SERENDIPITY!........well maybe not

One of my favorite movies to watch around Christmas time is Serendipity starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale.  While not technically a Christmas movie, it begins by telling the story of how two people meet trying to buy the same pair of gloves for Christmas.  They spend an enchanted evening together and then separate.  Seven years later they are on a mad search to find each other.  Yes it’s a romantic comedy and yes it’s a chick flick, but without giving away the story, a few of the best parts of the movie have to do with an ice skating rink. 

The second thing accomplished on my “365 til 30” list is Ice Skating around the Christmas Tree in downtown Pittsburgh.  This may sound like a pretty minute accomplishment because many people do it every day, every year, but for me, it was pretty big.  One of the things that really gets me into the Christmas spirit is watching people bundled up skating around a Christmas Tree in December.  Whether it’s the couples holding hands, little kids falling over themselves, or the Christmas songs played while skating round and round, this just does it for me.  The only problem is that at 29-years-old, I’ve never gotten to experience the joy of the Christmas skate. 

Christmas Tree At PPG Downtown Pittsburgh

I have ice skated exactly twice in my life and I remember both experiences well.  The first, when I was about 6-years-old, was during my tenure as a roller skater.  It was 1988, so I’m talking old school roller skates, not blades.  It was winter, I remember it was snowing, and we went to North Park Ice Skating rink.  I was a pretty good roller skater so I remember thinking it would be a breeze, even though my mom warned me it was going to be much different. 

My first slap in the face was when I received my rental skates.  Ugly, brown, used.  I had envisioned pretty white figure skates that would allow me to sore and show off my skills.  Foiled.  When I walked outside to the rink, the second reality hit.  This wasn’t going to be like Shaler Skateland where it’s nice, cozy, and INSIDE.  It was freezing, snowing, and I knew I was going to have to take my twelve layers of clothes off soon, to pee. 

I stepped onto the ice and splat, down I went.  This was going to be a long day.  I remember slowly trying to move along, clutching anything that passed me, all while watching my beautiful cousin Jode in her white figure skates glide by me with her 12-year-old coolness and ease.  I had only made it around maybe once, falling the entire way, when I decided to throw in the towel and give up.  My bruised, frozen, 6-year-old body couldn’t take it anymore.  I’ll stick with roller skating. 

My next ice skating attempt came six years later.  I had been roller blading pretty hardcore for about a year and decided I wanted to start playing hockey.  (Thank you Mighty Ducks!)  I figured that my skills as a roller blader would make me an awesome ice skater.  Wrong again.  I went to Blade Runners with a friend and was once again shafted by the rental skates.  This time I wanted black hockey skates, once again, I get brown rentals.

No matter, my skills will outshine the crap skates I was wearing.  Step on the ice, and then I’m down.  How could this be??  I learned quickly, roller blading is NOTHING like ice-skating.  We go around a few times and after falling and the pain of just trying to stand up exhausted us, we gave up.

So here we are, about 17 or so years later, and all I want to do is go ice-skating around the Christmas tree.  I enlist my friend Maren after our Vatican expedition, to go with me.  We both concede that our endeavor will last around 5 minutes, we will probably have to hold on the entire time, and surely if we make it around once, that will be an accomplishment.

Just walking up to the rink I started to get excited.  I let go of any preconceived notions that I was going to be good and was just thrilled that I was going on the ice around the Christmas tree.  We go to rent out skates, and alas, after 15 years, they have upgraded to blue ice skates.  We held on to each other tightly and stepped onto the ice.  I was afraid to move, but Maren bravely started on her own and into the flow of skaters.  I screamed for her to come help me, but she made me skate to her, and I did!

Me Skating!

Furthermore, I skated!  And well!  I didn’t go fast and I held on to Maren the entire time, but we skated around and around the tree.  And we didn’t fall down once.  I thought my heart was going to explode I was so happy and excited.  And I truly felt like I was in the Christmas spirit. 

The last few years, Christmas hasn’t gone the best for me.  For one reason or another, I have allowed someone or something to ruin it.  This year I was determined not to let that happen.  I was determined to take back Christmas and experience it joyously, the way I had always done in the past.  And you know what?  I did!

I feel sorry for people that say, “I hate this time of year” or, “I can’t wait until it’s over.”  I used to be that way, and it made me sad.  So I changed it, and here I am on Christmas, staring at my beautiful Christmas tree, happy as ever!

Vatican Splendors

The first experience on my “365 days til 30” list, was the Vatican Splendors Exhibit at the Heinz History Center.  In addition to always wanting to go to the Heinz History Center, I’m really into anything and everything that has to do with ancient religion, especially ancient Catholic.

The Exhibit was displayed in only three North American cities, and somehow Pittsburgh made the list.  Perhaps it has something to do with us having the most Catholics per square mile or the fact that St. Anthony’s Chapel (which is, incidentally enough, one block from my house and on the same street) holds the most Catholic relics next to the Vatican.

Whatever the reason, I was immediately intrigued.  I grew up Catholic, went to a Catholic school, went to church twice a week, was involved in all things Catholic, didn’t know people that weren’t Catholic, thought people were sinners if they weren’t Catholic.

Then when I was 11-years-old, I moved.  I started meeting people that were different from me, I started thinking differently, and so like many Catholic teenagers, I left to explore my own spirituality.  I also started getting into the controversial and dark, cool, ancient stuff that is associated with old religions.  And this is really where the Vatican Splendors story begins. 

I didn’t do my research, so I really had no idea what was to be displayed. I just knew it was all from the Vatican, which made my mind naturally go to old, cool, dark, ancient stuff.  I probably should have thought that through a little more.  I also wanted to go before Christmas.  I thought it would be a nice tie into the season as well as help me get a jump-start on my list of things to do.  

So I called my friend Maren who agreed to go with me the Monday before Christmas.  When we entered the museum, there was a lady in front of us that turned around and asked if we needed tickets to the Vatican Exhibit.  We said yes and she explained that she bought one for a friend who never showed and asked me to buy it for $15 (discounted from the regular $20).  I said ok, I didn’t want to leave her hanging.  Maren bought her ticket from the counter and we went to the back to enter. 

When the guy looked at my ticket, he told me it was the audio ticket that was worth $5 and that I still needed to buy the $20 Exhibit ticket!  I couldn’t believe it, conned by a lady at the Vatican Exhibit of all places.  I told them she obviously wasn’t Catholic and that I was going to kick her a** if I saw her in the parking lot.  Although I was clearly joking, they looked scared and gave me a free ticket.  I told them they didn’t have to, but they saw her talking to me and knew I wasn’t lying.  Very cool, kinda funny, but that’s how the Vatican Splendors Exhibit began. 

Maren and I entered and watched the Intro video, nothing too exciting.  Then we went in.  It was pretty much nothing I had imagined.  It truly was an exhibit of art that was taken from the Vatican.  As I began my journey through, I started thinking about it and realized they would probably not put anything controversial or dark in the Vatican, and while it seems pretty obvious now, it didn’t really dawn on me when I was planning it.

 

All art was displayed with both English and Spanish explanations.  The first headline about Peter read, “Pedro No Esta Aqui.”  The silence of the museum was broken when Maren and I busted out laughing at the site of that.  We will never grow up.  The Exhibit was in chronological order beginning with St. Peter’s time and death in Italy.  There was a model of Nero’s Circus and Constantine’s Basilica that was built over it. 

When I tried to take notes, I was ambushed by young people wearing black (and I swear they had secret service thingys in their ears) telling me I was not allowed to use any writing utensils because the Vatican forbids it.  When I asked why, they told me people have defaced the artwork.  I concluded that was a good reason, so decided not to defy them and tried to rely on my photographic memory.  

We moved into the works of Michelangelo (which was definitely my favorite part) and an entire section about the Sistine Chapel.  I am a terrible artist in everyway so to see not only the detailed paintings but also the intricate sculptors that where once just a slab of stone but now looked real, blew me away. 

A series of paintings followed with no familiar artist names, at least to me.  Some of them were pretty cool, others a little boring.  My next favorite part was the section about the mass.  I of course know all of the elements to a mass, but to see what they use at the Vatican, the jewel encrusted chalices, the gold host boxes, the elaborate censers, the thrones, were nothing like we used at St. Athanasius. 

  

The next section or art depicted ministry and traveling.  At first glance, one of my favorite paintings was that of a beautiful Japanese woman surrounded by men.  Then I noticed the man burning at the stake in the background and realized what the painting was about.  Next was a section devoted to portraits and busts of all of the popes throughout history, including a handprint of Pope John Paul II, that we were allowed to touch.

As we exited the exhibit, we entered a gift shop that had anything and everything.  From T-shirts, to ornaments, to books, to rosaries, to jewelry, to yes, even Vatican Splendor shot glasses.  We didn’t buy anything but headed out into the cold for a quick dinner at Primanti Brothers, then off to the second adventure, ice skating at PPG around the Christmas Tree!

Intro to 365

T minus 2 days until my 29^th Birthday.  I’ve been taking this one hard.  I guess its because there is so much if feel like I should have already accomplished and/or experienced by now.  My mom had me when she was 21 so I remember when she turned 30.  I also remember that I could not believe she was so old.  Now I’m at my last year before 30, the last year of my youth (or at least that’s how it feels, although I should have been feeling a bit more grown up a long time ago).  No more excuses at 30.  You can’t say, oh, I’m in my 20s, I’m still figuring things out.  I feel like when you are 30, you have your act together.  I am nowhere near having my act together.  So as this birthday has been approaching and I’ve been feeling more and more depressed about it.  I realized I was going to spend my “last year of my youth” depressed, miserable, and feeling hopeless, unless I took action and did something about it.  So I started to think, what can I do that would really round out this decade to make it feel like not such a complete failure?  Yea I have this blog, and I’m writing a book.  But I’ve had the idea for the blog for a few years and I haven’t been as diligent about it as I should be, or at least diligent enough to ever squeeze a career or even a good reference out of it.  So my mission was twofold, figure out what to do, and figure out ways to stick with it.  Then it came to me.  When I was younger, probably 10 years younger, I started to make this list of all the things I wanted to do in my life.  It wasn’t your typical bucket list like go skydiving and visit the Taj Mahal, it was more things I wanted to learn, accomplish, or just simple things that were sentimental to me and would make me feel.  As I thought about it more, I started to wonder how much I could actually squeeze into one year.  Like if I was completely diligent, focused, and determined, how much could I really accomplish in 365 days.  And thus began the list.  I started writing down things large and small, that I wanted to do and could most likely pull off in one year.  Some of it is simple stuff that I should do like call my grandma everyday, some of it are things that I’ve been putting off like relearn Spanish, and others are a little bit more elaborate like ride a horse in Mexico and get a book published.  Some of the ongoing things, like, take Karate and Sword Fighting, which would be a weekly activity, I will count as one each week because its something I’m building.  Same with the Spanish.  Others will only count as one.  

This isn’t a bucket list and some of it may seem mundane.  But the mission isn’t just about doing these things, its about finding my purpose, proving to myself that I can do it.  As the idea began to unfold, I realized that my blog was a perfect place to chronicle this experience.  I also figured it would force me to write, which is what I want to do anyway!  

I’ve planned my birthday week (yes one week) and filled it with tons of fun, and at a few things from my 365 list.  It began yesterday (my birthday not until Wednesday) with a Steeler Game, always a good time.  Today my roommate and I are doing my birthday dinner at our favorite diner, Ritters, then getting a Christmas Tree and decorating the apartment.  Tuesday I have to work, but will probably do something afterward.  Wednesday is my actual birthday, I have an appointment for a massage, then brunch with mom and gram, then manicure and pedicure (courtesy of gift certificate my grandmother gave me LAST Christmas), then fancy dinner party with friends.  Thursday its birthday dinner with family then off to the Vatican Exhibit at the Heinz History Museum (one of the 365 list items).  Friday I work, but after my roommate and a few friends are going dancing.  Saturday I work, and perhaps I’ll try to get the girls at work to go out for drinks with me.  Then it all begins.  365 days (well at that point a few days in) until I’m 30 and I’ll have to get going.  See you on the other side!