30 Days of 30 - Day 1-9

I'm gonna party like it's my birthday. Oh wait, it is!

30 Days of 30 was flat out amazing when it was an idea bouncing around in my head. It was a ball of excitement when I published my calendar. It turned into that knee-knocking, self conscious nervousness that happens when you send out invitations as a 7 year old for your birthday. Will anyone even come?

My fears were allayed immediately. Day 1 was Mystery Science Theater 3000 (la la la) at the Turf Club...Side Hackers! My only complaint is that there wasn't enough side hacking in that movie. Courtney, Mary, Stephanie, Anne, Christine and Jeremy were there to kick it off 30 Days of 30 in style. The Turf Club had thankfully recovered after the previous night's visit by Lady Gaga. They gave me an incredible meta moment, as I was watched a news story about the Turf Club in the Turf Club. Awesome present.

Day 2: The Minnesota State Fair. The most important lesson I learned is that if loving the State Fair is what it takes for me to become a true Minnesotan, I will never be one. While waiting for my compatriots, I saw Jeremy Messersmith at the MPR booth. That guy sure is talented. Everyone not in Minnesota should buy his record. Shawn, Heidi and I had a reasonably fun time, but in the end I was on the brink of cross checking anyone who would walk slowly in front of me with a triple wide stroller or 6 pounds of cheese curds. Can't win 'em all. So unless they have great music next year, I'm not going. But I did eat a raspberry/blackberry sundae from the dairy barn and took many pictures featuring my beer on a stick. Ok, so I loved that part, but the rest. Still not in love with the State Fair.

Day 3: Music and Movies at the Lake Harriet Band Shell. Band: Solid Gold. They came out in president masks and arrived by pink limousine. That's some good local rock star moves. Move: Point Break. I had never seen this movie before and I'm sure my movie commentary was amusing to Anne and Conner. No respect was gained for Keanu Reeves acting ability, but I am for sure a bigger fan of THE BUSEY.

Day 4: Lake Elmo Trail Run. Sparkling conversation with Oriana as usual but the runs can be summed up the same ever time. I ran. It sucked. I will run again.

Day 5: I made an executive decision ended up skipping my planned activities and took a nap. Since I like naps too, this was just fine by me.

Day 6: Two Lake Run (Calhoun and Harriet). Looks like I will be using the term "run" loosely when I get over 5 miles. Anne was a great resource and I think the whole "my toes are going numb" issue has been fixed. Mapped out at 7 miles total, literally the longest I have ever ran and completed. #eaglesoaring

Day 7: Feed My Starving Children. If anyone knows me, they know I love volunteering. Having only recently been able to participate in FMSC a month or so ago, I was very excited to strike again while the iron was hot. The work and impact of FMSC really resonated with me as one of my secret career paths is to be an aid worker and help impoverished areas, especially in the are of agriculture. More to come on those plans, but I was greatful that my friends were willing to come out on a Tuesday night and help pack meals for kids all over the world. Dani, Laura, Carolina, Anne, Alex and I with the rest of the shift's volunteers packed enough food to feed 24 kids for a year. It felt amazing.

Day 8: Ticket scalping and going to a Twins game. The secret desire behind this is that I love to bargain (see my entire experience about living in China) and there are a lot of baseball fans in the area, so I thought it would work. My fantastic friend Alex was using his connections and skills and ended up getting us tickets in advance. I was sad for about 5 seconds, but then super happy that I was going to the game with a great baseball mind and I could learn more about the game and its awesome statistics. Bratwursts and ice cream in a helmet were consumed as well as many friends were surprisingly discovered to be in attendance at the game. Ryan and Kyler, Breon and Amanda, Bailey and Nicole. Oh yeah, and we won. Not that I was paying attention to the score. There were fireworks. Fireworks, people!

Day 9: Discing. This week, I went discing with Ben aka BernWern. He's the guy who taught me how to disc and there is never a dull moment when we hang out. The destination was Elm Creek in Maple Grove. This course is brutal, not just for distance but last night the mosquitoes were off the charts. Important lesson: Mosquitoes love disc golf bags. Beware! I won't state my score because it's not worth mentioning, but I had fun. We waited out the rain and managed to get in a good nine before it got too dark. There was much talk about snowboarding while rocking out to the new Interpol album (review coming soon) and some classics from Blue Scholars.

Currently in the middle of Day 10 which is my offical birthday. This will be its own deal, but I'm feeling a lot of love from my friends and family. So much so, that I'm a little self conscious, but all of you are fantastic. So I've got that going for me. Which is nice.