A Summer of Firsts

I've done many a thing this summer which I had not previously--in my life--done. For example, this summer I, for the first time,...

• did laundry by myself,
• ate foie gras,
  
• slept in a waterbed (my verdict: kinda cool because you can sorta rock yourself to sleep by just moving around a little, but, ultimately, waterbeds are only a sometimes bed because you can't sit up on [in?] them, they're mad hard to get out of, and I woke up with a sore back; but it was fun to try, even if I kept worrying that the thing would pop, because that seems to be the thing that happens to waterbeds on TV),
• stepped foot in the part of this country between Cleveland and California (I think the technical title of this is the mid-coast),
  
• drank absinthe, twice, and I didn't hate it the second time,
• attended a non-Jewish institution of higher learning, and I'm not sure what took me so long,
• prayed with old Sefardi-type men in Spain,
• visited Europe (that time like ten years ago I spent two hours in the airport in London doesn't even come close to counting),
• saw a bull-fight (and that was, I can guarantee, the last time I'll see a bull-fight),
• did pilates,
• saw a popular moving picture on an i-maximum screen,
• um, rode in a hybrid car.

There's probably more, but I think we're way past the still-interesting line.