Best of 2009 Blog Challenge: Best Social Web Moment

A little over a month ago my dear friend Tashi told me that he had discovered a woman’s blog online and that I had to check it out because the amount of similarities between she and I was outrageous. I did and found some: we both adore cupcakes, practice both yoga and meditation, love Project Runway, are quirky, and find travel to be imperative.

Then a few weeks ago Tashi told me to check out a podcast episode that reminded him of me. (She and a close friend of hers have a podcast together. They also own a yoga studio in Japan together.) So I did. The way she related to the topic was very much like I would. I told Tashi that it was indeed funny how similar we seemed to be. He pointed out that he had been listening to all of their podcasts and that he had found that she spoke in a very similar way to me. I told him it was too bad I had just found out about her now that I’m not living in Boulder (that’s where she lives). I encouraged him to meet up with her (but not to upgrade to the newer version of me just because I’m not there).  He had already befriended her on Twitter and Facebook. I started to follow her on Twitter and read on her blog that she was starting a Blog Challenge and decided to participate. (I’m all for self-reflection.)

That same week Tashi tweeted “@SamAhern… And it just keeps getting weirder. @GwenBell quoted Flight of the Conchords on the ZIS episode I just heard!! You 2: Same mold.” Tashi then told me that Gwen had tweeted him asking for us to be introduced. He told her that it wasn’t possible as I wasn’t in Colorado.

I then befriended her on Facebook. I included a message with my friend request, closing with an open invitation to crash in our guest room if she found herself needing a break by the beach. After accepting my friend request (a week ago) she rapidly sent me a few messages noting the similarities and asking if she and her hubby could indeed take me up on the offer to come stay with us in Costa Rica for one of the two weeks they were hoping to come down (three weeks from then). I ran it past Jim, who agreed. I gave them the green light and the tickets were bought.

I’ve only known about this woman for just over a month. I’ve never met her. We clearly have interests that overlap in places (although I am not half as techy as her and I’m not sure I am fearless enough to karaoke). Tashi pointed out that our similarities could either make it be like two long lost friends finally meeting or if could be a major flop. I’m trying to manifest the former. And if it is a flop. So be it. I still love her blog, the way she thinks, how courageous she is, how she attracts success, and how down to earth she is. And at the very least we can talk Boulder, tea, yoga, Tim Gunn, how to do what you love, and traveling a bit. (I do also hope to sort out what it is she actually does too.)

To read Gwen’s take on these events check out her blog post about it.

The Ever-Evolving Life List

On our trip to Nicaragua week before last I wrote a new life list in my handy, flexible, blank paged Moleskine. (I’m really into this kind of stuff and have a dream board as the wallpaper on my laptop. What can I say? I dig visuals.) Here’s my beauty of a list:

Learn to sail and sail the Aegean. Write a collection of life stories about love and things appearing to be love and get that book published. Research my and Jim’s family histories and find a sick way to store the information online. Stay in a hotel on stilts over the ocean. Learn to surf. Get 100 subscribers to SamAhern.com. Write a cookbook and have it published. Finish the family favorite’s cookbook and give is as an Xmas gift. Sell my baked goods again. Become as confident in my vegan/gluten free/refined sugar free baking as I am in my “conventional” baking. Volunteer at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Buy a house in Boulder, greenify it when needed, and have it be a gathering place for friends and family. Throw an Alice in Wonderland themed tea party in my garden. Cultivate a flower and vegetable garden with a fruit bearing tree. Host my family for Xmas and Thanksgiving, but not in the same year. Become the best partner I can be to Jim. Travel internationally at least once a year for the rest of my life. Continue to cultivate patience and self-kindness. Have/adopt children and teach them the importance of kindness and responsibility. Own a cafe with my sisters and name it The Bedouin Sisters’ Bakery and Cafe (don’t steal that OK?!). Sit every day. Make a quilt for each of my god children. Have one photo of mine in a magazine. Keep traveling. Get my scuba certification. Get back to receiving a monthly massage. Get my yoga certification to strengthen my practice and maybe teach every once in a while. Take my whole family on a trip. Pay off my school loan in my name. Pay off my school loan in my dad’s name. Love up on Sasha and Lita as long and I’m blessed to have their crazy hairy bodies in my life. Buy my dad a house on a body of water, or at least get him the jet-ski to go with the house. Own my home and car outright. Live close enough to the grocery store and other places I like to frequent so I can walk and bike easily. Have a herd of goats and let children come over to play with them. Have five rental properties, with renters in them, paying rent (and then give them to my god children and children). Express my love and appreciation for people and their efforts, often. Read over twelve novels a year and a bunch of other non-novely books. Know that nothing outside of me is going to make me happy. Have a TV (or a good monitor) only for movies (preferably foreign flicks, con films, or musicals…and maybe some Fraggle Rock) and not as the focal point of the living room, if at all in that room and most definitely never in the bedroom. Finish my ngondro. Keep my math/science mind buff and develop my writing muscles. Become an early riser. Travel back to Saudi at least one more time before my dad retires, but hopefully more so I can bring my kids there if possible. Find a fulfilling way to earn a living that contributes to my family. Split my years between Boulder and somewhere by the ocean (with lots of other added trips). Plant a tree when my children are born, on my own property. Do the November Course at Kopan. Be She-Ra for Halloween (gold cuffs and all). Drive along the west coast dipping into Mexico and Canada. Take a train trip across the US. Become a certified vegan chef. Pose nude for an art class. See Coldplay again live (preferably multiple times). Enjoy a chocolate croissant in Paris (that I ordered in French). Travel to: Thailand, India, Nepal, Tibet, Vancouver, San Francisco, Halifax…the list goes on and there are many more specifics. Revisit: Turkey, Italy, Spain. Drive to Alaska with Jim and the girls in a truck. Have grey hair and rock it. Be a swimming yogaing machine at age 60.

Best of 2009 Blog Challenge: Best Rush

Doing the Tarzan swing with 100% AvenTURA in Monteverde. (Both times.)

So I wish I had a video of me on the Tarzan swing, but I do not. You climb many stairs to the top of a platform, the guys lock you in, they tell you where to hold the ropes, open the gate, and then push you off. The Tarzan Swing is a free-fall followed by, yes, swinging among the trees.

I love the feeling of free-falling. Tower of Terror? Bring it on. Spinning Tea Cups? Vomit. Not sure what that is, but I like one and not the other. Of course to slow you down at the end of the Tarzan Swing they hit one of your feet, setting you into a spin. Ick. BUT, the free fall and the swing (with the grand yell I let out) before the spinning was a blast.

Note: When Jim’s mom did this (which she talked herself into last minute) she taught a young Costa Rican boy who was apart of our group a new English cuss word. When Jim’s dad did it, his facial expression of the free-fall was one of an upset stomach. I’m sorry but to protect his dignity I will not be posting one of the photos capturing that.

The last bit of our zip line tour was the “Superman.” This consisted of a line that was 750 meters long 125 meters above ground. They switch up your harness and attach you in two places on your backside, so you’re belly is to the ground. Although this and the other lines weren’t a “rush” for me they way the Tarzan Swing drop was, they were definitely fun. Here are a couple videos Jim took:

Other Rushes of 2009: Swimming, Yoga, Walking, Hiking in the Monteverde Cloude Forest, Dance Party at a gas station with my sisters at 1am.

Best of 2009 Blog Challenge: Best New Food

Lychees are a very odd looking yet very sweet fruit! They sell them on the side of the road here in Costa Rica. Jim and I weren’t so sure about them until our friend Pax showed us how to eat one. We bought a sack full at the Farmer’s Market and keep them in the fridge, as they’re even more refreshing when cold.

To eat one all you have to do is hold it between your fingers with the nub (that attached it to the plant) away from you, bite the outer shell off (I know you have to put that funny looking thing in your mouth, but it’s not bad), spit it out, suck out the round white fruit, while squeezing the outer part to pop it out, and enjoy (not eating the almond shaped pit), disposing of the other prickly half and pit when finished.

They are so yummy and have been an excellent after meal treat for us!

(This post entitled “Lychees” was originally published on October 5, 2009.)

Best of 2009 Blog Challenge: Best Word or Phrase

When I asked Jim what his word of phrase of the year was he responded, “I had a year? I had this year?! No, I think I shared it.” I tried to bypass his silliness by trying to further prompt him, “Your 2009 was so ____?” After a moment and with a face of serious thought he replied, “Bananas.” “Bananas?! You’ve got to be kidding me!” (I had an image of my youngest sister channeling Gwen Stefani singing, “This sh*t is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S!” and then my Dad using the term “bananas”, like the hip 52 year old that he thinks he is.) In all earnestness Jim made his case by saying,”In all honesty, I bet I ate well over 200 bananas this year. I mean I have one as a part of my breakfast just about every day and I also eat them as a snack.” I cackled helplessly.

Speaking of bananas, I slipped on one on Halloween. Seriously. Jim, his mom and I were in a tienda/mini super in Santa Elena, the small town by the Monteverde Cloud Forest, picking up breakfast items for the next morning. It was a small shop and after grabbing some cereal and bananas I spun around to ask Jim if he wanted any juice. In doing so I slipped, thankfully catching my fall. I looked down and there were a few bananas on the floor, one of them squashed. Only then did I notice that the produce area I was standing in was crowded with crates of new fruit and others with older fruit. Someone was clearly in the middle of rotating out older produce for new and the banana I had stepped on was meant to be tossed. I looked up at Jim shocked. “I just slipped on a banana.” He responded, “I didn’t know that actually happens.”

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