My New Leisure Experience

Here I am getting to know the little bike...

Here's my failed attempt at a "wheelie"...my feet are supposed to be on the pedals NOT on the ground...

I don't even know....all I can say is my pride wasn't the only thing that was bruised..

Recovery...

"Ooops...I hope I didn't break the bike..."

Here's my attempt at flipping the handle bars...

Safe to say, it was a failed attempt...

OH LOOK!! MY ONE ACTUAL "TRICK"!! It's not even reallllly a trick...but to me, it was.

I'm SUCH a Pro, I know...don't worry about it.

So, for the past few weeks I have been stressing about having a new leisure experience. No matter how hard I thought about it, I just couldn`t think of anything to do!! I mean, it`s not even like I have experienced everything I would like to in leisure...I just could not, for the life of me, think of anything new I wanted to experience. Well...I mean there were a few things I thought of, but they were WAY out of my budget, and I didn`t want to spend too much money (if anything at all) because I thought it might take away from the experience (especially if it turned out to be something I didn`t enjoy, and then, knowing i had spent money on it, I would end up forcing myself to try and like it...which would make it more stressful than leisurely!) Anyways!!
Finally, one of my friends, who just got really into BMXing this year, suggested I try that out. I thought about it for a while...I mean, I have always liked watching people BMX, but I had never tried it, nor had I ever thought of trying it really....I think mostly because I can be a bit clumsy when it comes to things with wheels (skateboards...regular bikes...to name a couple). After a few days of consideration I decided, why not? I mean if worse comes to worse, at least I'll be with my friends.

So this weekend, at the only time that was convenient (which was around 6:30 pm so it was already dark, and cold!!), I met with my friend so that he could try and teach me a bit about BMXing and possibly how to do some tricks (he kept it VERY basic for me of course, due to my clumsiness haha). I used to be a very sporty person, and Im an avid snowboarder, so the physical part of it all didn't phase me much, but it was a lot harder than I was expecting. I had ridden his bike once before, but just around in a circle, on a bike path, so it was a bit challenging to think about trying any tricks on something so small, but, I gave it a shot! I only really managed to do one "trick", if you could even call it that, which consisted of me standing with one foot on a peddle and one foot on a bar on the wheel...not very impressive to my friend, but it was a victory for me haha! I tried learning how to flip the handle bars, but I wasnt able to incorporate that while I was actually moving. I think the thing I enjoyed most was just being with my friends. I place alot of value on my friendships and in almost any case something will be enjoyable if my friends are around. I think I could be staring at an anthill, but if I'm with a friend I would consider it leisure!
I went into this new experience of trying to learn how to BMX with a positive attitude, and although it proved to be a lot more challenging than I thought it would be, I had a great time! My friends being there to laugh both with and at me....well, mostly at me...really made the experience more enjoyable for me. Even though I didn't walk away (or should I say ride away) from this experience an expert at this "sport" I do have a new appreciation for it, and I definetely experienced a great leisure activity!

(Above is the story of my experience...I may not have mastered any new skills, but hey, at least i look like I'm having fun riiiight??)

Stress Free Party Host.....?

So, I`ve been "house sitting" for my dad for the past few weeks while he`s away on a 2 month long trip through Vietnam and Thailand and a couple of weeks ago I had a house party. I`ve always LOVED going to parties but I`ve never felt the desire to host one, because...well, i never thought it would be AS fun. Maybe it`s just that the majority of the house parties I`ve gone to the person`s house has always ended up looking like a war zone than a home...(for example, one party I went to, 3 doors were ripped off their hinges!) Anyways, I always just thought I would be too worried about things being trashed to actually have fun, but I decided to give it a try! I had barely moved my stuff in when i found myself posting invites to this party, and soon enough Saturday rolled around and people were walking into the house ready to have fun lol. I knew most of the people that ended up coming but there were also a lot of randoms who were letting themselves in freely. Surprisingly, I ended up having a great time and even with the number of poeple that showed up, the clean up wasn`t even that bad! I`m still dealing with allll the empties that I`ve just been too lazy to do anything with, but other than that...everything ended up being fine! It really surprised me how much fun i was able to experience in a situation that I normally would have avoided (hosting a party).
I`m now planning on throwing another one in the next couple of weeks and Im keeping my fingers crossed that it`ll be even bigger and better than the last one...