Today is my 29th birthday. It feels really.....different, somehow, than 28 did. It feels like I've finally and fully become adult. I think my concept of age has really changed in the last five years. The thirties used to feel ancient to me, but now I'm actually looking forward to them, because I think I've finally figured out how I want to live my life and what's important to me. I feel more like myself than I ever have before.
And so, I've decided that my first post here on this new blog (I decided I needed to put Rosewood Cottage to rest because I don't live in that little house on Rosewood Circle anymore and every time I went to that space to write I felt like I was holding on to something that was no longer true) will be a list of ten things I really like (love) and ten things I really don't like (hate).
Before I begin, I have to have a bit of a rant about favorites lists. I'm married with kids, but I will not list my husband or children on my list of things I love, because I think it's both silly and entirely unnecessary. I don't feel the need to prove to anyone else that I love my loved ones, and I don't think my loved ones need to be reassured. The only reason I can see that people list obvious things like people or God is that they feel like they have something to prove. Also, I think it sort of demeans my feelings for my husband and children to include them on the same list as mundane things like cookie cake and the smell of wood burning.
Anyway.
Love (in no particularly order):
- Books: reading them, holding them, seeing them.
- Color: especially aqua and pink, though I can't decide on my favorite pink - it's a toss-up between coral and rose. And I'm really loving gray right now, particularly paired with brighter colors.
- J.Crew: really, it's kind of an obsession. I would live there if I could.
- Making stuff: this is a new one for me. Or at least it's only been recently that I've realized I love it. Particularly big into knitting right now.
- Fall: the cooler temps, the smell, the leaves, my birthday, wearing sweaters.
- History: especially British and ancient history. I think it relates to my love of stories, because history is really just a collection of stories about people who lived a long time ago. I still think, sometimes, that I should become an archaeologist.
- Loud music: is there any other way to really experience it?
- Writing: I think it's what I'm meant to do. I feel compelled to do it a lot, but I'm also terrified by it.
- Sugar: frosting, candy, doughnuts, cake, pie, whatever. I used to sneak spoon-fulls of brown sugar when I was a kid.
- London: the city makes me feel connected to the past in a wonderful way.
Hate:
- Obliviousness: I can't stand it when people don't seem to realize they're holding up the line or talking so loudly on the phone that everyone else on the bus can hear it, or that I don't know they're trying to turn if they aren't using their turn signal. It's like they don't realize they aren't the only people on the planet.
- Sitting still: I always need to be doing something with my hands and mind, even if I'm supposed to be relaxing. I knit, I read, I web surf, I stitch.
- Made-up/mispronounced words: including exspecially (especially), supposably (supposedly), exscape (escape), and flustrated (frustrated).
- People who think they're smarter than you: just because I like the Twilight novels, watch Big Brother, and read Us Weekly does not mean I'm not just as smart as you. Or even smarter :)
- Coconut: makes the back of my throat itch.
- Talking on the phone: I'm really ill at ease and feel like I end up saying the dumbest things.
- Heat: I love being back in the Midwest after spending 6 years in the sultry South
- Drunk people: I become wary as soon as I see someone have a second drink.
- People who cultivate eccentricities: I don't think you're interesting because you don't cook your food or never shower or shun popular culture.
- People who speak in motivational one-liners: saw a bumper sticker today that said, "Do What Ever it Takes to Make it Happen." Hmm.
