A grand experiment.

My thirties began with a man in a gorilla suit serenading me. A surprise party and jumping into the Atlantic ocean on a surprisingly warm January morning. My thirties were really good and a lot of amazing things happened to me. Professionally  I was creating great books.  I was getting promoted and being recognized for my good work. I had two amazing kids. I started growing a following as a dad blogger.

But those years between 2004 and now have not been all good times. I lost that job. We were forced to move back in with my mom. My father-in-law got pancreatic cancer and passed away. As they say every cloud has a silver lining, since I lost that job I was able to take my father-in-law to his doctors appointments and shuttle family members back and forth to hospitals to stay with him. My kids enjoy spending time with their cousins who live upstairs from us now. And I got to watch my kids grow as little people in a way I couldn't if I were working outside of the home. 

So all in all my thirties have been pretty fulfilling. But there are so many things I haven’t gotten to yet. And I want to try as many of them as I can between today December 21st 2013 and December 21st 2014 (my fortieth birthday). The great philosopher Yoda once said “Do or do not, there is no try”.  I get what he was saying, but for this grand experiment I am putting master Yoda’s words on hold and if there is something new to try ... I’m going to try it.

Some of my ideas so far ...

- Road race
- Adventure race
- Brew beer
- Fire a hand gun
- Paint a painting

(If you have any ideas of things for me to try please let me know, I'll try it and write about it.)