Taylor Swift, In the Making

Last night I crossed #2 off the list- perform live. I figured the JC would be the best place to do this- a captive audience that loves me enough to not make fun of me if I sing terribly. When I saw the sign up sheet for the talent show, I didn't even think about it. I avoid talent shows because compliments make me uncomfortable (I did great? You did great. At being an audience- you clapped in all the right places!), and talent shows are always followed by obligatory compliments that may or may not be sincere.

Nevertheless, my last waking thought the night before auditions was of the song "How Can I Be." More specifically, that it would be a good fit for the talent show. And so I adapted this song for guitar and strummed my little heart out onstage. I know, I know, I'm basically a rockstar. No autographs, please. But you can watch my performance (free of charge, you're very welcome):

I was so nervous, I wrote the lyrics on my wrist... Just in case.  But then I got so wrapped up in checking the lyrics that I forgot the chord progression.  I thought about writing that on my wrist too, but I was running out of legible space.  Bonus points to whoever can figure out where I forgot the words and thanked the heavens above for my paranoid foresight.  All in all, an accomplishment.

Couch to 10K in Two Weeks

Welp.  I guess I'm gonna check #1 off the list on March 1st.  And then some.  I just paid $36 to do something I hate in the name of growth and personal pursuits (or something).  Running.  I honestly don't think I've ever run more than a mile in my life, and yet I just signed up to run six of them in a mere sixteen days.  I'm full of apprehension and anxiety, and of course I found out there's a 5K option within minutes of making the final payment... But that's ok.  This is a year of achievement.  Sixteen days and counting!

Shock and Awe

Yes, we sang the IJ theme song
over and over on the walk in

Last week I crossed something off the list.  I went to Jordan (yeah, the country, not the place in Utah) and saw Petra.  Petra, as in the second wonder of the modern world.  I spent the first hour nearly speechless.  I felt like gasping and spinning in circles.  Quite a few of the sites we've seen have been reduced to "piles of rocks" in my memory, and that's what I expected from Petra.  I didn't know what I was getting into until I walked out of the valley and saw the Indiana Jones famous treasury.

And if that wasn't cool enough, the sites became increasingly spectacular as I kept walking.  In America, nothing is older than four or five hundred years.  In Petra, nothing is younger than a thousand years. 

For a wanderer like me, free standing ruins were like a birthday present come early.  They were just open to anyone, free for clambering and exploring.  Obviously I had a blast.

Mom, dad, it's pretend jail.  I promise.

So. Many. Jumping pictures.

Making new friends...

...all sorts of new friends (young and old, human and camel...)

I consider this a successful cross off.  I've never seen anything so beautiful.  It was easy to see the hand of God to the right and left as I walked through and marveled at the landscape and scenery.  When I was up there, I felt like I could accomplish just about anything.  It was incredible, inspiring, and entirely unforgettable.  Am I the luckiest, or what?