Blog - Crazybananas

100 Things: The Conclusion

May 15, 2008/1 Comment/in Blond, Fun, Gimme, World /by Megan

I started my list of 100 things I want to do before I’m 100 a few months back. Honestly, it was a bit of a cop out. I had just started my new job and was dried up as far as content ideas for this site, so I wrote out a huge list of things I want to do someday. Then, when I had nothing else to write, I would post five or ten of these things at a time. Really, it was all about laziness. Which should be the new tagline for the blog: Crazybananas, it’s all about laziness.

I never kept track of how many things I’d written, just hoping I’d be able to come up with 100 at the end of this whole endevour. Turns out, when I looked back, I had written exactly 95. Yesterday I sat down and attempted to finish up my list. But, CRAP, it was hard. How do I come up with five more things, when I’ve already listed 95? How do I fit everything else I want to do into only five things? Quite the quandry.

In the end, this is what I came up with:

95. Attend a big movie premiere
96. Have a piece of art in a gallery showing
97. Make $100 off of my online writing
98. Live in Europe and take the train to faraway locations during vacation
99. Retire and live a life of leisure
100. Do something that changes the world for the better

You can view the entire list right here, and it will also be posted under my About Me section and on the right hand sidebar of the homepage. I plan to continue to update my list as I accomplish things and am able to cross them off. And I WILL accomplish them, even if Trent hates horses and swears we shall never own one! I noticed that many of my ideas involve travel of some kind, and I wonder why that is? I never thought of myself as a person that craved travel and exploration, but apparently I don’t know myself very well! Have any of you tried to write a list like this? What surprised you?

For those of you who hate to click on links (why is that, exactly?) below is the list in it’s entirety.

1. Learn to play the guitar
2. Purchase my own house
3. Get my scuba diving certification
4. Visit all 7 continents
5. Skydive
6. Get over my fear of boats by going on a cruise
7. Learn to snowboard
8. Blog everyday for a month
9. Write and publish a fiction novel
10. Take Trent to Amsterdam and eat lunch on the lawn of the Van Gogh Museum
11. Give a stranger $100 on Christmas Eve
12. Go on a honeymoon
13. Own and train a horse
14. People watch at the duomo in Florence with Lucy
15. Take the train to St. Louis from Kansas City
16. Stand underneath a waterfall in a tropical location
17. Take photos of someone famous
18. Attend a taping of the Oprah Winfrey show
19. Vote for a woman for president
20. Give a speech honoring my dad
21. Grow my own cantaloupe like when I was a kid
22. Spend a day at a spa
23. Play in a real rock band
24. Buy a brand new Mac computer
25. Send my daughter to college
26. Work on a horse ranch
27. Go white water rafting
28. Teach Lu how to ice skate
29. Report from a foreign country for NPR
30. Live in a “green” home
31. Turn off my phone for a day
32. Organize a family reunion
33. Go on a mother/daughter trip with Lucy, my sister and her daughter
34. Pay back my and Trentâ€™s parents for all theyâ€™ve done for us
35. Ride a camel
36. Attend P. Diddyâ€™s white party
37. Be content in my life
38. Cross 50 items off this list
39. Buy a very expensive pair of shoes just because they are pretty
40. Take a university level design or photography class
41. Hold a leadership position in local politics
42. Take Lucy to the circus
43. Teach English at a school abroad
44. Visit Washington DC
45. Attend a political rally
46. Donate to charity anonymously
47. Drink wine in Central Park
48. Renew my vows on a beach
49. Live in a house on the Italian Coast
50. Reconnect with an old friend
51. See the Earth from space
52. Get my masters degree
53. Hug a koala bear
54. Visit the Grecian ruins
55. See a Broadway play
56. Sell a piece of photography
57. Go to New Orleans during Marti Gras
58. Cook every night for 7 days
59. Drink a pint in an Irish pub
60. Find out about my lineage and visit where my family comes from
61. See my momâ€™s old house in South Chicago
62. Ride in a rickshaw
63. Throw a keg party
64. Write a screenplay
65. Learn to bake apple pie
66. Go camping with the family
67. Learn to surf
68. Raise Lucy to become a strong, independent woman
69. Have more kids
70. Take a road trip of the United States in an RV
71. Run a marathon
72. Gamble in Vegas
73. Kiss Trent at the Eiffel Tower
74. Visit the Grand Canyon
75. Volunteer in a third world country
76. Live in New York City
77. Have a girls vacation with friends
78. Throw Lucy a sweet sixteen birthday party
79. Surprise Trent with a gift for no reason
80. Throw an elegant dinner party
81. Relearn how to speak fluent Italian
82. Attend a wedding in India
83. Ride an elephant
84. Learn how to fly an airplane
85. Meet a famous blogger
86. See the pyramids in Egypt
87. Hike through a tropical rain forest
~~88. Make enough money to support my family~~ DONE – February 2008
89. Take Trent to Cinque Terre and go on a hike there
90. Visit Canada
92. Drink a fancy cocktail on the roof of an apartment building in NYC
93. Go to therapy
94. Go for a week without checking email
95. Attend a big movie premiere
96. Have a piece of art in a gallery showing
97. Make $100 off of my online writing
98. Live in Europe and take the train to faraway locations during vacation
99. Retire and live a life of leisure
100. Do something that changes the world for the better

My Ovaries Are Aching

May 14, 2008/3 Comments/in Happiness, Photos /by Megan

This past weekend I was finally able to meet the gorgeous Carson James Young. And holy crap, is that little guy the cutest baby on the planet! It was such a cool experience, seeing my friends Abbie and Luke tackle the role of parenthood. Trent and I just kept looking at each other like, yup, I remember that. And that. Oh, and that too. Caring for a newborn should be an Olympic sport, it’s so difficult, but so far Luke and Abbie seem to be taking everything in stride. Unlike a certain blond mother I know who spent the first few weeks of her daughter’s life crying and wondering how in the world someone could allow her to take home this baby from the hospital without a proper license. (Sidenote: Is that the biggest sentence fragment you’ve ever seen? Yeah, me too.)

In between begging Trent for another baby and plotting how I could fit little Carson into my suitcase to take him home with me, I did manage to get a few photos. Unfortunately, wonderful borrowed lenses don’t help too much when you have the crappiest flash on planet Earth, but I still tried to make the best of it. Overexposure is the name of the game, people!

You can view the entire set below, or by clicking here.

The One With the Rash Story

May 13, 2008/3 Comments/in Blond, Grumples /by Megan

This weekend I had several fun ideas on how I would celebrate Mother’s Day. There was one idea in particular that made me so excited I thought my face would freeze due to excessive amounts of smiling. I had booked a massage appointment.

For me. Not for my husband (although he ended up with one as well). Not a gift for someone else. Me, me, me!

I couldn’t believe how cheap massages were in my hometown. Even though I live in a cottage that looks like it may crumble to the groud and be devoured by ants, I technically live in a fairly wealthy part of Kansas City, so massages are always pretty pricey. When I called for pricing in my hometown I almost fell out of my chair. And then I booked my appointment. A lovely hour massage. Oh, and as a special Mother’s Day treat, rose petals would be “incorporated” into the massage. “Incorporated” apparently means a last minute trip to the grocery store, buying a cheap bouquet of red roses, ripping the petals off and throwing them on the massage table. Mmmmm…relaxing.

Until the evening after the massage when I felt a bit, well, uncomfortable. Itchy. So I scratched. A few spots on my upper left arm, no big deal. Until I looked twenty minutes later and my entire upper arm was covered in hives. Well, that’s not good, is it? I figured I probably had a spring allergy attack or something, took some Benadryl and moved on with my life.

But then the next day the itchies were back. This time on my other arm. Strange, I thought. When I got back to KC, I decided to take a nice, warm shower and wash off whatever was making me so itchy. I figured maybe it was the massage lotion, as that was the only product that I’d use different from my normal routine. I’d just wash it off and take my tired butt to bed. In the shower I scratched my upper legs a bit, then felt the burning. Like my legs were on fire. I quickly turned off the shower and jumped out. I ran into the dining room stark naked and yelled for Trent. “Oh my god! My legs are burning! My back! My stomach!”

Trent walked into the room, took one look at me and his face dropped. My entire body was covered in hives. My legs were swollen up about an inch where I was scratching them, and the rest of me was red and bumpy as well. My skin felt like it was being burned off. Trent covered me in Benadryl cream and threw me out on the back porch into the cold air, while he shielded my naked butt from the neighbors. As the cool air hit my skin, I began to calm down. The burning subsided and I stopped panicking. Then Trent did what any good husband would do. Got me a giant glass of wine.

Turns out I had a reaction to the chemicals used to keep those lovely red roses looking fresh. Basically, I had an allergic reaction combined with a chemical burn. As long as I don’t touch my body when it itches or take showers, I feel fine. But I smell of Benadryl cream and two days of not showering. Happy Mother’s Day to me! Next year, I’m asking for a pony instead.