Water Challenge

Per challenge no. 19, I've rowed across a lake (Central Park), flown across an ocean (Atlantic), waded across a stream (actually did this late last year in Tennessee). Now I have swam (swum?) across a pool, officially completed this past weekend in Charleston, SC:

Row Your Boat

On Memorial Day I took one more step toward completing my year-long water challenge (challenge no. 19). I rowed a boat across a Central Park Lake. Austin helped with the rowing. And by "helped" I mean he did most of the rowing. Apparently I have "weak girl muscles" that were "embarrassing" him in front of all of Manhattan. He saved me from a lifetime of mockery. A keeper, that one.

Anyway, it was beautiful and stuff: 

 

Skyhawk Adventure

Like I mentioned in Monday's post, flying a plane (challenge no. 19) was beyond incredible. Though it may offend a few of my challengers, it has been my favorite challenge so far. I have been asked if this experience caused me to "conquer" my fear. My answer is best depicted through metaphor: It's as if my fear was a giant grizzly bear in attack-mode and now it is simply a kitten lounging on a windowsill. It hasn't gone away completely, but is less likely to make me pee my pants.

We were supposed to fly at 9:00 a.m., but because of the evil morning weather in Atlanta, we set out at 1:00 p.m. Side note: I must extend an apology to my good friend Charity for the 20-minute car ride to Peachtree Dekalb Airport. My nerves were doing the talking. Your patience was astounding and greatly appreciated.

Upon arrival at Skybound Aviation, I was greeted by my instructor, Kerwin Day, also known as the nicest man I have ever met. He has been flying since 1966 and has more than 18,500 hours. I was in great hands.

As we made our way outside, I asked Kerwin what exactly I would be allowed to do once we were airborne. Steer? Take pictures? He replied, "Oh, you're going to be doing everything. I'm just along for the ride." Gulp.

Making our way out to the plane.

The Skyhawk (Cessna 172).

Kerwin took about a half hour to familiarize me with the plane we would be flying. I learned what most of the major components are called and what purpose they each serve. Kerwin would always let me guess what each part was called before he told me. My guesses were things like "Flappy Thing" and "Flux Capacitor." The correct answers were things like "Fuselage" and "Rotor."

 Cockpit.

Finally we climbed into the plane and buckled ourselves in. At this point my heart was beating fast, but more out of excitement and curiosity rather than fear. Kerwin went over all of the important devices inside the cockpit before we started it up and started taxiing. After checking a few key functions, we were cleared to take off. At the start of the runway, Kerwin took me through, step by step. First I pushed in the throttle all the way, and the plane went forward and started building up speed. Then I simply pulled back on the wheel.

And suddenly, I was flying. Here are a few adjectives to describe this moment: exhilarating, empowering, breathtaking, freaking awesome.

We cruised around at about 125 mph at an altitude of 3,000 feet, first flying south to the downtown area, circling around Turner field, then heading toward Stone Mountain and back to PDK. Kerwin served as both my flight instructor and tour guide of the skies, providing interesting tidbits about what we were flying over.

 View of Emory University from 3,000-ish feet. 

 Stone Mountain.

After about thirty minutes of flying time and me meeting my exclamatory outburst quota for the year, we landed. Kerwin told me what to do as I shakily followed his instructions. Afterward I gave myself some applause and was nothing but smiles. Seriously, I couldn't stop smiling. That grizzly bear of fear started gathering his belongings the minute we touched down.

The second most exciting part of the day: Getting my certificate. And yes, this masterpiece shall be framed:

I shall end with a quote from Kerwin the Kind, who said the followed after we turned off the engine: "We always feel like we have to say something profound after a flight. So, once again we have defied the laws of gravity and overcame the forces of superstition."

The superstition is that women can't fly. But as I have clearly outlined above, we most certainly can.

Taking Flight

Pilot Potts has taken to the skies.

The experience was incredible. My instructor let me take off, fly and land, despite my shaky hands. More to come tomorrow, but challenge no. 19 is done and done.

Italy Wins

Italy has officially stolen my heart. I'm too tired to search my brain for the most potent adjective to describe our trip, but just know that it was one of the best weeks of my life.

We were lucky enough to experience a wide range of what Italy has to offer, from colossal Rome to a Tuscan village of 200 people and everything in between. My favorite part? All of it. But here are some strong recommendations/opinions while they're still fresh in my mind:

• If you are planning a trip to Tuscany, stay at least one night if not your whole life at Villa San Rocco, a 6-century-old ten bedroom retreat nestled in the hills overlooking Bagni di Lucca. It left me speechless. 
• Best pizza I've ever had: Dar Poeta in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome.
• Best gelato: Right outside Vatican City at a place called Old Bridge.
• Take the fast trains. Worth it.
• Order whatever your server recommends. Worth it.
• Grappa is a vile substance. 
• Sciacchetra (unique to Cinque Terre) is my new favorite drink.
• Venice is a maze for grown-ups. Whatever you do, get lost in it.

I can mark part of challenge no. 19 off my list (fly across an ocean). And I'll be posting my Window Seat series (challenge no. 5) as well as some other photos in a few days. Right now I have to concentrate on not letting my forehead meet my keyboard.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a big shiny new post.

The Everyday Five

There are a handful of challenges that I must do every day. I thought I'd take a moment to talk about how they're going.

1. Sit in stillness and silence for fifteen minutes before you start your day.

Oh boy. This one is tough. I've already talked about it here, but I will say that it's getting a little better. I've implemented a new, embarrassingly cheesy approach: Each morning I pick a word and focus only on that one word during my fifteen minutes of meditation. The words thus far have been things like focus, patience, and energy. It felt a little too self-helpy for my taste at first, but I think it's really making a difference. The day I focused on the word energy, for example, I only thought about napping ten times as opposed to the usual twenty times.

2. Drink a liter of water.

Seems like no big deal for most people, but I do not like drinking water outside of a gym or hot yoga scenario. I think my mistake with this challenge is that I try and drink all the water at once to get it over with. Going to try and just drink consistently throughout the day. But through this challenge I have found my two favorite water brands:

3. Compliment someone.

I have noticed that most of my compliments are to women. It's easy just to say, "Oh, I love your shoes," or "Your hair looks fantastic." My goals for this challenge for the rest of the year are to compliment more strangers and compliment more men. I also want to try and dig a little deeper with the compliments. There's a difference between saying, "I like your jacket," (which is basically saying they did a good job of shopping) and "That jacket looks so good on you." And I know all of my examples are about someone's appearance, but that's pretty much what you're limited to when complimenting a stranger. I'm not really going to go up to someone on the subway and say, "You are such a generous person and you make the best chicken parmesan I've ever tasted." 

4. Record a positive thought before bed.

I love this challenge. It forces me to focus on the good no matter how angry I am at the world. I'm starting to realize that the beauty of life is in the details. Here are a few of my favorites so far:

Hearing "Mr. Jones" blaring from a NYC taxi.
Cuddling with Dagmar on a cold December night.
Seeing Austin after a week-long work separation.
Running over vibrant fallen leaves in Central Park before 8 a.m.

5. Write.

Having nearly completed the first chapter of my first novel, I can say that this challenge is doing wonders for my writing confidence. There are days when I only write a few words and other days when I look at the clock and realize it's 1 a.m. and I'm still writing. But there is also the constant struggle of hating everything I write, which other writers might understand. If only I had a few months all to myself on a private island...

Writers are also great at making excuses.


So there you have it, the five challenges I do every day. I'll be honest with you (and by you I mean me since I think I'm the only one that reads this blog) there have been days when I completely forget to do one of these five challenges. But if my goal for this year is perfection, then I should just throw myself off a bridge now.