Day 65: Poach an Egg

365 Firsts/Day 65:

Poach an Egg

65 days down, 300 to go!

Day 64: Massive Straw Bridge

365 Firsts/Day 64: 

Massive Straw Bridge

365 Firsts/Day 64: MASSIVE STRAW BRIDGE (half fail). Ok, so the 340 foot, 552 straw bridge was built, and failed. THEN, a second 340 foot straw bridge was built and taped. That one had no leaks, but it's just physically impossible for it to work. SO, I cut it down to about a 1/4 of that and then it finally worked. A hot, stale Coca Cola has never tasted so good in my entire life. This took the entire day. I'm tired. Frustrated. Sore. Annoyed. But, failure is a part of the 365 Firsts too, so, there ya go. Good thing I have a ton of patience because patience was definitely required for this and I want to thank my family for dealing with a son who does weird and crazy things like this and helped me so much through today. It was a task for sure. Definitely the most time consuming and annoying thing I've done so far in 365 Firsts. Glad it's done to be honest, but also glad I tried it out because now I can stop daydreaming about that massive straw bridge connecting my parents and brothers house that I've been thinking about ever since their house was built. Ya try, ya fail. Ya try again, ya fail. It's life. But then you try again and again and again and change your approach, then you succeed. Even two stupid, massive straw bridges can teach you that lesson. 

Day 63: Crash a Wedding

365 Firsts/Day 63: 

Crash a Wedding

Step 1: Look the part. I don't even know the names of the people who are getting married and nobody there except one person. I'm driving up to Peoria to either be another one in the crowd or to be interrogated about who I am and who I know. 

I met the bride and groom, Sasha and Jordan Sarver and told them what I was doing during the dollar dance. They were so cool about it! I'm so glad I did this one because it was a total blast and the couple couldn't have been any happier or nicer. Very cool. 

Day 62: Bake a Pie from Scratch

365 Firsts/Day 62: 

Bake a Pie from Scratch

I was waiting for a special occasion for this one and I thought baking a pie from scratch to celebrate my good friend Ash graduating from the University of Nebraska with her Master's Degree in Entomology seemed like as good of time as any. She's worked unbelievably hard for this and she deserves things like... blackberry pies. Pies for days! After she gets her Ph.D from Ohio State in a few years I'll have to make a Turducken-Pie-Cake or something. I also want to congratulate my good friend and fake sister Sandy for receiving her Master's Degree in Sports Management from the University of Tennessee who this pie is also for and who worked incredibly hard and also deserves pies for days! They're both pretty dang smart and cool. Now I hope they like blackberry pie because this was my first pie and it was all straight from scratch so I'm going to have to force feed it to them if they don't. 

Day 61: Water Skiing

365 Firsts/Day 61:

Water Skiing (part 2-Drive a Boat) 

This was so much fun! I failed repeatedly but finally the last time around I stood up for about 30 seconds. I've got some bruises and I don't know if I'll be able to have children later on in life (if you know what I mean) but it was awesome! And I got to this with my fake sister, Cassandra, who I haven't seen in a year and her super cool brother in law, Luke, who let me go out on his boat. 

Day 60: BE FEATURED IN MY OWN NEWSPAPER ARTICLE.

 

Check out the article here! http://goo.gl/uvLsfE

 Besides the times for sports back in high school, this is the first article that's ever been written about my personal life or 365 Firsts, so I'm really happy about that and feel very honored! The State Journal Register in Springfield, IL, and Dave Bakke who wrote this article are good people. Hopefully this can extend the reach of 365 Firsts a little bit and get more people to step out of their comfort zone and try new things and also do good for other people along the way. I've had a lot of you tell me that you've actually tried some new things because you've been keeping up with 365 Firsts and I've interacted with people on Instagram that have paid it forward with some of the random acts of kindness I've done. That is exactly why I'm doing this along with trying to enrich my own life and that makes me beyond happy to hear that and see it and I'm just really excited to see what else happens in this year. It's already been an insane year before I even started this project and there are 305 more days after today left in 365 Firsts. That's a lot of days. It's bound to get even better, tougher, scarier, crazier, exciting and any other adjective you wanna use. I am so happy I started this project because I have grown so much in just a short two month period and seen other people do great things and I'm totally dedicated to this and in love with the project. If I'm going to be 100% honest without sugar-coating anything though, there are also some days when it feels like a bit of a grind. It's not always easy, but days like today and people like you help to push me forward through any grind or frustration I may experience and I feel very grateful for that and I quickly remember how lucky I am that I have the opportunity to do this. That's all the motivation and reality check that I need. Thanks again for all of your support! 

Day 59: Get a "Crazy" Haircut

365 Firsts/Day 59: 

GET A "CRAZY" HAIRCUT

 I stepped way out of my comfort zone for this one and told my hairstylist Lauren Krupp to just surprise me and give me whatever haircut she wanted and to make it a little bit crazy or unique. I think she did a great job! I've always been pretty tame when it comes to haircuts. Even though it took a few minutes to adjust since it's so different than what I'm used to, she did a great job as always and I actually really like it. I got looked at funny by some of the geriatric mid-westerners when I went grocery shopping afterwards but I could really care less. This would look pretty standard in L.A. or New York. It's all relative. I don't know why I've always been so conservative with my hair when I'm not in basically any other aspect of my life, so I'm glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and gave it a shot. It grows back. Thanks Lauren! I should've had this during the World Cup so I could've been exactly like all of the players, except you know, different in every other way possible.