#40 list

[mandy-betlem]

my 40

1. Current mood? tired but allright 2. If you could meet any celebrity, who would it be and why? Lady gaga. Not because of her music, but because of her inspiring artistic way of thinking. 3. You win a million dollars, what is the first thing you spend it on? paying my parents back for my school 4. Favourite song or songs at the moment? a cover from Patty Walters of teenage dirtbag 5. What are you wearing right now? blue jeans with dark washing or so.. red tanktop and a furry comfy vest 6. Least favourite singer? well that's mean... but I'd go for my mom ;P  7. One thing you’re craving right now a good hug and a nice chat 8. Last movie you watched? Now You See Me 9. Favourite quote? au revoir mon amis, je t'aime mon petit    - the green mile-

10. Have any piercings? If so, where?

I did have in my ear... but they got irritated

11. Biggest pet peeve? idk... loud ones 12. One electronic item you can’t live without? my pc... 13. Favourite music genre? Rock/alternative  14. Play any sports? If so, what sports volleyball and fitness  15. Best birthday present ever received sketchbook 16. Scariest moment of your life everytime I watch a horror movie  17.Earliest memory? I don't even know... too much thinking 18. Missing anyone at the moment?

my family... they're on holiday for 2 weeks while I watch the house 19. What do you look for in the opposite sex?

trust, humor, kindness and honesty

20. Favourite song lyrics

noah gunderson - caroline 

billy joel - piano man

21. One food that you could eat every day, and never get tired of:

hmm... strawberries 

22. If you could be any animal, which animal would you be? probably a dog... 'cause I'm pretty loyal 23. Favourite holiday? Christmas 24. Do you like the place you live in? it's allright... great people and great pubs 25. What kind of computer do you have? macbook... yeah I know 26. Ever had you heart broken? yeah... kinda  27.How did you discover tumblr? by accident I guess xp ... lucky accident tho 28. Do you get jealous easily? sometimes.. depends on what the situation is 29. One thing you wish you could change about yourself I gotta break that huge wall around myself... 30. Have a crush on anyone at the moment? kinda... yeah.. guess so.. ^_^ 31. Biggest fear? losing loved ones  32. What is the current time where you are? 01.38 am 33. One thing you like about yourself that I want to be different than others... not a copy 34. Something you wish to accomplish within the next year? find more passion in my education...  35. Favourite place to travel? somewhere with someone I love.. place doesn't really matter  36. Someone who is very important to you my mom 37.Favourite scent? vanille, cinnamon, mens deodorant  38.Ever been to any concerts? If so, how many, and which was your favourite? nope... :( 39. One thing you want to say to someone right now, but can’t or aren’t brave enough to that I appreciate him and wanna thank him for the time he spends with me 40. Put your itunes on shuffle. List the first 5 songs that come on

Green Day - 21 guns

Ashes Remain - on my own

All Time Low - dear Maria, count me in

Busted - Year 3000

The All American Rejects - kids in the street

[fortylist]

32. Go to a football game

In any given year for the last ten years, I would have spent the spring and summer with my family tailgating in parking lots before Georgia Force games. I was a season ticket holder of my beloved Arena Football team since day one. Unfortunately, the team folded last year leaving me with minimal professional opportunities to see a football game this year. Well, there are the Falcons but I just don’t have $200 laying around to go to an NFL game. 

So, for this Forty List item I was down to a couple of realistic affordable choices:

Go to a Blackwell Bears football game. The Blackwell Bears are like Pop Warner football. I played one season for Blackwell back in 1980. I was on the 65-pound Red Bears. I hated the practices and quickly decided that baseball was a better option for me as there was far less running and hitting.

A Sprayberry High School football game. I graduated from Sprayberry in 1991. In the last twenty-two years I have gone to two SHS games. The last time I went, I couldn’t find a seat and ended up standing along a fence with a bunch of scary teenagers while all the band parents eyed me like I was about to make off with their marimbas and trombones.

I decided to go with the Sprayberry option… And it was homecoming. Yay!

With my youngest daughter in tow the two of us headed a couple of miles down the road to my old high school to watch my Sprayberry Yellow Jackets take on the Forsyth Central Bulldogs. Go Jackets!

We made sure to go extra early so that the seating thing wouldn’t be a problem. Not only did we get a decent little perch along the 25-yard line, but we also killed an hour eating hotdogs, hamburgers and funnel cakes. Huzzah for funnel cakes!

  Within an hour or so, we were packed in tight with a bunch of high schoolers, one of whom was a girl who constantly pulled out her iPhone, turned the front facing camera on her and checked her hair. She did this no less than four times every quarter.

Now, one of the BIG differences between this high school football game and just about every football game I have ever attended in my life was that both offenses had a near inability to pass the football. At some point in the second quarter, I was catching on that Sprayberry had a quarterback and running back that had almost amassed 120 rushing yards. And as the game went on, I couldn’t recall a single Forsyth Central passing play. The Bulldogs did however have a running back who tallied 150 yards and - if the game never ended - would still be running circles around the SHS defense. I felt at the time I was stuck in a performance of "Night of 101 Option Plays."

Once the clock hit zero, the Yellow Jackets had prevailed 45-28. It was their first victory of the year. With the exception of a touchdown in the last 10 seconds of the first half and a non-existent defense in the last part of the fourth quarter, Sprayberry more or less beat the Bulldogs senseless. Good Friday night fun with my daughter at my ol’ alma mater. 

So here a few of my random thoughts on my high school football experience:

It’s weird going to a sporting event where 98% of the people in attendance could care less about what is going on on the field. A high school football game is purely a social event; the football is a total afterthought.

The loudest cheer of the night was for an SHS 30-yard touchdown run. The second loudest cheer was for the homecoming queen.

Both Reagan and I sat in the same spot for three hours. In that time, we had no less than thirty different people alternate sitting spots around us. High school humans don’t stop moving. Like ever.

The kid kicking for the Yellow Jackets is pretty good. Nailed every kickoff; hit every PAT. He actually looked like the most talented player on the whole team.

The Sprayberry run defense is bad. Really bad.

Forsyth Central’s run defense is even worse. No defense should allow teams in 3rd and 17 situations to convert by running the QB straight up the middle.

I hope that girl with the iPhone was happy at some point with the way her hair looked.

ADDENDUM

On November 24th, I got to my first Baltimore Ravens home game since 1999. The Ravens pretty much demolished Geno Smith and the New York Jets. Behind four Justin Tucker field goals and an amazing hook-up from Joe Flacco to Jacoby Jones, the Ravens rolled 19-3. Probably the most memorable aspect of the day was that it was 33 degrees at kick-off with 30 mph winds. That, coupled with the fact our seats were four rows from the top, led to one of the coldest experiences of my life.

[fortylist]

35. Go on an awesome date with my oldest daughter

This is Grace, my oldest daughter.

Grace is a vibrant thirteen year-old who is currently in her last year of middle school. She spends most of her time in her room either playing guitar or cultivating one of her many One Direction-focused Instagram accounts. For a few hours this past Saturday, I was able to coax her out of her space and out on a date with her dear old dad.

Our date started by my picking her up and bringing her a half dozen roses. Not only did she look wonderful with her curled hair (a new thing), her make-up (an even newer thing), but she also looked radiant in the dress that I had made for her for my Forty List.

To start our date, we headed to downtown Woodstock, which is about twenty minutes north of our house. The main street in Woodstock is a nice little place with a variety of restaurants and shops; the area also has a small park with a fountain and a gazebo. Much to our great luck, not only was it a beautiful Saturday afternoon, but the little town was bustling about – all primed up for the FREE Marshall Tucker Band concert later that evening. Needless to say, in my tie and clothes and her in her dress, we looked sorely out of place.

We immediately headed over to the Elm Street Cultural Arts Village. The village's centerpiece is an old church that has been converted into a theater. We settled ourselves in for a production of All In The Timing. The play was a series of five comedic one acts that varied from three monkeys trying to type Shakespeare to a man conning people out of money by teaching them a completely made up language. Both mine and Grace's favorite was a piece called Variations on the Death of Trotsky. It's basically about the death of Leon Trotsky and the guy plays the entire thing with a mountain climbing pick sticking out of his skull. Funny stuff.

After the play, we headed out to main street and I took her on a little shopping excursion. We went to a handful of shops and I bought her a bracelet and clutch purse that matched her dress.

We needed to be quick about the shopping as we still needed to get something to eat before all of the Marshall Tucker devotees descended on the area making escape impossible. So, we headed across the street to a nice Italian restaurant, Vingenzo's. I had eaten there once before. They are a fancy little spot that makes their own mozzarella cheese and their pizzas aren't of the crappy Pizza Hut/Domino's variety, but produced with real ingredients and baked in a fiery brick oven.

The two of us thoroughly enjoyed a sample of their Bufala Mozzarella with Sopressata; and we paired that with their authentic “la margherita” pizza.

With bellies full of pizza goodness, we quickly skirted out of Woodstock and headed over to the Avenues in East Cobb for some more shopping.

We spent a good bit of time smelling all the scents in the Yankee Candle store, dropped our jaws at the prices for common household items at Williams Sonoma, and rounded out our Avenues trip with an amazing cup of frozen yogurt at Menchies. In one of those moments of sheer perfection, we sat outside on a cool September night, watched the sun go down and had ate the heck out of some cake batter yogurt topped with Kit-Kats, chocolate chips and graham cracker crumbs.

Of course, she still had $20 to spend, so we swung by Target on the way home, and picked up a DVD of the Regular Show Halloween special, a 4-pack of Jones Candy Corn soda and a box of Mike and Ikes. All told, it was about the most amazing date a forty-year old dad could have with his amazing teenage daughter.

[fortylist]

15. Learn all of the U.S. Presidents in order

One of my unique interests – outside of KISS and Star Wars – is U.S. History. Unbeknownst to many is that my undergraduate college degree was political science with a minor in history. I have spent more time than most in books in books ranging from early American political foundations and thought to the escapades of our founding fathers in Europe and abroad.

Of course, when it came time to make my Forty List, I wanted to use the opportunity to fill in one of those gaps of learning that I've always wanted to have in my brain: the order of the U.S. Presidents from Washington to Obama. All forty-three presidents across all forty-four presidencies.

To my surprise, learning them all in order was much easier than I expected. Really,I had the whole thing down in less than a week. And at no time did I ever print anything out.

For starters, I knew the first seven with no problems; I also had the last presidents all the way back to Kennedy. So, before I even started on this list, I had a full third of the presidents committed to memory.

The other thing which helped considerably was that I knew the names of the presidents. It's not like I ever confused Washington with some other last name that starts with “W.” This was WAY different than the provinces of Canada where I was having to learn names like Nunavut and Fredricton.

Once I finally got my mind ready to go, I more or less pulled up the Wikipedia page with the list of presidents and started memorizing them in groups of 10.

Now, one thing you REALLY need to know about my brain is that I have all kinds of strange mnemonic devices to remember things...and this list is no different.

Without further ado, here's the list of U.S. Presidents...all done from memory with my way of memorizing them:

1. Washington – I knew this one

2. Adams – I knew this one

3. Jefferson – I knew this one

4. Madison – I knew this one

5. Monroe – I knew this one

6. Adams – I knew this one

7. Jackson – I knew this one

8. Van Buren – He is the eighth president. An eight kind of looks like an “S.” Seinfeld starts with the Letter “S” and there was an episode about the Van Buren boys.

9. Harrison – I have two different friends who have sons named Harrison and Tyler. These two go in alphabetical order.

10. Tyler – see above

11. Polk – It's the first one after 10, let's do a polka...

12. Taylor - ...to Taylor Swift music.

13. Fillmore – Taylor Swift...I'd like to fill more of her...

14. Pierce – My grandmother's maiden name

15. Buchanan – I have no clue how I remember this...I just do

16. Lincoln – I knew this one

17. Johnson – Lincoln assassinated; Kennedy assassinated. They were both followed by presidents named Johnson

18. Grant – I knew this one

19. Hayes – The next two I remember the first two letters of General Hospital and flip them. Those letters are the first letters in their last names.

20. Garfield – see above

21. Arthur – The next four presidents lead up to the first Roosevelt...and they are all in alphabetical order. This one is the letter "A."

22. Cleveland – This one is the letter “C.”

23. Harrison – This one is the letter “H.” (And a repeat name)

24. Cleveland – Like this one is a repeat name.

25. McKinley – This one is the letter “M.”

26. Roosevelt – Which leads us to the first Roosevelt

27. Taft – And Taft was the president 100 years ago.

28. Wilson – The last name of my mom's next door neighbor.

29. Harding – I work with a guy named Bruce Harding. The “ooo” sound in his first name help me to remember that the next three presidents all have double “oo” in their last name – and they are in alphabetical order.

30. Coolidge - COO

31. Hoover - HOO

32. Roosevelt - ROO

33. Truman – There's only two presidents left until I am good and those last two are not in alphabetical order.

34. Eisenhower – see above

35. Kennedy – I knew this one

36. Johnson – I knew this one

37. Nixon – I knew this one

38. Ford – I knew this one

39. Carter – I knew this one

40. Reagan – I knew this one

41. Bush – I knew this one

42. Clinton – I knew this one

43. Bush – I knew this one

44. Obama – I knew this one

See. All that all made perfect sense.

[fortylist]

26. Sew something

For the last few years I have spent my Thursday nights enjoying one of my few television indulgences: Project Runway. In addition to marveling at the patient wisdom of Tim Gunn, I have learned to appreciate what some very talented individuals can do with a few yards of fabric, a sewing machine and a day’s worth of work. 

Sometime during last year’s season, I was watching one of the designers sketching (or lack thereof) and thought to myself, “ I could do that.”

So, channeling my inner Kenley Collins I started using the Paper app on my iPad to sketch dresses. I drew up ideas for Star Wars dresses, Baltimore Orioles outfits, and fashions for the 1950s and 60s.

(Yeah, that dress on the left is based on R2-D2)

After sketching for a bit, I finally decided that it was time to actually sit down and figure out how to make a dress from scratch. I mean if that Casanova guy from season 8 of Project Runway could sew, certainly I could. 

While I really wanted to make something of my own creation, my mother – who can sew just about anything – strongly encouraged me to work from an easy pattern. (She emphasized the word easy several times).

With my daughter in tow, I went to the fabric store and picked out a pattern and my fabric. I opted for a simple sleeveless dress, using black cotton for the top and a houndstooth print for the skirt.

To my surprise, the first three hours of my sewing project consisted of cutting, pinning and a lot more cutting.

Once I had all my parts cut out I finally got to work with the sewing machine. Now what you need to know is that prior to this I had never – not once – used a sewing machine. I had no idea what I was actually getting myself into. To make matters more interesting, I was also learning on my mother’s machine which is a model from the 60s. It’s built into it’s own table, can only do a regular stitch and a baste stitch, but still works like a champ. 

To my surprise, I picked up stitching pretty quickly. I figured out how to do the simple – like keeping things in a straight line – to the slightly more difficult easing of seams and edge finishing.

After four three-hour sewing sessions, my dress was complete. In total, I sewed about 75% of the dress; there were some things like the zipper and matching the top half to the bottom that I was simply incapable of doing without utterly wrecking the whole dress.

So, here are a few of my takeaways:

1.  I hadn’t finished this dress and I was already thinking what I could do for a second project. I think that this sewing thing is a good outlet for my creative thinking and personality. If I could just practice and get some skills, I think I could make some pretty good stuff, from Star Wars costumes to pajamas to strange outfits for my children…

2.  I learned all about back stitches, edge finishes, darts, vents, zipper foots, and a whole slew of terms with which I was completely unfamiliar.

3.  That’s right, I made a vent. Awesome.

4.  Working on a sewing machine is about 20% of a garment making process; the other is made up of cutting, pinning and ironing. Lots and lots and lots of pinning.

5.  Without my mother’s help, I could never have done this project. At one point I had sewn the top together and thought it looked like complete crap. I handed it to her and she started pulling things all over the place…I had no idea that I had sewn the thing inside out.

6.  Patterns are overwhelmingly confusing if you have never done one before. 

7.  While I never will be a Mondo, Michael Costello, or Kenley Collins, I have to think that at one point they all made a first dress and that this attempt was pretty damn good effort.

Lastly, this was as much fun as I have had on any Forty List item and am looking forward to using my new skills to make all kinds of new Halloween outfits and Christmas presents.

[fortylist]

4. Write a handwritten letter

Last October, my friend (and co-worker) Amos was getting married. The night before he headed off to the Caribbean to get hitched, he posted a photo on Instagram of a handwritten letter that he wrote to his new bride. With expectation, all of the women in our office went crazy and pretty much said that was about the sweetest thing that they had ever seen. 

(Photo courtesy of @trezzay)

I actually had to agree, it was ridiculously sweet and it got me to thinking…when was the last time that I sat down and wrote a handwritten letter?  Hmmmm…

In college I wrote a bunch of handwritten letters. I would write my friends from high school that had gone off to college. I would draw pictures on envelopes and embellish with stickers. I occasionally hand wrote postcards to friends when I went on vacation.

Since I never talk to people I went to high school with and because I rarely send postcards (or go on vacation), I determined that the last handwritten letter that I wrote was about 1994. 

Don’t get me wrong, I occasionally write letters, but not handwritten ones. For those of you that don’t know, I have a Master’s degree in writing. Writing is something that I absolutely love to do and the art of drafting a well-worded letter can go a long way.

My best example of the power of a well-written letter was two summers ago. My wife and I had a date night and went to an Outback Steakhouse for dinner. My meal was so poor that I was compelled to write the most sincere/scathing letter humanly possible to Outback’s Regional VP and the store manager. Two weeks later, I had two $50 gift cards and a box of hand-made cookies from a boutique cookie shop that they had shipped to me. Aside from listening to their customers and responding in an amazing way, I would say that not only does Outback read its mail, but that they take their customers’ opinions seriously.

I honestly think we’ve gotten so used to the Facebooks and the Twitters of the world that we have forgotten the worth of a good letter and how to write a compelling thought with more than 140 characters.

Which brings me to this Forty List item…

For the last half year I have gone back and forth in my mind on who to send a letter to… I thought about friends who could use a word of advice; I considered a couple of smaller businesses that would appreciate knowing the difference that their products are making; I also thought about a few family members that I don’t get to see as often as I’d like. 

During the month of July, I had a couple of moments of clarity and finally found the direction I needed. Without going into specifics, I knew who to write. While I am not claiming to be a self-help guru – or even partially wise – I thought there was a person who could use the benefit from a portion of my forty years on this planet.

So, with pen in hand, I sat down with a pack of parchment paper and my iPod and hammered out four full pages of handwritten words.

So, these are my handful of thoughts:

First, I am so used to writing (and gathering my thoughts) digitally, that it was SUPER HARD to keep my writing on point. My pen didn’t come with an eraser…no mistakes.

Secondly, just because I was writing extemporaneously did not mean I hadn’t crafted a half-decent outline in my head. I don’t care if I am writing an e-mail, a grocery list or a blog post, I always have a mental outline of what I need to cover and how I am going to approach it.

Thirdly, writing by hand for two hours – especially when you’re not used to it – hurts. My wrist hurt; my fingers hurt; I would even go so far as to say that my brain hurt.

Lastly, I would hope that, even though I am not Shakespeare, that the recipient of my letter knows how important and awesome they are and how thrilled I am they will forever be an amazing part of one of the best years of my life! 

[fortylist]

38. Do something I love to do

There are a handful of things I am SUPER into: Star Wars, Baltimore sports, pizza and my absolute favorite holiday, Halloween. 

Halloween is one of those things that gets more and more amplified with me every year. Sure, when I was a kid, I loved getting my plastic Ben Cooper costume and hitting the streets with my dad for candy. Once I got married and bought a house, I gradually started decorating the front yard and doorstep in anticipation of trick or treaters. Then came my kids, and Halloween was really on…

I literally have ten giant plastic tubs filled with hundreds of orange and black decorations. I have an iPod that is filled with nothing but creepy music and sound effects. I have dozens of costumes ranging from Darth Vader to Samuel Adams to a Land of the Lost sleestak. 

Halloween is a thirty-one day event in the Ward household.

Then in 2009, I had this wacky notion – why did I have to wait until October to celebrate Halloween? Why not throw a little Halloween fun into the middle of the summer. Thus was born the greatest of all made-up holidays…Julyween!

Julyween is celebrated on July 31st, exactly three months before Halloween. It is basically a Halloween-themed party minus the trick-or-treating. 

For this year’s Julyween, me and my kids all wore pumpkin shirts. I also broke out the “Halloween camouflage” pants. (Both of my kids roll their eyes at those pants).

We always start Julyween off with a couple of crafts while watching the Nickelodeon Halloween DVD with SpongeBob, Rugrats, and Fairly Oddparents. This year, my youngest daughter surprised me and made pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies. Throw in some candy corns and kick the Julyween into high gear…

For dinner, I made pizzas. Squeeze cheese in a can is perfect for drawing jack-o-lantern faces and spiderwebs. I made a few pepperoni spiders as well.

Since my youngest daughter is nine, our movie selection is still limited to Disney Channel’s Halloweentown and a couple episodes of Goosebumps. I imagine one day, once my girls are old enough, I will force them to sit through Creepshow on Julyween. I am looking forward to that day.

Once we finished the kids movies, I retreated to the bedroom to watch my newest favorite Halloween movie, Trick 'r Treat, and partake in a little light reading.

As an aside, if you happen to really be into Halloween, I HIGHLY recommend Trick 'r Treat. It came out a few years ago and is near Halloween perfection. It’s multiple stories woven together and it is tons of fun. The real highlight is a short three minute segment of a busload of kids with some of the spookiest costumes I have ever seen. Super creepy; super disturbing; supremely awesome.

Until next year, Happy Julyween!

[fortylist]

18. Make my own beer

In 1998, I received this Mr. Beer kit for Christmas.

Over the next two years, my dad and I made all kinds of beer with the Mr. Beer brew kits – Cowboy Lager and Linebacker Bock - as well as brewing from scratch with dried malts and hops.

We had tons of fun. We bought a capper, bottled with glass and washed every single one of them with bleach. Those were the days before the no-rinse sanitizer.

And then one day, the Mr. Beer kit disappeared into the recesses of my parents' basement.

Sometime in early 2011, I had this wild idea to get the Mr. beer kit back out. This time – with my mom – we proceeded to brew up a storm for a solid year.

While we made a handfull of “normal” beers, we had way more fun with adjuncts, making beer out of insane things like Kit-Kats, Cap'n Crunch, Maple Syrup and Old Bay. A list of all our homebrews can be found on Untappd...we're Wardland Brewing.

And then, for some reason, last summer the brewing just stopped.

Initially for my Forty List, I wanted to try and make wine. Once I figured that I had none of the stuff to make wine and that it would be too expensive, I decided to go back to making my own beer. Huzzah!

Back in May, while I was up in Pennsylvania, we stumbled upon a homebrewing store in Hanover. A nice guy named Larry talked us into trying a Muntons stout kit. I told him that I wanted to try making a milk stout so he also sold as a pack of lactose sugar.

With ingredients in hand, we returned home to Georgia and Wardland Brewing was back in action.

Unlike the Mr. Beer kits, the Muntons kit required no boiling of the wort. I would go so far as to say that it was the easiest batch of beer that I've ever made. It was literally dump water into the keg; add the Muntons malt; add the sugar; add the yeast and wait.

This is our "fermenting space." The bathroom closet: it's cool and dark!

We let our wort ferment for three weeks inside the Mr. Beer keg. After the yeast had done its magic, we bottled. Our keg yielded twenty-one bottles of beer awesomeness.

I followed the “good” Mr. Beer instructions and gave it two weeks to carbonate and another two weeks to let it bottle condition before diving into my first taste.

Lastly, I always have a good time naming my beers and making interesting labels. For this one, I wanted to make sure I dropped in a “40” reference. I decided to combine one of my favorite Forty List adventures, Duckpin Bowling, with my age. When put together, I ended up with: Duckpin 40 Milk Stout.

Absolutely perfect!