Thirty By Thirty - Finis

As I approached my 30th birthday, I followed through on a decision of how I would celebrate the last year of my twenties.

A lot of people approach their thirties in a mournful state. I should know as, in the last few years, my peers have increasingly become people approaching and then passing thirty. They think of it as the dying of their youth and the end of their best years. I took the opposite tack. I am much happier be 30 than 20. When I was 20 I had no money, had no girlfriend and didn't know who the fonk I was or who I wanted to be. Well, those three things are no longer true. I wouldn't peel back my twenties in any kind of redo because what I did and what happened made me into who I am today.

Thus I celebrated my twenties as this great time I did, went and saw everything I could and enjoyed myself while doing, going and seeing. In much the same way we congregate together on New Years Eve to celebrate the passing of time instead of mourning it, my turning thirty will not be the dying of one era but the commencement of another. They will be the years when I find my way in the world, grow with those people who will be my life companions and enjoy all of the perks of being an adult instead of being an over-inflated kid.

As a part of this year long celebration I have done thirty things which I had never done before and then came back here to write about the experience. My brother originally called it my "busted list" as in I had to do these things before I'm old and busted. Some of the tasks were small and easily completed. Others required planning and assistance. It was not my intent to have a list of thirty items and only accomplish twenty-something. There was a list which was greater than thirty items and your suggestions were appreciated to expand upon it further and into the future. As I said, the intent was to share in this celebration both in the actual commission of the thirty things and also in writing about it in this space.

To that extent I have re-written the Thirty by Thirty mission statement:

Between his 29th and 30th birthdays, Michael Herman celebrated his transition into his third decade by completing thirty tasks he has never previously experienced and embracing the idea you can always find new experiences no matter how old you are thanks to the wonder, beauty and timeliness of Life. He hopes to continue the rest of his life in the same spirit.

MRH 1/31/10

Thirty By Thirty #30 - Read "Macbeth"

It's weird as an English Literature degree-holder to have never read "Macbeth." It's even stranger because the first class I took in college was Dr. Zahorski's EN335 - Shakespeare. There are plenty of classics which I've missed in my years of reading contemporary books for fun and pleasure. "Macbeth" is just the most egregious example. So I sat down, cracked open the play and realized where Kurosawa drew his inspiration for "Throne of Blood".

Thirty By Thirty #29 - ZAIREEKA!!!

In 1997 The Flaming Lips released "Zaireeka", an album meant to be listened to on four separate CD players at once. It's no small feat to get four different CD players and stereo systems together and so I set it as a goal to organize a "Zaireeka" party for 30 by 30. But sometimes your motivation will similarly motivate someone else. As my "Zaireeka" idea did Josh Dibley. He put all the pieces together, invited the people and brought it all together. All credit goes to him for fulfilling number twenty-nine. I just sat in the middle of the room and listened.

Thirty By Thirty #28 - Get Glasses

As you get older, your eyes aren't as sharp as they once were. I can still see fine without glasses. There are just certain low-light situations where I can't see fine details at a distance. For example, I can't read the score on the television across the room in a dark restaurant.

Two years ago when I worked for the insurance agency and had better health coverage, I'd gone to the eye doctor. I got a prescription which I hadn't filled because money got tight as the economy went south. But now that I was on better standing financially, I got a super-duper cheap pair for under $100. Now I'll be able to read subtitles at foreign films more easily.

Thirty By Thirty #27 - Exercise My 2nd Amendment Rights

Gun culture and its attendant hunting culture is something which is handed down by generation. Since neither of my grandfathers or my own father were really into guns or hunting, I somehow skipped over having ever discharged a firearm in my life. Make sure that, if you haven't yourself, you tell your friends who own guns. You will eventually find yourself standing at a gun range unloading an entire ten round 9mm clip into a target. Yeah, it may not be your comfort zone. But that's the point.

Thirty By Thirty #26 - See Morzart's "Requiem"

Nik called me and asked if I wanted to go see Mozart's "Requiem" performed by a full choir at a church in Wayzata. I had a copy of a performance my cousin had been a part of in my car for years. Yet I'd never seen it live. Since it's my favorite classic piece (or 1a and 1b with The Brandenburg Concertos), I said "Yes," in a heartbeat.

Thirty By Thirty #25 - Visit Paris

If you haven't heard about this one yet I apologize. It was awesome. Everywhere I went it was ridiculously beautiful. The highlights were having the Eiffel Tower out my window as I went to sleep/waking up, visiting The Palace at Versailles, seeing all of the art museums and getting to visit Europe finally.

Thirty By Thirty #24 - Bowling League

Bowling is what my mom's family does together. If we're not sitting at one of my aunts' houses having a meal, we're bowling. This goes back to when we would all go to Arizona for X-mas. We would go bowling each night after dinner. If you doubt our seriousness, know that when we all grouped back up at my grandfather's house after his funeral the thing we all agreed to do was go bowling. So when Eric asked me if I wanted to be in a bowling league, I accepted quickly and without hesitation.

The best part about bowling in a league is you get to bowl after league is over and get a lot of practice. So, if you're like me, you learn how to hook the ball like a pro would. Results may vary but it's a work in progress.

Thirty By Thirty #23 - Eat A Fig

So I was at brunch as hosted by a couple of my dinner party friends. They were serving figs which I'd never had in non-Newton form. As I had with the meat raffle, I thought "30 by 30." Figs are even better as fruit without the cake.

Thirty By Thirty #22 - Get My Passport

So there are two reasons to get your passport. The first is so you can travel internationally and we'll get to that. The other post-9/11 reason is to verify your American citizenship when taking a new job. Since I knew I was going to do the former and in this down economy you never know when you're going to be doing the latter, it seemed like a good time to get my passport.

Thirty By Thirty #21 - Run A 5K

During the summer I bike everywhere. I also used to do cardio five days a week. So taking on a 5k would be no problem, right? I started strong. Then reality set in a bit. To get my entire body mass moving, I can't jog. My stride is too long. I either need to walk or run. I alternated between the two and finished in 33 minutes. That's a pretty good time apparently.

Thirty By Thirty #20 - Win A Meat Raffle

The lady approached the table Katie and I were sitting at and asked us, "Do you want to do the meat raffle?" I thought in my head "30 by 30." I took $5 out of my wallet and had Katie pick the numbers. One of the numbers she picked hit. Participate, yes. But also win.

Thirty By Thirty #19 - Swim Across Cedar Lake

Sometimes you begin something without even knowing it. Then you get close enough to the end, you think "Why not just finish it?" I was reading a book at the library when I got a call from Dr. Thom. It was a nice day out (how appropriate I was inside reading) and he wanted to go enjoy it. So we met up with some friends who were lounging at Hidden Beach.

He and I took to the water. Then we swam out past the nets. Then past the buoys. Then we were halfway across the lake. Then we got to the beach on the far shore. Then it's an even longer walk back around Cedar Lake to where our friends were and where the car was parked. So we just swam back across the lake.

Thirty By Thirty #18 - Go To A Drive-In Movie

Drive-in movies are big. Not in the really popular sense though they were once that. I mean big in the sense of physically large. It's appropriate then to see really big movies at a drive-in. So we packed up four cars of friends and drove out to Cottage Grove for the two biggest movies of the summer, "G.I. Joe" and "Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen."

Thirty By Thirty #17 - Try A New Recipe

... tried a new recipe. Audrey and I went to Rainbow at The Quarry and got a huge piece of salmon. Then I went to Epicurious and looked up the easiest and most delicious way to prepare it, broiling. After brushing it with butter and cracking a little salt and pepper over it, the fish was met with rave reviews.

Thirty By Thirty #16 - Host A Dinner Party

I have a group of friends who are very good at hosting dinner parties. Everyone has the rest of the people over and we all enjoy wonderful food. To this point I had not hosted these same people for dinner. So I had Sarah, Don, Patrick, Morgon Mae and Jason over and...

Thirty By Thirty #15 - Kayaking

A kayak is a different boat than a canoe. You sit much closer to the water and you feel closer to it too. My friend Katie let me borrow her kayak and take it out on Lake Nokomis while she went for a jog around the lake. I wish it had been a better lake. I need to try it again on a different lake.

Thirty By Thirty #14 - Go Skinny Dipping

I'd been swimming. I'd been naked. But I'd never been swimming naked. So one night over the summer, a friend and I went behind Coffman Union at the University of Minnesota and went down to the Mississippi River. We shook off all of our clothes and ran into the river. Then we turned right back around before either mosquitoes or campus security knew we were there.

Thirty By Thirty #13 - Discharge A Fire Extinguisher

Part of recharging a fire extinguisher is taking all of the old stuff out. So you should ask if they give training on how to fire one when they need to be recharged. My work offered it and I jumped at the chance.

There are three things you need to know:

1.) Know where the fire extinguishers are kept beforehand.

2.) Use a sweeping motion to distribute the retardant.

3.) Send someone to grab the next extinguisher immediately. Your extinguisher will have about 15-30 seconds of juice before it runs out.

Thirty By Thirty #12 - Listen To A Frank Zappa Album

I wanted to listen to a Frank Zappa album because he was a monolithic rockstar whose work I was completely unfamiliar with and that seemed odd. So I bought a greatest hits and a live album. I wasn't very impressed with most of the stuff. It probably sounded really weird when it came out. But now it just sounded worn. I realize this may be like calling Star Wars "a cliche action movie where the special effects are the most important part." Still, his music wasn't for me.