Week 44: From High Tea to Gatsby: New Zealand’s North Island, Part 1 [Score +67]

Week 44: From High Tea to Gatsby: New Zealand’s North Island, Part 1 [Score +67]

Introvert Amanda
Travel, Activities

New Zealand is 8,200 miles from my home in the Midwestern United States. Before January of this year, I let that distance keep me from seriously considering making a trip there myself. I told myself, “Some day I’ll do it." Apparently, what I needed was the right carrot dangled in front of me: an invitation to join two friends who have visited multiple times and could share their familiarity with me. On February 13, I landed in Auckland, New Zealand, and my first-ever two-week vacation began.

Week 43: I Willingly Had 45 Needles Stuck Into My Body [Score +4]

Introvert Amanda
Activities

The first time I fainted was a couple days before my eighth birthday. It wasn’t until I passed out in the front of a classroom in middle school that I went to the doctor and got a diagnosis: vasovagal syncope. With this history in mind, you now understand why this intrepid activity is particularly significant: I tried acupuncture, a process which includes having 45 needles stuck into my skin and left for 24 minutes.

Week 41: Vibrational Sound Therapy [Score +4]

Week 41: Vibrational Sound Therapy [Score +4]

Introvert Amanda
Activities

Have you ever discussed a shared memory with a friend and realized that the two of you had very different recollections of the same moment in time? My latest intrepid activity—a Vibrational Sound Therapy concert—and the comparison of personal experiences immediately afterward—reminded me of exactly that phenomena.

Week 39: I Came to Dance [Score +15]

Week 39: I Came to Dance [Score +15]

Introvert Amanda
Activities

The company holiday party: after three or four years of avoidance, I decided to be intrepid and go to mine this year. Big parties at which I have to yell to have a conversation with the person standing next to me aren’t generally my thing. Add to this my usual lack of a willing +1, and you can understand why my enthusiasm for attending in the last few years hasn’t been terribly high.

Weeks 37-38: Must-Mix-and-Mingle Fundraisers [Score +9 each]

Weeks 37-38: Must-Mix-and-Mingle Fundraisers [Score +9 each]

Introvert Amanda
Activities

My first memory of volunteering just for the purpose of doing something for the community—not because I would enjoy it or benefit personally—was bussing tables for a church breakfast over Labor Day weekend when I was in middle school. I'm scarred for life from the experience. The good news: I’ve found loads of opportunities to volunteer and give back in ways that I find much more enjoyable, and the holiday season offers many such opportunities.

Week 36: A New Spa Experience: Floatation Therapy [Score +16]

Week 36: A New Spa Experience: Floatation Therapy [Score +16]

Introvert Amanda
Activities

Imagine a feeling of complete weightlessness, of floating in a completely dark space, and the loudest sound you hear is that of your own breath. Now make it blissful: this space of peace and quiet and relaxation is all yours, uninterrupted by beeps, dings, messages, conversation, or cries for a full hour. I’ve been there. It exists. It’s called floatation therapy, and I tried it.

Week 31: Author Inspiration at the Central Library [Score +12]

Week 31: Author Inspiration at the Central Library [Score +12]

Introvert Amanda
Activities

Libraries are some of my favorite places to be: stacks and stacks and room upon room of books, all sitting quietly, waiting for me to choose one or six to take home with me for three weeks. My usual haunt is my local library, but the Indiana Writers Center’s “Meet an Author, Be an Author” event gave me the perfect excuse to make a long-overdue visit to the Indianapolis Central Library.

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