IMG_1478 copy 2

Today I turn 34 years old and I wish someone could explain to me how the hell that happened because last time I checked, I was 13, lounging by my friend’s pool, listening to this song, crushing on Tom Cruise (I know, I know), studying for Home Ec and eating vanilla fudge drumsticks, purchased with my hard earned strawberry-picking money.

Twenty years later, I eat organic soy cream and I’ve traded in my crush for a less eccentric model and I try not to worry and be happy but my how things have changed.

Still, 33 was mighty good to me and I am sorry to see it go.  33 was a giant growth spurt and a stagnant pool, it felt like a thousand years and the blink of an eye, the beginning of one part of me and the end of another, ripe with lessons and lacking discipline, it was crossing things off the life list and homework left undone and messy on the table, it was the punctuation mark on 32 and is the dot-dot-dot leading to 34.

My birthday, more than New Year’s, is a time to take stock and make goals.  An opportunity to start all over while being grateful for the year that fueled this next part of the journey.  I was inspired by many other bloggers to create a list for myself, of things to aspire to pre-35.  I like lists, I like scratching things off, makes me feel productive.  So here’s a somewhat idealistic one.  I hope to scratch many of these items off by this time next year but realize that I may be biting off more than I can chew.  And that’s okay, because it’s my birthday and I can do what I want to.

  1. finish my travel posts.  sheesh.  it’s taking me long enough
  2. fly a kite, ideally on a beach
  3. learn a new word every single day
  4. go back to school
  5. reach the top of a 5.11 grade rock climbing wall
  6. try a nia class
  7. bang on my bongos, with actual rhythm
  8. travel to Thailand or Iceland or Morocco or Ireland
  9. get another tattoo
  10. explore more abandoned buildings
  11. purchase a funky retro dress
  12. see a new performance by la tohu
  13. buy a macro or wide angle lens
  14. get a massage or acupuncture or osteo treatment once a month
  15. hop on a metro, stop at a station i’ve never been to before and explore new area
  16. do this yoga pose
  17. read one book a month (doesn’t sound like much, but trust me, it’s more than i’ve read in years)
  18. spend a night on a roof taking photos with karl and roma
  19. continue to treat myself to a flower a week
  20. hide love notes around the city
  21. perfect witty repartee
  22. drink a milkshake at wilensky’s
  23. submit writing anywhere and everywhere
  24. enter a photography contest
  25. attend squam
  26. ride a bike in the country (take portraits of women in colorful skirts in tall grasses at sunset)
  27. go snowboarding at least once this winter
  28. send more “out of the blue” postcards
  29. join 100 strangers
  30. organize and catalogue my photos (delete the bad ones)
  31. get new glasses
  32. complete at least half of the projects in this book
  33. go sailing
  34. don’t worry, be happy

IMG_4377 copy

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)