30 for 30 Countdown #28 - Sugar Ray Shaina

I still remember getting the email about the creation of an Emory boxing club.  It seemed hysterical, but of course I wanted to join.  After the first workout, I was hooked.

By the way, that TOTALLY was not a quote from me.  The actual Emory club fizzled rather quickly, but I was not about to give up.  I began training at the women's classes instead of the co-ed Emory class.  I LOVE both my trainers, Terri and Biggs!

Mike and I even got to be in a photo shoot for the Atlanta Corporate Fight Night event!

Apparently Mike's picture has even been stolen and used on some Venezuelan boxing site!

How does this all relate to my 30th birthday?  Well, I've lived in New York now for a year and a half and still haven't found a boxing gym.  This was the perfect opportunity to force myself to put on the gloves and get ready to hit some bags.

Church Street Boxing Gym it was!

It was a good thing I had some boxing experience because I could hardly understand a word our trainer said.  I just smiled and he giggled and somehow my jabs connected to his pads.  Now I'm quite happy and ready to add boxing back in to my regularly scheduled activities!

30 for 30 Countdown #29 - Brunettes Have More....

When I was growing up my siblings used to tell me I looked like I used to be blonde but someone pushed me in the mud.

Though the color changes with time and sun exposure, I have been a blonde since I have been wearing lipstick.  (With the small two month exception of dying it "deep plum").

For the past 10 years, since starting college... wait, that's 12 years now, yikes!...I have even had the exact same haircut.  Today, that changed.

Yippee!  I've now spent the entire day as a brunette!  I planned on recording some of the responses to my new 'do.

• Mike walked right past me in the subway looking for me.  "Haha!" he said, "I was looking for a blonde."
• "Oh," a senior partner exclaimed, "how long has this been going on?" (drawing a circle around his face with his finger).
• "I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this," an associate dryly said.
• "It goes great with your complexion!"
• "It's terrible with your complexion!"
• "It looks good...what happened?" someone sincerely asked.
• "OH. MY. GOD. AHHHHHHHH!"
• I was handed a print out of a web page titled "Choosing the Right Hair Color and Product."
• "Your face needs warm tones.  This look is too cool."
• "You look so much better with dark hair."
• "Mike can pretend you're a new person!  Not in a skeezy w... well, yeah, skeezy, but not bad."
• "Did you have to do the bangs and the color at the same time?"

Coming in from the cold.

Just a brunette doing some law.

I'm just gonna say it.  Blondes have more fun!

.

30 for 30 Countdown #30 - A few of my favorite things

It's funny how people get pleasure out of small things.  For me, relaxation and happiness come from hearing the ocean, smelling a baking pie, and looking at colorful flowers.  Growing up I always knew my favorite color (pink), I always knew my favorite skittle (red), I always knew my favorite food (Spaghetti O's.. I know, gross), but my favorite flower changed every time I saw a flower.

I loved plumerias for their smell, variety, and simplicity.  I loved the hibiscus because it was so bold and beautiful.  I loved pikake and puakinikini for the smell - if I got my hands on one of these rare flowers, I would smell it until the smell ran out.  Ginger, gardenia, and jasmine made me giddy.  Colorful roses and lillys and lilacs make me jump up and down.  Some girls are picky, but I've never met a flower I didn't like.

So to begin the countdown to my 30's, today I planned to hand out 30 flowers to strangers on the street.

This turned out to be a much more difficult task than I expected.

I bought my 30 roses and was ready to go.  Then I realized the first issue.

I have become incredibly shy.  I have gone from a person who would sing in the streets and play pranks on any random stranger to someone who is scared to give a flower to someone for free.

The second issue may have contributed to my heightened shyness.  New Yorkers don't trust people who are handing out free things.  People looked at me like I was going to scam them, make them pay, or that the rose was a secret grenade that was going to blow up in their face.

I decided to suck it up and keep going.  I went to Grand Central thinking people would be happier there.  I was definitely refused many times, but also got a bunch of smiles!

Once I got in the swing of things, everyone wished me happy birthday and to have a great day!!

30 things for 30 days for 30th birthday

I am turning 30.

There's no one who is more surprised by this happening than I am.  Although I've had lots of notice, starting tomorrow, there will only be 30 days until my 30th birthday.  I am going to continue a trend started by two great people.  Seth Jones began his 30/30/30 celebration by blogging about his experiences making a better environment and baking a pie (among other awesome things) http://303030-seth.blogspot.com.  Check it out!

Famously, another great friend, Jeanice Gantus, began her 30 to 30 celebration by trying something new every day and posting her adventures on facebook.  She has done fun things like go shopping as a man and send a drink to a random person at a bar.  You should be friends with her on facebook if you're not already.  You won't regret it.

Following in these 30 year old's footsteps, I think it's a great idea to try a new experience for each of the 30 days before I turn 30.  I want to use the time to do a few things:
1. Try out new things;
2. Actually do things I've been wanting to do; and
3. Reflect on what a fortunate 29 years I have had through charity work.

It's tough to think of ideas, but count on checking them out for the next 30 days!

To prepare, I began thinking of things I had already done by the time I am 30.  I came up with 200.  I encourage everyone to make a personal list and share it!  Here it goes:

1.       Get a BS in Engineering, a JD and an MBA

2.       Go Parasailing

3.       Make sushi

4.       Shoot a gun (and hit a clay pigeon).... and hold a bigger gun

5.       Camp out at a 3 day music festival

6.       Camp in the woods

7.       Learn to box

8.       Learn to play piano

9.       Learn to play the guitar and ukulele

10.   Write a song

11.   Publish a scholarly article

12.   Publish an op-ed in a newspaper

13.   See the Colbert Report live

14.   Visit 9 of 11 Disney theme parks (missing two in France)

15.   Go to the top of the Eiffel tower

16.   Go to the top of the Tokyo tower

17.   Go to the top of the Empire State Building

18.   See the London Bridge

19.   See the Arch du triomphe

20.   See musicals on Broadway

21.   Take a walk in Central Park – and go for a boat ride in the lake

22.   See a Yankees – Mets game

23.   See the Pyramids

24.   See an ancient Egyptian tomb

25.   Get a Turkish bath…. in Turkey

26.   Visit Jerusalem

27.   Swim in the dead sea

28.   See the Hong Kong light show

29.   Buy a stand up paddle board

30.   Kayak to the Mokulua Islands

31.   Windsurf

32.   Get a henna tattoo

33.   Have all you can eat sushi until I cry

34.   Sneak into the Paul Mitchell Estate and take a shower

35.   Place my handprints in Cher’s outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in LA

36.   Get back stage at a Matchbox 20/ Vervepipe concert

37.   Blog

38.   Keep a Journal

39.   Make a scrapbook

40.   Learn to knit

41.   Take a cruise

42.   Study Abroad

43.   Get drunk in Ireland

44.   Watch a sex show in Amsterdam

45.   Eat tapas in Spain

46.   Bake an apple pie

47.   Run a 5K

48.   Stroll the Santa Monica Pier

49.   Visit Delphi – the home of the Oracle

50.   Eat pizza in Naples

51.   Bathe in hot springs in Ischia

52.   See the Coliseum

53.   Receive something in the mail that’s not wrapped

54.   Live in Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Florida, Georgia, and New York

55.   Wine taste in the finger lakes

56.   Wine taste in Napa

57.   Have lunch with Warren Buffet in Omaha (and pretend to steal his wallet)

58.   Have lunch at Google

59.   Buy Stocks

60.   Buy a home (2 condos in 2005-2006… oops)

61.   Drive a convertible

62.   Hike Diamond Head

63.   Surf in Waikiki

64.   Party in South Beach

65.   Make 6 figures

66.   Pledge a sorority

67.   Eat raw horsemeat

68.   See the Rocketts at Radio City Music Hall

69.   Ride the Maglev train in China

70.   Do a high ropes course

71.   Glass blowing

72.   Have dinner at Per Se

73.   Gamble in Las Vegas

74.   See a Cirque show in Vegas

75.   See the Grand Canyon

76.   Stay overnight at Mcmenamins in Portland, OR

77.   Ski

78.   Get suspended from school (in 8th grade)!

79.   Try a Murder case

80.   Water Ski

81.   Volunteer at an orphanage in Croatia

82.   Feed worms to my pet Jackson Chamelion

83.   Feed chocolate covered raisins to my pet peacock

84.   Swim in the Makapu’u tide pools

85.   Whale watch

86.   Swim with Jellyfish

87.   Swim with Manatees

88.   Be a knife salesman

89.   Be a part of a class action lawsuit

90.   See Cher in concert

91.   See Michael Jackson in concert

92.   Bill over 2000 hours as a first year associate at a New York law firm

93.   See a ballet in Russia

94.   See Lenin’s tomb

95.   Visit the Hermitage

96.   Visit the Met, Moma, Museum of Natural History, and Guggenheim

97.   Visit the National Air and Space museum

98.   Watch Obama’s inauguration

99.   Attend a rally (to restore sanity)

100.            Stay in the Hamptons

101.            Visit a hutong

102.            Tour the Kremlin

103.            Visit Auschwitz

104.            Eat Kielbasa and pierogi in Poland

105.            See Mao’s tomb

106.            Fly to Guam

107.            Get my hair braided in Jamaica

108.            Go to space camp

109.            Go to Opry Land

110.            Visit Memphis (but not see Graceland)

111.            Tour the museum of Rock and Roll

112.            See the San Diego Zoo

113.            Drink Tequila in Tijuana underage

114.           Have a best friend

115.             Eat a sandwich with coleslaw and french fries (Primanti Bros.)

116.            Eat a lutherburger (burger between krispy kreme)

117.            Eat a hamdog (hotdog wrapped in hamburger deep fried w/ bacon and cheese)

118.            Eat bugs

119.            White water raft in Norway

120.            Eat a waffle, mussels, and fries in Belgium

121.            Tour the EU

122.            Tour the UN

123.            Walk over the Brooklyn Bridge

124.            Eat a Krispy Kreme in one bite

125.            Win an essay contest

126.            Win a mother daughter look alike contest

127.            Visit the world’s biggest Pokemon store in Tokyo

128.            Feel an earthquake

129.            Be in a hurricane (7) – Iwa, Iniki, Charley, Francis, Jeanne, Fay, Irene

130.            See a tornado

131.            Study Japanese for six years

132.            Learn to make homemade tomato sauce from Italians

133.            Dye my hair pink

134.            Learn to swing dance

135.            Learn to tap dance

136.            Go in a hot tub in the snow

137.            Drive a snow mobile

138.            Drive a jet ski

139.            Drive an ATV

140.            Sit in first class

141.            Made an emergency landing

142.            Get my eyebrows threaded

143.            Do Bikram Yoga

144.            Eat lunch with a homeless person

145.            Fly in a 4 person airplane (cessna) and hold the controls

146.            Do a famous pizza tour in Brooklyn

147.            Visit the statue of liberty

148.            Eat honey from a honeycomb

149.            Ride in a stunt car

150.            Try out to be on the first season of “The Apprentice”

151.            Drive a boat

152.            Go tubing

153.            Took a lie detector test (and almost tricked the FBI!)

154.            Watch a live taping of a Nickelodeon show

155.            Got a speeding ticket for going 96…. in a 75 L

156.            Take a boatride on a Fjord

157.            Drive a stick

158.            Visit Niagara Falls

159.            Go paintballing

160.            Dance at a foam party

161.            Walk on the Great wall of China

162.            Stand in Tiananmen square

163.            Smoke a Cuban cigar

164.            Watch the sun rise

165.            Swim with sharks

166.            Get a Chiropractic adjustment

167.            Get an MRI

168.            Dance in a mosh pit

169.            Conduct the Honolulu symphony

170.            Crowd surf

171.            Get thrown off a school bus (for throwing peanut butter)

172.            Be an Imagineer

173.            Be the last guest at Epcot

174.            Pass the Patent bar, NY bar, and FL bar.

175.            Listen to the Dalai Lama speak

176.            Meet Hillary Clinton

177.            Watch the senate floor

178.            Walk to an active volcano

179.            Visit the remains of Pompeii

180.            Off-road in a Jeep

181.            Walk on a black sand beach

182.            Walk through a lava tube

183.            Learn to dance hula

184.            Go apple picking

185.            Go on an airboat ride through the everglades

186.            Eat Kangaroo

187.            Take a mud bath

188.            Drive over the Golden Gate Bridge

189.            Make a Haku Lei

190.            Be a model at the mall

191.            Paddle in an outrigger canoe

192.            Get quoted in the newspaper

193.            Get a Thai massage

194.            Ride a horse

195.            Get a kiss on the cheek from Jerry Springer

196.            Hold a baby owl

197.            Train at a Japanese Dojo

198.            Catch a fish to keep as a pet

199.            Crash a wedding

200.            Fall in love