#8 - The Thorn

We have been back in Colorado for 10 years, and for 10 years I've been saying, "We should go see 'The Thorn' this year."  So, sadly, once again I find myself pondering why human nature is to simply put off things we want to do.  This year when I saw the advertisments start to show up, I committed to attending it as one of my 40 new adventures.

I'm sure many of you non-Colorado Springs residents are asking, "What's 'The Thorn'?"  Essentially, it is an Easter drama. It seems a bit unfair to call it just "an Easter play," since it truly is more of a Broadway-style production.  It is quite "Cirque du Soleil-ish" at times and includes fire dancers, dancers twirling down from the ceiling on streamers and gymnasts tumbling across the stage. There are hundreds and hundreds of people involved in the cast and crew, not to mention the staff required for seating, ticketing, etc.   Since 1997 it has been an annual tradition of New Life Church, the largest church in the Springs.
 
What made this year's show doubly special for us was that we knew one of the ballerinas. She portrayed Eve (as in Adam and Eve). Yes, I know Eve isn't generally part of the Easter story, but this drama prettty much spans the whole Bible: the fall of Lucifer, Adam and Eve and original sin, the Jews' enslavement in and liberation from Egypt, and pretty much the entire New Testament.   

It was definitely a powerful drama. The flogging and crucifiction scenes were very graphic (remember, this show started long before Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ") and emotional.  Overall, I think it was a wonderful drama. My only complaint would be that for someone not already familiar with huge amounts of the Bible, many parts could have been confusing. By trying to condense so much into a short time span, a lot of explanation was left out. If one didn't know that Jesus starting flipping tables in the temple because the corrupt sellers had turned the house of God into a den of thieves, they would have been stumped during the play as to why Jesus' jubilent entry into Jerusalen suddenly turned into rage (there was very little dialogue, more music and narration). 

But, then again, my kids always tell me that I ruin movies all the time because I'm too picky.  Having said that, I'd give 'The Thorn' two thumbs up. The fact that it is pulled off using all volunteers makes this amazing performance ten times more amazing.

If you live in Colorado Springs and haven't ever seen 'The Thorn,' go out and see it this year.

#7 - Cake Boss, Cox-style

 While I don't watch much television, I must admit that I can sit mesmorized for hours by the Cake Boss and the Food Network Challenge when they spotlight cake decorating.  These folks are truly artists, not "just" cake decorators. Their medium just happens to be fondant.
  So, a while back the kids and I decided we should take advantage of Victoria's 16th birthday to attempt our own fondant masterpiece.  I was definitely a bit intimidated by this challenge, but after having a "Fondant 101" converstaion with my friend Paula, who has used fondant before, I felt convinced that we could tackle it. Thanks, Paula, for the pep talk and all the information!
   I didn't have a clue what fondant was even made of, and I bet many of you don't either. Here's the bad news: it is a combination of marshmallows and powdered sugar! One piece of fondant-covered cake gives you a month's worth of sugar. Oh well, sometimes even the staunchest nutritionist has to throw caution into the wind.
   We began our project on Friday and quickly learned it is a time-consuming process.  We made and colored the fondant Friday night, let it "age" overnight and tackled the decorating on Saturday.  The kids (well, minus Josh who really only wanted to eat the fondant) all got involved, and it was a fun family activity.  We were quite happy with the final result.  I can't yet tell you how it tastes, becasue we won't eat it until later today. We agreed we would postpone Victoria's birthday meal by a day, since we needed the fondant bow to set and harden overnight with supports in it so that it would hold its shape today. That's the one area where we could have definitely improved. When the supports are removed, the bow wilts a bit.  Guess our fondant should have been firmer. Oh well, if that's the worst of it, then we're all pretty happy with our first fondant undertaking. 
  Drumroll please.........below you have the first Cox Family Cake Boss Masterpiece.....ta dah!!  I may not be ready to quit my day job, but Hunter did tell me "Mom, you should become the neighborhood cake decorator." If that's not an endorsement, I don't know what is!

#6 - Paint Mines Regional Park

This adventure was suggested to me by a friend who has lived in Colorado less than two years. I, having lived here about 13 years, had never heard of the Paint Mines! How crazy is that? So thanks, Jesse, for the suggestion.

This past Saturday our family and some neighor boys took advantage of the gorgeous winter day and headed out to Paint Mines Interpretive Park (we're still not sure what exactly we were supposed to be interpretting). This park is about 45 minutes east of Colorado Springs in the plains and hosts some beautiful sherbet-colored rock formations resulting from wind and rain erosion.  http://adm.elpasoco.com/Parks/Paint+Mines+Park.htm It reminded me a bit of the Badlands in South Dakota, but on a much, much smaller scale. 

The "climax" of the hiking trails is a large area of formations which boast striations of pink, orange, beige and white. Their shapes make me envision God playing with play-doh and then "freezing" his creations as stone for us to enjoy. 

Archaeologists have found evidence of human inhabitants of this area dating back 9,000 years. Our resident archaeologist, Joshua, found evidence of more recent humans when he discovered a musket ball while looking for rocks!  Needless to say,  he was beyond thrilled, and he was the envy of all 5 boys in our party.

I was happy to have been introduced to this natural attraction right in our own back yard.  We all enjoyed some sun, exercise and a great family day. 

#5 - Thai Food

This one doesn't have nearly the "wow" factor of indoor skydiving, but I never said all 40 adventures have to be big adventures.  Last Thursday Craig and I joined our friends Bret and Laura for dinner at a Thai restaurant.  We specifically chose Thai food so our outing could count as one of my 40 new experiences. Colorado Springs is not exactly a culinary kaliedoscope like NYC or Georgetown.  So, the options for new foods was limited. Still, I'm glad our small town had something to offer in terms of international cuisine.

As I looked over all the exotic menu choices--sauces with coconut milk and pineapple, peanuts and bean sprouts, etc.--I wondered which of all these oh-so-Thai dishes would best represent its native country. I asked our Thai waiter which of the dishes was most traditionally Thai, and he said.....drumroll...."None of them. They're all Americanized."  Sigh.  Well, so much for experiencing a new culture. After prodding him a bit on which would be the closest thing to real Thai food, he recommended Pad Thai. I went with his suggestion. Pad Thai is a noodle dish with (in this case) shrimp and chicken and a sauce that had hints of peanut and spice. It was topped with bean sprouts.  It was.....OK.  I liked it, but it is not a flavor that would cause me to rush out for Thai food every weekend.  However, I did enjoy the experience of trying a new food, psuedo-Thai or not.

But, the bigger story here (at least for me) is that Craig and I had a great time visitng with good friends.  It again reminded me that without my "mission" of accomplishing 40 new things, we very likely would not have made the time to reconnect with such dear people. We would have simply succombed to our busy schedules and settled on the cliche "We have to get together some time." 

I'm 1/8  (or 12.5% - hey, I'm a math teacher) finished with my 40 new experiences already, and my year is only 1/12 (8.3%) over. I'm confident that I will meet my goal of 40 new adventures, and I am very much looking forward to what still awaits me!

#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!