Wednesday, June 10, 2009

35 Things on a 35th Birthday

1. I am officially in my mid-thirties.

2. Things are pretty damn good.

3. I am also pretty damn tired.

4. I have, like, the cutest nephew ever.

5. I need a vacation of some sort.

6. I have recently discovered the wonder of the eliptical machine - I go for about an hour, as many times a week as I can manage, and time my sessions so I can watch "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report".

7. I have also been known to spend my hour watching the Ann Arbor Planning Commission meetings.

8. These meetings often infuriate me so much I scream out loud and point.

9. I have pointed so hard I almost fell off the machine.

10. Also, around minute 45, I begin to develop a line of chafing at the very edge of my butt cheeks.

11. So, I lube up before my work out - yes, that's right...lubricated butt cheeks.

12. I have a long, long slog of a summer before me.

13. I have five incompletes that I need to finish before the end of July.

14. These incompletes have made my advisor very, very nervous. Me? Not so much.

15. In the past year, I have been diagnosed with both Depression and ADHD. I have taken medication for both.

16. Turns out, some drugs are good drugs and some drugs are bad drugs.

17. ADHD medication is a good drug.

18. I have slowly come to feel that I would be very, very happy staying snugly in the Ivory Tower of academia.

19. In the past year, I lost my sweet/mean bunny.

20. I miss him more than I thought you could miss something that weighed 900 Grams.

21. When we settle again, Alexis will allow me to fulfill my dream of having a bonded pair of Welsh Giant rabbits. They are about 15 pounds each.

22. We are moving to Baltimore. Did you know?

23. I am so unbelievably excited to be moving back to the East Coast.

24. Baltimore is a cool, rag-tag kinda place, and I bet we could fall hard for the Charm City.

25. I'll be here all Fall semester - I'm TAing a course, so Alexis and I will be living some type of bachelor lifestyles.

26. My bachelor lifestyle will involve a lot of writing, a lot of pinball, and a lot of accordion.

27. In the past year (as of August, really), I have taken up accordion.

28. I had always enjoyed the accordion, but I LOVE it now that I'm playing it.

29. When I first began playing, I had a strange familiarity with the spatial relations of the keys, so much so that my teacher asked if I had played before.

30. I think I must have played accordion in a past life.

31. I'll be playing an accordion duet in the Winter concert at my music school - me and a bunch of twelve year olds.

32. I can't WAIT for KlezKanada this year. I'm actually going to be able to play stuff, and I can't wait to hang out and play with my accordion buddy.

33. Speaking of buddies - I am excited about moving, but am HEARTBROKEN about leaving some of my friends here. I am going to miss Carole so much, it'll be like losing a finger. And what'll we do without Mir and Lisa (though, they're officially leaving us first, so I take less responsibility for the break up).

34. I grow more and more grateful for my family - my incredible mom, my lovely dad, and my sisters who I love and miss so much it's actually making me cry as I write this.

35. I also grow more and more grateful for my partner and partnership. As time passes, I become more aware of the treasure I hold - and it in turn becomes more and more precious to me. I can't believe I'm so lucky. How did I get so lucky?

This is what 35 looks like: