#21 - Complete!

This was a fun one!  I got to give zip lining a try at my company's annual offsite.  We were holed up in Government Camp on Mt. Hood for two days of meetings & socializing.  The events of this weekend were planned by yours truly and I devoted every ounce of energy to planning this retreat so that all would have a great time - so of course I worked some fun in.  :-)

One of our planned group activities was to go cosmic snow tubing after dinner Thursday night.  Unfortunately Mt. Hood did not have enough snow to open the slopes or the snow tubing so we threw in zip lining as a last-minute replacement.  Totally fine by me since zip lining was added to my bucket list weeks ago!

Zip lining was both everything like I expected and nothing at all like I expected.  The actual act of zip lining was more or less as I imagined from getting harnessed, to jumping off the platform, to the thrill of sliding down the cables.  All very cool.  But my first experience was not at all like I pictured.  When I envisioned myself zip lining, it was daylight, I was in a forest - perhaps even a tropical location - and the course was going to be long.  My first zip lining experience was at night (turned out to be pretty cool), it was snowing! (also very cool), and it was a super short run (just two zips).  But it was totally amazing!  And since we had the whole place to ourselves, I got to back and do the run 4 times.  Not too shabby.  :-)

I remember reading about an adventure park somewhere in the Willamette Valley wine country.  They have a legitimate zip line course from what I remember so I think I will have to plan a trip out there one day.  Zip lining is definitely something I'll do again and again and again!

All righty.  Time to wrap things up with progress on #15.  Next up is Madonna's Immaculate Collection.  If you lived through the 80s at all, this is a must-have!  I forget how many of her songs I truly love until I listen to this and am reminded.  I purchased this album shortly after moving to Portland when I realized my music library was lacking in Madonna selections.  This is a great starter to get you a sampling of her hits up to 1990.  And that's one of the amazing things about her - she's timeless.  She has had many more hits since this collection was released.  Her stuff from the late 90s and on may not be my favorites, but she is still going strong.

#31 - COMPLETE

I know this is a little lame - only six weeks in and already utilizing one of my swap options.  To be fair, this particular item on the list was thought about early on...  unfortunately never when I had my notebook nearby to jot it down.  So while this did not make the cut for the official list, I assure you that it was thought about early on.

Heartless Heathers in neon yellow shirts

So what did I do?  I went to my first roller derby bout last night - and it was super fun!  It was a pretty big affair - four Portland teams versus four Seattle teams.  The first match was already a couple minutes underway by the time we took our seats, so we missed hearing the introduction and rules.  It was a little hard to figure out the scoring, but it was great watching the Heartless Heathers (from Portland) take down the Sockit Wenches.

Portland's Guns N Rollers & High Rollers took down Seattle's Derby Liberation Front & Throttle Rockets respectively.  The night ended on a loss with our Break Neck Betties unable to overtake Grave Danger.  Once I understood the rules, it was awesome to watch the jammers as they raked up point after point.  Some of the standouts for me were Slay Miserables, Feliz Brutality, and Napoleon Blownapart.

I totally want to be a Heartless Heather for Halloween next year.  I have never been able to think of a totally awesome homemade costume, but I think a roller derby chick would make a great costume.  And if I can assemble a proper costume, then I'd have everything I need to try out next year.  My friend, Hannah, joined me at the match and we both think it would be fun to try out next year.  So now I have something else to look forward to.

Now to vent a little frustration about my progress on item #15.  Wikipedia's list of the top selling albums of all time has changed since I started this project!  I did not think the list would change so easily - seems like something that should be pretty well set in stone at this point.  It wouldn't be a problem if I had bothered to make a copy of the list when I first saw it, but alas, I did not.  When I checked it a few days ago, it showed 32 albums having sold 30 million units - today the list is down to 31.  Why is it fluctuating?  The two biggest changes now are the addition of Santa's Supernatural at the bottom of the list (which I will skip) and the change in order of Nirvana's Nevermind and Pink Floyd's The Wall.  Odd.

The 28th best-selling album of all time is full of energy that has been fun to listen to when writing about roller derby - Metallica's self-titled album (aka The Black Album).  I'm pretty sure I purchased this album when I was working at Tower Records - it was a lot of fun having a music discount back then.  The band actually played in the parking lot at that Tower location back in '96.  I remember having a few friends who ditched school to go check it out.  That was before I got into them though.  The only other Metallica story I have is that "Enter Sandman" was played at every single high school dance.