The BIGGEST Challenge of all!

It is happening!  It is really happening.  I am a little bit in shock right now.  Normally I only post once I have completed a bucket list item, but I felt like it was worth mentioning this exciting moment now.

A few years ago when I decided to make the list, there was one item that came to my mind first.  There was something that I have always wanted to do, more then anything else and have been dreaming of it ever since I was a kid and watched the movie Jaws for the first time.  That's right, I am talking about swimming with the ocean's most beautiful predator, the Great White Shark.

I think shark week might be the most exciting time of the year for me.  (Well, at least it used to be before they just started regurgitating the same ones I've seen over and over again.)  Watching these majestic beasts glide through the water with such power after their pray is mesmerizing.  As a SCUBA diver growing up, I spent a lot of time down in the Florida Keys and have been around plenty of reef, nurse and bonnet head sharks, but most of those do not get much bigger then 5 ft.  Slightly different from the man in the grey suit who can get as long as 23 ft.  It doesn't matter how many times I've watched Marine Biologist and Adventure Enthusiast get in the water with them, it truly doesn't showcase the magnitude we are talking here.  I have to see it for myself.

And so the research began.  How am I going to make this dream come true before I officially grow up and have to be responsible for little people?  I could go to Australia and swim with them there, as well as cross off a few other bucket list items like swimming in the Great Barrier Reef and going on a safari across the outback, maybe make a stop in Hawaii on the way out there?  Sounds great... and expensive for this lady who just bought a house and is balancing two mortgages.  Looks like that will be a 10 year anniversary escape.

How about South Africa and go to Cape Town to see those amazing jumping great whites?  Hum... minimum of a two week vacation to justify the 14 hr. flight.  So... what are we going to do for the next two weeks?

Then I found it... the best solution:  San Francisco.  We will be traveling out of the San Francisco Bay to Farallon Islands.  On September 25th, I will be on a boat at 6:00 a.m. to travel to experience the largest White Sharks in the world while they feed on Elephant Seals before their long trans-Pacific migration.  I will spend the day both in the cage underwater as well as on the observation deck to witness some natural feeding.  By 6:00 p.m. we will be back to the docks complete with hundreds of photos, unforgettable memories and a grin from ear to ear.

 

This will be my view from the cage!

Since Logan and I like to discover new places, and we have already been to San Francisco, we are going to try to see as many other things during our vacation including Seattle to reminisce on my favorite genre of music growing up, the Gorge Amp to see Jason Mraz play, and make our way back to Napa Valley to enjoy a little wine and to eat at the world renown restaurant, The French Laundry.  (For those who know me, that is 'Jessica's' Bucket List item.)

Now the only problem will be trying to be patient while I wait for the trip to get here.  Luckily I still have a lot of other '30 before 30' items to keep me distracted.  Next up: Paddle Boarding and Paintballing!

Happy Earth Day

I have always been a big fan of my birthday.  Who isn't?  I've enjoyed using this day as a good excuse to try new things and often times get my friends to do it with me because, well they have to.  It's my birthday.  When I turned 18 I used it to do all the things you are only allowed to do when you are 18 - I bought a lotto ticket, cigarettes and went to an adult store.  All of these are very lack luster and honestly I can't remember the last time I played the lotto or smoked a cigarette and adult stores are more disturbing and uncomfortable than awesome - but regardless, it was cool because now 'I could.'  When I turned 19 I went sky diving.  21 - well, I'm sure you can figure out what I did to celebrate turning 21.  Let's just say the words 'jager bomb' has not left my lips since that night.  But there is one really cool thing about my birthday - it falls on a holiday.  I'm not a Christmas baby nor do I compete with costume parties for Halloween, but rather share my birthday with Mother Nature.  That's right, Earth Day is my Birthday.

Besides just telling people that fun fact, I've never done anything to celebrate this fun combo.  That is where this 30 before 30 challenge arrived from.  I have always wanted to give back a little to this beautiful earth we live on during my birthday but have never done anything about it.  It is hard to want to do a highway clean-up when my special day falls at the end of April, in Florida where the beach is always more enticing.  'Maybe next year' became my motto.  (I stole that from the Cubs.)  Well, this year was actually going to be different dang it!  This year, I am going to plant a tree as a way to say thanks for all the beauty I get to enjoy every time I step outside.

To accomplish this Logan and I made a trip to Lowes to pick out our tree.  At first I was thinking about doing a citrus tree.  I love to cook, so how neat would it be if I could just go pick fresh fruit out of my back yard?  Then I saw these beautiful gardenia trees.  I was instantly brought back to my childhood.  We had these growing on the side of the house, and I have the best memories of my mom going and cutting the gardenia flowers and putting them in bowls of water all over the house.  Spring in the Zakany home smelt awesome.  I knew I needed to plant one of my own so I can recreate that fond memory.

We picked a spot on the side of the house in front of the office window and went to work.  Here is the finished product.  Let's just hope my black thumb doesn't kill it and next spring I can look out of our office to beautiful white buds everywhere.

A Passion Kiss in the rain...

As I was writing another post to my blog, I realized that I did go and cross this item off my list back when it happened in September, but I did not write about it.  Logan deserves his credit as being an amazing husband who from time to time, can be wildly romantic.  

We were traveling through Italy on our vacation back in September.  (Already romantic.)  We made our way into Cinque Terre, which is this beautiful little chain of coastal towns along the northern Italian coast.  It has beautiful views of both the mountains and the water.  When we arrived, we had just experienced one of the longest travel days of our lives.  (You can read about it in the blog I kept while in Italy.)  It was evening and it had been raining all day.  We just got done eating and were going to head back to our hotel room walking in the rain.  We were already soaked and not quite ready to head inside.  We spent the whole day trying to get there and we were not ready to call it a night yet!  

We walked along the boardwalk above the beach, taking the long way home when Logan stopped me in the middle of my sentence with a long passionate kiss.  He smiled and looked in my eyes and said, now you can cross something else off your list.  Every girl's dream is to travel to Italy with their partner, and Logan helped make that happen for me.  One of the biggest reasons why I love him so much is how he is always supportive of me and all my dreams, whether it is with my career, hobbies, or crazy vacations, he is always there by my side.  Now everyone all at once go 'aaaaaaawwwwwwweeeeeee'!

This is one of my favorite photos that I took that same night right after the rain cleared for a little while.  I loved how the beaches were completely empty and the smell of rain and ocean water mixed.  When we got back to our room we sat on the patio and enjoyed a bottle of wine while listening to the amazing sound of nothing.  Beyond the kiss, that was a night that I will never forget.  I've never felt that at peace.  

I sang a favorite song in front of a crowd of strangers.... and it wasn't pretty

There is a reason it took 29 years to get me on stage to sing karaoke.  I can't sing.  I blame my parents for this one.  I think our entire house is tone deaf.  My dad's favorite joke about me growing up was if I was singing loud in the car he would ask me what I did with all that money he gave me for singing lessons.  For a while I just ignored it and was naive to think that maybe I wasn't that bad.    Maybe I was the only one in the family that wasn't tone deaf because I knew the rest of them couldn't sing a lick.  I was in middle school chorus after all.  (What do you mean everyone was either in chorus or band regardless of talent?)  I traveled with them and did concerts.  (Everyone did Casey.)

Somehow over the years it became painfully clear how much I lacked talent.  I now mouth my words in church and unless I am in the car alone or with my husband (I stopped caring about his opinion years ago) I sing in my head.  But, it is something that is outside of my comfort zone and something everyone needs to experience at least once in their life which is how it got on my bucket list.

In an effort to avoid future humiliation from people who I might run into again, I decided to do it in a different city, a different state, late enough in the evening that everyone would be drunk enough to not remember my name.  Here I come Savannah, GA hole in the wall karaoke bar!  Its time for me to man up.

So what will I sing for this occasion?  Something popular and upbeat that people know the words to.  Something without any high notes because I can't hit them.  Something that hopefully the audience knows so well that they will sing over me and my voice will just be one in the crowd rather then the one everyone can hear.  Hotel California I thought?  I know all the words, no high notes - eh, but its too slow.  A female rock hit by someone like Pat Benatar or Joan Jett?  My voice isn't raspy enough to pull that off.  Nothing I could come up with would work.  So I knew what I would have to do.  This little white girl is going to have to rap.  Luckily there is a rap song I know all the words to.  Snoop Dogg's 90's hit 'Gin and Juice' seemed like the best option.

I drove up to Savannah - maybe played the song once or 15 times to refresh my memory on the way up and met up with my good friend John.  We headed out to the bar and had a few beers.  Are you ready?  He asked after already completing his 2nd performance.  No - not yet.  Well I signed you up anyways so here is a shot, deal with it.  I took a shot or 3 to give me a little liquid courage which helped.  I did get on stage.  What 3 shots doesn't help with is memory.  I messed up words I knew.  On review of the video which was instantly destroyed I was slightly embarrassed by my performance but at least I can say I've done it.  Maybe now that I have gotten one under my belt I will sing it again, in another remote location where no one will recognize me.  Until then, I will take my embarrassment with stride and a serious hangover and feel like I have successfully accomplished crossing another item off my list.  I am now one step closer to completing my 30 before 30 challenge.

Oh and since I will not share a video with anyone... ever... here is a photo of me in the act.  Apparently there are no good photos possible of me singing.  All look like I just got my wisdom teeth out.

They call me Dirty Casey

 

And not because I don't shower.  Lame jokes aside, yesterday I crossed another item off the list when I went to the gun range and handled my first weapon. 

So here are the facts about me:  I grew up in Lakeland Florida, with family in Lake City Florida (Both very 'redneck' towns in FL), but do not have even a trace of a southern accent.  I love country music and line dancing, but my 'country attire' could not look more poserish.  I do love to fish, love a man in a truck and have no problem with 'huntin,' though I've never participated in the sport myself.  I say all of these things to help you realize the ridiculousness of this photo.  I'm wearing flannel and holding the gun so tight it left grip marks in my hand. 

I made the nice gentleman working behind the gun case rocking sleeve tattoos go through the proper safety procedures with me several times.  I read through the 'safety manual'  (ie, a sheet of paper basically telling you not to shoot yourself or anyone else) and then made my friend who was with me show me all the steps again before I would even touch it.  Finally it was time to stop being a wuss and man up. 

I loaded up the magazine with bullets one by one.  I slowly slide the magazine into the base and clicked the safety.  Whoa, I have a loaded gun in my hand.  This is a serious rush and I still haven't done anything yet.  I place my hands around the grip, relaxed my shoulders, spread my feet apart and lined my eye along the barrel.  My index finger slowly slides from resting on the barrel down to the trigger.  I pull back and there it was, the explosion and kick back I was waiting for.  I look up and see I hit my target.  I made that hole.  What a rush. 

I am proud to say that I made it on the target for each shot.    My friends and I each took turns and when it was my last turn up before we ran out of bullets, I made a perfect 10.  It was a great way to end the experience.  I can see how people get addicted and find it as a great stress release.  However, I think for this wanna be hick girl, I'll just continue with my respect for those who handle these weapons and sit on the sidelines. 

#20 Crossed off the List: See a matinee by myself

Saturday I was able to cross off another item from my list.  When I told people about some of the challenges that I gave myself, they gave me a strange look because the truth is, none of the things on my list are all that challenging.  With that being said, the point of this exercise is that each of these things are time consuming, and completely about me and who I am as a person.  So often we get wrapped up in the routine of the everyday we forget to explore our passions.  The truth is, until I started this challenge I didn't know what I was passionate about.  That is something I am still trying to discover.  Before this challenge, my personal resume would have read like this:

Casey Barile:
Director of Marketing for Cheeseburger in Paradise
Wife of Logan Barile

Boring!  I don't want to be defined by my job and my spouse.  Now it reads:

Casey Barile:

Director of Marketing for Cheeseburger in Paradise

Wife of Logan Barile

Christian woman who loves growing her Faith

Runner

Novice Chef

Active volunteer for The Spring of Tampa Bay

Loyal Friend

Enjoys Photography and Photo Editing

Loves Event Planning for friends and Hosting

I'm still exploring more of my passions for life and I look forward to seeing how my 'personal resume' continues to grow.

Oh, and regarding the matinee experience - I LOVED sitting in a quiet theater by myself.  It was very empowering buying a ticket for one and I saw a great movie:  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  However, I don't see this becoming a regular activity when my couch is much more comfortable and I can push pause whenever I need to leave for a minute.  I always drink too much water in the theater and the last 30 minutes of the movie get a bit uncomfortable.

Experienced autumn in central park

Oh Florida, how I love thee.  I am a born and raised Floridian.  We have 3 seasons - Comfortable, Hot and Hotter.  We get to wear jackets for about 1 week at the most each year which is why most of my jackets and boots were over 10 years old before I started working for a company that had restaurants in the mid-west.  I invested in a 'winter coat' for the first time last year.  I say these things because for most people, experiencing autumn is something that happens every year.  When they think of autumn, they probably think of the time of year that their yard is full of all those damn leaves that they have to rake right before the time of the year that their yard is full of all that damn snow they have to plow.  While a Floridian looks at is with these outsiders goggles thinking about all the beautiful colors the trees make combined with the crisp fall air that doesn't have a drop of humidity.

This year I got the opportunity to travel with my girlfriends to New York City for a weekend.  Merissa and I took advantage of being in the city and enjoyed all the touristy activities including taking a long walk in Central Park.  We traveled there in the middle of October and enjoyed the cool crisp air  and the beautiful trees turning colors.  It was my first experience as a 'leafer' and I did it with my best friend by my side.  I chose to only share a few photos on this site but the truth is Merissa had to deal with me taking a photo of every leaf I saw that was a different color besides green.  Oh look at that one!  You mean the one that looks exactly the same as the other 15 you took photos of?  How much longer are we going to do this (she wonders.)  Two hundred photos later...  It was the perfect way to check this off my list.