New York City - 2 points

  I'm officially on the board. This past weekend I flew out to see a couple of good friends that live near New York City. Why did I go up to NY in the middle of the winter? It kind of has to be winter in order to see the ice rink at Rockefeller Center, so I guess I didn't have much choice.

  I flew up to Connecticut, where my friend Erica lives, and stayed there for the night. On Saturday we went into the city to act like tourists for a while. A train took us from Connecticut all the way into Grand Central Station.  I'd never been inside before, so it was pretty cool to see. All I could think about was that scene from Armageddon in the beginning when the meteorites came crashing through the huge windows and annihilated it... no meteorites, it was a good day so far.

  We walked over to Rockefeller center, which was only a few blocks away.  It was a lot smaller than I pictured it. I didn't really expect the Christmas tree to still be there and I was right... I guess NYC doesn't wait until February to take down their tree like the rest of us lazy people. We were going to skate there, but when we got there the public skate was about to end and it didn't start again fro another hour. I know that I technically said I wanted to skate there, but I think seeing it was enough. While I was looking up at 30 Rock, I wondered if Tracy Jordan and Jenna Maroney were getting ready for TGS... but then I realized that TV isn't real... back to reality, still a good day. (oh and just around the corner we saw a guy dressed up like the statue of liberty, so we took a picture with him... like I said, we were being tourists)

  After lunch at a pretty awesome Irish Pub nearby, we took a cab over to Manhattan and checked out Obscura Antiques and Oddities. I had watched a few episodes of Oddities on Discovery Channel, so I thought it would be neat to see the shop. It was just as weird in person as it looks on the show. There were human skulls, straight jackets, stuffed squirrels, and the pic below was probably one of the most disturbing things. And there were definitely people in there actually shopping for weird crap.

  Just a couple of blocks from there was McSorley's, which is the oldest irish pub in the US. It was 3 in the afternoon and there was a line to get in.  This place was packed, and people were drinking with reckless abandon. It's cash only and the options for beer are "light or dark" ale. They serve the beers in small mugs and you pretty much have to get them two at a time because it's cheaper and you would go crazy trying to get back to the bar after every beer. The chandilier in the pic below had an absurd amount of dust on it... and probably still had some remnants of the plague. The beers were pretty good, and Erica and I stayed plague-free... great trip so far.

  Robyn had just gotten out of work and didn't want to go into the city, so Erica and I decided to brave the infamous NYC subways and make our way to NJ. On the way, we ran into a group of kids playing techno music and break dancing exactly like you would think of in a cheesy movie about NY. Apparently this was real and I was not being punk'd. Despite neither of us knowing anything about the subway, we managed to change trains twice and get exactly where we needed to be without any mistakes... we are awesome in case you didn't know. So we spent the rest of the day drinking at their friend's bar in NJ and watching NFL playoffs.

  I didn't make it into the city for the rest of the trip, but we had a pretty good time. We watched the Jets beat New England outside the city in NY, and we got to see a Devils vs. Islanders game. I'm pretty glad that I don't have to be around the amount of snow that they have to deal with every winter (the snow piles were taller than me on the side of the road in some places). Overall it was a successful trip and I am awarding myself 2 points toward Awesomeness.

My Adventure to Awesomeness

   I have recently come to the realization that I have been meandering through life just hoping that things fall into place in a way that will make me happy.  I've never really sat down and asked myself what it is that I want to accomplish.  Most people sit down and write their goals, wishes, etc. or make a "bucket list".  I guess you could call it a "bucket list" but I consider it just a list of things that I would really enjoy doing/accomplishing and things that I believe would just be awesome to experience.  It is my Adventure to Awesomeness.

   Some of these things are very specific events or places and others are a little more abstract.  It would be nearly impossible to accomplish everything on the list, but that's not going to stop me from trying.  Several of the items on the list can only be accomplished after many other prerequisites or a lot of training.

   The list is in no way complete and things will be added... and maybe even removed (not very likely though).  I don't really want to measure my success on these in terms of just crossing things off of the list, which just makes the list look very daunting and would make me focus on everything that I haven't done yet.  Instead I have assigned a point value to each accomplishment.  The value for each item was mostly a gut reaction with the following things in mind - difficulty to achieve, how expensive it will likely be, the time commitment it will require, and just generally how amazing it will be to accomplish.

   My goal for 2011 is to get a total of 10 points.  I have some plans already set in motion to achieve at least 10 points, but I don't want to get ahead of myself.  I'll write about any of the things that I accomplish as well as anything else that I find interesting.  I'm not doing this as any kind of attempt to boost my ego or anything like that.  It is mainly to have a record for myself about the things that I have accomplished and some refelctions about those events and accomplishments.  Let me know what you think!

My Adventure to Awesomeness

Travel

Visit all 7 Continents (9 Points)

Make a snowman in Antarctica (7 points)

Scuba Dive or Snorkel at the Great Barrier Reef (6 points)

Experience a sunrise in Kiribati (first country past the International date line) (7 points)

Climb the Sidney Harbour Bridge in Australia (5 points)

Drink a pint in a pub in Ireland (5 points)

Drive on the Autobahn in Germany (5 points)

Be in a cheesy picture "holding up" the Leaning Tower of Pisa (5 points)

Ride in a gondola in Venice (5 points)

Run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain (6 points)

Visit the Parthenon in Greece (5 points)

Explore the Galapagos Islands (6 points)

Walk the trail to Machu Picchu, Peru (5 points)

Go through the Panama Canal (6 points)

Go to Carnival in Rio de Janiero (6 points)

Sail in the Caribbean (5 points)

Go on an African Safari (6 points)

Ride a camel to the pyramids in Egypt (6 points)

See the Taj Mahal in India (5 points)

Eat fugu (pufferfish) in Japan (5 points)

Visit the Great Wall of China (5 points)

Explore a live volcano (6 points)

Ride a zip-line in the jungle (4 points)

Climb the highest peak on a continent (8 points)

See the Northern lights (7 points)

Drive across the US (3 points)

Ice skate at Rockefeller Center in NY (2 points)

Visit Mount Rushmore (3 points)

Camp in the Grand Canyon (3 points)

Eat a lobster on the coast in Maine (2 points)

Ski in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado (3 points)

Spiritual
Attend a Mass said by the Pope (7 points)
Pray a Rosary at the Notre Dame Cathedral in France (5 points)
Go on a silent retreat (2 points)
Read the Bible from cover to cover (2 points)
Sponsor someone in RCIA (2 points)
Give someone a Bible that has never read or heard any of it before (8 points)
Visit the Holy Land (5 points)

Fitness
Weigh less than 180 lbs (3 points)
Be under 12% body fat (5 points)
Complete an Iron Man Triathlon (7 points)
Run the Boston Marathon (7 points)
Run the Western States 100 Endurance Run (10 points)
Run a 5k in under 20 minutes (3 points)

Sports
Score a birdie on at least 2 holes in one round of golf (4 points)
Attend a US World Cup game (4 points)
Go to a Super Bowl (2 points)
Go to a Stanley Cup Finals game (2 points)
Go to a World Series Game (2 points)
Go to a Final Four game (2 points)
Attend a football game at every SEC stadium (4 points)
Fish for blue marlin (or sailfish) (3 points)
Kayak or raft a class 5 rapid (3 points)
Climb a glacier (3 points)
Learn to play Ice Hockey so that I can play in the local "B" rec league (2 points)

Miscellaneous
Cook a meal from an animal that I hunted and killed (4 points)
Drive a car at 170 mph (5 points)
Save a person's life (8 points)
Start my own company (7 points)
Restore and drive a classic car (8 points)
Skydive (2 points)
Go on a mission trip to a third world country (4 points)
Get a room comped in Vegas (5 points)
Get Married (9 points)
Buy a house (3 points)
Throw someone a surprise party (1 point)
Fly (or ride) in a fighter jet (4 points)
Do something extremely kind and generous for someone I don't know (1 point)
Hunt and kill an animal with an arrow (bow or crossbow) (4 points)
Brew my own beer (2 points)
Get at least 5 people to make their own list and send it to me (3 points)
Be in a live studio audience for a TV show (2 points)