The Challenge: Do something to help someone you don’t know.
Kim:
Well, it seemed as though my opportunity found me today. I was walking into church as I saw a woman carrying a bunch of grocery bags from the church to her car. She was filling her car with the bags of food donated for the local food pantry. I asked her if she needed a hand. She welcomed my help. As I followed her inside to the church lobby, my eyes widened to see the “multiplication of the grocery bags.” Holy donations, Batman! It was so nice to see how generous everyone had been. WOW- there were A LOT of bags. I grabbed a bunch and headed to her car. Seeing us going back and worth another woman joined in. We had to stop eventually because church was starting, but the three of us picked up right where we left off after the service and as a team we packed two cars fuller than full. It was such a great feeling to see a need and to help fill it. I sensed that the lady who had volunteered to help was less than enthused about this job. Sometimes volunteers who get assigned a project end of doing it completely solo, which I’ve noticed can lead to volunteer burnout. It’s a nice feeling to help a loyal volunteer!
Jason:
I didn’t even realize I had completed this challenge until after it was over. (In fact, Kim had to encourage me that it did in fact satisfy the conditions of today’s challenge.) It all started in the dentist’s office, my favorite place to be. Fortunately, I have the best dentist in the world (for those of you in Madison, it’s Dr. Brett Veerman of Dental Health Associates; tell him I sent ya) so it could definitely be worse.
One of my newest crowns — I have a growing collection — cracked last week, so I was in to have them take a look at it. As I was waiting in the chair, an unfamiliar hygienist came in with a fairly excited look on her face. “Are you Jason, the guy who does the artwork?” she asked. “Um, yes,” I replied.
She went on to tell me that she had received one of my prints last Christmas, and that her daughter had seen me give a cartooning workshop a while back. She said that her daughter was a big fan of my comic strip, and had the print proudly displayed in her bedroom. “She’s pretty modest about it,” continued the hygienist, “But she’s a pretty good little artist. And she really thought your presentation was cool.”
I thanked her for the compliment, and offered to draw a little something for her daughter (I had nothing but time on my hands at that point.) She found a piece of paper, I sketched little Jason and personalized it with some words of encouragement for her daughter. Kind of a fun little moment. I remember looking up to quite a few artists when I was in 8th grade, and a little note like this would have had me sailing. It didn’t seem like much at the time, but maybe the note will encourage her to keep pursuing her passion.
Dark Room Confessionals:
Bonus Video: Kim | Jason
So, who was most creative with today’s challenge? Who went beyond the comfort zone and put the biggest hammer on Adultitis? Who did a better job of capturing the spirit of childhood, Kim or Jason? Cast Your Vote!
Tomorrow’s Challenge: Audio Sneak Peek
Today I rode a skateboard. This is something I always wanted to do as a kid but never owned one or really knew anyone who owned one that I could borrow. I was a little freaked out. It didn’t help that because of the timing of the day I ended up trying it in the dark and on a slight hill. Yikes! At the beginning I was a little overzealous and I decided to ride it down the slanted driveway. After almost loosing my balance and wiping out, I decided that uphill was a good way to start – not downhill! It was fun, but I had a hard time enjoying it because I felt like at any given moment I would fall and break my head. Oh well, at least I can say I’ve done it now.
My childhood hero was Mr. Fred Rogers. The half hour I spent with him each morning was one of the favorite parts of my day. His gentle friendly nature taught me a lot about what it means to be a good friend. His adventures to factories and behind the scenes gave me permission to be curious about things I knew nothing about. After going to school for Early Childhood Education I really appreciate Mr. Roger’s skills even more. His sincere devotion to helping kids and the methods he used to do that were genius! Since Mr. Rogers passed away almost three years ago, I decided to send my letter to his wife, Joanne. I am blessed that he was my neighbor.
I wrote a letter to my boyhood hero, baseball player Ryne Sandberg. I am planning on sending the letter to him via the Cubs, with an old baseball card I’m hoping he’ll sign. My brothers and I used to write to athletes for autographs when we were kids, so this was definitely a blast from the past. Here’s the letter:
The word “never” in this challenge really stumped me. My parents were strict but not militant. As I thought about it most of the things they “never” allowed us to do were really for our own safety. After some soul searching I realized there was one thing: eating dessert first. My parents would never have allowed this. So, now that I am in charge, why don’t I do it more? Jason and I decided to head out to dinner, so I picked Olive Garden because I remembered seeing a yummy dessert that I’d like to try- chocolate lasagna. When it came time to order I told the waitress I would be ordering dessert first. She admitted that she would like to do that more but feels too embarrassed. It did “feel wrong.” I ended up getting an appetizer for my entrée. I was so stuffed. I felt like quite the dinner rebel. I highly recommend it!
When I was a wee lad, I was enamored by Play-Doh®. Especially the smell and the way it felt in my hands. I even had a Play-Doh playset: The Fuzzy Bumper Barber Shop. It was awesome. There was a little plastic guy with holes in his head. You’d jam Play-Doh into his noggin and put him on the barber chair. As you’d push down, the compound would squeeze out of his head, creating a beautiful head of pink or blue or brown hair. There may have even been a beard/shaving element to it as well.
The trouble was that my mom never let me play with it. Ok, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but I swear I can count on my hand (with a few fingers chopped off) how many times I did. On the blue moon when I was allowed to play with it, it was at the kitchen table. I remember being surrounded by some sort of plastic tarp, and a hermetically sealed white NASA space suit might have been involved. Anytime I asked for one of those Play-Doh food kits — I LOVED those tiny hamburgers — I was always denied.
When Jason and I were dating I made it a habit to bake him cherry pies every so often. That is his all-time favorite dessert. Well, I have slacked and he reminds me every now and again of this. Now that we’ve been married almost six years, I am embarrassed to say that I can count on both hands how many cherry pies I’ve made him in our marriage. So, I wanted to make this pie memorable. My first challenge was to make it without him knowing. Anyone who has been to our place knows that it is not that big. How was I going to bake this without him seeing me and also smelling the yumminess? 
To me, nothing says memorable like a good kidnapping. At noon today, I hijacked Kim and Jenna from their regularly scheduled day. After blindfolding them with scarves and making sure they couldn’t see anything, I guided them into the car.
I did get a few strange looks from passersby on the way to our final destination: the zoo. At that point, I allowed the hostages to remove their blindfolds. It was a very unseasonable 49º day and would have been a crime to not take advantage of the sunshine. We settled in for a nice lunch with the lions (our bench was across from the lion cub exhibit.) They came up pretty close; I think they were attracted by the aroma of fresh hot cheeseburgers. Afterwards, we went for a nice stroll through the zoo. The only downside was the lame-o Barbie necklace we got in the Happy Meals. 
After dismissing any thoughts of writing a million dollar check to The Make-A-Wish Foundation, I thought about how often children draw pictures to show their support. I was inspired to use my artistic skills to lend support to a cause I have been supporting. A while back in my blog, I mentioned a small — but growing daily — group called 
I spent almost all of today on planes heading home from CA, so this gave me some prime opportunities to hide a funny picture. If you’ve ever flown then you are undoubtedly familiar with the Sky Mall Magazine that is located by the puke bad in the seat ahead of you. I thought this would be a perfect spot to tuck away a funny hello. I specifically decided not to include it in the airline safety information booklet because no one ever really looks at those. It would be years before someone finds my picture there. I wish I could hide a miniature video camera to catch the reaction of the person when they find this picture. I even wrote on there to check out www.EscapePlanBlog.com to see why I did this. Who knows, maybe that person will comment on today’s post about finding it. 
I had to take advantage of being on a plane today. I pulled out the "motion discomfort" bag (which I am both happy to say I’ve never had to use and sorry to say I’ve never been able to see anyone use) to serve as my canvas.
I am an artist, and I love what I do. But it’s been a while since I’ve drawn just for fun.
Why am I going to put a picture of a license plate on my fridge? Well, one of my big dreams is to visit all 50 states. I think it would be neat to collect license plates from each of the states I visit. Jason and I hope to have a fun and playful basement family room someday. I would like to display the license plates throughout that room. So, I’ve found a picture of a license plate to remind me of this big dream. At this point in my 27 years I’ve visited 17 states, so just 33 to go! 
When I was a little kid and my family would go on road trips, my brothers and I would eagerly peer out the windows. The object of our gaze: cars. More specifically, cars we would claim as our own. Anytime one of us would see a car that we’d love to have someday, that person would yell, “Mine!” Once you claimed it, it was yours.
Even since childhood I have always wanted a Porsche of my own. A real one.
This challenge gave me permission to try something I’ve been curious about. So many times I am too concerned about looking silly as an adult. Why do I take myself so seriously?
Jason: