My Triumphant Return and First Failures

It's been a good long while since I last posted, but I've been periodically updating my list.

My progress has been pretty slow as of late, but I've continued working on a lot of my 'continuing goals'. I did finish the "try pilates" goal. I finish the class in two weeks. It's really got me in better shape. I haven't lost a lot of weight numberwise (and I don't have a scale at school, so I haven't been weighing myself), but I can see the physical difference in my body, and I've dropped a pants size. I don't love pilates like I love yoga (yoga makes me feel good... pilates makes me look good), but I really like the results, so if I can swing it I might try and take the class again next semester.

Also, my first failure: I've decided not to apply to the Yale MA program. I think I need a year off from school or I'll burn out and I think I wanted to apply to the program for the wrong reasons (it was a good placeholder while I figured out what I really wanted). I'm not taking it too hard, and I use the word "failure" loosely. Obviously, my goals and priorities are going to change over the next few years, and the list needs to be flexible. Part of the point is to track my growth anyway.

I did, however, take the Praxis. I get my scores back in a few weeks, so hopefully, I'll be able to tick off that goal, even if I (probably) won't be needing the test score for anything.

Some more progress: I've read more books. Minus the erotica ones, they've all been for school. The titles are listed on the page for that goal (47). I've purchased more non-necessary books, but I need a count, so I'll be back to update that soon. I applied for a promotional scholarship on Zinch--it's more of a sweepstakes, so I don't know my chances, but it's worth a shot.

Upcoming: D and I are going on a cruise in March--it's all booked and everything. And I'll be getting a passport for it, so that's two goals down (I also might go parasailing while we're there, so we'll see). In February, we're going to the Fetish Fair Flea Market in Providence. We're attending the Masquerade, and I'm dressing in fetishwear. So, depending, this may or may not count as public play and that weekend we may or may not do slave training. Next year, I'm signed up for a CPR class, so I'll be registered in April, I believe.

Finals are coming up, so I can't make any promises about posting habits, but I plan to schedule an hour during the week during which I can blog.

Freedom Trail! (Finally)

So, here's my much delayed update (with pictures!). On the 5th (nearly a week and a half ago) D and I decided to walk the freedom trail. It's about 3 miles long (depending on your deviations) and takes you all over Boston, past various historic sites related to the Revolutionary War. It starts in the Boston Commons, takes you through the heart of the city, through the North End (Boston's version of little Italy), to the Navy yard and up to Bunker Hill. We walked almost the whole thing before heading off to Cambridge so I could pick up a good study guide for the Praxis, look at a corset for my Halloween costume (the Silk Spectre from Watchmen), and get some crepes for dinner (D's suggestion, and a good one too).

Anyway, on to the fun stuff:
That's the state house, right at the start of the trail, coming out of the Commons.

Those are D's feet on the trail. Proof!
My feet on the trail, plus the arm with the freckles that look like the big dipper. Further Proof!
Paul Revere's grave. People had put pennies all over it, though I'm not entirely sure why. I'm sure there's some significance to it. Luck?

It doesn't look like blogger will let me put more than 4 pictures in a post (shame). I had a couple more of the Old North Church Yard, and the Bunker Hill monument, which we climbed. I like history, but the Revolutionary War era really isn't my favorite, so we skipped over some of the free "museum-ish" things along the trail. I really enjoyed getting to see parts of Boston I'd never seen before. I stumbled across a ton of cute areas I never even new existed--the farmer's market in the North End, the Shooting Fountain, the Old North Church Yard (gorgeous), that Bunker Hill can be reached on foot. Really glad I put this on the list, and got the opportunity to finish it before I graduated.

Also! I have followers! Hi! Glad you find me interesting enough to read.

Another Idea.

Try X number of things I don't like (x could be one a year, 10 for the challenge or 101 if I feel up to it).

I got this idea from my computer science professor today: He says he tries to do at least one thing he doesn't like each year. I forget his answer, though he said for his wife, it's olives. I thought that this would be a wonderful idea for a unique task in keeping with the spirit of mission101. Things I don't like can include foods, television shows, writers, anything really so long as I have decided I don't like it based on little experience. I wouldn't have to change my mind about these things, necessarily, but by coming at them with a decidedly open mind perhaps I can reevaluate some of my own prejudices and broaden my horizons.

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You:

• An entry about walking the Freedom Trail in Boston
• An entry about swimming in the Charles
• Progress on reading a book a week, pilates, learning to cook, Applying to Grad school, and taking the Praxis.
  

First Month's Progress

Since August just finished, I figured it would be worthwhile to do a progress report to see how things are going so far.

Completed: 5
11. Go to a strip club <Read About It>
15. Try out for Jeopardy <Read About It>
18. Take the GRE and get a score with which I am satisfied <Read About It>
35. Get high <Read About It>
51. Make D orgasm on my own <Read About It>

In Progress: 13
14. Start a blog for this project and include at least one entry a week (13/143)
25. Apply to the Yale MA program
30. Store $1 a day (50/1001)
33. Visit 20 more states (4/20)
42. Donate 1 million grains of rice on freerice.com (30,000/1,000,000)
46. Put poetry in 101 different bathroom stalls (1/101)
47. Read at least 1 book a week (3/143)
48. Wear no make-up in public on 10 separate occasions (1/10)
60. Finish a coloring book
66. Tell D I love him everyday (33/1001)
70. Buy no more than 15 non-necessary books (1/15)
74. Try pilates
97. Take as many pictures of completed tasks as possible.

(You can read about these when you click on the tags)

Up Next:
25. Apply to the Yale MA program-- I started the official application online and am working on getting all my stuff together.
50. Block off my time at school and stick to it-- I'm waiting this one out-- I haven't had all my classes yet, so I don't have a whole lot of work to do. I figure I'll start next week as a trial.
74. Try Pilates-- I started my class today--so far, so good. D and I talked about it and decided that "trying it" requires 3-5 classes. Since it is a credit course, I'll be doing it al semester, ubless something goes horribly awry.

Small Progress.

So, over the course of my road trip I worked on a couple of my other goals:

Number 48--Wear no make-up in public. I did this on Sunday, the day after we got super high. I feel like it was almost a cop-out given the circumstances, but we did go out to eat and I did see people other than D so I decided to count it. A bigger step will be going without make-up to class one day (or days). I'd like to wait til my skin is particularly clear (which admittedly, sort of defeats the purpose of this task). Maybe I'll slowly wean myself off.

Also, I finished another book. Lost Tribe: Jewish Fiction from the Edge ed. by Paul Zakrzewski. It was a collection of short stories. I'm particularly interested in Jewish fiction (particularly in magical realism in Jewish fiction), so this collection of contemporary stories was great (post-Portnoy, they called it) to see where dialogue is headed. I made a few new discoveries--I love Myla Goldberg (she's not just an awesome Decemberists song), and even though I loved Everything is Illuminated, I'm willing to accept the Jonathan Safran Foer is kind of a douche. Lots of new stuff to look into, as well as some food for thought when it comes to possible graduate study.

Suck it, Trebek

So, last night I tried out for jeopardy--just the online quiz for the College Edition--and since I have no control over whether my 'audition' goes any further than this, I'm considering this task complete (woohoo!). It was a fifty question test with 15 seconds to answer each question--the questions were presented just like on the show, but you didn't have to answer in the form of a question. Honestly, I have no idea how well I did. I knew a bunch of them, but there were also a good many where the answer was on the tip of my tongue, and quite a few where I just had no freaking idea and either guessed or passed. They can contact me anytime between now and a year from now, so we shall see.

Bathroom Graffiti Take One.

This is the first piece of bathroom graffiti I've written in several years now. i used to do it quite a bit in high school. This was actually one of my favorite poems to use back then--I liked it, or course, but mostly it was short and easy to remember (plus I love Margaret Atwood).

This piece was put up in the Ladies' Room of a Macy's in a mall in Onalaska Wisconsin. I think some woman noticed. I went into a stall that clearly wasn't working (toilet hadn't and wouldn't flush) and the other two filled up while I was in there writing. As I was coming out, another woman came in. I went and sat outside to wait for D and the lady came out shortly thereafter and gave me a dirty look. I don't know if it was the unflushed toilet or the graffiti. Oh well.

A couple of things I'm debating as I continue this task. I definitely want to take a picture of each piece, but since this is largely a crime of opportunity, it might be difficult to ensure that I always have a camera on me. I'm also considering compiling a book of appropriate poems to put up there. It's hard to find something short enough and keep a store of them all in my head. So maybe it would be worth it to put some together in a marble notebook that I can keep on me. Also, I think pieces of poems are acceptable, like a stanza or so, so long as it has meaning in and of itself and doesn't lose much without the context of the poem.

New States! Now with photographic evidence.

So during this road trip, D took me to 4 new states: Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. Two states were on the way (Illinois and Wisconsin) and two D took me to just because they were close and he wanted to help me knock off as many as possible.

First, we hit Illinois on Friday night--drove right through Chicago, which was beautiful at night. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a picture of the skyline because my camera doesn't take good pictures at night. We spent the night in a Super 8 in Illinois too, so I actually set foot in the state too. Picture below. It's not so great, but that the Welcome to Illinois sign.
Next up was Wisconsin. We got there Saturday before noon. After driving from 9am to 11pm (Central time too, so really 12) on Friday, it was a quick jaunt to Tomah, our final destination. Here's some photographic evidence from Wisconsin.
This is my failed attempt at taking a picture of the Welcome to Wisconsin. In any direction out of Wisconsin we went, this was the only sign--nothing on the side of the road, just Welcome to Wisconsin carved in wood planks. More proof:
This one's from the way back from Wisconsin after our quick trip to Minnesota.

We went to Minnesota on Tuesday--after we went to LaCrosse, we just hopped across the Mississippi River and into Minnesota. I tried to get the Welcome to Minnesota sign, but all I could get was the -ota.

And finally, here's Michigan. We got there on Saturday morning on the trip back. D took the Indiana toll road specifically so we could just hop across the boarder (the toll road runs right next to the Michigan state line. It was right by Notre Dame.

Take it off!

Wednesday we went to not one, but two strip clubs. Ostensibly, we were going for D's friend's birthday, but it meant I got to tick off another goal. I wanted to go, but as it got closer and closer to day zero, I started to get worried--that the vibe would be bad, that D would go off with his friends and strippers and I'd be left alone surrounded by women who are much prettier than I am, that it would be full of creepy men, that I'd spend the entire night comparing myself to the girls on stage--basically that I'd be miserable. Of course, all my worrying was for naught. I had a great time, and strippers love me, apparently.

We started off bar hopping, trying to get D's friend free drinks for his birthday (no luck), then we headed to Wisconsin Dolls, in the Wisconsin Dells. D's friend wanted to go there (rather than the other strip club in town) even though it was smaller, because it was cheaper over all and you were actually allowed to touch the dancers. Unfortunately for the three guys (D, and D's two friends B and R), but fortunately for me, it was male review night meaning only male strippers up on the stage. I don't usually like the 'pretty' 'cut' guys, but it was interesting for the novelty. There were still female strippers milling about, and I got the impression that they'd have girls up on stage later in the evening, but the guys weren't really interested in hanging around for it, though.

We did stick around for lap dances all around though. D got one for both of us, and the girl said she'd do it as long we both sat in one chair. I didn't catch her name, but she was really cute--tiny, tan, dirty blonde hair, and an accent. Briefly, I thought she reminded me of my sister, but I quickly pushed that thought out of my head. I sat on D's lap, and she ground herself on my leg and his, rubbed her breasts up against mine--D was getting a kick out of it. At one point he even pulled my breasts out. She rubbed her tits in his face and let him suck on her nipples. I was surprisingly not jealous--honestly, it was pretty hot. I guess my inner voyeur took over. Certainly this bodes well for a lot of the things we've talked about exploring re: including others (including the threesome). The girl told us we were a crazy couple and seemed to have a good time herself. Over all, a good experience.

Because the guys were still on stage and everyone had gotten a lap dance, we decided to high-tail it out of there to another, larger strip club, Chubby's. It was pretty dead when we got there, but it was still early on a Wednesday. the place filled up later. This club was huge--one big stage but with three poles. Lots of girls--most of whom seemed really friendly and into it. Some of the stuff those dancers did on the poles was absolutely wild--flipping, stripping, etc all while spinning around so fast you couldn't even see them. We stuck close to the stage the entire night, long enough to see the 'rotation' of girls come through twice almost. I had a couple of favorites--most of the girls seemed really enthusiastic because I was a girl (I wasn't the only one there with my boyfriend, and from what I gathered they got similar treatment)--I had my nipples licked a couple of times and got lots of free boobs shoved in my face, and just special treatment in general for no special cost. D got some, too, I think because he'd brought a girl with him. A stripper bit his nipple! Of course, when he told me I thought he was just being a baby (in my experience guys tend to have a low pain tolerance for stuff like that, and D doesn't like anything near his nipples), but when we got home nearly three hours later he had teeth marks and a nice bruise forming.

I felt a little hinky being there--like I was exploiting the dancers by virtue of patronising the place. Most of them seemed to be having a good time--a few were obviously faking it, and one was clearly not having a good time. She only went on stage once, and sort of stomped around each pole for a song angrily and left quickly. I saw her talking to the bouncer when we came in, so I think she probably just wanted to go home, but they made her get up there once. I know it's a job, and the dancers who did look like they were enjoying themselves probably know that you get more money when you seem happy about what you're doing, but some of them seemed like they were genuinely enjoying themselves. I've considered dabbling in sex work before (including exotic dancing), and I'd like to think it would be something I'd find fun and empowering, though I'm sure it wouldn't be a good time every night.

I had an awesome time--just as good a time as any of the guys, and maybe better, since the dancers paid a lot of attention to me. They actually wanted to leave before I did, but theyd spent all their money and I still had a good bit left. Would definitely go again.

Illegal Doings

So I've returned from my trek to the wilderness (read: Wisconsin), and in the process I've accomplished 2 more goals, started several more, and made progress on others. And I have pictures! I'll be updating over the next couple of days about the goals I completed and the ones I've just started.

First things first. I got high! And it was wonderful. After staying the night at a Super 8 in Illinois, we got in to Tomah, Wisconsin before noon. D's friend, who we were staying with for the first few days, was getting ready for the party later that night (he turned 22 on Wednesday, but had a big party Saturday night). D had asked him to procure some pot for us before we came out, and he had, so D and I went off on our merry way to buy brownie making supplies.

We decided to make brownies because I didn't want to smoke for a couple of reasons--first, I heard that sometimes you don't get high the first time if you smoke (I think because most people don't really know how to inhale it), and I didn't want to risk wasting the pot and missing my chance to complete this goal. Also, I was worried I wouldn't like smoking--I don't even smoke cigarettes, so I figured I'd probably cough and choke, and I wanted this experience to be as pleasant as possible. Plus, I already love brownies.

The brownies were done by about 4, and they reeked of pot. Not a bad smell really, just pine-y, but honestly, thinking about it makes me feel kind of ill. We started eating them pretty quickly but it took a while for them to kick in, so we kept eating and eating (Not so great an idea, it turns out). By 5, we were through almost the whole pan, and we were both super high. D was so high that he couldn't tell I was high, so he kept insisting I eat more brownies, even though I didn't want more (turns out I lose the ability to say no when high).

Everything was hilarious. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt, and smiled so hard my face hurt. The feeling of uncontrollable laughter is a strange one. I could literally feel each giggle bubbling up out of me, from my diaphragm and though I could feel it coming, I couldn't stop it. D smoked up a bit (by this time the party was underway, and while we were the only ones eating brownies, a lot of other people were smoking) and chugged around the house blowing smoking out, pretending he was a train (hilarious). Later, he thought his friend (whom he hadn't seen in about three years) had grown about a foot and a half taller. I just laughed and laughed, and thought D was a giant at one point (to be fair, I was lying on the floor and he was standing over me).

I liked being high much better than drinking--I got all the happy euphoric feeling of being buzzed, but without that fuzzy-headed moving-through-jello feeling. By 8 I was just vegetating on a big comfy chair in the kitchen. I was still conscious and aware of what was going on around me (though my eyes were closed and I was sort of incorporating everything going on outside into the weird psychedelic trip going on in my head), but I was out of it. My entire body felt warm and the top half of me felt like it was lightly vibrating. I think I described it to D as a million little orgasms all over my body. So yeah, a pretty good feeling over all. I was in bed probably by 9. D joined me shortly thereafter. Apparently, people were banging on the door to our room trying to get us up without any luck.

We slept late the next day, and went to get Mexican food. That was all we did. D and I were both out of it. I was worthless the entire day. I think I took a nap, and maybe read a little bit. The Mexican sure tasted good though.

Overall, I'd rate getting high as a great experience. I don't think I want to try again any time soon, or do it with any regularity though because I don't want to ruin it with a bad trip and it's hard to block off two days where I can be totally worthless. More to come later.