Day 89: Rubber Band Ball

Sometimes life gets in the way and you just need to make a rubber band ball. 

Day 88: Make Jam

It's strawberry and rhubarb jam and it's delicious and semi-nutritious... maybe. 

Day 87: Dine-In Movie

Experienced my first movie where you order food and drinks during it and nom nom nom your way through it. Saw Guardians of the Galaxy. Great movie with some awesome company. 

Day 86: Donate Clothes to Goodwill

 

I know, I know. I'm a horrible person for never having done this before, but hey, there's a first time for everything. 

Day 85: Donate to H.O.P.E for Calyssa

Calyssa Richie was diagnosed with Fibrosing Mediastinitis within the last year. Put in simple terms, (FM) is a very rare and serious condition involving a mass that causes many problems with her heart and lungs. In reality, it is much more complicated than that for her and her family. Calyssa has been through hell with surgery after surgery and is still not cured and will require many more procedures throughout her lifetime. You can donate by clicking the link below. 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=628529837245645&id=100002659041686

It takes less than 2 minutes and you could be saving a very sweet girls life in the process. 

Day 84: Skydive

Let's start off with the fact that I'm afraid of heights. Today I jumped out of a plane at 11,000 feet in the air and fell to the Earth at 120 mph. I've done some crazy things, but I would have to say that this was probably the scariest, most exciting, adrenaline-packed thing I've ever done. When you're 2 miles in the air and the door opens and you sit outside of the plane before jumping... it was one of the craziest sensations of my life. It's hard to explain. Then you jump. Every sensation and feeling rushes through your head and body all at once. I jumped a few hours ago and still can't get myself settled down. I'm so glad that I did it. My tandem instructor was great and said that we had the 2nd hardest canopy opening that he's ever had. Nonetheless, it was one of the best experiences of my life! 

Day 83: Letters to my Grandparents

365 Firsts 

Today I float from the ground, tomorrow I fall from the sky. In less than 24 hours I'm skydiving (weather permitting) so today I wrote letters to each of my grandparents, attached them to balloons and released them symbolically into the air. All four of my grandparents have passed away. I'm not complaining because I'm extremely lucky to have the life that I have and I realize that, but I wanted to make them a part of my 365 Firsts since they aren't here to see it.

I never met my dad's parents since they had passed away before I was born. The grandpa that I did have died when I was three and my grandma died when I was five years old. I remember my grandpa had Parkinson's Disease very badly and I was too young to understand why he shook the way that he did. It makes me sad now to think of the pain he was going through and that I was too young to realize it. I remember riding my bike over to my grandma's almost every day and getting this weird drink that was half Sunny Delight and half water. Yeah, I liked my Sunny-D watered down. Deal with it. I wish I had more time with the both of them when I was older and understood more. I wish I could've met my dad's parents and known the people that shaped the great person that he is. I wish my grandpa could've seen me play baseball since he loved it so much. I wish I would've complained less about grandma's cooking and just choked it down and smiled. These aren't regrets that I have, especially since I was so young, just wishes. Life is short. Don't waste a single minute of it. Don't be afraid. If you've been doing those, life is still waiting for you. Go out and live. 

Day 82: Soda Fountain Suicide

365 Firsts

One of every type of soda mixed together. I'm skydiving in two days and I'm preeeeetttttyyyy nervous about it. I need a small day every once in awhile lol 

Day 81: Eat a Whopper

365 Firsts

It wasn't the Whopper's fault I was fat a few years ago. Must. Work. Out. Now.

Day 80: Chinese Calligraphy

365 Firsts 

This is my name, Travis, in Chinese Calligraphy! Really cool learning about this today. Ancient Chinese culture is fascinating and I'd love to travel to China someday and maybe learn more. 

Day 79: A Tribute For Austin and Sarah

365 Firsts

Today is a special day for 365 Firsts. Day 79 is dedicated to Sarah Bly and her fiancé, Austin Wyatt, who had his life tragically cut short in a car accident one year ago today. Sarah approached me about doing a day of dedication earlier this month for Austin and for her because she enjoys the 365 Firsts. She has been such an inspiration to me ever since. Sarah, you so kindly told me that 365 Firsts has helped you through dark times and given you hope and inspiration. I wasn't sure if anything I was doing mattered at all until that moment, then suddenly I was the proudest I've ever been in my entire life. I didn't know Austin, but from you I've learned that he was a loving fiancé, father, friend and son and much more. Today is a mixture of "firsts" that are also things that Austin loved doing in his life. Your strength is an inspiration to me and many others. This day is for you. This day is for Austin. 

(Part 1). Austin was a fisherman and it was something he loved to do, so I fished for an hour and caught my first catfish for him. It may be a wimpy catfish, but it's still a catfish. I wanted to stay out and catch another one for Sarah, so 3 hours later I finally did. I had you two on my mind the whole time. 

Austin was a chef, so I cooked my first 3 course meal. Bacon wrapped dates for an appetizer, seared cod with chive butter sauce with brussel sprouts and scalloped pineapple for the entree, and bananas foster for dessert. I tried my best! I hope Austin would've liked it. 

I purchased the rights to name a star in the Pisces star system, Austin's astrological sign, after the both of you. It's name is Austin Sarah. Has a nice ring to it. It's right in those coordinates and in that picture so you can find it whenever you gaze at the stars at night for the rest of your life. I didn't realize he was born only 7 days older than myself until tonight. That really hit home. Sarah, it's really been such an honor dedicating this day of 365 Firsts to Austin's life and to you. I feel blessed for the opportunity. It's been a great day and I hope a celebration to Austin. It's made me realize more than you'll ever know and be thankful for life even more than I already was. I hope it meant something to you and to Austin. He'd be very proud of you and how you've chosen to live life after his passing. I didn't know him, but I feel like I got a chance to today. Thank you for that. Much love to you both. "If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I'll bet they'd live life a lot differently." - Bill Watterson. 

Day 78: Make Creme Brûlée

365 Firsts

Nothing like a calorie laden dessert tonight to start off my new round of P90X2 and diet plan tomorrow! This wasn't very hard at all really and turned out pretty good. 

Day 77: Dance on the Bar

365 Firsts

After a lot of coaxing, I reached deep inside and pulled out my inner Coyote Ugly for this one. I'm not a big dancer but I figured there was no better time than when my friend and I were decked out in our Christmas in July attire. People were so confused. 

Day 76: Christmas in July

365 Firsts

Turning the Christmas in July retail extravaganza on it's ear and throwing a Christmas in July party with summer and Christmas decor and good friends everywhere. July 25th - Christmas in July. Good times. Lots of spiked eggnog and Christmas songs. Merry Summer! It was a lot of fun. 

Day 75: Give Lottery Tickets to Strangers

365 Firsts

 Bought 10 scratch-off lottery tickets and handed them out to a homeless man, workers at 2 different Starbucks drive- thru's and taped them to cars. Some will inevitably be losers but hopefully there are some winners. Even if it's only a dollar that someone wins, that's cool. If they won $300, that's even better. I left my Instagram handle behind this time and asked people to show me if they had winners or not because that'd be awesome to see if anyone did. Hopefully I hear back from some winners!

Day 74: Play Backgammon

365 Firsts/Day 74:

PLAY BACKGAMMON

The only thing I know about Backgammon is that it is one of the oldest games in the world and John Locke of Lost enjoys a game every now and then. These rules are confusing but I'm determined to play a round through the proper way before I put it away. "One is black... one is white." 

Day 73: Pet a Cow/Build a Rocket

365 Firsts/Day 73: 

Pet a Cow/Build a Rocket

Well, hopped a barb-wired fence shortly after midnight and chased down a cow to pet it. They didn't seem to like me too well and I had to sprint to catch up to one and got it's back. Meghan just fed one some grass, no sprinting like an idiot. Part 2 of the day consisted of building a rocket that didn't work. It had to be the cheapest rocket ever made in existence and it didn't work, BUT, we built it! It fizzled and spun around at least. I hope NASA doesn't hold theirs together with tape and glue like ours was.

Day 72: Watch the Sunrise on my Roof

365 Firsts/Day 72: WATCH THE SUNRISE ON MY ROOF. 

I'm challenging you guys to do something new today, even if it's small! Post it on my wall or message me if you do because I'd love to see it. I've gotten a ton of support from everyone, so I'd like to see other people go out and do something unusual or something they've always pushed off for whatever reason. If you do, thank you. If not, that's ok. Just work your way up to it and I'll just keep plugging away! You'll be glad you did. So, being the legitimate, horrible, certified insomniac that I am, I've seen the sun peak through my bedroom window so many times while I lie there still awake and frustrated at my ridiculous sleep schedule that I've lost count. This is one of those moments I've had a few times during 365 Firsts that I could really slap myself for having not done yet. It's really beautiful out here in the country surrounded by fields and trees with the sun coming up. Instead of doing the same old routine over and over again, I broke the cycle and decided to embrace watching the sunrise out on my roof instead of laying in bed dreading it's inevitable rise and shielding my eyes from its rays piercing the bedroom walls while I'm still tossing and turning. I climbed out on my extremely steep roof in my socks and went to the very top and just posted up and waited for the sun to rise. I was really nervous for the first few minutes since I'm afraid of heights and climbed all the way to the top peak AND I have no shoes on which I hate being without. What is happening to me?! I think this 365 Firsts is changing me a little bit. I can't believe I've never done this before. I honestly can't. I'll definitely be doing this at least a handful of times a year from now on, no matter where I'm living. One of these years not sleeping is going to catch up to me, but not this year.

Day 71: Bonne Terre Mine

365 Firsts/Day 71: 

BONNE TERRE MINE, MO (world's largest man-made caverns)

Covering 80 square miles underground and housing a billion gallon lake, Bonne Terre Mine is pretty impressive. People come from all over the world to see it and scuba dive there, including a monk from Sri Lanka shortly before we arrived. I'm surprised I knew so little about it having lived only about an hour away from it for the past 6 years. I probably never would've came here if I wasn't doing 365 Firsts, so I can chalk up yet another reason why I'm so glad I'm doing this. This rounded out a fantastic road trip that I'll never forget and some quality time with my mom that I'm glad I got to have.