Day 9

I have a few lunch time favorites.  I used to eat Thai every day, but I've been branching out.  On Day 9, I stopped by the cafe to grab a greek wrap but they had just one lonely sandwich in the case.

On Day 9 I ate a corned beef sandwich on rye.

I feel like I should have had one of these before at some point, but I've never had corned beef and I avoid rye bread at all costs.  I'm not sure why, exactly.  I mean, I don't remember EVER having rye bread, but it just doesn't smell right to me.  And part of this project is to step outside of my comfort zone.

All I will say is that it was everything I expected it to be.  I will not be having that ever again.

Day 8

What I've loves so far about The One New Thing Project is that sometimes people recommend things for me to do, and sometimes it happens on accident.

On Day 8, I got on the wrong bus accidentally and almost ended up in Estacada.  

Here's how it happened:  I've had a long couple of weeks.  I have a real estate transaction that's in constant limbo and had just gotten off the phone with my client.  My brain was friend.  I had an exhausting day at the office, then had a difficult conversation at the bus stop.  The 35 was coming to the stop, and the 99 Express, my bus, was right behind.  I put my phone in the bag and dug around for my bus pass, then got in line with the masses.

The truly extraordinary thing about getting on the wrong bus is that I didn't even notice for almost 30 minutes.  But the conversation about why and how people distract themselves on the bus is too long to have here.

The most humiliating part was knowing that I needed to interrupt someone and try to figure out exactly where the hell I was headed.

Me:  Excuse me sir, I'm embarrassed that I have to ask this, but what bus are we on?

Him: The 35.

Me: Oh, hrm.  And this bus goes to Estacada?

Him: Yes.

Me:  Oh my.  I'm supposed to be on the 99.

Him: Well, you better get off at the Town Center, or you'll be headed directly into Deliverance.

Me:  Indeed!  Thanks for the heads up.

And then everyone around me broke into conversation about Tri-Met adventures, and how they've all ended up on the wrong bus at some point.  I like to think that my mistake brought people together.

When Ty arrived at the Town Center to pick me up, he asked me if I subconsciously needed something at the mall.  I told him no, but then realized yes.  Yes, I DID need something.  Plus, we ran into Shawn, which is always nice. 

Day 7

On Day 1, I got all of my news from conservative news sources.  People have been very curious about that particular task because everyone wants to know what the other side says without actually subjecting themselves to their rhetoric.  I'm still often surprised at how hard it was for me to not snuggle into some Huffington Post, Blue Oregon or to start my morning with Thom Hartman.  I wondered if conservative news was better than no news at all.

On Day 7, I avoided news altogether.  On purpose.

I'm sure there have been days when I've not seen news, but generally I catch some a few times a day.  I found it astonishingly hard to avoid all news.  Some things just become habit, and usually when Ty and I finally both make it home at night we'll chat a bit about the day's happenings, and that was the hardest part.  Ty would start with "Did you hear.." and I'd have to stop him from saying whatever it was he was going to say.

At the end of the night, he just couldn't take it anymore and said "I hope this doesn't ruin your task for the day, but 10,000 more jobs were cut today."

I guess he's as much of a news junkie as I am.

Day 6

I often wonder what the greatest joy of parenting is.  For today I've decided that the greatest joy is all of the laughing.  It's not that my daughter is a mini-Seinfeld, it's just that she laughs whenever she feels like it.  How refreshing.

On Day 6, Brynn and I played HyperDash and laughed for a good hour straight.

HyperDash is an electronic contraption, which I'm always skeptical of.  Electronic toys make a lot of noise, and while I don't expect my home to be silent, I also don't want to be slowly driven to madness by the dings and whooshes of some overpriced, battery operated doohickey.

Did I just say doohickey?

Right.  So Hyperdash is a game where you hold onto one part and then you spread out 5 bases, each with a different number and color.  When you push the start button on the part you hold, it tells you which color to tag and you run around the house seeing who can do the sequence the fastest.  If you go onto the more advanced levels it has special commands (Tag the color before last - then you have to remember what you've done previously), or it has you do basic math (Tag 5 minus 3).

As our daughter gets older, one of our biggest challenges is that we don't really have a place for her to run.  We live in a small condo with no yard, and while she can run around the parking lot, it's just not the same for a kid, but little games like this make our house feel not so limiting.

We've played every day since and we still laugh.  I give HyperDash two thumbs up.

Day 5

I have some pretty incredible friends.  I'm certainly never at a loss for someone to spend time with, if I want company, but I thought it was time to reach outside of my solid group of friends.

On Day 5, I joined a book club.

Well, technically, I joined it a month ago, but tonight was our first meeting.  We reviewed the book Then We Came To The End by Jonathan Harris (Why can't I underline?  I want you all to know, that I know the title should be underlined).

It's a book about the weird family you make at work.  It's about office gossip.  It's about being part of the collective.  It's a warning about losing yourself in the mob mentality and about the joy of being accepted into it.

I'll be honest, I really didn't like the book.  I was afraid I would go to the club and be the only one who identified with the book, hated myself for doing it and then hated the book as a result.  

So, in summary, I was afraid that I wouldn't be part of the group for identifying with a book about being part of a group but somehow ended up being part of the group for not wanting to seem like I long to be a part of the group.  In the end, I realized I liked the book, but it could just be because I raged against the machine and refused to be assimilated.  Or it could have been the fact that we met at a wine bar and I indulged in some outstanding, albeit overpriced, Pinot Noir.  I like pretty much everything when I drink wine.

Day 4

My grandmother died on Monday.  It's a strange thing to process the death of someone you have no relationship with when everyone expects you to grieve.  I'm not sad.  There, I said it.  In fact, she was a hateful woman.

That being said, I am heartbroken for my father.  He lost his father 2 years ago, and now he is also motherless.  I'm not just said for him because of his loss, I'm also sad for all of the things he never had, like the unconditional love of his parents.  Up until the day they each died, I'm sure he was trying to win their love, and I can't even imagine how hard on one's heart that would be.  

I'm blessed to have the most amazing parents.  I often say that even on the days I've disappointed them beyond what I thought possible, they've shown me nothing but love.  They knew it's what I needed the most.

On Day 4, I wrote my father a letter.

I wanted him to know that despite the constant chasing of his parent's love, he has always and will always have mine.

Day 3

I'm almost complete with Day 3, and I admit that I'm feeling the pressure.  What exactly constitutes a "new thing?"  This project didn't come with a handbook or a player's guide.  Frankly, I'm making this up as I go along.

I think it's important that I don't over think ONTAD.  I mean, some days I'll take on entirely new experiences, and some days newness finds me.  Sometimes I'll track down an activity that might inspire me, and some days I'm just challenging monotony.  Or maybe that's just how I'm excusing Day 3.

On Day 3 I tried to not use my thumbs.

At the risk of sounding like someone who has no grasp on evolution...

These thumb things are critical to everything we do as humans.  At first I thought I just needed to rethink my every task.  It's like the people who spend a day in a wheel chair to better understand the plight of the disabled.  You have to think things through more when you're in a wheelchair, I remember that much very well.

By the time I was half-way through my shower, I realized that it had nothing to do with being able to think out my task and everything to do with the sheer physics of being independent.  It took me a good 4 minutes just to turn the bath water on, and don't get me started on holding bar soap.  I'll never take my thumbs for granted again.

The truth is, what started out as spending a whole day without using my thumbs, quickly turned into considering whether doing something new had to result in success.  I decided it didn't, and called the task off after my shower, because I just don't even know how I would have functioned on the most fundamental basis.  

Sometimes failure teaches you more than success, right?