30 by 30: Sooner rather than later

#5 Perform at an open mic
#17 Eat something that is alive and moving
#25 Take an introductory flight class

#5 Perform at an open mic
So in this post, I told you all about my first joke.

In that post, I told you loyal readers that I have a notebook full of jokes. I also have Evernote files and post-its and random scraps of paper and half-written jokes stuck in my head (most recently one about my experimental phase in college) that I’ll flush out in the car or in the shower or on a run.

I’ve even planned out a full 10-15 minute routine full of material I’ve never heard before.

But readers, I’m terrified of doing a first show. I can’t ever decide if I want to do it in secret or if I want to stack the deck and fill the audience full of people who know and love me. If the first - I don’t have to see the looks of empathetic disappointment on the faces of my favorite people when I bomb. Plus-they’ve all heard my jokes before. If the latter - it would be nice to have people in seats who know that I’m funny and will at least pity laugh when my voice is too shaky to deliver my killer punchlines.

This is in this section because I need to stop letting paralyzing fear kick my ass. It’s time to get it done. New deadline: December 17, 2017. Hold me to it.

#17 Eat something that is alive and moving
Trigger warning to vegetarian/vegan readers who will be severely grossed out by this item.

I point out that the thing must be moving because oysters, for instance, are alive when you eat them if you eat them raw and while they are still connected to the shell.

While doing a little research for this list item, I became very grossed out. I’m sure you can do a quick google search and become grossed out yourself!

However-there are a couple of items that seem like good, doable, non-pukey candidates. Korean Sannakji is probably what I was thinking when I wrote the 30 by 30. It’s octopus that squirms about when you eat it because it was very very very recently chopped into bits.

The other best candidate is the Hawaiian Opihi. That one is basically a sea snail that’s eaten like oysters, which might make it too much like the oysters this Seattle girl is very familiar with and probably doesn’t qualify as “moving”.

I'd love to set a deadline for this item, but I'm not 100% sure I'll be able to get to Korea this year.

#25 Take an introductory flight class
My very first flight was as a passenger in a little four-seater Sesna as a part of my older brother’s introductory flight. It’s when I fell in love with flying.

I’m fascinated by flight. I blame this on my birthday, which is on the anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight. Growing up near the birth of the American flight industry helps, too. I think it’s amazing that we can load up big huge tubes full of people and stuff and then get them off the ground, sometimes for 15-20 hours at a time.

My favorites, though, are the tiny planes. I’ve gone skydiving twice. The jumping part is amazing, but the getting there part is pretty good, too.

So I want to do some of that myself. I’m not sure I need to learn how to fly totally and spend the thousands of dollars to get my license (though that would be pretty cool), but I do want to get in the front seat. And soon. There’s no excuses for not having done this already. There are groupons for it all time time, and there’s a million places to do it. Yay, Seattle! One of ten million reasons I love this place.

New deadline for this item: December 17, 2017.