Friday, October 19, 2007

21

Today at the Franklin Mint, as I pondered multiple credit options, the woman there insisted on looking up my birthday - she did not believe I was almost 30, married and owned a home. Sure enough the 12/17/77 screamed out that I was indeed the age I said and she just stared at me. "My god. I thought you were 21."

I usually get pegged 6 years younger than my age, but 8, practically 9 years? Wow. That's like a decade. After my emotional pre-30 cry the other day (after I wrote my last entry), I'll take the 21 year old compliment.

Monday, October 15, 2007

So Much

So much is going on...

I'm overwhelmed. I want to go to Linvilla and buy some apples and pumpkins and take some photos.

It's time to switch clothing and pack up summer gear. Each year I sort through my winter wear and donate a few items, think back to when I purchased this or that.

I'm putting finishing touches on the second bedroom and I leafed through my old Lisa Frank trapper keeper - the one that I hauled to and from SJU my junior and senior years (and still has a paper or two tucked away inside it) and then turned it into my job search trapper keeper. I pulled out JDs dating back to 2001 with notes scribbled across them - send rez 5/3/01, follow up 5/12/01. I set a few aside because I always had this vision of immortalizing my job seeking 20s in a mixed media collage. I'm a tad nostalgic looking through it all. You know when you get so used to a particular feeling? So much so that it becomes you and defines you? And even when you move to a better place, you feel a bit empty because you knew that other feeling for so long?

I'm moving into another place...another decade. All this "stuff" from my 20s is making its way to the attic. It used to be only a few years ago that XYZ was going on...and we fondly recalled the memories...now it's 5-7 years ago. People have moved away, gotten married, are having children. New stories and memories are unfolding. Seven years is a long time.

But it's time. Time to move and shift some things around. Make room for new. It's been happening slowly over the course of this year. I'll be 30 in two months and almost as if my 20s were a book, tons of unfinished stories have been scribbled and told, like even though they needed years to develop and be written, now was when I could see full story and learn valuable lessons from it. Now, before the next chapter starts.

It's an exciting and anxious feeling. Most often I reflect and I think, WOW. I can't believe what's come around and how I've been given this amazing chance to know how important I was to people but also understand who I was then, how I've grown, why things happened the way they did. But it's also a sad feeling because that part of myself that I knew SO well is now the story of my 20s...I'm leaving her behind. Old ways of being and thinking. And like I said - I was so used to wondering what if? and waiting for clarity that such a mentality consumed me and defined me. But now I have it. It's just strange when you see yourself as a collective of parts, of ages, of stories and see a defining theme from the time you're 20 through about 28/29 and realize they've all happened for this very reason - for clarity and self awareness and self confidence - I've grown up but am now entering some other uncharted region, somewhat prepared.

I'm more complete and yet I knew all those thoughts and worries of yesteryear and now that they are gone, I'll sort of miss them.

What will consume and define me in my 30s?

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Birthday Present

This would be the best birthday present EVER.

















With The Verve’s previously announced November tour totally sold out, the band can now announce a second UK Tour for December 2007. The dates and venues are as follows:

Thursday 13th December
Saturday 15th December
Monday 17th December
Thursday 20th December
London o2 Arena
Glasgow SECC Centre
Belfast Odyssey Arena
Manchester Central

Tickets will go on general sale at 10am on Friday 5th October

Subscribers to The Verve’s mailing list will have access to an exclusive advance ticket pre-sale. This will take place from 9am on Thursday 4th October via the above password-protected links. All registered users will receive the required password within the next 24 hours.

Monday, October 01, 2007

My Next Dream Home

For shits and giggles, I surfed homes for sale in Doylestown. Look at this adorable little Cape.






I love it. I also realized, much to my amazement, that there are homes in D-town for under $350K.

Pooch

So if you're a woman over the age of 25 you've experienced the pooch. Eat too much salt? Pooch. PMSed? Pooch. Just a bad day? Pooch. That little poochy piece of belly that bloats out.

Despite having the occasional pooch issue, I've never in my life had anyone poke me and point it out and bizarrely enough, ask me if I was pregnant??? A good friend and mother of a 2 year old - who's party I was attending - asked this of me in room full of people. I inspected my cute outfit - black skirt and empire waisted turquoise tank that hung so the PMSed pooch was covered. Turn to the side. Hmmm...a little pooch...I think the size small skirt from 2001 when I was a size 4 was making it look worse. Possibly. But all in all, it wasn't protruding like I was in my first trimester.

Wait. What am I doing? I'm standing in front of my friend's bathroom mirror PMSed and crampy wondering if what I'm wearing hides my pooch? Do I really care? Hell no. This is a cute outfit dammit. And I'm the cutest chick at this party.

I decided I didn't give a damn, but it does raise the question - Why have so many of my pregnant friends or recent mothers asked me/insinuated/projected their motherly instincts - about my current place in life sans children: "Are you guys trying? When are you thinking of having kids? Come on, Chrissie, have a baby! Babies are great!! They're so much fun! Oh, you guys have time...there's no rush...oh wait - you fainted? I'm noticing the pooch. Obviously you must be pregnant." These are examples of what I've heard.

Sigh. I'm not really upset by this...I'm more or less wondering why on earth people care to the extent of constant conversation? I don't worry about when another couple plans on buying a house, having kids, moving, changing jobs...I just don't. Another older wiser friend of mine (with 2 grown kids) said "Well, Chris, I think it's because that's where their minds are...(OK, understandable, but still. Did I ask all my pals when they were getting engaged when I was planning my wedding? No. I was wrapped up with my own stuff). She continued, "and to some extent, they need to justify where they are in their life by asking all their friends why they aren't there yet."

Because most of my 20s were spent with antiquated measuring devices (old school thought) measuring all the wrong things (my jobs, my apartments, my friends, my life compared to others). Because that's what I needed to do in order to grow up. Because now I follow the beat of my own drummer.

Things happen when they do. Until then, I will embrace my PMSed state and don my yoga pants to hide the pooch.