Day 64

I know people who live in Michigan but they read the New York Times. I always found that to be curious. So today I bought my first New York Times off the newstand. It's not that I haven't read it before, I've just never bought it while living in Michigan. I'm going to try my hand at doing the crossword puzzle. Will Shorts here I come.

Day 65

I've missed two days because I really didn't do anything new. My mind went numb when it got to the end of each day. So I let myself off the hook. Today I bought white asparagus. No excitement there but it was something I've never done before. Perhaps I'll do something more interesting tomorrow.

DAY 68

My friends and I pooled our money together today and bought an instant lottery ticket I've never tried before. Based on crossword puzzles, we had to be able to get at least three words in the puzzle to make our $2.00 investment back. I scratched all of the silver covering to reveal the letters available to me. I started circling those letters on the pre-made crossword puzzle on the card. I got one word, then two words.."I've got three words," I yelled. But wait, I found a fourth word. I got up to six words on the card and we won $25.00. I don't buy them often but this was the first big win playing instant lotto. While we split our winnings between the three of us, it was still a quick hit of excitment.

Day 69

I stepped into a rented river kayak and started a journey down the Thornapple River. Two city "girls" venturing out on a 2.5 hour trip on a meandering waterway. "Bill" was the guy at the campground who told us we have to get there by 9:45 a.m. or he'll leave without us. We pictured a group of people waiting to get on the river when we arrived at 9:53 a.m.. But when we arrived, we were the only one's going out. So much for the big rush. I hummed the theme song from Deliverance after Bill was out of earshot. Perhaps it was his monotone drawl or frozen looking face that brought the tune into my mind. Without incidence, the lazy river proved to be a wonderful way to start the day.

Day 70

It's a place you'd pass right be if someone didn't tell you to stop. Sam's Oassis is run by Sam from Jordan. He cooks in the kitchen which is located behind the counter. He's got a face that would work in an animated cartoon - round, smiling and friendly. The food he makes is lebanese, fresh and tasty. While I've been visiting my friends in Grand Rapids for over 20 years, this was the first time I've ever been in this restaurant. Sam said his restaurant has been in this location for 12 years and downtown for 9 years. This just goes to show that there's always a good restaurant to discover even when it's been around for years.

Day 71

The post office sells these postcards where you can insert a 4x6 photo and that becomes the front of the card. They're only $2.49 but I've always been a little too thrifty to buy one. It's not that I don't spend money on other things such as iced passion tea with a splash of lemonade at Starbucks that costs $2.12. I just have always thought of these specialized postcards as a waste of money. Not today! I picked out a leopard print framed one that a picture of my two sweet kitties will fill. Now I just have to decide who will open up their mailbox and be greeted by Maui and Lear. It can't be just any old person who might not notice the personalized nature of the postcard. A keen eye will be needed to make sure it doesn't end up in an Office Depot home shredder. My feline friends deserve better than that. Perhaps I'll send it to myself. Hmmmm. That may be the best idea I've had to date.

Day 72

Today I put money in someone elses parking meter that had already expired. It was a small but possibly very helpful gesture that I've never done before. The meter nazis don't need one more victim, if I can help it. I may take this on as a mission. The world would be a much better place if there were no more parking tickets written ever again! I'll be the newest action hero...the parking meter angel.

Day 73

I started a project that has been talked about for years. It's called Front Porch. My neighbor built this beautiful front porch complete with his handmade cape cod chairs. A lot of very lively conversations have taken place on that porch. My across the street neighbor has a much smaller porch with room for two chairs. I took my video camera across the street and got some footage to get the project going. Now I just have to see if they'll be as open with the camera running.

Day 74

Today I hired my friend's 11 year old twins to weed my front garden. They both don't like spiders and bugs so I was a bit concerned that this plan would not work. But money is a powerful motivator. For the price of $5.00 each, they were willing to get down on their knees and pull the encroaching weed community from the soil. Everything went quite smoothly until one of them saw a pill bug in the refuse bag she was filling. She twitched and jerked at the site of the small bug. I tried to explain that the bug was more afraid of her. It didn't work. I wasn't giving up. I then explained that if she just stopped thinking about the bug everything would be fine. That didn't work. When she asked to go use the bathroom I wasn't sure she would ever come back out. More time than was needed passed. I had to go in after her. "I have a stomachache," she said from the other side of the door. "Did you have one when you came over?" I asked. "No, but I didn't get much sleep last night," she responded. Not sure what one has to do with the other but I was beginning to get suspicious. "Come outside when you're done in there," I said.
She slowly emerged after a few minutes with one of those faces that says I want you to know that I don't feel well. I had the big trimming shears out ready to trim the branches off the front walk shrubs. "You want to do this?" I asked her. "Yeah," her excited smile was fighting with the "my stomach hurts" story. After a few snips, her brother got to use the trimming shears. The long bright orange handles are quite inviting. So much so that I think she forgot about her stomachache. We finished the weeding and both kids left with five single dollar bills in their pockets. Both of them said they want to do this again but I'm going to have to see if mother nature will remove her bugs from my garden. Good weeders are hard to find!

Day 75

For a couple years I have been talking about buying a kayak. It was one of those conversations that seemed to replace the actual action. But not any more. Today I took my bright orange-yellow precision kayak out into the waters of Kensington. It was a hot sunny morning and I paddled "sunny" (my friend named her) out along the coastline looking for turtles and non-existent alligators. We did see swans, a crane, turtles and jumping fish. The lake is connected to another body of water. We passed under the freeway which delivered a cacophany of very interesting sounds that echoed off of the water. My friend brought PB&J's for us to eat while lounging in our kayaks. I felt like I was on vacation!

Day 76

I don't normally use the word "glorious" but when I walked out of work today that's what came to mind. I needed my sunglasses that were in my car and I'm sure my plants needed water. But first I had to pick up brochures leftover from this year's Michigan Student Film & Video Festival. The company that housed them is located near my work, so I volunteered to pick them up. Thankfully the former president of the sponsoring organization is housing all of the "stuff" so I headed over to her place to drop the boxes off in her basement. As I drove up, I knew something was different. "This looks great!" I said without a second thought after backing into her driveway. "I've been cleaning up the yard and the beds since 7:30 this morning," she replied. I understood in a way only another gardener ever could. We unloaded the boxes carefully so as not to cause me to spend a week glued to my couch. The day I turned 40 I got back pain. I don't know how but it found me. We finished the job and she asked if I wanted a beer. On a hot day like today, that invitation sounded good even to someone who doesn't really like beer all that much. Having never sat in her backyard before, I cooled off with a cold one while watching a blackbird take a dip in her pond.

Day 77

This will be a short one unlike my 20+ foot putt I sunk tonight during my golf game.

Day 78

There's a bar at the end of my street. It's one of those neighborhood gathering places with too many tv's showing a different show on each monitor. I discovered it a number of years ago and in spirit, it reminds me of "Cheers." If you have to ask what "Cheers" is than you should just skip this and wait for Day 77. For some reason I had a lot of energy at 9:45 p.m. so when my friend called to see if I wanted to go out for coffee, I surprisingly said yes. I could hear her shock in the silence over the telephone. We got to the bar at 10:30 p.m. and sitting in the booth I got my idea for today. Like most bars, they have the Keno game on one of the monitors where the wall meets the ceiling. I've taken enough trips to Vegas to know about Keno, but I've never played it in my own neighborhood. So I asked the waitress to explain the procedure, the odds and the bet. I bet a whopping $1.00. Gamblers Anonymous is not going to have a new member tonight. I chose three numbers to match out of the 25 that pop onto the screen. Literally, the image is of a piece of popcorn transforming into a number. I watched intently. First up was the number "4', then "76", and it kept going without popping my numbers up. My sisters' favorite number "23" hit but that wasn't one of my numbers. My numbers 9, 49 and 57 never appeared, at least during that round. I'm pretty sure that will be the last time I play Keno in my hometown bar.

Day 79

You may notice that Day 80 is missing. That's because I didn't do anything I've never done before. The strange thing is I couldn't think of anything to do. Today I went with my friend Eileen on a bike ride. We stopped at Barnes & Noble to find today's activity. I was interested in the magazine section. I didn't know there was magazine titled Scoot about Scooters so I picked it up and scanned it. These scooters come in some pretty colors. The coincidence is that this morning as I was driving to work, I saw a young man in work clothes riding a powder blue scooter.

Day 81

My neighbor is out of town but before he left, he asked if I'd give some "love" to his dogs while he is away. That's not hard because I've know these two dobermans since they were puppies. Corona and Doser have the weimeriner coloring so they don't look as scarey as other dobermans. I've never taken Corona for a walk so this morning I took her sniffing around the neighborhood. We stopped at light posts, trees and fences.

Day 83

I got to the end of the day and realized I hadn't done anything I've never done before so I did the only logical thing. I met my friend Eileen at the Martini bar. I was tempted to get my favorite key lime martini but in order to be true to my experiment, I tried a new one. Eileen suggested the Pineapple Stoli Martini. The waiter set it down in front of me and I took a sip. I think I got a second degree burn in my throat. The pineapple essence smoothed it out a little bit but not much. I wasn't feeling the joy but I continued to drink it. When there was a just a little left, Eileen tasted it. "This is terrible," she exclaimed. "Really?" I said. "I just figured that's how it tastes." "No. No. No. It's supposed to be much more pinappley," she said. As I was drinking it, I had already decided that this first would be my last. Now that I know it wasn't supposed to taste like that, maybe someday I'll give it another chance.

Day 82

I've never been to my city's arts and craft fair so today, Mallory and I went to Berkley Days. Mallory is my 13 year old mentee who I see twice a month. We supported the dance team by donating at their booth and making bracelets.

Day 84

The 90 degree weather didn't stop me and my three friends from heading out onto the golf course for our Thursday women's golf league. Of course, I was never so happy to feel the wind hit my face as we each raised our arms out like an airplane to cool down. On hole number six, I pulled out my driver, took a swing and watched as my ball landed on the the green. Getting on there in one swing was my first first today. The hole, a par three, was about forty feet from my ball. I was hoping my putter would be my best friend at that moment. So as the crowd became hushed, (well there really was no crowd but I like imagining it) I hit the ball and it passed the hole off the green into the grass. It wasn't looking good. I took the long walk to where my ball rested. The pitching wedge is not my club of choice but in this case I had no other option. I took a short swing, tapped the ball and watched it follow the arc of a rainbow. If the flag was not still in the hole, my ball would have landed in the hole, my pot of gold. But according to golfing rules, my friends told me that when this happens, it's the same as sinking the ball. So...my second first today was sccoring par on this hole.

Day 85

Growing up always included Geneva. Whether it was when I came home from school to find her wiping out the oven or first thing in the morning as she pulled her car up to the curb in front of our house, Geneva was a staple in my life. She was no ordinary woman. She taught me an important life lesson in a way I will never forget. One day I had friends over to the house after school. "This is Deid...," I said. That was our nickname for her that just stuck. I continued, "...she's our maid." Everyone said "hi" but I remember feeling something unspoken hanging in the air between Geneva and myself. After my friends left, Geneva sat me down. She was never one to hold something in that was bothering her. "I'm not your maid," she said sternly. While my memory is not clear on the exact words, I do remember her explaining to me about how she should be introduced to my friends. She made it very clear that as a black woman, she is no less of a person than anyone else and being called a maid was demeaning to her. To this day. I cringe when I hear someone say that word. Thoughts of Geneva flood my brain. It happens everytime. I wrote her a letter today that had the usual pleasantries -- Hello. How are you? -- It's the first step in reconnecting with the woman who taught me about respect.

Day 86

I had my first piece of key lime pie in the Florida Keys while on a break from swimming with dolphins. That was around 1991. I even bought a bottle of real key lime juice to make it when I got home. When I found the bottle in my pantry about five years later, I realized that making my own homemade key lime pie had passed me by....until today. The lime zest I peeled yesterday became an ingredient along with the real lime juice I squeezed, low-fat condensed milk, graham crackers, butter and egg yolks. I pulled the recipe off the internet and it was a great success especially with homemade whipped cream blanketing the sunny yellow filling.

Day 87

Today's activity is quite small. I used my zester to get lime zest for tomorrow's activity. This experiment is not going to be easy.

Day 88

I stumbled onto my 'something I've never done' activity today. I grabbed five pound weights during my jazzercise class this morning. Normally I use three pound weights. As I was leaving with my friend I casually said, "This was the first time I used five pound weights." I heard the words and realized I fullfilled the requirement of my experiment.

Day 89

Some people think watching golf on TV is boring but I don't because I grew up watching it with my Dad. On Saturday's we'd go to the driving range and I'd get a small basket of balls to hit. Now, as an adult, I play once a week in a women's league. One of the women I golf with has a Taylormade driver that rings when she makes contact with the ball. It sounds like candy. So when I walked into Dick's Sporting Goods today and saw the clubs on sale, I felt something. I looked at the drivers and the young salesman noticed asking if I'd like to test it out. I looked around but saw nothing that would make it safe for other store patrons if I were to use the club in the store. "Where can I try it out?" I asked. "We have a golf cage here," he responded. I followed him into the back of the store and saw a net, a basket of balls and a tee all set up, ready to go. They also had a device to measure the speed of my swing. I had never done this before. It fit the criteria of my experiment perfectly! The club was great but unfortunately, my swing was too slow so the computer couldn't provide me with my information. Each ball also seemed to hit the net quite low which explains why one could confuse my golf game with bowling. I didn't buy the club right now. Perhaps I'll start another list of things to buy when I'm done with this experiment.

Day 90

A hazy morning in Michigan was the backdrop for my first day of doing something I've never done before. I decided to choose an easy task, not too complicated, something I could do on my own. I went into my garage at 6:15 a.m. and with my helmet on, I ventured out on my bicycle. I've never ridden my bike before going to work. The clink of my changing gears broke the silence of the morning. A man with hunched shoulders walked his dog and as I passed, we did the perverbial nod. A couple women were walking and talking while holding weights. They didn't notice me. It was a 30 minute ride that was very enjoyable.