I can go back soon... I do love Brazil.

Hold a Snake

A lot of my friends love reptiles. While I've mostly had the more "traditional" pets, some of my friends prefer less fluffy creatures. And I really don't have a problem with reptiles, so I've held many a lizard, snake, spider, gecko, whatever. I like animals and I don't see why people get so freaked out by them. The first time I held a snake I was expecting something slimy but I was surprised that they're not (I was like six, okay). And the big boas are heavy. Also, as a Slytherine, I kinda have to like snakes.