30 ways in 30 days and still going strong....

After having a very cool  conversation with my roommate this morning, I reread the list of ideas that friends have given me, and although I did not complete the 30 things in 30 days, I am still adding to my list.

Today someone asked me to donate some photos I have been taking recently for a silent auction that is part of an incredible event that she has created called Surviving & Thriving...remember that name as I am sure it will be something that become commonplace.  So today I am adding # 26 to take more photos, and to donate as many photos for this event as wanted....

I also found another woman willing to give the gift of sponsorship to a woman from a war torn country, bringing the total to 16 people that have pledged to make a real difference in someone's life. :-)



30 Ways in 30 Days:

1. To try and get 30 sponsors for 30 women - right now there are 9 of us!
2. Leslie C. has asked me to create a Blog - its not fancy but here it is :-)
3. Saskia has challenged me to 30 days of NO complaining, she has kindly offered to do the same and each time one of us complains we are going to donate $1 to Women for Women - I have a feeling they are going to be receiving a nice donation at the end of those 30 days!
4. Jen H. suggested an "honesty journal' of sorts- of the top 10 situations that (pissed/still) PISS YOU OFF. Meaning... take the top 10 things people have done/have happened to you, and write HONESTLY about your role in it. Not in a judgmental way, in an honest way. Seeing it from the other side, as much as possible, whether or not you agree with 'that' view. Then write letters to the other people involved in each case (that you won't send) expressing your new insights". (Jennifer S. is sharing this with me).
5. Chris M. would like me to go Vegan for 30 days - which I have tried before and I can't make it without a little 'real' protein, so am giving up dairy, red meat, chicken, the other white meat - sorry Moulson!
6. & 7. My dear friend Ida would like me to buy a homeless person lunch and then eat it with them, she also wants me to hang out with the elderly for a day - she didn't specify where but I am sure I can be creative.
8. Jill D. who would really like the credit for being the first to respond, sorry I should have made you NUMBER 1, would like us to start a website or something and get people to go daily to either write out a fear/anxiety to help them deal with it, or to write out how they are living in the present. (Jennifer S. also wants to do this - Jen/Jill we can dedicated a day to this? or start another blog?!)
9. Dr. Rayner would like me to volunteer in a pediatric unit and I quote " spreading [my] infectious enthusiasm to the children" [picture rolling of my eyes] - I received the volunteer application for the Ronald McDonald House of NYC which supports families struggling with their child's cancer diagnosis - I have been asked to teach yoga.

10. My sister, Christina Herrero, wants me to look into being a marrow donor since they won't take my blood due to my sordid travels...little scary but a good and necessary cause...other suggestions are to do something to do with Muscular Dystrophy, a personal cause for us or volunteer at advocacy in action - as soon as she can decide I am on it!

11. Deb Hand - donate old coats to the NYC coat drive and/or clothes to a shelter.

12. Deb Hand - to buy someone that looks less fortunate a cup of coffee or lunch - today I bought someone a snapple ice tea (their request) and it really felt good...which has lead me to my own 13th challenge.

13. Me - I would like to pick someone that looks like they are having a rough day, and anonymously pay for their lunch...in NYC I realize that this could lead me to being locked up!

14. Starting in January (as it is closed until then) I am spending one night a month in a church - yes you heard me Townley Peters is sleeping in a church voluntarily eeek! The church takes in 10 homeless women a night between 8:30 and 9pm and provides them with a bed, fresh linens, and some company and then wakes them up at 5:30 with coffee in time to get ready for their pick up...tentatively have an interested partner in crime.

15. My Mother - Get over your fear of teaching yoga (have to say I was waiting for this one!!)

16. Caroline C (inspired by Women for Women Website) - Make a success list of all the things you are successful at, going back as far as you want. (For those of you that know me this is probably going to be the hardest for me...)

17. Jennifer S - "Now I have a challenge for you!! for the next 30 days (or however many is left in your personal challenge) accept compliments as they are meant. We may see in you things that you have not yet realized! Don't diminish a compliment - accept it in the spirit it was given and embrace that you mean THAT much to people and CAN inspire them!"

18. Jennifer L - Meet someone new each day for the rest of the month.

19. Annette C. - So, my challenge is inspired by 29 Gifts: how a month of giving can change your life by Cami Walker. http://www.29gifts.org/

I challenge you to do the gifts from now until your birthday. The gifts can be anything you choose - a smile, a compliment, accepting a compliment (yes, I read your other challenges...), a cup of coffee for a frazzled friend, a loaf of bread and jar of peanut butter to someone who needs it, a hug, a subway token, holding the door open, etc. Don't worry you won't be alone I have will challenge my student's to do the same for a day.

20. Saskia & Luke - Luke had a peak at your blog yesterday and reckons you have too many serious challenges so he wants to throw in a fun / crazy / adrenaline related one....:He's offering you a choice of whichever you have NOT done or whichever scares you most: Bungee jump or Paint balling with a group of guys you don't know...

21. Jen L - I challenge you to get up every day and tell your mirror self something positive about YOU - whether its a funny freckle you like on your bum, or that you are a really good yogi.

22. Corey M - Write one paragraph that will be in your book ... oh, if you all only knew he he

23. Gernot - Maybe you can volunteer-teach at a shelter or a center for troubled youth? Didn't we see a movie (we trained in Thailand together) that featured a center in NYC that taught yoga to youth out of prison? Two classes a week for 15 or 30 weeks?

24. Christine S.- "This 30th year follow your dreams and make your education/career goals a priority. Make a decision about school and stick to it! You

need to finally think about you".

25. Jean Marie - How about vowing to meditate every day for at least 15 minutes?? 

26. S&C - Donate some of your photos to the Surviving and Thriving event, on 10/28/10.

Angels

Today my heart is aching for my friend Melissa and her little guy Jensen (and their family).  Jensen was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma in 2007.  When I was in New York in 2009 I met Melissa by chance when she and Jensen were in town for a regular check up that found he had relapsed with a brain tumor.  This amazing little angel should be starting kindergarden, playing with friends, and starting his beautiful life and yet he has spent more time than any child should in and out of the hospital, undergoing procedures that I cannot even get my head around.  His ongoing spirit despite everything, and his fight have left me speechless, in awe and humbled. 

This past August Jensen relapsed a 3rd time in his liver, lung and chest.

Melissa is one of the most amazing, beautiful, inspiring women I have ever met and my heart aches for the pain and devastation she and her family are feeling right now.  Please take a moment to keep them in your thoughts/prayers.  Situations like this remind me how important it is to say 'I love you' as often as possible but they also cause me to question why things like this happen to good people - I search for an explanation that I know does not exist.

Remember how short life really is, and how we are just passing through. So, all the people you haven't told you love lately, tell them, and live your days like you mean it.

Cali Girls - Fine, Fresh, Fierce

8 days in and I already have soo many things to say about SF!

From the minute we landed it's been an adventure.  We finally landed after circling Nevada for > 45 mins (due to the fog that is ALWAYS lingering over SF, before the captain came over the intercom to let us know that we were low on fuel and would have to land in San Jose to refuel before we could proceed onto SF).  Now.  If you know the area, you would know that San Jose is less than a 12 minute flight from SF...

Welcome to the city whose coldest winter is knows as summertime!  But do not fret!  After the chills of August the heat of Sept/Oct appears before cooling off again!  I swear I have never stripped off and then froze as many times as a day as one does in this city - Rule of thumb, wear layers!!!

You can imagine my genuine delight when I found out that I live in the Asian-Irish area - lol!  No disrespect, but how cool and messed up is that!!  Of course I feel totally at home, and am loving it.  Great food and hot accents ;-) 

Then there is the new roommate - love her!  Literally adore the little sassy ass!! And I am allowed to call her "little" seeing as though I have to squat to get my head underneath the shower head! 

Two days after arriving here, she leaves me for the warmth of So Cal, and I am on kitty patrol.  This results in my taking Pino (her ex-roomie's kitty that we are loving while mom is in Aussie land, the other kitty being Margarita) to the vet for a lump I found on her side.  Surgery, a cone around her head, antibiotics, pain meds that cause diarrhea, and hot compresses 2x a day, fill my next few days (had to laugh when the vet called me one day asking for my DOB, state requirement as pain meds are a controlled substance - NO, I am not planning on taking the cats meds!!!).  Mom leaves, roomie - Steph, returns and it is a whirlwind of plans, drinks, fish tacos and getting to know each other on the beach while watching the sun set (obviously with a bottle of wine in tow).  This girl is literally going to be the end of me!  I haven't even started school and we are already talking surf trips in santa Cruz, Bali, Costa Rica, Mexico (and no, can't say the hobo that I am is fighting her much, just trying to figure out how to finance it all)...and no I haven't been on a surfboard in over 6 years but she is willing to teach me (read between the lines - the sadistic little one wants to laugh her butt off as I don a thick wetsuit, hat and booties to just be able to enter the water...).  She is an amazing woman though, and I know I have a lot to learn from her - her passion about life may be dangerous (in a good way :-) ) but it is also really inspiring! Heck, she has already adapted to my inability to form an articulate sentence before I have had a cup of coffee in the morning, and she doesn't look twice when I drive down a one-way street the wrong way - let alone what happens when the SF trolley's come into play!!

School starts in just over a week and although I am excited - I just got an email that requires we bring something representative of our 'culture' for a "Show and Tell" during orientation - not psyched to say the least!  How does one explain that a bottle of rum is basically our local icon to a bunch of doctoral students?!?! 



Despite missing all of you that are spread around the world, I am excited for the adventures ahead - immediately this includes a night at "Riptide" the local dive bar, wetsuit shopping (SEXY!!) tomorrow and sailing in a snowsuit - at least for me!

More stories to come.... XOX

It's been a really long time since I last posted anything.  Maybe I have been too busy living, or maybe I just didn't have anything I felt worth sharing, I don't know for sure.  But when I signed on I reflected over some of my older posts - I've been on some pretty amazing adventures!  Maybe it's fitting then that I am inspired to write on the cusp of my next big adventure... a clinical doctorate program in a city I haven't visited in almost 10 years.  Yes, I still jump in with my whole heart and with my feet first!!

I googled "Golden Gate Bridge" and ironically this is the image that appeared...this is how the beginning of my next adventure feels.  Exciting, terrifying, just out of reach (for now), colorful....

In 23 days, I fear my days of sleeping in will come to an end for the next 20 years or so due to school and the possibility of having little people. 
In 23 days I am going to remember what pulling a sober all nighter feels like.
In 23 days I am rooting in a new city for possibly longer than I have stayed anywhere since I was last in school.
In 23 days I will be in debt.
In 23 days I will be living in an apt on the beach with someone who is soon to become a lifelong friend as well as my surfing instructor - thank God she thinks road trips to S.D. are fun!!

In 23 days the real adventure begins...