#6 Dance Everyday for a Month

Originally this was run everyday for a month and then I remembered how much I hate running every day. I could go a solid 15-20 days, but I would just get more and more annoyed with running. I never became one of those people who loved running and got the runner’s high. I just got pissed and would drop running everyday and do it every couple of days a week instead. I’ve tried so many times, but no matter how many times I have tried I just can’t make it a full month.

Which led me to changing it to a different form of cardio that I actually like: Dance! Listen, I don’t need to dance well to dance everyday. I can line dance, salsa, hip hop, flail about like an idiot, etc. Dance as a form of consistent cardio was way better for me because though dance was consistent the type of dance was ever changing and I never got stuck in the state of mind I did when I was running.

It was so freeing to spend an hour everyday to dance. I wasn’t trying to impress anyone, I was just doing something to better myself and it allowed me to have fun. Dancing is fun and you don’t have to be good at it to have fun and get a good workout in.

1 Million Dance Studios always inspire me to learn their hip hop choreos and dances. I can always bust out a line dance the moment country music touches my ears. Somewhere deep, deep, deep inside me is a Latina and I swear when I hear salsa or reggaeton I try to call upon my inner Puerto Rican and get those hips going (note: it doesn’t go well, but it is hilarious).

Doing this challenge gave me a hate for running, but a love and passion for dance. I think it worked out much better that way.

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#37 Art History

I wasn’t sure how to go about learning Art History, so I started by just going to art museums. Which I will say art is nice to look at (obviously) and I saw lots of interesting pieces (such as a Picasso exhibit when I was in Budapest and when I was in NY I visited the Met), but without actually having someone there they kind of fell flat on the history aspect of it. I saw a lot, but I felt like I didn’t learn any proper Art History. Though, as a side note I do make sure to visit art museums every time I travel to different countries as I find it helps me learn the culture.

To expand upon my knowledge I looked up Art History classes on Coursera. There I found a Modern Art and Ideas course by the Museum of Modern Art and enrolled in it. Sadly it was only a 5 week course and it only took less than a day to cover all the material in it.

Though, from there I discovered that the Museum of Modern Art website has a learning section. I went and scrolled through the material and did research there for a little while.

But I still didn’t learn enough.

So with my still slim knowledge of Art History I moved onto Khan Academy. I used Khan Academy back in high school and at that time it was just a place with math and science courses. Now it has expanded to all sorts of subjects; including an entire art history section spanning from prehistoric art to neoclassical art to modern art. Needless to say Khan Academy was exactly what I needed.

Except that once I finally got into the Art History sections and lessons I realized how utterly dull I found it. I made it through 3 sections of Khan lessons and through each of those lessons I kept asking myself why do I keep forcing myself to keep going when I clearly find it boring and am not enjoying myself.

To change-up my perspectives a bit I looked up art history documentaries on Netflix and see if a different style would help me find focus. It didn’t. I couldn’t get into anything I watched and nothing seemed to click with me.

With that I came to a revelation that I didn’t want to come to. I’m not going to be an awesome Art History buff. That isn’t where my skills or talents lie and I will say I started this challenge bull-headed and convinced that I would be able to learn and master art history, but at the end of the day I don’t actually have that much interest in it.

I will say that this challenge is complete on the account that I have learned way more about Art History than previously. I just did not get to the level at which I first imagined when I came up with this goal. I would like to believe I will continue learning art history, but not seriously.

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#73 Go out every night for 1 week

I did it y’all! Before I get on with describing my week I just want to ask how do people go out every single night?! Too much sleep has been lost for my liking if I’m being completely honest. Don’t get me wrong I definitely had fun and thinking of different things every day was a challenge. It was difficult to do this around my work schedule and my regular schedule, but I’m glad I pulled it off.

Thursday September 20th: Murder by Death concert at Ogden Theater (which I had never been to before!) with my sister-in-law Lynne. She invited me out that week and I instantly said yes even though I had never heard of the band. I find that I really enjoy going to concerts and I really enjoy going to concerts of bands I’ve never heard of. There is something really cool about the first time I hear a band is live and Lynne is pretty into them and have been to their other concerts, so I trusted her judgement for me to go in blind. Which by the way they are really good and the bass guitarist looks like a werewolf.

Friday September 21st: Went to see the movie A Simple Favor with Sammi (She will be present for almost the rest of these as she was my prime motivator to keep going out). This was a last-minute commit at the end of the day and there was only seats in the front section available. We really wanted to see it, so we just got those seats and found that they weren’t as terrible as they seem. Which was super shocking to me, definitely noted for future reference. Also, that movie is just ratchet and I don’t know if I liked it, but I had a lot of fun watching it.

Saturday September 22nd: Hadn’t been to the symphony in a while and looked up what was up at Boettcher Hall that weekend and ended up seeing that they had a Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra Symphony for that night. Which I immediately bought tickets for Sammi and I as she had never been to the symphony before and I thought that symphony would be a great introduction. It was absolute perfection and the Ella and Frank impersonators were stellar and got me in a jazzy mood. After the symphony we ended up looking for a piano bar and found this place called the Crimson Room. This place is underground and super classy and the customer range isn’t really 22 year olds (meaning the drinks there are over $100), but we didn’t care because we wanted Jazz and that was where we could find it. Needless to say we absolutely loved that place, the aesthetics of it were exactly what we wanted and needed to finish up our night.

Sunday September 23rd: After Saturday night Sammi and I were definitely exhausted and we couldn’t rest up in the morning as we had to go to a 2 year olds birthday and we were already 3 days into the streak and we were like we just gotta commit and do something. Luckily Sunday nights I am a part of a pool league so that evening we headed to the pool hall and played some practice games before my match. That night I played against a 4 (which is 2 ranks higher than me) and I have no idea what happened, but I played really well. I was just having a lot of fun and before I had played the girl I played we were having fun and laughing but during our game I could tell I definitely got on her nerves. She (and me too) didn’t expect me to play that well and I felt bad that I was causing her to have a rough night, but also I won, so at the time I didn’t care that much because I haven’t won in weeks.

Monday September 24th: Was gonna go do a cycle bar class with Lynne (that I also talked Sammi into going with me), but I didn’t make it in time to sign up. After missing that I realized that Sammi and I were still dressed to work out so we ended up going to a gym close by the cycle bar place. Maybe not the conventional going out that I was thinking about, but it’s hard to come up with ideas on a Monday night. Plus a gym is a social place and it was at night, so it counts. There was also this arm machine that just was absolute hell and I am still in pain from it.

Tuesday September 25th: This was the hardest day to figure out what to do. Sammi was gone and literally everyone I knew was working and I really wanted to hang out with my brother, but he also had work. Which left me to do something that I don’t normally do: go out alone. I am not a social creature and when I go out I always go out with friends. I hardly ever do things alone because I like sharing experiences with people. But I was on a 5 day streak and I couldn’t risk blowing it on day 6. I dressed up slightly smart casual and made my way to Denver. Didn’t have a full plan except drive to Denver and figure it out from there. Everything that I normally do downtown is on the weekends though, so I had absolutely no idea what I should do. Thus I ended up where I normally end up when I’m not thinking and wandering around Denver; the Denver Center of Performing Arts. Fun fact that night was Dear Evan Hansen premier night in Denver and even more of a fun fact I got a ticket. I’ve been wanting to see this musical since I stumbled upon its soundtrack a year and a half ago. It was everything that I imagined and more and was fantastic. I am so grateful that I snagged a ticket and found something to do that night. If you have the chance to see it, go now. Don’t think, just go.

Wednesday September 26th: Sammi came back and we ended the 7 days strong! We went to a Sip and Paint and for those who know my list know that paint a picture is one of the creative challenges (#15 on Master List) and because of that this day will be posted in a separate blog post.

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Knowledge

Honestly, I want to learn all the things and just gain as much knowledge as I can through this life. Putting this list together was heavy struggle for me and it may change throughout the years, but as a basis this is where it is starting.

Knowledge Goals:

Read 1000 books
- Right out the gate with a big number and after seeing how difficult I’ve been struggling with a list of 100 things, I somehow believe that I can read 1000 books. I track all the books I read and have read on goodreads and currently I am up to 307 books read. Also, for this goal I’m not talking every book is a novel. Essentially, everything that I track on my goodreads will count and that includes novels, short stories, web serials, manga, manhwa, comics, etc. Just anything that I read and I think values to be added on my goodreads.
Fluent Spanish
- I’m a Puerto Rican that has terrible Spanish and that needs to be fixed.
Proficient Korean
- This just sounds fun and not gonna lie I am mostly learning this because I’m currently on a kdrama kick. Plus, the language is super interesting and now being able to recognize Hangul randomly whenever I’m out in town is cool.
Obscure history
- I am not sure how I will know if I have fulfilled this goal. Perhaps, know over 10 obscure history things that become my go to conversation topic. Classify them as known obscure history after I have had good conversations with people about the history. And by good conversations I mean actually having real conversation about the topic and not just me talking at a person about this cool fact.
Connoisseur of Tea
- I love tea. Therefore, I must be a tea master.
Study Business
- Ironically, I actually already do lots of business-y type things, but I don’t have proper education and I am getting to a point in my life where it is becoming a bit more essential to have the research. Can’t really wing things any more when lots of people and money are involved.
Art History
- I’ve always wanted to be the person that sees a painting and be like “oh yes, this is a Rembrandt.” To do that I’m going to have to study up on art styles and actually have a better understanding of how to tell the difference of art styles and the era it was done. Sadly, a lot of the time the meaning of art just goes over my head and I just nod like I get it, when really I am heavily lost.
Astronomy
- I’m not gonna lie this is absolutely an excuse to get into stargazing and to rationalize my want of a telescope. (Was originally Oceanography, but for the life of me I could not get into anything ocean related)
Study a Theory
- Not sure which one, but I would like an in-depth scientific one with lots of material out there, so I can get as much of an understanding as I can about it.
Learn something I have no prior interest in
- This will help me get out of my comfort zone of knowledge and maybe gain an appreciation for a topic that I normally wouldn’t care for.