On the off chance you haven’t heard already, on March 27th I turned 30. I wanted to mark the date with an activity I would always remember. My thought was that when I am ninety, I wanted to be able to recall exactly what I did on my thirtieth birthday.
The trouble was everything that is high on my bucket list isn’t an option in the middle of winter in Connecticut. I’d like to see the Northern Lights; I’d like to swim with dolphins; I want to hike and find an actual natural hot spring, not one surrounded by an expensive spa. So what could I do?
And then it hit me—an honest flash of delightful inspiration. Since I was a little kid I have always wanted to swim in Jell-O. For as long as I can remember, I have had images of myself swimming at the Waterford High School pool, but instead of water, the pool is filled with orange Jell-O.
So Matt decided to make it happen. He did some research and found an inflatable pool and some stuff called fun gel that is non-toxic, non-stainable, non-edible, but also non-sticky, doesn’t melt at room temperature, turns to Jell-O without boiling it, and you can buy it in bulk—like 200 gallons worth of fun gel Jell-O. You can’t get it in orange, so he went with red—a good choice.
The night before my birthday we had an exciting few hours inflating the pool and dragging the garden hose (which we only lost control of once) into the house and mixed the Jell-O.
The gelatinous goo was cold, but awesome and better than I’d ever imagined. I think all my friends agreed. Plus, if felt good to be actually living a childhood/lifelong dream no matter how silly and ridiculous it seemed. I will always remember what I did on my 30th birthday. And even though we still have roughly 1,600 pounds of Jello-O blocking our front door I would did all again. Click here to watch a video of me actually swimming in Jell-O.
What odd or silly things have you always wanted to do? And can you do them?
Always wanted to sing “Don’t Rain on My Parade”. Did it at a party with a captive audience. Still can see the unbelieveable smiles and shocked expressions on faces from party-goers. Yikes! Unfortunately, I cannot sing in a manner that anyone could tolerate, but it still doesn’t stop me.
[…] wanted to run a marathon, write a book, learn to sail or fly, take a cooking or dance class, or swim in Jell—O. Your goal can be mighty or tiny. One of the tasks on my list is to milk a cow. I’ve always […]
[…] still move together. She’ll walk with me. She’ll run and hike with me. For my birthday she swam in Jell-o with me. She got me into kick boxing, and she once made me ride a divvy […]