Odds & Ends

I did this a few years ago and had 40 items and got through most of them. This year I am going with my favourite number……21.

Here are the items I plan to get through between now and September 23.

1. Buy a stranger a meal
2. Cook a dish I’ve never made before
3. Crash a Wedding Reception
4. Cut a Strangers Lawn
5. Go to the Drive-In
6. Freeze something fun into ice cubes
7. Gatineau Hike
8. Go on a picnic
9. Go 24 hours without technology
10. Go running along the canal
11. Go somewhere and be a tourist
12. Lose 20 lbs*
13. Have ice cream in the Byward Market
14. Movie in the Park
15. Random Act of Kindness
16. Read a Book Selected by a Facebook friend
17. Rib Fest!
18. Spontaneous Road Trip with a Friend
19. Watch the Sunrise
20. Watch the Sunset
21. Whittier Classic Movie Day

*I will not purchase any new Apple devices this fall unless this goal is met and those who know me understand how huge this is.

#17 Rib Fest

For the fifth year in a row I went to Rib Fest in Ottawa with Robert. This started off as a fun lunch idea and became our annual tradition. We don’t work downtown but it’s worth the fifteen minute drive from the office.

This year we did a full rack and those fall off the bone ribs were definitely worth it! Sure it was raining, but this chocolate doesn’t melt!

#15. Random Act of Kindness

Of all of the things on the list this is the one that gives me the most ‘trouble’. The term ‘random act of kindness’ is funny to me for a few reasons. First of all if you know me, random is where I live. I pride myself on my randomness and spontaneity but secondly while we call it a ‘random act of kindness’ it’s really about being a decent human being. You bought someone there order at Tim’s? That’s a decent thing to do. You were driving and you let someone cut in? Another decent thing to do. Multiple gestures can be seen as just that, being a decent human being.

For this ‘act’ I will take you to Canada Day. There is a very popular restaurant chain called ‘The Mandarin’ and on a normal day they are pretty busy. On this occasion they decided to give free meals to EVERYONE and the wonderful initiative did not go unnoticed.

We arrived at the restaurant around 10am, knowing it was opening at 12pm and there were already about 200 people waiting ahead of us. By the the time the doors opened they were projecting 6 hour wait times for some people.

While we were standing in line I started chatting with the gentleman in front of us.

‘Who are you here with?’ I asked him
“I’m by myself’, he responded.

By yourself? On Canada Day? About to eat a meal by yourself? Ohhhh, not on my watch!

I invited him to join us. His name is Jack and Jack blended in with our group like we had known him for years.

To cut a long story short as fate would have it we ended up moving from 200th in line to second so when the doors opened we got seated pretty quickly.

We ate and laughed and told stories and had a great time. We were all happy to have him join us and I can’t say that it made his day, but it made ours. Was this a ‘random act of kindness’? I suppose. I prefer to look at it as being a decent human being!

#19. Watch the Sunrise

Almost every morning for the last week and a half I have been doing 5km walks at 6am to help with #12 of this Summer Bucket List.

However, I keep missing the sunrise. You know why? Because it’s around 5:19am!

So I adjusted my walking time one day so I could see it. I don’t have anything profound to say about it other than I like that it’s the start of a new day and it looks pretty.