#65 - Donate 10 things I don't need. (30/101)

I am a fan of spring cleaning - there is something soothing about dusting, vacuuming, sorting through clothes that I have not worn in a long time, throwing away useless papers, etc. It isn't spring yet but it definitely felt like spring this weekend (70 and sunny in Atlanta) so I decided to clean out my apartment and go through my clothes to donate those that do not fit or that I do not wear for whatever reason. As I started to go through my clothes, I sorted them into piles of keep, donate, throw away and "try on then decide". If I hadn't worn an item in the last year, it either went in the "try on then decide" or donate pile. I ended up having a bunch of items to try on and as I went through them quickly realized I had way more than 10 articles to donate.

I made sure to throw away the few items I knew that Goodwill would toss but donated all those that I could. In the end, I ended up having 59 articles to donate to Goodwill's Donation Center! It felt great to drop these items off at the donation center because:

1. it felt nice to tidy up my closet and create space for other things; and 
2. I was happy that I could donate clothes to others that might need them during this winter and spring. 

I realized it had been way too long since I last cleaned out my closet so I hope to make this cleansing action a more regular part of my routine. While it is nice to have material items, it is also nice to purge every once in awhile to cleanse and give to others. There is also something a bit freeing about ridding myself of material items. I love being able to live of life where I can give in multiple ways - through money, time, material items and more. I hope to continue to give and cleanse multiple times a year - here's to a healthy start to 2016!

#45 - Visit a new U.S. State. (29/101)

Last week I took a fun adventure to Des Moines, Iowa to hold a Shabbat dinner for work. We held a Friday night Shabbat dinner in Des Moines for young adult campaign professionals, volunteers and journalists working to "set the table" for the 2016 elections leading up to the Iowa Caucus. My colleague had the idea a few months ago to hold a Shabbat dinner in Iowa and we decided to follow through and make it happen.

I lived in Chicago for about eight years when I was younger but never made it to Iowa. I was glad to explore a new US state through work. We landed in Des Moines and went to the hotel before deciding where to eat. We knew we wanted to eat barbecue so after asking the hotel where the best barbecue in Des Moines was located, we headed to Jethro's Barbecue. There are apparently a bunch of other delicious barbecue places but this is where we ended up going. Jethro's is close to Drake University and has awesome barbecue. Full disclosure - I do not eat pork so I can only judge the chicken and beef barbecue options. We ordered fried cheese squares to start (basically mozzarella sticks in square format) and I ordered a platter that came with pulled chicken, brisket, cornbread, mac and cheese and applesauce. It was delicious and so much food - I could not finish everything that was on my plate.

That night, we held our Shabbat dinner at the World Food Prize building in downtown Des Moines and brought together over 55 young adult campaign professionals, volunteers, journalists and local community leaders for an awesome Friday night dinner in partnership with one of our grantee organizations, OneTable. You can read more about the dinner we hosted here. I am so excited we had a chance to hold a dinner for those working hard to set the tables for the 2016 elections and loved being able to explore Iowa a bit myself. One of the ideas we floated around at the dinner was creating a field of dreams Shabbat dinner over the summer among the cornfields of Iowa, hopefully we will support some of the attendees to make it happen!

#61 - Volunteer for a day. (28/101)

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others'?" 

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

I love this quote and love working for an organization where I get to empower and strengthen global communities each and every day. I was so excited to have the opportunity to transform Dr. King's life and teachings into a day of service for my local Atlanta community this year.

For Martin Luther King Jr. day, my team volunteered at Open Hand Atlanta and helped deliver meals to clients across metro Atlanta. Our fellow coordinated the day, working to identify a service location that was open on Martin Luther King day and allowed children and adults to volunteer together (a few of my teammates brought their children). We divided into two teams and each delivered healthy meals all across Atlanta to individuals with chronic diseases.

One of our Foundation's awesome grantee organizations, Repair the World, mobilizes thousands of volunteers around the country to volunteer on Martin Luther King day and gives resources to set intentions and debrief the day that are rooted in the Jewish value of tikkun olam, repairing the world. Repair even sent us some swag to rep their organization throughout the day.

I loved having a "day on" on a day that is typically a day off of work and enjoyed living the spirit of service in recognition of a man that shaped thousands of lives. Working for a Foundation that cares so strongly about repairing the world, it was awesome to have a day to actually serve ourselves instead of supporting others to serve as we were able to not only talk the talk but also walk the walk. 

#83 - Catch a fish (or at least really try). (27/101)

When I think of fishing, I think of patience. I am not very patient. So I put "Catch a Fish" on my list of 101 things in 1001 days because I knew that it would both be something new and a test of my patience. I spent New Years weekend at Lake Lure in North Carolina. The weather was beautiful on December 31 so I decided to try out fishing.  I have tried a few times before but I have always been unsuccessful. Fishing for me usually starts out with excitement to try it out and then after casting for fifteen minutes or so, I get bored and give up.

I knew I wanted it to be different this time. We dug up real worms this time so had live bait to put on the lines (Full disclosure - I never touched a worm. The worms were dug up and put on my line for me. I am not proud of this but I really did not want to touch the worms). I went and started casting on the dock. I was sitting with a whole group of people so it was nice to have people to chat with as I cast, waited and cast again. After about forty five minutes, I saw the little bobber start bobbing up and down a bit. I was not feeling any tugging on the line though so I just watched it and when I reeled it back in, I noticed all the worm was gone! I knew I had to try again so I quickly had another worm put on my line, cast it to almost the same spot, watched it start bobbing up and down a bit and when it bobbed under I yanked it and felt something fighting against me. I pulled it out of the water and it was a tiny fish! After taking a few pictures and looking at it, we threw it back into the lake. I was really excited to catch a fish. I just hope next time I can catch one that is big enough to actually eat!

#46 - Travel to a new country. (26/101)

I love escaping to warm weather during winter. The only funky thing about this winter is there hasn't been much cold weather so far so for vacation this year, I left somewhat warm weather for really warm weather. My family and I headed down to Turks and Caicos, a small series of islands in the Caribbean with a total population of about 33,000. We stayed at the Grace Bay Club, an incredible piece of paradise in Providenciales.  We spent the week relaxing on the beach, eating delicious food, snorkeling and doing other water sports. 

Turks and Caicos is quite expensive but there is some extremely tasty food. Here are a few of my favorite restaurants we went to (I would definitely recommend making reservations, these places fill up, especially around the holiday season):

• Coyaba - A delicious Caribbean fusion restaurant. I loved everything I ate but my favorite was the warm apple pie and ice cream for dessert.
• Infiniti Restaurant and Raw Bar - This is a nice restaurant at the Grace Bay Club, my favorite dishes were the ceviches, kale salad and grilled catch of the day.
• Via Veneto - An Italian restaurant with some of the best pasta dishes I've eaten.

We had such a great time relaxing in the Caribbean and it was a lot of fun exploring a new country (even though its a tiny one!).