Stuff

A list of things from my life that I think are interesting

broke my nose camping as a toddler. I still remember running up the hill to the picnic table and then seeing a metal pole come towards my face. (I had tripped on the concrete pad and slid into the picnic table supports)
sent to the principal’s office in preschool for sneaking into the Native American tee-pee on display at the school to play.
got my first bike from the town dump when I was in first or second grade
played the role of a turtle in the third grade class play. As I started saying my lines, a girl in the back of the stage fainted. I turned, looked, and then continued my lines. The show must go on.
I wanted to be a Solid Gold dancer when I grew up. Or a teacher. Or a Doctor.
canoed the Missouri River for a week with my science class in seventh grade. Somehow my group’s food buckets didn’t make it on the trip so we survived on parts of other groups’ lunches and dinners.
recreationally nordic ski raced one winter in eighth grade
hiked the Grand Canyon with my honor biology class in ninth grade. LA was on fire from the Rodney King riots when we emerged a few days later.
punched a tempered window once so hard it shattered
ran one of the underground newspapers in high school … and was on the actual school newspaper staff
Attended a high school featured on David Letterman’s Top Ten Wimpiest Mascots back in the 1990s
PEP BAND
Discovered a love of media in a high school class. Became the student director of two video productions on the new high school being built across town. Both were aired on the school district channel.
took rugby as a PE class. I was one of four women in the class and the only one who actually tried to play.

for college, I was on the 5 year and 2 kids plan to get a bachelor of arts in television production. My documentary topic was comparing married student family life to a frat house life, which involved being 7 months pregnant and lugging a camera and light kit around. The only A+ I’ve ever gotten in my college career.
Took belly dance and hip hop dance classes because why not?
Took bowling for my PE credit and joined the student bowling league with my friends. I also ended up working at the university bowling alley/arcade in the basement of the student center until a freak storm flooded the town and the university decided not to rebuild the bowling lanes.
cried for weeks after miscarrying because I wasn’t able to give my baby elbows. Made the decision to have an abortion because my body didn’t spontaneously abort the fetus. Feel very strongly that it’s a woman’s right to decide if abortion is right for her and her situation, regardless of circumstance.
finally had a third kid a few months after buying our first house. Family size – complete by age 25!
converted to my ancestral religion in my late twenties. Studied with a rabbi for 18 months, went before the beit din, and dipped in the mikvah. One night I had a dream that was literally all of my ancestors celebrating with me followed by another dream that was literally just the emotion of Loved.
Studied Kabbalah for three years with Dr. David Sanders (Kabbalah Experience)

Girl Scout leader for my daughter’s troops for 7 years and across 3 states. We did all kinds of cool outdoor-oriented things. Still keep in touch with many of these amazing young women.
Rode 150 miles on my bike with my friends in one day. Felt strong and accomplished.
survived thyroid cancer in my late thirties. Decided life is too short to wait for the right time to do anything. Life with no regrets.
Discovered mountain biking, then dirt road riding (“gravel” before it was gravel), and finally bikepacking. Bikepacking with my girlfriends has been nothing short of transformative.
I was at a gravel even in western Massachusetts, holding my friend’s bike while she was using the port-o-potty. A tall, lanky guy came up and cut the line to use the facilities. “Who does he think he is?” I wondered, despite literally everyone else happily ceding their place in line to this guy. As he exits, he looks at me, smiles, and says “Hi!” to which I icily sneared, “hey.” My friend sees the whole exchange and excitedly says “OMG, Jeremy Powers said hi to you!” Literal USA Cyclocross champion speaking to me and I’m 100% the asshole.
I worked at 30 Rockefeller Center for a few years. One day I was coming back from a late lunch and noted a tall woman waiting in the same elevator bank as mine. “Is that Leslie Jones?” I silently wondered. It was, in fact, Leslie Jones.
Rode 320 miles in 3 days with two guys I met on the internet* despite not having ridden a century (much less three in a row) in at least 5 years. A good mix of pavement and gravel and chunky backroads on my trusty road bike with 26mm gravel tires and 10lb of gear (we stayed in tiny motels along the way).
to calm anyone’s fears, I had met up with the guys several times before the three day trip and consider them friends. But we did, in fact, meet on the internet.
Riding chunky gravel for years on my road bike with 26mm tires. That alone is pretty bad ass … now that I have a wider-tire bike, I marvel at what I used to do on skinny rubber. Like, what was I thinking??
went on a 5 day bikepacking trip 3 months after having my gallbladder removed in my early forties. Overpacked and bonked so hard I had my friend ask the people who’s driveway I was sprawled out on to call me a taxi just 18 miles from the end.
I rescued a kitten from the middle of a busy state route but was bitten in the process. A visit to urgent care for a deeply infected finger later, the county department of health insisted I get the rabies vaccine. Have you ever had a shot in your finger? It hurts worse than anything.

... to be continued!

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