The day (Saturday, April 14) began as my birthday normally does: my parents waking me up with a happy birthday phone call. Then it continued as Saturdays normally do around here: breakfast with lots of people. I made eggs and fruit salad, B made a fantastic coffeecake and D was in charge of grilling bacon. For once we managed to eat before noon, which was good because that's when my birthday challenge began.
Challenge #1: 30 x 50m swim
I picked up A and we drove to the SERF for to swim. I desperately need to go get a new swimsuit because over a year of swimming in that over-chlorinated pool has dissolved most of the elastic in my suit and it's getting embarrassingly baggy. A had devised a sweet routine and in the end I did 200m kicks, 200m pulls and 1100m crawl. Got into a really nice groove early on and my flip turns weren't too bad.
Came home and B and D had been busy getting ready for the party, bless 'em. Joined in the fray and for the first time I can recall, I was actually ready to go by the time the party was supposed to start. Then something weird happened: for years I've been telling all my friends not to show up until and hour or two after party time because I'm never ready, but they never listen. This time, I was ready, and everybody suddenly listened and obeyed. When 1.5h past party time arrived but no-one else had, i was starting to get a little peeved, but what could I do? I had technically created the situation. Then suddenly everyone showed up all at once and the party got rolling.
Challenge #2: 30 kisses to 30 people
This challenge was much less physically demanding than the others. I basically gave out a kiss on the cheek to all who arrived, with photographic evidence. Don't worry, I'll download the photos soon from my camera and upload them to the raccoonbear for all to see. I look fairly ridiculous but I'm willing to share anyway. It turns out this was a very fun challenge. I may keep it for every year. I lost count somewhere in the mid-20's so I just kept going and ended up with 40 kisses to 40 people, so I exceeded my goal on this challenge. A couple people tried to sneak in a lip-kiss but I only let J the V ('cause he's so hott) and A (she brought me dip!) succeed. S only got a hand kiss 'cause she was sick.
Challenge #3.0 (c'mon, 30 challenges would have been rough): 30 chin-ups on the frame of my bedroom door.
Holy crap, this challenge was by far the most difficult. According to general birthday challenge rules (www.birthdaychallenge.com) and my birthday challenge-experienced ladyfriend J, I technically had 24h to complete all my challenges. But I made up my own rules and I wanted to finish by the end of the party. I did chin-up #1 around 9pm. I mostly did them 2 at a time. I was still feeling pretty good when I finished chin-up #20, but after that it got HARD. That doorframe has a sweet little crimper edge but man is it sharp - my finger tips were fiery red. And my shoulders were already a little tired from the earlier swim. And I may have killer biceps but I've never in my life done that many chin-ups. Luckily I had a lot of (drunken?) encouragement, although I do believe I flipped off pretty much anyone who declared that I'd made those last two look easy so I should do another one right away. #27-#30 were nothing short of excruciating, and somehow I didn't get a picture of #30 (which occurred around 12:30am or so). But a picture was taken, so I'll just have to find out with whose camera. I'm feeling it in my back today, but not as bad as I'd anticipated, and I've got a massage scheduled for later in the week. Nearly 2 hours spent playing 4-square the next day certainly didn't help that out any, nor did all of the laughing.
So yeah, I promise pictures later, and I may even post it up on the birthday challenge website. Thanks to everyone who helped out (by offering swim routines, their cheeks and encouragement). Also, I've decided that age 30 rawks. Fuck the 20's, the 30's is where it's at.
Much love,
The old lady
Addendum: Pix of chin-ups #1 and (I think) #10. Kindly note that I did all 30 in fancy dress and heels. Hooooo.
