Meet Ultimate Blog Finalist #3: gopeeinafridge

It's time to meet finalist number 3... so give it up for our most charmingly named finalist, gopeeinafridge (http://www.i-to-i.com/campfire/gopeeinafridge/posts/1191-My-Ultimate-Trip-of-Novelty-and-Adventure )!

Name?
Ester Malzahn (gopeeinafridge)

How old are you?
28 years young

Where are you from?
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

What do you do?
My job is the least interesting thing about me (I work for government). Aside from that, I run a “cult of fun” called Best Life Ever that I detail in another blog entry on the site. My friends and I are completing a checklist of interesting activities in and around town, eg. river floating, waterslides, parking lot carnivals, theme parties, corn mazes, tobogganing, film fests, and skating. I volunteer a lot, too. I love fun, especially that with a social conscience! I spent enough of my life lacking a sense of control, so now I’m seizing the day and making up for lost time via the transformative power of positivity. Life is what you make it, and I’m making it awesome.

Name the top 5 places you’ve been to in the world:

1. Smoky Lake, Alberta, Canada for the Great White North Pumpkin Fair and Weigh-Off. It’s a small prairie town with no chain stores, and every October they have a giant pumpkin festival that attracts competitive pumpkin growers from far and wide. This is where I saw a giant pumpkin dropped from a crane onto a car, after which it was run over by a monster truck.

2. The Gorge, Washington State, U.S.A. The infamous music venue with a stage that teeters on the edge of the Columbia River gorge. It literally took my breath away. I met an older hippie who told me about how he saw Roger Waters play there many years ago – the crowd was tensely waiting for the show to begin, everything was dark, and the Pink Floyd jet came screaming through the valley... as soon as it passed behind a cliff, the stage lit up and Dark Side of the Moon began, lasers and all.

3. Tofino, B.C., Canada. This is probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever been, including the drive up and ferry ride to Vancouver Island. Gorgeous, empty beaches, rainforest, grey whales, amazing fish and chips, and a strong environmentalist culture. If I’m ever rich, I want to buy an island and spend the rest of my days there, watching the surf.

4. Pembina River, Alberta, Canada. Floating on a slow-moving, shallow (read: warm!) prairie river on a hot summer day with a drink in your hand is a moment I would live in forever, if that was at all possible.

5. “The End of the World”, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It may be a twenty minute walk from my apartment, but I love this local secret. A couple of decades ago, a road that extended into Edmonton’s beautiful river valley (the largest stretch of urban parkland in North America) crumbled away. If you cut into the trees at the perfect spot, and dodge a collapsing fence, you can walk to where the road ends, although a sidewalk still juts out into nowhere. Erosion makes it look as if a giant has sliced into the valley with a massive axe. It’s he perfect place to drink some beers, admire the sunset, and watch some foil balloons slowly drift toward the moon.

Summarize what your ultimate blog is about:
The story of a trip I took to a music festival in Tennessee. Otherwise described as a tale of ridiculousness, spontaneity, disaster, and a night at a comedy club where I imbibed enough to do some quite offensive stand-up comedy. Oh, and we went to Graceland, Dollywood, and Sun Studio!

Why should the lovely travelers of Campfire vote for you/your entry?
Because I crave and embrace randomness and adventure, and feel like this has come along at the perfect time, when I’m living life to the max. I haven’t had the money to go overseas other than once, nine years ago, to Britain. Bonus points for being a really nice person!

Are you offering people any particular incentives to vote?

Unfortunately, I don't have any money of my own to donate for votes... I entered this contest in the hopes that I would be judged based on the merits of my writing, not my financial situation (which is quite lacking). A blogging opportunity like going to Tanzania would be really fun, and I hope people would want to read about it, as well as it would give me a huge boost of confidence when it comes to submitting my writing to publications in the future. Some members of my cult of fun and I will be going out to do a river valley cleanup in honour of the contest, though, because I do like to give back (I'll try to get people in other cities to do it, too, and will be posting photos), as well as my awesome friend Roy says that he'll donate $50 to the WWF and another $50 to Greenpeace if I win.

Finally, what would winning this competition mean to you?
It would utterly transform me. I’ve travelled close to home, but haven’t had much chance to go further, even though I’ve craved international travel ever since I was a kid and saw photos of my parents’ treks around the world (they met in Turkey). My stomach does a series of backflips every time I read the itinerary for the Ultimate Tanzania trip. I’m also going to be writing a book about my Best Life Ever epiphany, and would love this prize to be part of it. I wouldn’t have the money to do this otherwise, but would embrace this experience so hard I would put its back out, and even then it would have to tell me to please let go and that I’m hurting it.

Think Ester deserves to be whisked off to Tanzania next summer? Vote for her entry here: http://www.i-to-i.com/campfire/gopeeinafridge/posts/1191-My-Ultimate-Trip-of-Novelty-and-Adventure

You can also learn about Ester's cult of fun here: http://www.i-to-i.com/campfire/gopeeinafridge/posts/1272-A-Little-Bit-About-Me-and-My-Life-Philosophy