365 days

May 26

Day 37: Today, eat and run

Today I ate an entire package of red vines before biking home from work. I thought for sure I was going to have to take a puke stop but I made it home safely without purging myself.

I am paying for it now though big time.  I still feel pukey and my jaw hurts from all the fucking red vines and I have to go to work in an hour.  Shit.

BTW I thought biking was a suitable alternative to running.  Those who know me know that I don’t run because of my huge bobble head.  It hurts my neck…that is all.

Day 36: Say nothing today

Today was tough because I like to talk to people.  I didn’t always like to talk to people.  In fact, I didn’t always like people; however, I have recently come to the realization that there is much to learn from others.  Everybody sees things in their own unique perspective, and I find it interesting to hear their perspectives.  

So, from what the book says today wasn’t exactly a don’t say anything day, it was more of a day to say only what truly matters - words that need to be said.  I am at a crossroads with this challenge…

What words do we say that don’t need to be said in one way or another?

May 22

Day 35: Today give little tasks to people around you

I didn’t do very well on today’s task.  I did ask random favors from some of my coworkers but I’m not sure how that is much different from any other day really.  I guess I didn’t have much contact with any other people today - kind of a lonely day.  

I wonder if I have fallen into some kind of mini depressive mode since Brenda has been gone.  The daily tasks aren’t the same without someone to share them with - someone to compare stories with.  However, I will keep on keeping on without her because she will be back soon and we can continue this little game of ours.  Miss you Brender boo - call me!  There’s my task to you for the day!… —Chelsie

Does anyone have a task for me?

May 21

Day 34: Write to a dictator to stop torture

I haven’t completed today yet, partly because I can’t decide which dictator to write to and partly because I am fucking tired.  Do you have any ideas as to what dictator I should write to? —Chelsie

Day 33: Be on the lookout for the paranormal

Day 33 was weird - not because I saw anything paranormal but because I had some funky ass dreams.  When I woke up in the middle of the night, I typed up a short synopsis of my dreams so that I wouldn’t forget them.  Here is what I typed:

“I just had one of those waking dreams…

It started as a normal dream but I could totally feel it… a ghost attacked me at starbucks and drug me into the back room..  at the end of the dream I was lying on a bed talking with Margo (my starbucks boss). 

Then I was lying in the apartment in my bed reading a message on the wall (written on a piece of tape) from Brenda which I found odd because she is in Kenya although I knew I was really tired so I could have just been imagining it… then I heard the door rattle and I stayed really still because I didn’t know who it could be… maybe Brenda came home early?  A man walked in and I froze.. he walked very slowly into the bathroom, did something then came out and went into the main apartment.. he was rummaging around and I was too scared to move, then he came into the closet where I was with a grin on his face and climbed on top of me.. I kicked and hit, jumped up and ran to the bathroom to turn on the light to see who he was where I discovered that he had already taken out all the light bulbs so that I couldn’t see him… I was still trying to escape when I woke up…

 I felt both of these dreams with my entire body and I am not sure I can go back to sleep now..”

Fucking weird shit right.  I suppose thinking about the paranormal all day made me dream about it.  Too bad I couldn’t dream about hedgehogs. —Chelsie

Day 32: Tonight control your dreams

I know I am a bit behind, but it’s because Brenda is in Kenya and I am beyond depressed.  Anyways… on day 32 I concentrated on hedgehogs, airplanes and midgets like the book suggested but I had no such dreams - quite a bummer actually because I really like baby hedgehogs and I could have used some nice dreams.  I am glad this day is over because it means one more day without Brenda is over… —Chelsie

May 18

Day 31: Nauru Awareness Day

Hello everyone.  The post for day 31 is a little late, well, because I have been a little busy.  Brenda left for Kenya yesterday, so I went to sleep early in an attempt to avoid the silence of the apartment.  I miss her face and laugh already.  Anyways, moving on… 

Today the task is to write a note to the President of a tiny island (Nauru) to let them know they are not forgotten.  I just finished my note and will be sending it off in a few hours on my way to work.

According to the CIA World Factbook, Nauru is about 0.1 times the size of Washington D.C.  In other words, it is very small!  Also, they have been heavily mined for phosphate - probably bad news for them environmentally, but I suppose you have to make the paper somehow, someway.  

Well, I am off to send the note now.  Stay tuned for day 32, which I won’t post the results of until tomorrow because it deals with dreams :)  Tutaonana people.  

May 16

Day 30: Ignore today

We ignored today, kabisa kabisa kabisa….  Siku njema kila mtu.  Kwaheri, tutaonana kesho. — Chelsie na Brenda

May 15

Day 29: Prank call someone about Jesus in a southern accent
On the day of my new-found sobriety, I placed a call that was very close to my heart regarding the state of an entirely random person’s soul. I explained to the female voice on the other end of the line, the over-powering emotion of my conversion. My appeal moved the lady to such an extent that she offered a gift of twenty dollars to hear her prayer said on the radio. However, the prayer we heard was so personal, and selfless that we agreed to say her prayer on the radio free of charge.
And may the lord bless each and everyone you on this glorious summer evening,
The very reverent - Reverend Ross
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The above commentary is courtesy of our friend Matt Ross, who is our guest blogger for the day.  Brenda and I are not very good at Southern accents, nor are we very good at not laughing at funny shit.  Although I was pretty impressed that Brenda even talked to this lady on the phone (as Matt’s assistant).  I almost peed my pants, I had to run to the bathroom.  This lady was ready to give us her bank account information to put her prayer on the radio.  Her prayer was that everyone who doesn’t have jobs, get jobs… very sweet of her, so we said her prayer for free (as Matt mentioned).  Shit, funniest night ever.  We will have Matt guest blog more often, but he already said he wouldn’t do the cigarette day.  Dammit. —Chelsie and Brenda

Day 29: Prank call someone about Jesus in a southern accent

On the day of my new-found sobriety, I placed a call that was very close to my heart regarding the state of an entirely random person’s soul. I explained to the female voice on the other end of the line, the over-powering emotion of my conversion. My appeal moved the lady to such an extent that she offered a gift of twenty dollars to hear her prayer said on the radio. However, the prayer we heard was so personal, and selfless that we agreed to say her prayer on the radio free of charge.

And may the lord bless each and everyone you on this glorious summer evening,

The very reverent - Reverend Ross

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The above commentary is courtesy of our friend Matt Ross, who is our guest blogger for the day.  Brenda and I are not very good at Southern accents, nor are we very good at not laughing at funny shit.  Although I was pretty impressed that Brenda even talked to this lady on the phone (as Matt’s assistant).  I almost peed my pants, I had to run to the bathroom.  This lady was ready to give us her bank account information to put her prayer on the radio.  Her prayer was that everyone who doesn’t have jobs, get jobs… very sweet of her, so we said her prayer for free (as Matt mentioned).  Shit, funniest night ever.  We will have Matt guest blog more often, but he already said he wouldn’t do the cigarette day.  Dammit. —Chelsie and Brenda

May 14

[video]

Day 27: Yes/No, Today you are not allowed to use the word yes or no. See how long you last.

I think I did a pretty good job today of avoiding the words ‘yes’ and ‘no’.  To accomplish this though, I had to use the word ‘absolutely’ A LOT, and it turns out people really respond to that.  I suppose when someone asks you something and you give an enthusiastic ‘absolutely’ the enthusiasm is contagious.  I like it.

It is hard to be conscious of everything you say though, especially with words like ‘yes’ and ‘no’ that so readily flow from the tongue.  I learned a lesson today that maybe I should focus more on the words that come out of my mouth.  I mean really, if it was so hard to pay attention today and remember what I said, I can’t even imagine what I say on a completely oblivious day.  That shit is scary. I’m telling you, Brenda and I need a reality show.  Or at least a candid camera channel on youtube.  I think people would pay to watch our ridiculous lives. — Chelsie

Hallo, this is also Chelsie, although now I am writing for Brenda because she is busy doing a shit ton of homework that she has to finish before she goes to Kenya (lucky bitch).  Brenda forgot about today’s assignment until this evening when she gave it a fair go.  She wants me to mention that she did say ‘negatory’ instead of no a few times and said ‘yeah’ and ‘ndio’ instead of yes.  Like I said, she gave it a fair go for the short time that she had.  Do you think you could go a day without saying yes or no?  Try it, I dare you.

May 12

Day 26: Choose what you’d prefer to be reincarnated as
Again we have a very “blah” task for the day. Along with making our choice, we are supposed to send a $5 donation to the Dalai Lama… I suppose this is to ensure that our wishes are granted when we die. 
I, however, do not believe that we humans have souls. Thus reincarnation is just another thing we have conjured up to make ourselves feel better about our eventual deaths. Despite my hopeless beliefs, I went along with the task and chose the awesome beetle pictured above. If you know me at all, you know I love insects. They are little world-changing machines that deserve a lot more respect than they get. I’m fascinated by how some can live dormant for years (YEARS!) in certain life stages only to turn into adults that can’t even eat and have a sole purpose of reproducing. Freaking neat. —Brenda
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Chelsie chose the poodle, only because Brenda once told her that poodles are some of the smartest dogs around, and Chelsie wants to come back as a somewhat intelligent being. Apparently Chelsie had about four paragraphs written about her decision, but when she went to save them as a draft in tumblr they were lost to the internet abyss. Now she is pissed off and has decided to let Brenda write her portion of the entry. Brenda told her that she hopes to die before Chelsie does, because Brenda is thoroughly creeped out by poodles. They stare into your soul. Not that Brenda thinks she has a soul. Shoot. Brenda’s whole view on life just became blurred. Fucking poodles… —Chelsie (?)

Day 26: Choose what you’d prefer to be reincarnated as


Again we have a very “blah” task for the day. Along with making our choice, we are supposed to send a $5 donation to the Dalai Lama… I suppose this is to ensure that our wishes are granted when we die. 

I, however, do not believe that we humans have souls. Thus reincarnation is just another thing we have conjured up to make ourselves feel better about our eventual deaths. Despite my hopeless beliefs, I went along with the task and chose the awesome beetle pictured above. If you know me at all, you know I love insects. They are little world-changing machines that deserve a lot more respect than they get. I’m fascinated by how some can live dormant for years (YEARS!) in certain life stages only to turn into adults that can’t even eat and have a sole purpose of reproducing. Freaking neat. —Brenda

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Chelsie chose the poodle, only because Brenda once told her that poodles are some of the smartest dogs around, and Chelsie wants to come back as a somewhat intelligent being. Apparently Chelsie had about four paragraphs written about her decision, but when she went to save them as a draft in tumblr they were lost to the internet abyss. Now she is pissed off and has decided to let Brenda write her portion of the entry. Brenda told her that she hopes to die before Chelsie does, because Brenda is thoroughly creeped out by poodles. They stare into your soul. Not that Brenda thinks she has a soul. Shoot. Brenda’s whole view on life just became blurred. Fucking poodles… —Chelsie (?)

May 11

Day 25: Things you will never do before you die

For today there is a shit long list of shit in the book to look through and check off what you will never do before you die.  

We each checked off our stuff in the book - as shown in the picture (Chelsie in blue and Brenda in black); however, I’m not too sure about my list because of course how do you know for sure what you will or will not do before you die?  Hmm..so I just checked stuff that I am pretty freaking sure I will never do. —Chelsie

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We had some interesting differences of opinion here. I think my favorite agreement, though, was that neither of us will ever smoke a cat. —Brenda

What are some things you know you will never do before you die, dear reader? 

May 10

Day 24: Barter Day

I am sitting in the laundromat now, debating on whether or not I want to ask the attendant to barter with me. Brenda and I brainstormed some barter ideas before I left the apartment to come here, but none of them seem to appealing or are even possible now that I am actually here. Here were some of the ideas:

- ask a fellow laundry doer to trade some detergent for a dryer sheet

- ask someone to trade me a quarter for a pencil

- that’s about all we could think of

So now I am here and the laundry attendant is nowhere to be found. I think she’s in the back room with her dogs - I can hear them barking. Also, I am the only one here doing laundry right now. There is a teenage boy sitting outside in a car that I thought about approaching for bartering purposes, but that may seem kind of creepy. He’s on the phone anyway, best not to interrupt him.

Since the laundromat was a bust, Brenda and I decided to barter amongst ourselves. Until we realized we don’t have any material goods that we want to trade. Another day of fail. —Chelsie

P.S. We are going to attempt to barter with someone within the next couple days just to see how they react. Stay tuned!

May 09

Day 23: Make a no-obligation appointment with a plastic surgeon and see what he recommends.
We made an executive decision to not do the task for the day, as we both find it a little dumb and a lot impossible. We don’t have that kind of time, book, who do you think we are? Also, we like ourselves because we’re awesome and don’t need someone telling us we need nose jobs and chin implants. Thanks.
Now for some sad news. As you can see, my letter to the mass murderer that I sent the other day was returned to me. The reasoning is marked as being “unclaimed,” which tells me either I have the wrong address, the dude doesn’t receive any letters from strangers, or he is dead. I’m honestly really bummed. I thought that maybe I would get a response from him, or at least make some sort of tiny impact on his daily death row life. Alas. Maybe next time… —Brenda

Day 23: Make a no-obligation appointment with a plastic surgeon and see what he recommends.

We made an executive decision to not do the task for the day, as we both find it a little dumb and a lot impossible. We don’t have that kind of time, book, who do you think we are? Also, we like ourselves because we’re awesome and don’t need someone telling us we need nose jobs and chin implants. Thanks.

Now for some sad news. As you can see, my letter to the mass murderer that I sent the other day was returned to me. The reasoning is marked as being “unclaimed,” which tells me either I have the wrong address, the dude doesn’t receive any letters from strangers, or he is dead. I’m honestly really bummed. I thought that maybe I would get a response from him, or at least make some sort of tiny impact on his daily death row life. Alas. Maybe next time… —Brenda