"The List" 2013/2014: Accomplishments - Part 2

This is part 2 of a 2-part post. You can read part 1 here.

I did it! I met my goal! Altogether, I accomplished 26 items from my 2013/2014 List - 25 original items and one "bonus" item. That said, I have been horrible about sharing my accomplishments and adventures here on TwentyTenThirty, so to make up for it, I'm serving up a 2-part snapshot-style write-up to knock them all out. Let's do this!

Part 2

51. Spend the night in a castle: When B and I attended HRL's murder mystery dinner party in January 2013 (also known as #15 on the 2013/2014 list), the location was Spicer Castle Inn. Given the name of the Inn where we stayed, I'm totally counting it as an item completed. Yeah, it's a stretch...I'm ok with that.

60. Go to NYC for fun (NOT as a part of a business trip!): OK, so this trip was actually a work trip to start, but I extended it into the weekend, and B flew out to meet me so we could celebrate his 30th birthday in NYC. Yeah, baby! We had a blast, including a stay at a trendy boutique hotel near Columbus Circle, saw a show (Avenue Q), did some sight seeing (Circle Line, High Line, MoMa, etc), and had some great meals (including a great steak dinner at The Smith). Here's the birthday boy in Times Square while we were waiting in line at TKTS.

Wooo! B turns 30!

71. Get a hot stone massage: B and I did this during our recent 'minimoon' in Traverse City at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa. Aaaah, luxury!

72. Make a snow angel: B and I did this one on Lake Calhoun, the day we encountered a lake dinosaur!!! Confused? You can read about it here.

76. Travel by Nice Ride: According to Bicycling.com, Minneapolis is the #1 bike-friendly city in the US. We've enjoyed several "Nice Rides" around the chain of lakes - a great spring/summer activity. AND, I have to point out, bike sharing came to be in MPLS in 2010, WELL BEFORE it was brought to Chicago, NYC, and SF. See? MPLS can totally lead the trends!

79. Lake Minnetonka boat cruise: In June, 2013, my Mom and Step-dad came to visit B and I here in MPLS. I wanted to take them to the Walker Sculpture Garden and other fun outdoor adventures, but the weather chose not to cooperate. Therefore, we had to stick to indoor activities, like a trip to the Mill City Museum. Thankfully, the weather cleared up toward the end of their stay, and we were able to cash in on my Wayzata Bay Charter Groupon for a champagne boat cruise on Lake Minnetonka. It turned out to be a lovely outing, and here's a photo of my Mom and me on the cruise.

I love my Mom!

81. Send photo Christmas cards: I don't know about you, but the majority of Christmas Cards we now receive are photo cards. This year we were busy getting married and whatnot, and since we're still finishing up our thank you notes (so close!), we opted not to send holiday cards. However, last year, we decided to get in on the photo card action -- but we opted to do New Year's cards instead of Christmas cards (I'm still counting it as meeting this goal). 2014 was an awesome year for me, maybe the best I've ever had. Here's a copy of the card we sent to ring in the new year and kick off the kick ass year. It was fun putting our card together (with the help of VistaPrint), and we'll definitely do it again down the road.

2014 was an incredible year!

87. Host a game night: Completed! We hosted a little game night (including Telestrations, one of my favorite party games) as a part of our Wisco ski adventure, so check-check-cha-check-check it out!

93. See Aziz Live!: Aziz is so fun to see live, I checked off this list item twice. B and I saw Aziz live for the first time in 2013 and again in 2014 here in Minneapolis. What a funny little dude. Did you know Aziz studied business in undergrad? What the Whaaat? So glad he found his true passion as an entertainer and comedian! My write up is here.

95. Pay off my car: I crossed this on off the list in early 2014. This is the first car I've owned outright, completely on my own. My dad bought my first car for me from a police auction when I was in high school. It was beat up Hoopty -- some kind Chevy I think? A Cavalier? that sounds right maybe, I don't know, it was old and kind of rusted. For a while, I was driving around with a loose clamp hanging under the car that my friends and I called "Chucky" because of the awful and terrifying noise it made dragging on the pavement. Anwyay, Hoopty died my during freshman year in college. My next car, also gifted to me by family, was a blue Suzuki Esteem (aka "Suzy Suzuki", or it's lesser known name "The Blueberry", or its even lesser known moniker, courtesy of my friend RH, the "Suzuki Self-Esteem"). Suzy Suzuki survived for ~6 years or so, and died on Thanksgiving day, during my drive home to Thanksgiving dinner in the mid 2000s. I was stranded on the side of the road for about an hour waiting for my dad to pick me up and waiting for the tow truck. Shortly after Suzy's untimely end, I leased my third car -- and I now realize that leasing a car is basically like lighting money on fire -- but it helped me to get into a set of wheels quickly. Car three was a Chevy Cobalt, a great and reliable little car. It had a sun roof, and it was awesome. When my lease ended while I was living in Chicago, I finally decided to purchase a car, with my own money, like an adult. My step-dad is a GM retiree, and I was able to cash in on a nice family discount and selected another reliable Chevy, this time a Malibu. I purchased my Malibu while living in Chicago...and now 5+ years after my purchase, that Malibu has less than 30K miles on it. No joke. In Chicago, I public trans-ed it to work, and in Austin, I worked from a home office, so for about 3 years, I basically only drove on the weekends. I'm so happy to own my Malibu outright, and given its low mileage and my diligent vehicle upkeep and maintenance routine (regular oil changes and such), I'm going to be driving this car for many years to come.

98. No Diet Coke for a month: I knocked this one out of the park, kicking the habit for muuuch longer than a month. That said I've recently back slid, and am currently 'off the wagon', but I don't drink it all that often. I know I'd be better off if I once again did away with diet coke entirely, and I'll likely tackle this goal again in early 2015. I wrote about this one here.

102. BONUS - Visit the Southern Hemisphere: I was kind of dreading my recent work trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was right after my wedding, I didn't have a lot of time to mentally prepare for foreign travel to a country, I was woefully unfamiliar with the language, and I was facing an intimidating client environment (Yeah, let's see how chill YOU are leading up to a presentation to an audience that includes 25 global CEOs, followed up by a presentation to an upwards of 100 industry professionals and see how calm you feel about it!!), Of course, the trip turned out to be awesome, incredible, stellar, badass, etc...and I wrote about it here.

99. Get Hitched!: I'm listing this one "out of order", but I wanted to save the best for last. B and I got married in Ann Arbor on a beautiful fall day this past October, and thew a helluva party to celebrate. This life event deserves so much more than a few quippy sentences, and one of my 2015 goals is to organize our memories from this special day. But, for now, I'll let this photo do the talking. One of the best days of my life!

Cheers!
Photo credit: Jesse D. Green Photography

And, that's a wrap on 2013/2014 list tackling. Tune in on New Year's Day 2015 for the new list!

Beautiful RIO!

By my blog's count, I have completed 8 items on my list.  But, the reality is...I'm extremely far behind at documenting my adventures. My ACTUAL count is 25 completed -- exactly my goal for the original 100 I shared!

For the record, I have accomplished some MAJOR, ULTRA, HUGE items from my list over the past two years. Spoiler alert, I'm now FREE of credit card debt (checked that off a while ago actually....), FREE from car payments, have a passport stamp to prove I took a kickass trip to ITALY with B where we visited the Wine Country of all Wine Countries, oh and yeah, B & I GOT HITCHED!!!! But, I'm not going to write about these things today. Oh, I will write them up some day, but today is not that day.

Today, I am writing about an event that wasn't on my original list, but the experience was so cool, I had to add it as item #102, a "bonus" item on my list. I recently (as in, I just returned on Thur) had the great pleasure of visiting the Southern Hemisphere for the first time ever, on a business trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I had the incredible opportunity to present at a conference with one of my awesome co-workers (shout out to CB! Who I met for the first time in person on this trip (she's located in a different office)! My new work BFF!). And during the trip, we also managed to squeeze in some sight seeing, including a visit to the famous art deco Christo (where I learned that I do, indeed, have a fear of heights).

Before I visited Brazil, I knew very little (ok, zero) Portuguese, and I didn't believe B when he told me that it's similar to Spanish (turns out...yes, he's right...and yes, I leaned on my broken Spanish from time to time to get me through). I can now speak a few very basic phrases and pleasantries, like Por Favor (please), Obrigado (thank you), Bom Dia (good morning/hello), Tchau! (good bye)  Ate mais Tarde (see you later), Desculpe (I'm sorry)...it's incredible how far you can get with "please", "thank you" and sweeping hand gestures...and that many in the hospitality industry in Rio either speak English or Spanish. *ahem.*

My lack of Brazilian knowledge extended beyond the language. Admittedly, I knew very little about Brazil before my visit.  I still know very little...but at least now I know a little bit more.  Here is a little bit of the knowledge I gained during my trip.

I learned that the famous Brazilian bossa nova tune "Girl from Ipanema" was inspired by the beach just down the road from my hotel, and that Barry Manilow's famous "Copacabana", while actually written about a club in NYC, was conceived and initially inspired by a conversation he had at the Copacabana hotel in Rio. Sadly, I had no time to visit either beach (had to settle for our own little slice of beach outside the Sheraton Rio, see images below, including one of me dancing in front of a huge rock in the ocean), but we did get to drive down the and see many incredible sand castles and lots of national pride and Brazil flags flying on our way to and from the Sugar Loaf mountain.

Rio is the home to both the Corcovado and Sugar Loaf mountains, and apparently, visitors often get them confused. Both offer stunning views, but it is the Corcovado is home to the famous Christ the Redeemer Statue. To visit the Christo atop the Corcovado summit requires a journey via the "Trem", an electric powered train that angles up the Corcovado mountain and through the Tijuca forest, a lush jungle of trees, vines, fruits and wildlife.  The day we visited was extremely cloudy, but we risked it anyway ("no money back if you don't see anything," we were told).  I'm so glad we took the risk -- the Christo in the clouds was simultaneously haunting yet calming and peaceful...and every so often the clouds through which we were literally (yes, literally) walking, would part to share with us breathtaking views of Rio below. Imagine if we had heeded the warning and not taken the trek...imagine if we had missed this...

The next morning, we visited the Sugar Loaf mountain, welcomed by clear, blue skies and incredible 360 views.  Again, I overcame my sneaking fear of heights and stepped aboard a swinging gondola to witness the beauty.  See there?  That's the famous Copacabana beach from on top of the Sugar Loaf mountain!

I learned early on during our trip that the national cocktail of Brazil is the famous Caipirinha (does the US have one? I didn't know that having a national cocktail was a thing).  The Caipirinha is my new favorite cocktail, a delightfully dangerous concoction of fermented sugarcane called cachaca, sugar, lemon and lime.  Vodka can substitute the Cachaca...though it's simply not the same.

I learned of the Favelas, the Portuguese term for "slum", and I struggle to reconcile that opulent hotels and wealthy homes and luxury shopping malls exist quite literally across the street from the poorest of the poor. I've seen this very duality exist throughout big cities in the US, especially in Detroit and in some TX border towns I've visited, and I've seen it while volunteering in Mexico. In an experience that was a little close to home during my stay, I learned of the dangers that the people of the Favelas live with each day, where shootings and gang and drug activity are the norm. During my stay, I was delayed in arriving at our conference one morning, due to shootings in Rocinha, the largest Favela in Rio (and, I think, in Brazil). It was through that Favela that my taxi drove each day to get to the hotel hosting our conference. I learned that the hotel where our conference was held was taken hostage by gangs as a part of a turf war just a few years ago before it was rebranded. (I'll take "Things you don't tell your mother about your trip to Rio for $800, Alex!")  I learned that just across the street from my own hotel in the Leblon neighborhood (one of the wealthiest neighborhood in Rio) sits a smaller Favela called Vidigal. The people living in the Favelas risk their lives daily to gang activity, and often have no access to running water, proper sanitation or even regular electricity.  Hey, at least they don't have to pay taxes (yes, apparently, Favela dwellers live tax free, lucky them, huh...) All of this, I learned. I learned that in the midst such an amazing, beautiful, stunning city is a marginalized, forgotten underbelly of people living, struggling, making it through each day in ways that many of us couldn't even begin to imagine....

In contrast to those grittier lessons, I learned that so many Brazilians are extremely friendly, artistic, and love to celebrate life! Every Brazilian we encountered was so extremely kind and open (save for one cabby, who was none-too-pleased that we were questioning his choice of route - and yes, it was the cabby who was right! Stupid Americans...) I was blown away by the incredible street art that covered so many walls, light poles, sidewalks, and corners of the city -- more street art than I've seen in any city -- and I only wish I had something better than my battery-drained iPhone 4 to capture the creativity.  The food in Brazil...oh, the food!  Again, damned my shitty iPhone and its ridiculously brief battery life, or my camera would have feasted on those delicious images!  My colleagues and I enjoyed incredible churrasco (Brazilian Barbecue) and delectable Moqueca (essentially fish stew) and a slew of other mouth watering meats and seafood. At the opening and closing ceremonies of the conference I attended, we were entertained by festive Brazilian dancers, drummers and musicians, showing the vibrant, jubilant heritage and mindset of the people of Brazil.

Rio de Janeiro, a trip I won't soon forget, one that has provided me with so many incredible memories, and given me new perspective, and sparked so much new thinking for me...Oh, Brazil, I hope to visit you again some day!