Support From Friends

It's been amazing the support that I am receiving from friends since starting this blog and my list. People have literally come out of the woodworks to follow the blog or send me a comment (granted, I am posting new blogs to my Facebook page where 880 of my closest friends can see the link, so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised?), and I am so thankful! In the midst of these messages, I received one particular e-mail that stood out, so much so that I wanted to share it on here. It said the following:

"Hey! I saw your blog. I think it's a very cool thing to do. I also have always wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride. That is one of those things on my bucket list of things to do. I also like your parasailing one, that is also something I am interested in. The pictures look amazing.

As I was reading through your list, I actually noticed some of them I already did myself. Most of the ones I did were some of the worst experiences of my life actually. LOL. Here is my experience, hope your's are wayy better!

I once got an accupunture treatment and wanted to die.

 It hurt so bad the guy almost killed me. I will NEVER do it again. I had a very bad neck strain to the point where I couldn't move my neck and he didn't help one bit. He kept on trying to be my tharapist and make me release the bad "energy" and he ended up making me cry. Then after he was done he sent me to Whole Foods to get these surgar pills. It was all so ridiculous.

It is suprisingly difficult to build a snowman.

You need to gather a lof of snow and you have to pick it up and it can get very heavy. It never comes out perfectly round like you see on TV. And your hands get soo cold you need to take breaks.

Whale watching was also almost the death of me.

 I found out how sea sick I can really get that day. I was in New England and I barely had time to see a whale's tail in the middle of me throwing up non-stop. It was terrible, never again in my life.

I went to St. Augustine and went to the Fountain of Youth when I was in high school.

 It's actually a very nice town, I really like it there, although the water I drank smelled and tasted really bad. It's like sulfur water and smells like rotten eggs. Ick.

I have gone skiing twice in my life.

While I take back fun memories of it, I also remember all the times I fell on my ass and bruised almost every part of my body. I stuck to the bunny slopes the whole time and once knocked down the whole skii lift fence line when I didn't know how to stop and crashed into everyone, that was soo embarrasing.

Anyway cool blog and good luck accomplishing them all. :)"

In order to protect this person's innocence, I will refraining from naming her, but let's just say I certainly hope my experiences go off a little more seamlessly!

Words to Live By

Stealing this from Tausha's blog...thanks my dear.

#16: Take a Hot Air Balloon Ride

4:30am. That is the time that I dragged myself out of bed -- Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" blaring from my alarm clock -- in order to prepare for the first of my 30 Things. I'll admit this was an easy one for me to start with, thanks to Groupon and my dear friend from work, Betsy, who very quickly volunteered to be my flying buddy. Granted, Betsy is also the friend trying so very hard to convince me to go REAL skydiving (instead of FAKE skydiving, item #27 on my list), which at this juncture I'm not sure I am brave enough for...but we'll see. :) I digress...

By 6am, I found myself signing my life away (literally) to Orlando Balloon Rides who cautioned that they'd basically take zero responsibility if the basket capsized, the balloon deflated mid-air or if we crashed into tree tops, building roofs, or electrical poles...although of course, their safety record was second to none. And that was only the beginning. Check out the second form that I was advised to read carefully, and think fully and clearly about, before signing:

Thanks Orlando Balloon Rides, now I feel really safe.

Next, we were driven about 20 minutes outside of Kissimmee to a big open field that appears to one day be slated for housing development. Needless to say, watching the crews unload the baskets and balloons, and then blowing them up using a combination of cool air from giant fans and big scary fire from blowtorches was perhaps one of the coolest parts of this experience.

Once your balloon starts to rise off the ground, you literally have to climb your way into the basket, which has sides that come up to about your stomach (if you're 5'5", at least!). We had about 17 people in our basket, in addition to the pilot, so it's less intimidating than you might imagine because you can position yourself on the inside so you don't feel like you're going to accidentally fall out (originally I thought we'd be in a small balloon with a group of maybe 4 people, which seems much scarier).

Then, after receiving a bath of ash (the downside to standing in the middle is that you are underneath the blowtorches and thus all of the ashes that are created from the fire then rain down on your head), we were off! It took about 10 minutes for us to ascend to our full height, although it's hard to judge exactly how far off the ground we actually were (see the picture below and let me know how high you think that is!). The vistas became more beautiful the higher we went, especially since the sun's slow rise changed the colors around us as time passed and cast shadows and sunlight in varying directions. Furthermore, the pilot every so often used ropes to shift the basket so while we were in the front for a portion of the time, we'd then be turned around to the back to see the area we were flying past.

I'll admit that I had twinges of fear while standing on the ground watching the balloons around us take off, but that apprehension faded immediately once I was safely inside the basket and enjoying the passing vistas. Since the basket was large and had high sides, I felt so secure, and after a few minutes, was even brave enough to venture to the edge and peer over the side to see the sites we were passing below. One of the coolest shots I took -- the one above of our balloon's shadow cascading across the treetops -- was taken from this vantage point! Of course, the downside is that Florida is just so FLAT, so after awhile, the scenery left something to be desired.

All in all, we were probably in the air for about 45 minutes when the pilot decided it was time to land. Only problem? We were NOWHERE need a landing spot and the wind was blowing us in the opposite direction from the proposed field. As we continued to drift to the left, we watched as other balloons began to descend (one quite comically landed in the middle of a street, see the photo below! We still don't quite understand why, or how those people got out!). Finally, the pilot saw an empty field and began to aim for landing there. Another interesting aspect of this experience would be the chase crew. They are kind of like those folks from Twister who follow tornadoes, only this is a bit more anticlimactic. Regardless, they drive these vans all around town following their assigned balloon and upon landing sprint out to help the pilot.

Now if you recall the first photo uploaded to this post (and if you don't, just scroll up for a moment), you'll remember that one of the releases I signed indicated that the landing was the most dangerous part of this whole procedure. So of course, as we began to inch closer to the ground, the pilot starts telling us to bend our knees, grab onto the handles on the inside of the basket and prepare for us to bounce our way to a stop. And boy was he right! We touched the ground and then immediately it felt as if a white rhino (or some other equally strong exotic animal) rammed right into our left side, jerking the entire basket up and to the right (and since I, at the time, had been on the far right of the basket, this also meant that the three other people I was sharing space with essentially pinned me to the side of the basket). We touched down a second time and the same thing happened! Thankfully, I escaped bruise free and without toppling out of the basket.

And just like that, my adventure was complete (for now!)! Our morning continued with a delicious mimosa toast, a less than delicious buffet breakfast, and the presentation of a "Certificate of Flight" confirming that I was now officially a member of the hot air balloon club.

Overall, here are my thoughts on my experience. Was it worth the $100? Absolutely. I conquered a small fear in the process, got to experience something that many in life never do, and got to do it all with a great friend by my side! Would I want to do it again? Likely not. Some aspects of the flight were a little disappointing (i.e. the flat scenery of Florida, the fact that I probably would have liked to go even higher in the balloon, etc.), so I think I'd rather spend my next hundred doing something new and more exciting. Regardless, at the end of the day I had a great time and was excited to check something off of my list.

So, dear readers, which item on my list do you think I should tackle next?

The Beginning

Life. It's beautiful, confusing, frustrating, unpredictable, and fleeting all rolled into one. And yet so many of us so easily forget what it means to actually LIVE while we are alive. Instead we settle into routines predicted for us by society: go to school, find work, get married, have children, get old, die. Even day-to-day, we fall into the comfort of the familiar: a morning trip to Starbucks, a routine phone call to a loved one, an 8-hour work day punctuated by a scheduled TV line-up. And whose to say that, for some, that's not fulfilling? Certainly, I am no one to judge the habits of others; but what I do know is this: If life so kindly blesses me with many years upon this Earth, it would be a disappointment for me to reflect back and realize that I spent my precious time playing it safe and going through the motions.

You see, two years ago, my grandfather passed away from undiagnosed, stage 4 colon cancer. Just a few months ago, my house mother from my sorority succumbed to brain cancer. Last year, one of the kindest men at my workplace was ravished by the disease in his pancreas in only a matter of months. And yesterday, a friend of mine from college passed away after a brave battle with bone cancer. She was 25 years old.

The truth is that I've been planning to embark on the journey that this blog will document for about a month now, but the sudden sadness that has overcome me in the last 24 hours at the news of my friend's passing has been the push of inspiration that I needed to get started.. The specifics of my friend's story are not mine to tell, so I will cease from elaborating; however, the broader note of living while one is alive is ever more poignant knowing how quickly it can be taken from you.

With all of this said, I welcome you to 30 Things Before 30. In an effort to infuse continuous excitement and multi-faceted experiences into my life, I have developed a "bucket list" of sorts -- a list of 30 new, challenging, and sometimes scary things that I vow to do in the next 3 years before I turn 30. The list, in summation, is years of dreams, fears, hopes and wishes rolled together -- there was no specific rhyme or reason for choosing a particular item other than a latent desire to say "I did X." Regardless, I am so excited to get started and see how I grow along the way.

Before I leave you for the evening, I'll say that in general, future blogs will be much more conversational and casual than this introduction. They'll also likely be shorter and filled with more pictures than words. However, to get us started, I felt that I needed to give a bit of explanation as to why I am embarking on this quest. Granted, as we go along, I may occassionally feel that "writer's bug" that spawns more enlightened prose, but my intention is not to alienate or bore with elevated, flowery speech! I hope that you will choose to follow this blog, and in doing so, follow me as I begin this exciting journey!