Wedded Bliss

I am headed to Seattle! The land of great coffee, the space needle and rainy days is also the place where my friend Scott went to grad school and is subsequently getting married this weekend (let's cross our fingers for good weather!!!)

Scott and I have been friends since seventh grade and somewhere during that time we "dated" as well (and by dated I mean, were boyfriend and girlfriend for about five months-- the extent of which being that we talked on the phone one time.) Regardless, we have somehow managed to stick together through the years. Him watching me go from one boyfriend to the next and me watching him move from one coast to the other while listening to him bitch about wanting a girlfriend and then not wanting a girlfriend and then wanting one, etc., etc. Needless to say, it's been a long and interesting decade or two.

Now that he is getting married, I'm not exactly sure what our friendship is going to look like. I am hoping things don't change that much (well, except for the girlfriend stuff of course :)) but I suppose that may just come with the territory. Either way, I just want to say, Scott, although I know my tolerance of you can sometimes be low, the light in my life would be a little less bright if you weren't in it.

Congratulations Scott and Flora!!! I am so happy for you guys!!

Scott's First Asian Girlfriend (circa 1993):



And more importantly, his last :)

Item #7: Connections

So this topic is one that I haven't really wanted to write about. Believe it or not, it's bordering on a bit too personal for me to share. I know, you're amazed right? After I've been spilling my guts about relationships past, now I put the kibosh on personal information? Well this post is about item #7 on my list of 13. I actually had a post written long ago, but I decided not to post it for fear that it sounded too callous or unintentionally angry. This is attempt at post number two.

If you haven't already taken the time to look back to my original list, item #7 is "Get in Touch with my Half Sisters." This is something I've been wanting to do for a very long time, but haven't for reasons of various nature. I tell myself that the reason why I haven't tried harder to get in touch with them is due to the fact that my father keeps telling me that "now is not a good time." I have been asking him to start the process for me because although I can reach them easily on Facebook, I don't want to totally blindside them if they don't know that I exist. Can you imagine that? "Hey, guess what, I'm your half sister! What up!" Unfortunately, given that he has been telling me that it's "not the right time" for about five years, I'm guessing that it's never going to be the right time.

So in an attempt to limit this post a bit, I am choosing to not share everything I'm feeling about this fairly shitty situation. However, what I will say is this: I have emailed my father one last time, basically giving him the heads up that I am going to contact one of my half sisters. Now to actually email her... let's just hope complete rejection is not in my future right now.

Eeek.

Item #3: The Wedding Dress Blues

The decision to sell my wedding dress was not an easy one. I mean I love it. I really, really love it, but with so much baggage and so many memories attached it, I didn't think it was fair to me (or to the next guy who comes along) to keep it. Plus it was on my list of 13 before 30. Despite the fact that I have been acting like a 22 yr old lately, there are times when I do try to be a grown up. This is one of those times. And so, today, with a very heavy heart, I posted my dress on Preownedweddingdress.com (you can see it there at listing number 19928.) I have to admit the picture I took doesn't do it much justice, but I wonder if a part of me did that in hopes that it wouldn't actually be sold. While I realize the ridiculousness of that, there is still a part of me that is holding on...just a little bit. To what, I'm not quite sure, after all, it couldn't be more over and it's not like I couldn't use the money. Anyway, that's all I have to say about all of this, but if you know of anyone who is in the market for a beautiful wedding dress, go check it out. Thanks.

13 before 30.

The best part of being in Aruba was not the drunk party bus or the incredible fishies I saw during snorkeling. It wasn't even the gorgeous beaches or the amazing sunsets, it was taking a vacation...from my brain. In fact, I don't know that I have ever had a vacation like this before. Sure, hiking and eating lobster in Maine was pretty great, being with my college friends and going just about anywhere is usually pretty awesome too, but none of it compares to just not thinking about anything for a whole week...not work, not boys, not the pups... what I did spend some time thinking about was my list of 13. I got an awful lot of feedback on it and some of the suggestions were pretty interesting: swimming with dolphins, shooting an AK-47, renting a car, but the one I heard the most people say was skydiving. Although I am not completely disinterested in skydiving, it is also not something that I am dying to do either, so I'm not adding it to my official list, which is comprised of the following items:
1. Do a keg stand DONE
2. Play spin the bottle
3. Sell my wedding dress WORK IN PROGRESS
4. Do 10 pushups WORK IN PROGRESS
5. Learn how to salsa
6. Go surfing
7. Get in touch with my half sisters WORK IN PROGRESS
8. Sit at a bar, by myself for at least an hour. Meet some peeps. DONE
9. Learn how to better invest my money
10. Come up with a list of 10 questions to ask someone new that I've met
11. Read the manual for my digital camera and learn to take better pics
12. Walk the Freedom Trail
13. Throw myself an awesome 30th birthday party!
Wish me luck! 52 more days to go!!

Aruba!

Here are some of my favorite pics from my trip:

Time, It is A Tickin'

As of tomorrow, it will be exactly two months until my birthday. The big 3-0. Despite the fact that the thought of "being old" seems to be chilling out in the back of my head, I think I'm doing okay with it so far. Panic has not set in yet. Although to be quite honest, I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to be afraid of-- I already can't remember for shit and can't hear half the time, how much worse could it possibly get?!? (Please...don't answer that.)

Anyway, due to this impending age change I've been not only thinking a lot about what I have accomplished over the years, but also what I thought I would have accomplished by now. That was just making me feel sort of bummed out though so I decided that I was going to do some research (no, I didn't look to see what others accomplished by the time they were 30-- what, do you want me to go into a downward spiral of negativity?? We are trying to stay away from that people!) And apparently there are an awful lot of people out there with some strong opinions about what you should do by the time you're thirty. There was even an article about it on bankrate.com. Strange, right? It didn't even have to do with money! Anyway, here is a completely random selection:

Drive a wickedly cool car
Shoot something
Post bail for a friend
Buy a samurai sword
Drive at more than 140mph.
Get drunk on Absinthe
Bought everyone in the bar a drink
Held a tarantula
Hugged a tree
Bungee jumped
Touched an iceberg
Held a lamb
Hit a home run
Adopted an accent for an entire day
Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in lovee
Performed on stage
Raised children
Lost over 100 pounds
Held someone while they were having a flashback
Helped an animal give birth

With all of my boy craziness as of late, I have decided that I am actually 30 going on 13. So, in the months of June and July I will be comprising a list of 13 things I will accomplish before I turn 30. I haven't actually thought of them yet, but I promise that I will be thinking of these 13 items long and hard as I am lounging on the beaches in...... ARUBA!!!! That's right suckas! I am going to Aruba tomorrow. See ya'll in a week!



One last thing: I like that when I looked up "things to do before you are 30" I also saw an awful lot of "things to do before you die" postings... as in being 30 is synonymous with being dead. Awesome.