Day 63: Attend A Jazz Gig

     The jazz class that I'm taking me requires me to attend a live jazz performance so we will be better prepared for our final papers. I had never been to a jazz show before. In fact, this was only my second concert ever. I feel lame saying that but its true, I haven't gotten to go to many concerts yet. I was excited to check things out, but I was also siked cause my jazz teacher is the bassist for the band that was playing and I thought that if he saw me attend his show, I would score some brownie points. So, I met up with Mouse and headed over to The D Note. We showed up about half an hour late (which will probably deduct from my brownie point pile) and took a seat. The D Note is a cool little (really little) venue in the old part of Arvada. The atmosphere was hip and trendy, the chairs were uncomfortable, and the bathroom stalls were coated in toilet poetry. I read other bathroom goers rants and blurbs about the trials and tribulations of humanity as I peed, it was a great time. As for the jazz part of the night, it was pretty alright. I'm not the biggest fan of jazz music but that didn't stop me from enjoying the set. The trumpeter would blow away while the bassist and drummer would back him up. Then the bassist would take a solo, then the drummer would follow. Even after half a semester of jazz study, I still feel lost in the jazz world. I try to make sure to clap at the appropriate times and I make sure to keep an introspective kind of look on my face so everyone else thinks I am attentively experiencing the art. I even refer to the performance as a "gig" rather than to a "show" to sound more musically cultured. I do all these things, but I'm still totally lost the entire time the band is playing. I guess thats how I feel in class anyways. Whatever, I had a good time and wouldn't mind going back there sometime to see another gig.

Day 62: Learn To Play The Ukulele

     So I've got this little personal problem. Its nothing serious but it can be pesky at times. My little problem, is that I lose focus or attention with a lot of things. A lot of the projects that I have come up with and a whole mess of random hobbies have weltered away after being ignored too long. I find it (optimistically) strange that I have even kept this project going for this long. Things like musical instruments and art mediums are prime examples of my pathetic attention span. I bought a brand new guitar about a year ago. I was really into it for a while. I ran on a mixture of excitement and determination for about two months and then... poop. I lost focus, completely. The poor guitar spent months on its "mint condition" stand, plugged into its "like-new" amp. It was abandoned. The same thing happened with the harmonica. The point of my rambling is this; my friend Kevin just bought a pricey ukulele and now I want one. He bought his and let me borrow his old one. Since he loaned it out to me I've been jamming on it and trying to learn some things. I learned like three songs within the first day of playing it, which is my new thing for the day. Not only was this the first time I had ever played a uke, it was the first time I played a song on it. The instrument is loads of fun to play with and I am leaning towards the whole "buying a nice ukulele and hoping that I stick with it" route. Lets hope I don't lose focus!

Day 61: Play Racquetball

     First off, I just gotta say that I felt like an idiot when I found out that the sport isn't spelled "racketball". In fact, I didn't know anything about the sport. All I knew was that you hit the crap outta a ball in a giant room... and thats basically what I did. Joey and I went to the recenter after taking the midterm in our sociology class. We were there to shoot some hoops before jazz class. The lady at the front desk said that the one day pass would allow us to use any of the facilities in the building, including the racquetball court and saunas. Its safe to say that I was considerable more excited to test out the saunas than play basketball, but because I didn't have any shorts (I was fully prepared to go in there naked if it really called for it), racquetball would have to do. So I rented the rackets and the ball, and I opened the door with the sign that read "Court 3". It was an enormous white walled room with hard wood floors. Blue lines on the ground specified the different territories of the fields. I want to make it perfectly clear that I did not learn how to actually play the game. I just went in there and wacked the shit out of the ball for a while. Although that proved to be far more entertaining than I anticipated, I figured that the challenge would be totally lame if I didn't at least try to play the game. Thats when I got Joey and told him that we were going to play, and that we were going to use table tennis rules. It turns out that smacking the ball with all your might is just too tempting, so that whole Godzilla scale ping pong match didn't last very long. So I didn't learn much of anything other than that those balls hurt like hell when your leg gets welted by one.

Day 60: Fix The Toilet

     Today's new things isn't as much that much a challenge, more like a much needed chore that I have been putting off for a little too long. The toilet has been broken for about a week or so now, which is poopy. So I went to the Home Depot to see what I could do. I got the flapper kit thing that the man in the orange apron suggested and I headed home to set things right. It turns out that it was an easy fix; the chain that connects the flushing leaver to the flapper broke. And it also turns out that I have close to no knowledge as to how a toilet works. I didn't know how to turn off the water to the toilet, I didn't know that the tank was filled with ordinary tap water, and most importantly, I didn't (and still don't) know what happens to poop after you flush it. Where does it go? I always assumed that poop was shipped via gator infested sewer pipes to a giant lab where it was analyzed by scientists. The scientist would probably find out what people where eating and what the different types of poop meant for your health.

     Annnnnnnyyyways, I fixed my toilet and everyone lived happily ever after cause nobody had to walk all the way downstairs whenever they had to go potty.

Day 59: Make Guacamole

 I love guacamole. I love it and I think that its a complete rip-off when they charge $1.75 (guac-prices are getting a little out of hand) for it at Chipotle. Thats why I decided to take tasty matters into my own hands and make it myself. I had to get creative cause I was at work. This is an ice cream shop, we don't have all those nifty flavored salts or what have you. I stuck with the bare essentials; 2 avocados, a tomato, some garlic, lime juice, generic chips, and two packets of salt from McDonald's. I couldn't find instructions on how you make guacamole, only what goes into making it. I assumed that I just needed to pit the avocados and mush everything around in a bowl until it resembled poop. So I did that and it started to look like poop almost immediately. I took a taste test with one of the chips and was pleasantly surprised. It didn't suck. In fact, it was kind of good. It wasn't anything you would expect to get at an authentic Mexican food restaurant, but it was pretty O.K. Once I acquire some fancy salt and onions, my guac bowl will win the hearts of millions.

Day 58: Mildly High Risk Juggling

What I do at work

Me in the act

     Now, before you judge me for counting juggling three balls of ice cream as a decent challenge, let me explain myself. I have worked at Baskin Robbins on and off for a total of two years, and in those two years, I have done some pretty stupid things. Nothing gross or anything, just goofing around (skating in the walk-in freezer and that ice cream fight are ones that come to mind). So I was working and I was trying to think of something to do for the project. I decided that I would teach my co-worker Jarred


(you may remember him from Day 56: A warm up for the gallon
challenge) how to juggle. We looked for things around the store to toss around but we couldn't find anything. That whole idea evolved into something I have thought about trying a couple time but never got around to doing; juggling ice cream. I mean, they are the perfect weight and shape to do the job. To make things more interesting, I was going to juggle over my newly mopped floor. So, I got three scoops of mint chocolate chip cause it's way more solid and firm compared to most of the other flavors. I put on some plastic gloves and positioned myself prepared my balls (the mint ones). I was surprisingly nervous before trying, but I went for it anyways. I juggled for about 4 cycles and then caught the balls safely. I had to keep redoing the feat so that Jarred could get the timing right on my phone camera but I never did drop the mint (which I am proud and thankful for). So there you have it, you may think its a lame challenge (which it kind of is), but its something I've wanted to try for a while and this project has forced me to try it. Hooray for throwing ice cream!

Day 57: Join A Women's Workout Class

     So, I've learned a couple valuable lessons in this project so far; I don't really care for sushi, pudding is embarrassingly easy to make, chugging a gallon of lukewarm water is a sure-fire way to get instant diarrhea. I've learned a lot and I think that this challenge has taught me another important lesson. That lesson: women's workout classes are no joke. I tagged along to my mom's (you may remember her from the day 25: blood donation challenge) Saturday morning workout class. I was pretty oblivious to what I was getting myself into, I was just relieved that this challenge wouldn't be another uber lame one. So I get to class and I'm getting my little mat out, and I'm assembling my weights, and I'm trying to limber up by loosely swinging my arms around. My mom wastes no time as she gets her personal workout area ready. I look into a room full of eager fitness freaks, and it becomes clear that I am the only male in the place. I had gotten the vibe that it was more of a womens kind of thing but my mom made it clear that I was totally welcome to join. This is about the time when Heather showed up. Heather is the eccentric instructor that apparently heard about my project and the fact that I would be partaking in the workout. She got up on the stage before us and announced to the class that a young boy (me) would be joining them and to stop giving me strange looks. She then proceeded to start up what ever the latest dance club remix song was and began the stretching routine. Basically it was a whole lot of squats, with small weights and a lot of repetition. She played several songs, they all resembled a mesh of inaudible noise watered down by a thumping bass. She played those songs and demonstrated exercises, and I repeated enthusiastically. I even started mimicking her as she took an air guitar solo after a squat. By the end I found my self breaking a solid sweat and was already feeling the burn that she was talking about. Class soon ended and I thanked Heather for making me sweaty. We then took some pictures and went home to enjoy a couple of well deserved protein shakes. I was pretty damn sore the next day.