50 years from now

My grandmother, Mimi, just turned 75 in early August. She was visiting us from North Carolina over Labor Day weekend and Nick, my 17-year-old brother, was determined to fit 75 candles on her birthday cake. A seemingly impossible task — oh, but not when Dad has a blow torch handy. This was the result:75 and it only took her two breaths to blow them all out. And she was so excited to see that many candles. I hope I make it to 75 candles.

Only about 50 more years until I'm that age. Thinking about that reminded me of this list I started keeping 2 years ago, "25 things to do before I die." I try to update it every once in a while. The last time I wrote it was about eight months ago:Publish book of poems
Backpack in Italy
Road trip to the west coast with Trey and Nick
Have a boxer/lab mix
Work in another country
Work for the Peace corps or a nonprofit
Work for refugee services
Live in Boston
Redo an old house
Have organic vegetable and herb garden
Live on a farm
Learn to play an instrument
Learn how to speak the basics of another language
Get married to someone I'm madly in love with
Learn how to ski again
Learn to surf
Hike a volcano
Have 4 kids
Adopt a baby from another country
Volunteer at a nursing home
Buy Dad a motorcycle
Travel to Ireland with Mom
Go hang gliding
Run a 10K
Travel to one new place every year
I'm realizing that in the past eight months time, I've actually crossed four things off this list: I've learned to ski again, run a 10K, traveled to two new places and have started working with a refugee service (volunteering).

Maybe the reason I keep this list, and the reason why I love lists in general, is the added sense of accomplishment they bring. When life starts to feel stagnant — when the weeks form familiar patterns, and long hours of working gunk up like plaque in my memory — lists like this one serve as a reminder that things do change, milestones come and go and each day is a chance to do something you haven't done before. (And yes, I am "that girl" who will occasionally write down an item on my daily to-do list after I've already completed it, just for the satisfaction of crossing it off.)

So it looks like I have a few open slots on my list of 25. Any suggestions on what to add?

sweetie, the word is dramatically

Since my rendezvous with Comcast, I've fallen prey to the guilty pleasure of The Girls Next Door. It is sickly fascinating — and good for a few laughs. And I can always count on this blond bombshell to make me feel smart, even on my dullest days. Thank you for that, Kendra.


P.S. This is an actual quote, in case you were wondering.

ode to athens

This past weekend I gained a renewed appreciation for the city of Athens. I went up for a day with 2 of my 3 long-loved but retired roomies (we missed you Meg), traipsed around our old stomping grounds and discovered some new ones.
Eat: Transmet (best damn food in the state of Georgia as far as I'm concerned), Little Italy (the best grease money can buy), Last Resort (good menu selection, if you can stomach the snooty staff), Calientitos (authentic mexican)
Shop: Pitaya (cute boutique), Junkman's Daughter's Brother (everything under the sun. really.)

Play: Genco (classic), The Loft (for old time's sake, back when it was the Annex), 283 Bar (fun but chill, slightly "older" crowd. by Athens standards, that means over 19.)

Though we had a great time, I stumbled upon a realization that led to a few other realizations. Number 1): my college days are over. Subsequent realizations: 2) I am either really slow or 3) I have been living in denial. Even though I've been back to Athens a handful of times, it has always been on football weekends when a lot of other friends are around. To be back there this weekend, it felt a bit like a ghost town. And I was a the ghost.
But I'll end on a light note. Later on Sunday, back in Atlanta my friend Dana sent me an old email that she found. I had written it to my roommates when we graduated and left Athens 2 years, 3 months and 1 week ago:

On the way home, i tried to take 120 instead of 85, only to run into a blocked road and a detour. i started to get really pissed off because i didn't know where i was going, but then i just started to laugh. i know its corny, but i couldn't help comparing it to life right now... things don't always go the way you plan... sometimes you have a detour or roadblock along the way... none of us really know where we'll be 6 months, or 6 years from now... but ultimately, you wind up exactly where you're supposed to be. Four years ago, I drove down the same road in the dark, only It was the early morning dark, and my dad was driving me to athens with all my stuff packed in the trunk. I had no idea what to expect from UGA and had no friends there. now four years later, here i am driving home in the dark, already missing my three best friends, with all my shit packed EVERYWHERE, but this time I'm in the drivers seat. As confusing as it is to not know where we're headed, it's also thrilling at times. i sit here typing this in my room — with quite literally, pieces of my life scattered around — and as sad as i am, i have a gut feeling that, cliche as it is, although this is the end of an era, it is the start of a new one.
I'm extremely lucky to still have the amazing friends I met there. And even luckier that they live close by. And really, maybe the luckiest part of all is that I don't have to feel like I'm "getting old" on my own.