That being said, I only have 2 years left to get these goals completed! I've actually made exceptional progress so far, crossing off a few goals I didn't even expect to. That being said, I've also changed a few goals. Some of them I realized were just not exciting enough or wouldn't be possible, so I changed them. You'll never know what they were though, as I changed them in the first post so as not to confuse readers.
On to the goals I've completed recently:
#11- Sleep downstairs one night.
Last night, as a sort of spur-of-the-moment thing, I decided to get this one crossed off. When I was in the shower, it occurred to me and I just decided, "Aw, hell, why not?" Mom and I were planning on getting up early anyway to go for a walk this morning, so I figured it was good enough. I went down just after midnight, popped up the recliner and watched Letterman. [Sean Hayes of Will & Grace fame was on since he's hosting the Tonys tomorrow... if it weren't for him, I wouldn't have watched cuz I'm kinda anti-Letterman.] As soon as that was over, I turned off the TV and turned on my iPod. I watched some episodes of How I Met Your Mother and Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, but I had a hard time getting to sleep. I tried dimming the lights in the dining room so the light getting into the family room (aka my bedroom for the night) was not as bright. Eventually, I resorted to laying on Max's dog bed as a sort of mattress. While it was indeed less comfortable (and far more furry and smelly) than the recliner, it allowed me to lay completely horizontally, something the recliner did not. I then brought my pillow and sheet over (along with my iPod, of course). I listened to a few episodes of Doug Benson's movie podcast and played Solitaire (on my iPod) until finally I fell asleep around 3 AM. I awoke around 9 to find Pop-Pop standing over me looking confused. From there, I got up and dressed and went for a 2.5-mile walk on the Conestoga track. All in all, an interesting experience that I would never have had if I hadn't put it on my list.
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I believe in COBO...
#96- Give Ben a going-away party.
And we certainly did. We all met up at Hugh [Phelan]'s house and had a nice barbecue. Then we went down and had a jam session in the Phelan's little music studio / basement. Hugh took piano, Connell had guitar, Mac and Johnny D did bass, Zach, Ellen, Becca and I took vocals and assorted percussion (bongos, cowbell, xylophone / marimba or whatever the heck it's called, rain stick, etc.) JMac and Rich took turns on drums, and Joe and van Kayak just played along. It didn't occur to me til now that Ben really just sat and watched us for like and hour!
After that, we went further into the bowels of the Phelan household only to find an awesome game room. We watched the Flyers get pummeled by the Blackhawks, played pool, pinball, and air hockey, and then went back upstairs. We horsed around with a ventriloquist dummy while Connell and Hugh played some Ben Folds music. We let Ben do the honors of cutting the cake, which he very much enjoyed (he got to control how big our pieces of cake were =P). Once we were full, we went back down and watched the Ben Olivas tribute video that I put together (it was met with rave reviews) and then headed back outside. We decided then, in true Devon fashion, to set off fireworks in celebration of this momentous occasion. Did I mention that the Phelan's live basically in the middle of the woods with neighbors on both sides of them? Yeah, we probably scared the living daylights out of the people on either side. But it was fun. And we managed not to catch the house on fire. Then we played with sparklers for a while, which did cause a few minor mishaps but nothing bad happened. We tried using the little racing car thing (not really a soapbox... IDK what to call it) but the motor wasn't working, so we just pushed people in it. Then we took turns jumping and trying to hold on to the rim of the Phelans' basketball net. Ben couldn't reach, so Tom lowered it, Kayak picked Ben up, Ben grabbed the rim, Nick let go and Tom raised it. Oh, and then the backboard cracked... NBD. =P
All in all, it was a super fun night with my closest friends and it was a truly fitting way to say goodbye to one of our own. Not that he'll ever read this, but I hope Ben knows how much we're gonna miss him and just how much he meant to all of us and brought us in his five years here at Devon. With that, I check one more off the list but even so, I won't forget the memories of Ben. I'll never forget.
