The Project

A weekly blog about doing one new activity every week for a year in order to get un-stuck.

A Little Background

I turned 30 and realized I was in a funk.

Don’t get me wrong, my life was wonderful in so many ways – a loving family, lots of friends, a great boyfriend and a solid job.

What was there to be funky about?

At 28 I had taken a break from pursuing acting. I’d been performing since I was 8, and it had become a lifelong constant – my passion, my dream. It had shaped my young life and had been utterly fulfilling…up until my late twenties. As I neared 30, the dream shifted in me so that what was once a square peg in a square hole had now rotated at an awkward angle. It no longer fit.

Flash forward to 30 when I finally grasped the depth of my disorientation. I felt like my life had become a tent firmly secured at the outer edges but altogether missing the main pole at the center. My life had become my day to day routine, and as acceptable as that routine was, I felt stuck.

Thus, after a critical mass of whining, tears and tantrums, I finally had an idea. Why not try something new? Why not have fun with it?  And why not make it a game?

What did I have to lose?

What Happened*

*Click on the blue links below for a few of my favorite posts.  If you’re dying to find out what happened the rest of the weeks, well heck, you’re gonna have to wait for the book!  Please don’t whine, it’s not becoming.  If  you’re in need of a Flora fix in the meantime, just look for me on Facebook or Twitter.

• Week 1: Blogging

• Week 2: Guitar

• Week 3: Kung Fu

• Week 4: Last Minute Travel

• Week 5: Making a Dress – Click to Read

• Week 6: Salsa Dancing

• Week 7: Intro to Arabic

• Week 8: Celebrating Dia de los Muertos

• Week 9: Pole Dancing – Click to Read

• Week 10: Moroccan Cooking

• Week 11: Building a Coffee Table

• Week 12: Recording an Interview

• Week 13: Volunteering at a Farmed Animal Sanctuary – Click to Read

• Week 14: Editing an Interview

• Week 15: Building a House with Habitat for Humanity

• Week 16: Ryan Heffington’s “Wet Wednesdays” Fitness/Dance Class

• Week 17: Tea Tasting in San Francisco’s Chinatown

• Week 18: Eating Vegan

• Week 19: Screwing Up

• Week 20: Downtown LA Financial District Gastronomy Tour

• Week 21: Skydiving – Click to Read

• Week 22: Intro to French

• Week 23: Volunteering at the Downtown Women’s Center

• Week 24: Beer Education Class

• Week 25:  Whale Watching

• Week 25.2:  Intro to Russian

• Week 26:  Halfway There

• Week 27:  Oil Painting

• Week 28:  Playing Chess

• Week 29:  Shooting a Shotgun

• Week 30:  Belly Dancing

• Week 31:  Hipster Tour of Brooklyn

• Week 32:  Tapas Cooking Class

• Week 33:  Fire Dancing

• Week 34:  Volunteering at the Ballona Wetlands

• Week 35:  Volunteering at the Aviva Center

• Week 36:  Waacking

• Week 37:  Learning to Ride a Motorcycle – Click to Read

• Week 38:  Flamenco Dancing

• Week 39:  Bollywood Dance

• Week 40:  Capoeira

• Week 41:  Silk Screening

• Week 42:  Samba

• Week 43:  Aerosol Art

• Week 44:  Driving a Stick Shift

• Week 45:  Surfing

• Week 46:  Krav Maga

• Week 47:  Burlesque

• Week 48:  Learning to Sail

• Week 49:  Chessboxing

• Week 50:  Volunteering at an Animal Shelter

• Week 51:  Volunteering at a Food Bank

• Week 52:  Morocco

• Week 52.2:  One Night in Madrid

• Epilogue