I want to dance to Frank Sinatra at a place like the Ritz Carlton until my feet hurt. I want to wake up for one entire week rested and ready to go for the work day. I want to volunteer and actually make a difference, not just by mucking stalls. I want to continue to be in touch with my friends and family. I want to jump in puddles and enjoy the water that splashes up over my rainboots.
I want to bake cupcakes for complete strangers. I want to start a neighborhood happy hour for young adults and actually have people show up. I want to figure out what is that I want to do with regards to my career and move in that direction. I want to buy and own a place to call my own, complete with fabulous kitchen for my friends to gather around and a backyard for Jack to play in.
I want to conquer my fear of flying by jetsetting all over the country. I want to visit Alaska and have it be every bit as romantic as I expect it to be (courtesy of Northern Exposure, of course). I want to be able to declare my age (26) to people without having a mini- panic attack. I want to embrace the gray hairs that have sprouted like wildfire atop my head.
I want to finally learn how to knit. I want to finish the cross stitch baby blanket I started years ago. I want to scrap all the pictures that I’ve accumulated using the amazing scrapbooking products I have. I want to dress more chic. I want the hurt to stop. I want more room in my heart to love (again). I want to spend afternoons cuddled with Jack on the couch, in front of a fire, reading a book or laughing with friends over tea.
I want to sip wine in Italy, eat cheese in France, and chocolate in Belgium. I want to celebrate a New Year’s Eve in New York City, just once. I want to go to a bed & breakfast in Maine. I want to take a cooking class and then have a fabulous dinner party. I want to go to a spa for an entire weekend. I want to attend a writing class for creative writing.
I want to be able to put myself back out there again to make new friends, to meet new people. I want to lose the last five pounds and keep them off for good. I want to get back in touch with myself, the smiley, sunshiney, nothing can go wrong Nora that I was not too long ago. I want to never lose touch with her again.
I left the land of sunshine, palm trees, sunscreen, flip-flops and shorts, tans, surfer boys, family, love and laughs today to return to a town covered in falling leaves, full of hustle and bustle, work, a reality I’m not sure I’m crazy about and thankfully my dog Jack, my dad and a week off of work.
It’s late and I won’t pretend that my liver isn’t rebelling against me or that I haven’t looked at the pictures on my camera four times since I left today but I need to get some shut eye and process all the wonderment that took place this past weekend.
It’s amazing how 48 hours can potentially change your entire life in minute ways and possibly in ways you can’t even imagine.
Todays’ post is all about my mom, Darling. Why? Just because I feel like it and I know that I’m incredibly blessed to have a mom like her. So, here’s the list of why my mom is fabulous:
* She reads Vogue which makes her an excellent person to turn to for fashion advice.
* She introduced me to Sex & The City.
* If it’s your birthday, you get to request your favorite dinner and cake with homemade icing.
* She loves Jack as if he were her own dog.
* She’s the best cheerleader I know.
* We have our own rituals. Like shopping & IHOP the day after Thanksgiving. Hot fudge sundaes once a month, just because.
* She was the one who encouraged me to blog.
* She calls me on my bad moods and bullshit (rare that I’m that way, but it happens and she tells me so).
* We laugh so hard it hurts more often than not.
* She has a pink cell phone.
* She wrote me a children’s book, just because. I have it tucked away for if/when I have kids.
* Darling knows when to hold my hand through certain situations and when to let me fly (and maybe crash) on my own, but she’s always there to pick up the pieces.
* She’ll gladly get on stage to sing with my dad’s band. She’s also pretty darn good at it too.
* She’s given me a list of nicknames as long as my arm, including things like Beeps. Smoodgie-San. Laser. (And no, I don’t know what they mean specifically.)
* She has a kick-ass blog. No, really. You should read her especially if you like photos, book recommendations, poems and anything else literary.
* She still gets excited about Christmas and repeatedly tells me and my brother NOT to go in my parent’s closet because we’ll run our surprises.
* We share our movie collections with each other (and not surprisingly, love the same kinds of movies).
Who is the most influential woman in your life? Does she read Vogue?
As corny as it sounds, I believe John Lennon. It seems to be that way for me: I make plans and somehow at the end of the year, I look back and only a few of the things I’ve hoped to accomplish have come to fruition. It’s not for lack of trying or setting my mind to it but as is true with life, other things come up that need my attention or that challenge me and I try to never back down from a challenge. I’ve learned to go with the flow more, the importance of not having every moment of my day scheduled. But I often wonder, how in the world I will actually do all the things I’ve dreamed of accomplishing?
After reading Nilsa’s post on Life Goals, I realized that I am more of a small picture person which I like to think makes me more present in the now and perhaps explains why I like the Lennon quote so much. (Not to say I don’t think about my future because I do, but I want to enjoy the here and now and then enjoy later when I get to it.) Rather than making a Bucket List, I came up with a list of things I’d like to do to make my 26th year another great one. Some are life changes, other personal challenges and others are things that I’m amazed I haven’t yet tried.
Here they are, in no particular order:
* Run one 5k Race a month, preferably ones for a charity. (The hope is that I could work up to “bigger,” races as the year goes on.)
* Read at least seven books. One must be a memoir. Another historical non-fiction.
* Get down to my goal weight and stay there!
* Go fishing. Learn to bait a hook.
* Meet two more bloggy buddies.
* Start a real pen & paper journal.
* Volunteer 60 hours at the Rescue Ranch. I can’t wait to get started even though I know I’ll be working through bitter cold and sweltering heat.
* Cook one new dish and bake one new recipe a month. Ideally the bulk of the recipes would come from the old school cookbooks I’ve inherited from my Gram and the Martha Stewart Cupcake book.
* Take piano lessons (again).
* Travel to another baseball stadium, preferably the New York Yankees.
* Learn how to knit, courtesy of my Gram. First project: afghan.
* Finish that darn Masters of mine and leave formal schooling behind for good.
* Get back to nannying/babysitting. (I used to babysit all the time and lately I miss it.)
* Catch up on my scrapbooking/photo printing, sending pictures to the appropriate friends and family.
* Start Yoga and become a regular. This goes hand-in-hand with learning to meditate and getting to my goal weight and staying there.
Any recommendations for things that absolutely must be included in my list?
Current Book(s): Work in Progress: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, Haruki Murakami;
Finished: Club Dead, Charlain Harris (I’m in a bit of a reading slump currently)
Current Music:
The Beatles
The Supremes
Marvin Gaye
Stevie Wonder
Current Colors:
Sunflower yellow is quickly growing on me
Current Obsessions:
Cleaning/organizing
Baking
Reading cooking magazines
Thinking up crafty projects
Current Drink:
Water.
100 calorie Coca-Cola if I need one
Slim Fast
Current Songs:
A Little Less Conversation, Elvis Presley
Current Movie: Duplicity.
Can’t wait to see Away We Go
Current TV Show:
Sons of Anarchy
Current Wish-List:
I’d like my hair to grow faster and stop growing gray hairs
Believe it or not, more hours in the work day
Current Needs:
Sleep, always sleep.
To plan my week long vacation at the end of October
Current Triumph(s):
Slaying work projects left and right.
Conquering new dishes in the kitchen.
Staying in better touch with friends and family.
Current Bane(s) of my Existence:
Not enough time in the day to read books, catch up on blogs
Current Goal(s):
Lose five pounds by December (I’ve lost a few in the last two months)
Read a memoir by one of my favorite political figures or actors/actresses by end of the year
Current Indulgence:
Homemade chocolate chip cookies
Current Blessing:
It’s fall!
Current Slang or Saying:
I’m not sure what I’ve been saying a lot of lately.
Current (Fav) Outfit:
I’m digging the preppy look: black pants, white blouse, argyle sweater/vest and lots of fun jewelry to go with it
Current Excitement:
Birthday celebration with the family this weekend.
A fun, graphic desinger wedding to attend in two weeks
Visiting my BFF and her husband in three weekends for winery trips, a pumpkin patch & corn maze excursion and lots of relaxing
I admit I wasn’t organized enough to find a photo of myself as a young girl for today’s post so a photo of me from my 21st birthday will have to do:
I’m 26 today (and the end to the birthday-blogging theme)! The last year has been one of the best years in my twenties and I’ve enjoyed every moment, new opportunity, my new and old friendships, my fantastic family, my amazing dog (who I’m convinced is a Border Collie mix after much discussion this past weekend), Irish, this blog, my readers, and the many new experiences I enjoyed.
A quick, down n’ dirty list of things I’ve learned over the years:
* You can’t go wrong with hugs.
* Baking is therapeutic.
* Sex & The City relates to my life more than I would have thought (or cared to admit).
* Sleeping in until noon is rejuvenating.
* Love is worth the fall.
* Getting a Blackberry will change your life, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.
* After a long day there’s nothing like a hug from your man and smooch from your dog.
* It’s true: if you pluck one white hair, at least three more grow in its place.
* Sweatpants are fabulous.
Birthday request time! If you’re a reader but rarely comment, please, let me know who you are. If you’re a regular reader/commenter please share your words to live by or favorite life advice for me to add to my arsenal.
You know the moments I’m talking about. They reaffirm that you are doing just what you should be doing with your life. Or remind you that yes, this person really loves you. Or that your family really is kick-ass, hands-down the best family out there. I’ve been noticing these moments more and more as I reflect on my last 25 years and prepare for the 26th one that’s right around the corner. Here are a few of *those* moments that have really stood out to me over the last few weeks…
* Small Mexican restaurant. Me. Irish. The couple that set us up. Beer, salsa, tortilla chips. Laughter. Looking over at Irish and he winks. And then he kisses me on the cheek and he held my hand under the table. It was one of those moments where everything just felt right. Sometimes the craziness of the world can really interrupt the flow of a relationship so these moments where it’s just natural, normal and great? Well, they are really special to me.
* It’s not often that I get a day out of the office to attend client meetings but when the client has just renewed three contracts with us, I get to go to the meetings. This particular meeting took us to a town only 30 minutes away from where my brother is attending school so my boss (my dad!) and I met up with him for a late lunch at a very local, very Greek, very awesome restaurant. We were sitting on the patio chatting about politics, healthcare, college girls, bumble bees and who knows what else (all the while sending picture texts to Darling so she could see photos of “her boys” together) and I had that ah-ha moment. I felt blessed. I felt loved. I felt honored that my 21 year-old brother thinks it is cool (or at least humors us) and wants to spend time with us. This is my family and the older I get, the cooler they get. Funny how that works.
* I’ve been living at home for almost three (!) months now. There have been a few adjustments here and there but surpsingly no rough patches. It’s amazing to me how quickly I’ve adjusted to living with my parents again. I don’t feel like a 25 (almost 26!) year-old loser. In fact, I feel more responsible because I’m saving money, paying off (and not using) my credit cards, contributing to some of the daily chores around the house, and feel stable. I loved living in apartments but it always seemed semi-permanent. I love staying with Irish but due to some reservations on his family’s side that can’t be permanent (at least not yet), for awhile. I was really quite nervous about the move but on Sunday night, I had one of *those* moments where I realized I had done the right thing. I spent most of the day with Irish wandering in and out of bookstores, enjoy lunch and just having fun and when I got home my parents and I had a pizza party complete with a girlie movie. (My dad consented to watching Sweet Home Alabama with us.) We were all feeling the Sunday Evening Blahs and so I offered to make us a pot of tea. Hanging with my parents, the dogs, getting play-by-play updates on the Cards game from Irish and sharing a pot of tea brought tears to my eyes.
*This here blog started out over four years ago as a place for me to sob via the internet. No, seriously. I went through a horrible break-up and I boohooed my feelings and thoughts all over my blog for a good six months. After that I started making “blog friends.” In the last year I’ve opened myself up to meeting ”blog friends,” calling them and sending them real mail. I remember when sharing your address or phone number with people you’ve met online was totally batshit crazy but now not so much. I went from calling people “blog friends,” to “my real life friends.” In the last few months several of those bonds have grown even stronger thanks to GChats, texts, phone calls, emails and girls’ nights for those that live close to me. Not to mention the just knowing that there is a huge support group of women (and men) out there if I ever need them. It doesn’t feel funny to me that some of my best friends are people I met on the internet. It actually feels pretty damn awesome.
So, tell me, what are some of *those* moments for you recently? What kind of things do you notice more as a birthday appears?
….bookaholic. Shopaholic. Cheeseholic. Sleepaholic. Pictureholic. Animalaholic. VictoriaSecretaholic. Struggling to be a runningaholic.
Normally these “addictions,” don’t cause me a lot of problems since I’m pretty good at keeping them in check. (Unless there are amazing sales, coupons for Barnes & Noble in my email, my favorite cheese in the fridge, or a rainy day.)
Well, that was until this past weekend when I was browsing dogs from various rescue shelters online with Darling since they are ready to begin the search for a new addition to our family. There were big dogs, little dogs, puppies, middle-age, old-age, short, fat, tall, skinny dogs. All for ADOPTION!
Some were for free (oh, how I want to go rescue that 12 year old dog who has limited time left, just so she can be loved for the remainder of her days. Oh, the heartbreak), others were on special since they are black and have a stupid societal stigma associated with them, and others yet were close to $200 to take home.
Darling and I diligently got up early on Saturday morning to visit a PetSmart adoption event to view some of the dogs we’d been keeping tabs on. And I fell in fast, insane, puppy love.
I made the mistake of holidng a three month-old terrier mix pup who was white, with black spots on his back, floppy ears, blue eyes and a brown/black face. He licked me. He put his head in my hand. He followed me to the other side of his cage after I put him down.
I fumbled for my phone to get Irish’s opinion of the pup but forgot he was at a bachelor party and couldn’t talk so I had to deal with sporadic texting and realized I can’t make a decision like this without his input. I walked away, mopey, but told myself that if he was there on Sunday morning, he was meant to be mine. (He wasn’t. A family with kids adopted him, or so they tell me.) Unfortunately the puppy bug has been planted firmly in my brain and despite the obvious obstacles and challenges to being a Dog Momma again, I can’t quite turn off the thoughts of adopting another one soon.
For the time being Darling and I are turning our backs on our animalaholic tendencies and instead attending the volunteer orientation that will hopefully allow us to be Ranch Hands, once a month, at a nearby animal rescue farm where there are thankfully no dogs. We’ll be surrounded by horses, donkeys, pigs, goats, geese, ducks, chickens, roosters and any other possible farm animal that needs to be rescued. We’ll be cleaning stalls, feeding and watering animals and leaving covered in mud, poop and straw I’m sure. We could have opted for a position at the various dog and cat shelters in the area but we would surely wind up with more dogs than we could handle, so farm animals it is! I’m excited to see and work with goats & pigs; Darling loves horses and donkeys. I have no idea what this adventure will hold for us, but I’m excited to support an organization I believe in.
Oh, and it helps that we receive some perks like discounted adoptions which we had no idea where were eligible for.
Confession time: What’s your biggest addiction and what sets it off?
1. Nailing a work presentation on Friday night thus freeing me to ignore work all weekend.
2. A blessing in disguise when my Blackberry stopped receiving work emails meaning I could really ignore work all weekend.
3. Going to a bar to see my dad’s band play with my mom & Gram. Bonus: my mom got on stage and sang an Irish ballad with the band. Double Bonus: my dad introduced the “three generations of women,” that he’s proud to have support him & his music career.
4. Puppy shopping with Darling. She’s looking for a new dog to add to the family, preferably a Border Collie Mix. We didn’t find the right one this weekend, but we are on the right track. I may or may not have fallen head over heels in love with a Terrier Mix puppy but wound up not adopting him because he was spoken for come Sunday morning. (I really wanted him but trying to be a responsible adult wanted to discuss it over with Irish who was at an all-day bachelor party.)
5. Enjoying the huge Art Fair StL puts on each September. Four or five streets are filled with Art vendors, music (live & DJ), food and of course, amazing people watching. Best person watching: Adult male, mid 50s, long white curly hair, non-descript hat. Ladies short shorts and black high heels with a white tank top. The reason I noticed him? He has better legs than me and walks in heels better than most girls I know.
6. Finding a birthday present for Irish and a unique wedding present for our friends who are tying the k not in less than a month. Irish is nearly impossible to buy for so I always go out on a limb with some of the presents I get him; I think he’ll like this one.
7. Taking an afternoon nap with Jack while listening to Felicity (almost done with the show!) in the background followed by a brisk 2-mile walk.
8. An hour long chat with Kyla. Eye-opening, inspiring, heart-warming and lovely. (Those words describe both Kyla & our phone call.)
9. The quiet of my parents’ house which I find rejuvenating.
10. Seeing Irish after being apart for five days.
What’s your Grace in Small Thing from this past weekend?
