The Best Moments

I saw a commercial for Miller beer on TV last night. If it weren't about something like beer, it would have been kind of cool. It was a woman's voice talking as various images were panned across the screen. The voiceover was about how life is full of moments and the pictures complimented the words by showing people in various significant and celebratory life stages. Of course the angle of this particular commercial is that Miller Light, the champagne of beers, is "there through it all." Cheesy, yes, but I couldn't help myself from feeling a little bit of nostalgia--for all that has happened and all the unknown ahead.

Sometimes I find myself surprised at my age. I know I'm not old, but 27 years are done and gone. I look forward and think about what is to come next and I start to feel anxious. There's so much I want to do and not enough time. I mean in 13 years I'm going to be 40! FORTY!!!! Thirteen years doesn't feel far away unless I look back at the last 13 years. And then I realize a lot can happen in 13 years. Hell, a lot can happen in one year. That makes me feel better about things like 40 looming ahead.

So a la Miller's latest commercial, here's a list of some of my favorite adventurous life moments over the past 13 years. These memories and experiences are what motivate me.

• Sneaking on to a farm to play on rolls of hay in the Loire Valley, France.
• Swimming with blue glowing, incandescent microorganisms at night in Puerto Rico.
• Kayaking through sea caves in Anacapa, in the Channel Islands.
• Snorkeling with huge schools of fish in the Whitsunday's in Australia (seriously, fish all around me. Even with snorkels in our mouths my family and I managed to squeal and laugh so loudly that our boat's captain had to tell us to quiet down).
• Sliding down waterfalls in the Daintree Tropical Forest, NE tip of Australia.
• Coming across and going along next to a huge pod of dolphins (100+) on our boat-ride back from Anacapa.
• Climbing Snowdon (big mountain in Wales) in the rain (which turned into ice at the peak) without ropes when we should have been using them.
• Sliding down a snowy mountain in England's Lake District, using only an ice-ax to stop or slow down.
• Riding a bike on the dykes in the Waterland area north of Amsterdam (where all the windmills are).
• Stumbling upon a block party in the South of France and being invited to join in the festivities.
• Salsa Dancing in Madrid with Havo. I love him.
• Having bag-pipes played for me by a Scottish man standing on top of a bar in Prague.
• Biking through the Gap of Dunloe in Killarney Ireland.