2. Climb a tree

On the Fourth of July, Amy and I went to visit her sister in Maine. We went to the town of Perkins Cove for the afternoon and walked along the coastal shore until we found a beach area. On the way back from the beach we took photos in The Climbing Tree. This is me in the tree with Cameron and Maddie.

We also saw a spectacular sunset over York Beach before the fireworks.

14. Go to a movie at a drive-in theater

A week ago, Amy and I called up our friends Lynn and Steph and asked them to go see Toy Story 3 with us. The catch? They had to come see it with us at the Mendon Drive-In. They were both game, so we agreed to meet up a few miles from the theater and drive over there together. The last time I went to a drive-in was probably 30+ years ago at the Rainbow Drive-In Theater in my hometown of Aitkin, MN. The experience was just as enchanting as I remember – pricing is per car ($20 these days, still a bargain!), sound is through the radio, and lawn chairs are encouraged. I can’t wait to go again.

Waiting for full dark, full moon in the distance

Side note: go see Toy Story 3. It’s great!

The Toy Story gang on the big screen, full moon in the background

40. Wear the same outfit to work for an entire week and see if anyone notices

Do you know how much this made me laugh? This made my week. Made me giggle every morning. Made me smile every time I looked down and noticed what I was wearing.

I didn’t plan on doing this the week of June 14, but on Monday afternoon it struck me that it was a good week to try it out. So I wore the outfit again on Tuesday.

Do you know that only one person said anything? Erin noticed at 10:42 on Wednesday morning. She leaned over to me in an all-staff meeting and said, “Did you wear that on Monday? Is this THE WEEK?” I told her it was, and  also told her I’d washed everything the night before so she didn’t need to worry that I was starting to smell or anything. She laughed at me.

By Thursday I have to admit, I was glad we work flexible schedules in the summer so I didn’t have to face the same clothes on Friday.

Yes indeed. I made myself laugh. And if Erin hadn’t said anything, I’d have gotten away with it scot-free!

9. Go candlepin bowling

In my last post, I hinted at something else on my 40 in 40 list that Libby, Jen, Amy, and I had done on our first (annual?) L-JAM Adventure Day. We went candlepin bowling at Lanes & Games in Cambridge.

As a twist, we decided to bowl in skirts. Which meant we needed to buy skirts. Which meant a trip to Goodwill after lunch and before the graveyard adventure. Behold the shopping. (Amy does not like wearing skirts.)

And behold all of us in skirts (looking reasonably happy, even though none of us are really skirt-wearers.) (Aside: Amy coaches outside. Can you tell? The rest of us are pretty pasty white, but she’s looking all tanned.)

And behold some action shots of us bowling/posing.

Amy (l) and Libby (r) bowl

Jen (l) and Megan (r) pose

I LOVE candlepin bowling – it’s significantly more fun to me than ten-pin bowling, and not just because you get three shots on each frame. There’s something about the small ball, the shape of the pins, and the fact that between shots the deadwood isn’t swept away. That can really help, but it can also hurt. So hooray for candlepin bowling! I suspect I’ll go more than once this year…

5. Fly a kite

On Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, I had FIVE adventures with Libby, Jen, and Amy, which we dubbed the L-JAM Adventure Day. We voted on what we wanted to do after throwing about 20 ideas out there, and the top 5 won. On the list? Flying a kite in Boston Common!

At first I was unsuccessful with the rainbow-colored stunt kite. Perhaps we were making things too hard with that one. Amy and Jen didn’t have any success with it either, although I’m attributing that about 99% to user error…

But then I had success with Spiderman! Spidey always saves the day! And really, there is nothing like flying a $5 kite on a beautiful summer day.

Other things we did that day include hopscotch and jump rope, eating food we’d never tried before (in this case, pork bellies and grilled pineapple, both of which are totally on my “eat again” list), doing some exploring in a graveyard and finding good epitaphs, and something I’ll blog about later, because it is also on my list of 40 things to do in my 40th year!