Hey all! Happy New Year and thanks for coming along with me for this crazy, fun ride I call The Badass Adventures.
Many of you know that I have thought about stopping this adventure journal, but your enthusiasm and encouragement has kept me going and truly, writing about these wacky adventures have driven me to do more and more. So a huge thank you to all of you who read this, send me your thoughts and participated in badassiness with me!
In 2023, I'll be taking this adventure journey in a new direction with the help of the Rebel Badge Books and online community. I love doing unique things that take me out of the norm. I love a reason to learn something new. And I loooooooooooooooove competition. I mean, when there is a challenge on the line, I can't not throw myself into it and give it the old college try.
I found the Rebel Badge Book I and II when I was doing a google search for "adult merit badges". I always wanted to have a program where adults could do the same types of badges that we earned in Brownies.
"Sit-Upon Campfire Craft Badge"? Yup! An earned badge for my mom to sew on my uniform.
"Whittling badge"? Yup!
"Camping in Treehouse Badge"? Yup!
"Never letting my beanie fly off my head badge?" Nope. The Brownie organization didn't think this was an important skill, apparently. Dagnammit because I earned the heck out of that badge.
Anyways, the Rebel Badge books are exactly what I was looking for, and along with the You Can Do It! (The Merit Badge Handbook for Grown-Up Girls), I realized I found my project for 2023. I can take the momentum of Badass and use the Merit Badges to keep expanding to more purposeful adventures and out of the box experiences. Thank you, Charly Lester, Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas and all the Rebel Badge earners for your inspiration. I can't wait!
NEW YEAR ADVENTURES
So far in the past few days, I was able to check off many items in my badge books during the New Year Visit of Emily and her girlfriend Jessica (otherwise known as Wiki, because she is so smart and knows so many facts, she is like a human version of Wikipedia. True dat.)
Plus, she knows how to open a champagne bottle with a knife. AND, she learned that in her wine tasting class. Plus, she took a Cider class and a Spirits class. Why didn't I go to Cornell?
It was great celebrating New Year's Eve with these two, eating Thai and Sushi, and never making it even close to midnight, though I'm happy you guys got to see fireworks from our balcony!
CODE BREAKER BADGE: EXERCISE YOUR MIND
I love me a good escape room, and the one that Em, Wiki and I went to tackle one together.
I won't name the exact escape room since it has a crazy amount of creative secret things that happen and we were required to make an oath to not reveal those secrets. So I won't mention them by name. But WOWZA -- they took a regular escape room and ramped it up on steroids, threw in a little bit of Silence of the Lambs, a dash of Criminal Minds, and a dash of Fear Factor.
There were times when the three of us were huddling in the corner of a completely blacked out room with a`n actor portraying a psychopathic flesh carver screaming obscenities at us from behind the bars of a jail.
We had to crawl in hidden tunnels between rooms.
We had to "tattoo" one of our teammates (sorry Wiki. Thanks for taking one for the team). If we talked too loud, the psychokiller would come crashing through a door to jump-scare us and reprimand us for being too loud.
And at one point, one of us (I will not disclose who) passed a little smelly toot and I boldly asked, "Who farted?". Within a second or two, the iPhone we were given as part of the escape room chimed, and the psychopath texted us that no farting was allowed in his studio. He also would send us memes of laughing children when we screamed and clung to each other during the other jump scares of the escape room.
The puzzles we had to solve were so cool and included dot-to-dots, physics, claw machines, and wall-sized manipulative puzzles.
Did we escape in our allotted 90 minutes?
Kinda. We went over by 30 seconds. But I'll blame myself for being distracted by playing with the tattoo chair. And I blame Emily for leaving the phone in one room so we had to recrawl through the scary jail chamber to go back and get it. But I won't blame Wiki for anything because she did nothing wrong. Except toot. Not saying it was her. But.......
Unfortunately, the escape room gave Wiki nightmares for a week. Sorry for that!
But man...I had a hecka great time. It was an amazing combo of the adrenaline fear of Screamageddon and the thrill of puzzle solving from the other escape rooms I played this year and even wove in my 50th Tattoo adventure. LOVED it.
And, I completed a clause for the Puzzle Solver badge. I'm going to slay that badge this year.
BOARD GAMES and BRAIN GAMES BADGE
I was able to knock several clauses off the Board Games and Brain Game badge with our New Year's Day Game afternoon. Wiki and Em said one thing they really wanted to do during the visit was to meet the Badass Babes.
So we planned an afternoon of delicious vittles (thanks ladies for the chow!), board games, and fun. We played Blank Slate, Catch Phrase, Poetry for Neanderthals, and Taco-Cat-Goat-Cheese-Pizza.
Plus, we completed the most epic of jigsaw puzzles --The Mystic Maze. It required us to complete the puzzle, then open the included envelope for an additional challenge and mystery.
Love, love, love this group.
WATER SPORTS/ACTIVITIES
I treated myself early New Year's Day to a walk on my favorite beach. The fog was so thick that you couldn't see in front of you and there was nobody else on the beach, with the exception of a kindly ranger who pulled me over on my walk to ask if I was the criminal who broke into the park before it opened. I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but if I was that criminal, there's no way I would have 'fessed up! Plus, what was he going to do...take me to the ranger jail?
Anyways, it was just me, the cockles, and the scallops...nobody else was around. I decided to do the southern version of the famous northern tradition: The Polar Plunge. Now, the water in St. Pete might not be as artic as the water in Massachusetts, but it was still hecka chilly. Plus in the fog, it was hecka creepy! Hard to tell if the psychopath from the Escape room was lurking nearby or if a shark was lurking in the water. But I bravely took a big breath and went in for a swim. No wonder people do this -- it was shocking at first but then you feel this rush of happy adrenaline that makes it all worthwhile.
So I am giving myself credit for a clause in the Water Sports badge, even though "Polar Plunge" isn't one of the exact sports listed. Charly, can you include that in future issues?
EVENT PLANNER
I got to plan the 10th annual Grigg/Henkenmeier Christmas Extravaganza (four days post-Christmas) where we gathered mom, dad, Em, Wiki, and Oliver (virtually) around the table to challenge them to 10 different holiday events.
Some of the events included:
Christmas Pageant: Acting out Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer
Christmas Plating: Drawing a Christmas picture on a paper plate being held on their heads
Christmas Text: Sending me a Christmas Text typing with their nose and singing the last text they received
Christmas Charades
Camouflage the Christmas Tree
Gag the Bullsh**ter.
Christmas Limericks
It was an hour of crazy, loud, inappropriate-at-times fun.
I love my family. That is all.
I had so much fun with Emily and Wiki. Please, please, please come back and visit me again sometime soon. I promise I will not take you to another place where psychokillers chase you around.
Maybe.
2022 WRAP UP
2022 was an incredible year!!!! I got to do 45 badass adventures, challenged myself in mind, body, and spirit, and met amazing people along the way. Many of my adventures were with my family, and a hecka-ton were with my badass babes. Some were solo and some were with strangers. Some made me laugh. Some made me scream. Some I hated. But all made a difference in my life.
I am including what has been done in Badass already in my merit badges. And, I am taking quite a bit of creative manipulation for my previous adventures to fit into the current Rebel badge framework. I guess I need to call myself a Badass Rebel!
WRITER -- www.50badassadventures.com My blog that has been in action for 36 months
EVENT PLANNER
ANIMAL LOVER
BOATING AND WATER ACTIVITIES:
ATHLETE (I interpret this as anything sports-adjacent):
PERFORMANCES AND CONCERTS
TRIPS and TRAVEL
NEVER-DONE BEFORE EVENTS
FAMILY
SOCIETAL ADVENTURES
MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVENTURES
I think with all these adventures and the narratives that go along with them, I have earned the : "MY PASSION BADGE". Do you give me the thumbs up, Charly?
Thanks for coming along for this ride and looking forward to 2023 full of just as much, if not more, fun and adventure!
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