101 in 1,001 update: August 2014

Nearly a full season has passed since my last 101 in 1,001 update back in May, and I'm about six weeks away from the this project's end date. It's time for a report.

Here are some of the items I've checked off my 101 in 1,001 list this summer:

17) Participate in an adventure race/scavenger hunt in the Twin Cities.

Josh and I did this together in June! I saw a discounted race entry via Crowd Cut for the City Solve Urban Race Series event in Minneapolis, and I figured it'd be our best opportunity to try out an urban scavenger hunt.

From the event's home base at Cowboy Jack's on a rainy Saturday afternoon, more than 600 people (more than 200 teams) solved a clue that sent all of us out of the restaurant and over to a nearby intersection. From there, each team got the packets containing the clues, each directing us to a checkpoint, some of which were mandatory. We had to get to eight of them over the course of the afternoon or else risk a big penalty added to our finish time. Most checkpoints required a photo of all teammates next to the checkpoint's signage; others required completing an activity. And you figured out each checkpoint's location by solving puzzles that, through exercises like word finds and crosswords (often with local trivia), eventually point you toward an address. Then it's up to each team to figure out their strategy for getting to each of the checkpoints the fastest!

This was one of the most fun parts of the event for me. I don't watch Amazing Race but I am one of several people in my age bracket who still keeps up with Real World/Road Rules: Challenge. We mapped out our strategy (literally and figuratively) and then made our way around Minneapolis on foot and via the newly opened Green Line trains. (The rules stipulated that transportation modes were limited to walking/running or public transit.) We ended up walking several miles around the city, mostly in downtown Minneapolis and in Dinkytown by the University of Minnesota. 

The checkpoint I'll remember best, the one that still makes me laugh, is our last one. By the end, the rain was coming down harder and the wind was picking up—my baseball hat was great protection from the rain until the wind lifted it off my head and dropped it squarely in a puddle—and Josh and I got a little lost getting to the last checkpoint on our list, a Crossfit place. We'd had a great time but were both pretty tuckered out at that point. It turned out that our last stop was the only one that required serious physical activity: to be specific, one teammate had to do burpees while the other held a plank, until the team accumulated 40-50 burpees. Burpees are among my least favorite calisthenics and we were not especially fond of this stop, but after that, we were heading back to the finish line!

Even with the burpees, the whole event was a fun and novel way to explore a familiar city for the afternoon, and it was definitely outside our usual weekend routine. I'd do an urban scavenger hunt again for sure.

68) Have a progressive dinner party.

This happened last weekend! Our group met at our house for appetizers, then went to my brother's house for dinner, and then returned to my house for the homemade ice cream we had assembled earlier in the evening (vanilla with Golden Oreos, to be exact).

Here they are, in motion to show that we are indeed progressing to my brother's house:

The key to the main course at a progressive dinner is something that can be prepared in advance or without much attention from the person cooking. My brother figured out a great solution by making chicken in the crockpot, so by the time we arrived at his house, all he had to do was shred the chicken and broil it (like preparing carnitas but without pork) for tacos. Nicely done, Brother!

71) Sew a dress.

This happened in June!

73) Take a photo of the same place every month for a year.

This happened from August 2013 to July 2014, and I shared the final results last month. I want to repeat this project and am brainstorming new locations for it.

100) Read 30 minutes per day for two weeks.


I mentioned this before, during one of my unsuccessful attempts to complete this goal, that for someone who calls herself an avid reader, this project was trickier than I expected! I usually read magazines in the morning and books in the evening, and I learned that I was prone to reading for a few minutes and then falling asleep at night. But the upside is that this kind of goal is a great way to really delve into books. Sometimes I have a hard time getting drawn into a book when I'm reading it 5-10 minutes at a time. When you're reading for half an hour per stretch, getting hooked is much easier. During these two weeks, from July 25 through August 7, I read Americanah, Dixieland Delight: A Football Season on the Road in the Southeastern Conference, and The Circle.

I believe that leaves me with 74 items complete. My list's items are grouped into 11 categories, and I reached another little milestone this summer when I closed out my first category by finished all the projects in the "Creativity" section.

But I'm not done yet. Six weeks to go!