30 Things I Wanted to do Before I was 30.

So remember that list? 30 things to do before I’m 30? Well, 30 has come and gone and I’m sure you all are dying to know how it turned out. (Or you completely forgot, and/or never cared that much to begin with.) Either way, I have finally published the results:

1. Get married √  Done, and happily done.

2. Adopt a dog 

Ugh, no. Curtis doesn't want a dog. He doesn’t want to take care of it. I don’t really either, but it still seems like one of those things you have to do at some point in your life. Ah well, there’s more life to live I guess.

3. Travel to China 

Ha! When I win the lottery, sure.

4. Write and illustrate a story √

Welll, I did adapt and illustrate the Comanche Nation’s story of How the frog became a Toad for a project for my Native Arts class. It was well received. So I’m counting it.

5. Reread the Bible 

I’ve read parts of the Bible over again many times, but I’ve yet to actually tackle some of those Old Testament books again. So this one’s a no.

6. Cut my hair really short √ 

And recently grew it back out again. My hair is now the longest it’s been since before I joined to Navy.

7. Go whale watching 

Sadly never did. Maybe never will.

8. Learn how to make Salteñas 

Still want to, still haven’t.

9. Participate in a political campaign √ 

Well, I did attend a Ron Paul rally, and signed a petition, and voted for the first time since I voted for Bush in 2000. (Oh the naiveté!)

10. Host a Christmas party 

We visit friends, they don’t visit us. Ah well.

11. Finish reading the Wheel of Time series 

No, after failing twice to make it through the 3^rd book, I finally gave it up. Too boring. I did make it through all five of the Game of Thrones books however.

12. Earn an Associates Degree√ 

Useless, but fun to say.

13. Buy a rat and train it to be friendly 

You know, I got another hamster and loved it, but haven’t gotten around to a rat just yet.

14. Beat one of my Wii games 

Never did. And I gave away my Wii. But I did play a video game to completion. I beat all of the main quests and sub-quests of Skyrim on the PS3. Ironically, it’s one of those games where you can never “beat” it, because it never ends. So I’ll still have to say no on this one.

15. Learn how to type properly 

Ha! I am hunting and pecking as I type this… so No.

16. Get involved with a church ministry √ 

Well, I did go to Bolivia and volunteer in a Christian children’s home, so yeah, I’m saying yes to this one.

17. Attend a science fiction convention 

Nope.

18. Buy, assemble, decorate, and furnish a miniature house 

Sadly, no. We don’t have room in our house right now.

19. Talk to a doctor about my social anxiety√ 

Yes, didn’t really help. But maybe I wasn’t bad enough to be helped. Introversion is not a disorder.

20. Grow vegetables in a garden 

Still no backyard.

21. Dye my hair a different color√ 

Well, the many grey hairs popping out of my head forced my hand on this one. I do it every month now.

22. Go to an NHL game√ 

Yes, it was very fun, and I’ve already blogged about it.

23. Quit smoking for good 

Sure, I did this loads of times.

24. Take karate again for at least a year√ 

Actually taekwondo, but I’m still counting it.

25. Start a retirement fund 

Ha! That’s a good one. No, it looks like I’ll be in the workforce until the day I die.

26. Have the guts to donate blood 

Never had the opportunity. In the Navy, they asked us all the time, but as a civilian, strangely I’m never given the chance.

27. Get another piercing 

What, am I 16 years old? Grow up. Please.

28. Kill a centipede 

Still never faced that fear. But I still have nightmares about them sometimes.

29. Put together a 1000 piece puzzle√ 

Yes!

30. Visit Mexico 

Does Bolivia count? It doesn’t. In my defense, shortly after I wrote this blog, the kidnapping rate sky-rocketed in Mexico, so the Marines were forbidden to go there. 

The Worst Thing I Will Ever Eat

Wow. So this weekend, I accidentally ate the most disgusting thing I will ever eat in my life. Me and Curtis hang out with some friends in Fort Worth once a month and it’s been a new tradition of ours, to go out and try an exotic restaurant together.

Russian food was great, Lebanese food was awesome (mainly because I discovered that after all these years I have developed a taste for Hummus, which is now my new favorite snack) but this week we went Jamaican.  I wasn’t that hungry, so I thought I couldn’t go wrong with a bowl of soup. Here’s the description from the menu:

Mannish Water (Goat Soup)

A real Jamaican favorite! A flavorful soup containing goat meat, garlic, scallions, cho-cho, green bananas, scotch bonnet peppers, and spinner dumplings.

Okay, the name was sketchy, and goat meat isn’t all that great, but how can you go wrong with a garlic, meat and dumpling soup? Well… I’ll tell you how.

When they said “Goat meat”, we were to somehow know that it meant goat “tripe”.

If you don’t know off hand, let me give you a definition of tripe, taken from an online dictionary:

“The rubbery lining of the stomach of cattle or other ruminants, used as food”

Tripe is apparently then, not food, but something “used as food.” And this is what was in the soup.

The first sip, I was like, “Oh that’s not as good as I was hoping.” I thought I could add some salt, and it might be okay. But then I started to see chunks of stomach and intestine.

I thought, well, I’ll just eat the dumplings and skip the nasty bits and I’ll be okay. But then as I tried that, I began to realize what exactly the nasty bits were, and that the taste of them had permeated the soup, and that by drinking even a sip of the broth, I was drinking the stomach and intestine of a goat.

And one of my friends had ordered the soup too, and he was going through the same process as me, and at about the same moment, we both gave up. When our other friends noticed our disgust, they got curious and decided to take a taste of our Mannish Water. One of them gagged horribly and then almost threw up right there in the restaurant.

There was just something about it. I could taste it off and on for the next 24 hours.

Since then I have researched “Mannish Water.” It seems many people like it, and I can’t begin to comprehend why. Apparently it got its name because some Jamaicans believe it increases male virility. One site said:

“People in Jamaica revere Mannish Water, the same way that Americans do with milk. Jamaicans believe that Mannish water has powers within it that make people strong and healthy…”

Okay, Americans don’t REVERE milk. Nor do we BELIEVE that milk makes people strong and healthy. We KNOW it has calcium and Vitamin D, and it is the natural source of nourishment for growing babies. Those are facts. The Jamaican beliefs about Mannish Water are myths. A male does not become more virile when he eats something nasty. Tripe tastes like crap, mainly because it comes from the body organs that literally make crap. That’s not a fact, so much as it’s my opinion, but it’s still true.

And that is the story of the worst thing I will ever eat.