#4 - Glass fusing class

Two years ago in April I was scheduled to take a glass fusing class with several friends. The day of the class we received a whopper of a blizzard, so the class was cancelled.  Believe it or not, I've allowed this much time to pass without managing to find the time to reschedule.  Again, I ask myself why we allow ourselves to do this? One of the best aspects of this 40 new experiences challenge is that I'm finding time to do things that I've just brushed off on the past.

So, today two of my good friends and I spent several hours learning different techniques for fusing glass cabochons.  What is a cabochon, you ask?  Well, I asked exactly the same question when I first saw that word. Technically a cabochon is " a highly polished, convex-cut, unfaceted gem."  More casually, a cabochon is a really cool looking chunk of glass. The finished project can be mounted as a necklace charm, earrings, a pin or turned into a magnet. 

The class was held at Full Spectrum Art Glass Supply and Gallery, http://fsartglass.com/index.htm . They teach all kinds of glass classes: stained glass, glass bowls, jewelry, etc.  I've encountered several people over the past few years wearing stunning jewelry that they made there. Much of the glasswork involves dichroic glass. You have likely seen dichroic glass without having any idea of the name. It is a type of glass that contains various metals, metal oxides and silica. The result is a variety of iridescent patterns in a wide array of colors. 

The process is pretty simple.  Students start with flat, rectangular pieces of base glass. Designs are added by selecting various pieces of glass to overlay. Creating the finished piece involves some glass cutting, arranging the cut pieces into a desired pattern and glueing them into place. The pieces must be fired in a kiln. There are different types of finishes.  We made about 8 pieces each, practicing several different techniques.  Only two pieces were fired today, so I only saw a sampling of my finished work. I can pick up the remaining pieces later this week.  Below are my first two pieces (which they accidentally over-fired--there should have been some texture to the overlaid pieces). I'm really excited to see my other pieces. I'll post pics of them when I pick them up.

I really enjoyed myself. I've always had a passion for artsy/crafty hobbies. I think I will likely take some additional classes.  I would love to try some stained glass courses. I've always had a real soft spot for stained glass. When I toured Germany in 1991, I was overwhelmed by the artistry of all the stained glass in the cathederals.  It is truly a lost art.

 In addition to being a creative outlet, today's class was a great opportunity to visit with friends with whom I rarely get to spend time. Reuniting with friends has definitely been another big benefit of my 40 new experiences.  I have lots of activities planned with different friends throughout the year, and I so look forward to reconnnecting with each one!

4 down, 36 to go. I'm right on track to finish all 40 in a year.

#3 - Wine Tasting (and other various crazy events)

Well, to say it has been a wild few days has been an understatement. And, no, that craziness has nothing to do with drinking too much wine!

Craig and I were scheduled to spend Friday through Sunday at a bed and breakfast in nearby Cascade, CO. It was my 40th birthday gift from him.  Well, as some of you already know, we took a slight detour to Cascade: the local ER.  We had a big scare Thur. and Fri. when Craig was admitted to the hospital with crushing chest pain.  The happy summary is that his heart is just fine, and the docs feel the chronic, severe pain he's been in since Jan. due to a knee injury, as well as the pain meds he was taking for this pain were largely responsible for increasing his bp to the point that it required treatment.  The bp is now under control, and we're counting down the days until his knee surgery on March 19. 

So, while our little retreat was delayed by a day, we still were able to spend an overnight in a wonderful log cabin bed and breakfast in Cascade.  The new experience occurred Saturday night when we went to Wines of Colorado,  http://www.winesofcolorado.com/ , for dinner.  I've driven past this restaurant/shop perhaps 50 times since we've lived here, but we've never visited it. 

OK, sad as it may sound to most of you, I'm 40 and have been to a wine tasting.  There, I admitted it.  C'mon, I'm a beer kind of gal.  Here's a summary of mine and Craig's wine selection technique: find a German beer in a blue bottle and it will likely be good.  How's that for wine IQ? 

So, this was a cool experience for me. First of all, this wine shop is limited to Colorado wines. I learned there are 20 wineries within 90 minutes of Denver and 30 wineries within 90 minutes of Grand Junction. Who knew?  It was fun looking through all the native wines. 

The wine "hostess" (is this the correct term?? I'm referring to the lady who poured the wine samples) was knowledgable and friendly.  I know she is skilled, because she managed to find several red wines that I actually LIKED.  I don't mean that I could get them down without gagging, I mean they were actually good. And, to remain true to ourselves, Craig and I asked for a Colorado wine in a blue bottle (yes, I do actually know we're referring to a Riesling, but it's more fun to just go with the "blue bottle" designator).  It, too, was excellent.

It was a fun and educational experience.  We enjoyed a great bottle of red wine with our dinner (hey, it's heart healthy, so if those doctors were wrong about Craig's heart, we were practicing our own kind of preventive medicine), and we finsihed off the Reisling back at the B&B.   I also decided that one of my 40 new experiences should be to tour a winery--right here in Colorado. So, stay tuned on that one. 

Oh, in case any of you are interested in the wines we chose, here they are.

#3 Delayed - compliments of Mother Nature

I had hoped to visit Paint Mines Regional Park near Peyton, CO this weekend, but the snow keeps falling, so that visit will have to be put on hold for a while.  Despite living in Colorado for almost 14 years, I had never heard of the Paint Mines until a friend suggested visting them as one of my 40 new experiences. 

It has been wonderful to hear all the great ideas that have rolled in regarding my 40 new experiences. THANK YOU to everyone who has offered to help me achieve my goal. This year is going to be such fun!  I keep pondering whether or not I should list some of the ideas I've received, but I decided it would be more fun to reveal them only as I experience them.   

Just setting this goal has really changed my attitute.  There have been some small, insignificant "new experiences" that I've had simply because I find myself saying, "So exactly WHY haven't I done that before?"  Sounds silly, but there's a flight of stairs in our high school that leads down to small lower level which is basically a wrestling room and not much more. I always intended to "one day" go check it out.  How hard is it to walk down a flight of stairs, yet I just never got around to it.  So, this week I took a minute or two  to check out this corner of our school that I've never seen before. Not a big deal, I know, but I've just become so much more aware of how many things we intend to do some day, but we just never make the effort. There are a significant number of items on my "40 new things" list that fall into the "I've always wanted to do that" category.  I do believe this is the year I'll finally do those things.

Why is it human nature to not get around to things we've always wanted to do?  Our family recently watched the movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs." It was a cute movie targeted mainly for children.  At one point the main character says, "I've got a lot of Diem to Carpe." I LOVE that!  I've decied that should be the slogan for my year of new adventures. We all have a lot of Diem to Carpe.  So, get off your butt and go Carpe your Diem!

#2 Blogging - Is this double-dipping?

Well, you all might think I'm cheating on this one, but I'm counting this blog as my 2nd new experience. I've never blogged before. I still have lots to figure out about this whole process. But, I have a full year to master it all, right? My biggest concern with the blog is TIME. I simply never have enough of it. I had wanted to launch this blog on my birthday weekend, and I'm already a week behind. Those of you who are my Facebook friends are well aware of how infrequently I get to sit in front of a computer for social purposes. My Facebook name should really be "I Suck at Facebook." So, hopefully I will do a better job with this blog. In fact, I might get real fancy and try to update my Facebook status to let you all know when I have posted a new blog entry----whoa, slow down Nellie, you're getting ahead of yourself.

Looking on the bright side, I'm one week into my year and I have 5% of my new experiences accomplished AND blogged already, so maybe this is doable after all.

#1 - Indoor Skydiving

I figured I should kick off the "40 Best Things" quest with a bang. On February 6th we headed up to Denver to go indoor skydiving. "We" consisted of my immediate family, our 8 year old foster boy and my best friend, Carol, who had flown in from Orlando for the weekend.

I LOVE the feeling of freefall. Amusement park rides that include any type of freefall are just awesome. In the summer of 2008 I rode The Griffin rollercoaster at Busch Gardens. This rollercoaster takes you to the crest of a vertical hill, suspends the cart right at the edge, and then suddenly drops you. It was exhilirating! I could have ridden that thing all day. I've also enjoyed repelling the couple times I've done it. So, I figured I skydiving would be the ultimate in free fall.

My problem, however, with actual skydiving is the whole "jump out of a plane" aspect. I just can't see myself doing that. It defies every survival instinct in the human body. Every time I've been in an experience that requires an "over the edge" commitment, my mind screams to me "Don't do it!" When I repelled for the first time, I literally had to force my body to go over the edge in spite of all the objections my brain was tossing out. While vacationing in Hawaii a couple years ago, I stood at the edge of a high waterfall, intending to jump into the pool of water below. Again, my brain kept advising me against such a foolish decision. It took my then-13 year old daugther, Victoria, jumping first to get me to finally go over the edge. The experience was amazing, but that initial hesitation was incredibly strong. So, I don't think I could actually get myself to jump out of a plane. The only way I think I could manage to leave the safety of the fuselage would be to go on a tandem jump - and someday I might actually do that.

But, for my 40th birthday I was very happy to settle for indoor skydiving. Here's a very basic description of how it works: a huge fan blows you off the ground. I figured I would be OK with that. So, we all headed up to SkyVentures in Parker, Colorado to give it a try.

The skydiving takes place in circular chamber surrounded by glass windows. Participants are taught the basics of body position prior to starting their first "dive." The position of the arms, legs and chin all impact the "bouyancy" of the diver. The tiniest movement can send you straight down to the floor, soaring high above the instructor or rapidly drifting forward or backward.

Each person's total "diving" time consists of 3 minutes, broken down into two 1.5 minute sessions. I know that doesn't sound like much, but an actual skydiver usually has about 35 seconds of freefall before deploying the parachute. An instructor is in the room with the diver, directing the diver's body movements and to help keep the diver centered.

Being the birthday girl, I got to go first. To begin the session, the diver stands in the doorway and then leans into the room. The instructor "catches" the diver and thus begins the session. I had no anxiety whatsoever about starting the session. Soon I was airborne, and my first reaction was not at all what I expected. I was overwhelmed by the roaring wind blowing up my nose! I was not expecting that at all, and it made it a big difficult to breathe. Then again, we were told that the airspeed is right around 110-120mph (terminal velocity is 120 mph) and the fans are driven by four 300hp engines, so I guess I should not really have been surprised. If any of your would like to experience a similar sensation, I suggest turning on a leafblower and holding it directly under your nose. It is not necessarily a pleasant experience.

Once I got accustomed to the hurricane occurring in my sinus passages, I began to concentrate on body movement. It really took a great deal of concentration to maintain the proper position. The first session is basically a familiarization session, and it seems that just about the time you figure out how to control your body, the session is over. During my second session I did a much better job controling my position. My instructor, Jason, even suggested I try a spin by moving my arms. I quickly found myself spinning around with no ability to stop! Fortunatley, Jason quickly intervened, stopped my spin and steered me to the door. My indoor skydiving experience had ended too soon!

I enjoyed the adventure a great deal. Actually, I had as much fun watching everyone in our party bobble around during their sessions as much as I enjoyed flying. We all were sympathetic for poor 6'3", 210 lb. Craig, as he had a hard time staying airborne. You could actually hear them crank up the fan as he entered the chamber, yet each time he flew it took most of the session for them to find the appropriate airspeed for him.

Overall, it was a fantastic start to my 40 new experiences. I am excited to see what the rest of the year holds for me!