I'm a self-proclaimed birthday junkie

I love birthdays. I love your birthday, I love my birthday, I love celebrating birthdays. There is something so exciting, so new, so wonderful to me about birthdays. It's a whole day just for you! It's a chance to start over, a chance to carry the great from one year to the next, a chance to grow up a little bit. Birthdays are the best.

So, today I turn 27. I can't help but think, "this year is going to be the best EVER." And then I get a little sad, because wasn't last year, and the year before, and the year before that, weren't those the best years ever, too? They were - they were the perfect 24, the perfect 25, the perfect 26, and this year is most certainly going to be the best 27th year I'll ever have.

This year I am going to sparkle, shine, and shimmer. I'm going to try new things, go out on limbs, take adventures in stride. I'm kicking 27 off exactly how I want this year to go: on a trip to London with my best friend and favorite travel partner. We have flights and hotels and a rental car and guidebooks and no real plans. I'm dreaming of meeting Princess Kate and seeing the Lochness Monster, and my partner-in-crime is just along for the ride.

27 is going to be stupendous, spectacular, and everything your 20's should be. Cheers to us!

images here & here

Friday Musings

I think I'm doing this whole blogging thing wrong - I'm only motivated when someone else tells me they are reading. Oh well, I'm back after a couple week hiatus.

Ya'll, life has been BI-ZEE. This is going to be bulleted form (Friday musings, if you will) but I promise to expand more on most, if not all of these, mainly because I think my life is pretty darn interesting.

1. World Tour 2013 has commenced. Chicago, Miami, London, Edinburgh (and a few other stops in the UK), Las Vegas, Dallas in a 60 day span. If I make it through all these germ-infested flights without coming down with the plague I will give my immune system major props.

2. I am signing up for not 1, but TWO, triathlons. We've long established that I'm not a runner in any way, shape, or form, but come hell or high water I'm going to complete these triathlons. I bought the bike, I have legs to run, and I've always loved to swim so in my head this is going to be a breeze. I chose the Ramblin Rose tri series because I felt like it was a) a great place to start, b) close enough to home and c) all women, and rumored to be super empowering and encouraging. Anyone else want to train or participate with me?

3. I watched Flight last weekend with EV. It's also been discussed more than once that I have panic attacks on airplanes and now medicate before flights, so obviously when someone recommended this movie I said "sure, this sounds like a fantastic idea to watch a movie based around a plane crash" (see above mention of World Tour 2013...). But holy crap -- plane disasters aside, this movie was TOP NOTCH. Denzel can basically do no wrong in my book, but I loved this movie.

4. Yup, I'm going to London (and Edinburgh and other cities in the UK), with the same friend I went to Australia with last year. I've been all over the world and to 6/7 continents and somehow have never been to London. That's all about to change. Recommendations, suggestions, ideas? I'm most looking forward to finding Princess Kate and seeing the Lochness Monster, so basically I'm going to come home all sorts of disappointed.

5. I bought a new suitcase and now I'm in search of the perfect living room rug, a runner for my bedroom, I want to paint my bathroom a nice shade of blue this summer, and I could really use new bathmats. Basically nothing is ever finished in my house.

6. My 2 goals for 2013: read 50 books this year (third time's a charm), and achieve the same medallion status on Delta. Yup, I'm totally one of those people.

It's the Final Countdown

So what was the final list? In random order...

Add
1. Read the Lenten Adventure Email devotional every day.
2. Participate in a "She Reads Truth"
3. Mass on Sundays
4. Random act of kindness
5. Phone call with a family member
6. Running 2 miles in the morning
7. Blogging every other day
8. Brushing my teeth at night
9. Flossing
10. Make the bed in the morning
11. Put away laundry as soon as it's done
12. 3 things I'm thankful for in my notes every night
13. Take out the recycling/trash when it's full
14. Tell someone I love them every day
15. Pen and paper journal for 10 minutes a day

Give Up
1. Driving to work
2. Going out to dinner
3. Cheese
4. Coffee (even decaf…)
5.  Close parking spaces
6. Facebook
7. TV shows before bed
8. Saying no to spending time with friends
9. Alcohol (except pre-planned, major events)
10. Snooze on the alarm clock
11. Complaining
12. Candy
13. Leaving dishes on the counter or in the sink
14. Twirling my hair
15. Curse words
16. Clothes/jewelry shopping
17. Non-secular music
18. Going out to lunch
19. Toxic relationships
20. Using my cell phone when I'm waiting
21. All drinks except water
22. Arguing
23. Talking about other people
24. Bread
25. Talking on the phone in the car

Superlatives:
The worst: Giving up TV while I fall asleep
The most dreaded: Alcohol
My favorite: Cheese
The most enlightening: Going to church on Sundays
Biggest fail: Running 2 miles every morning
Biggest success: Giving up Facebook (only because my roommate changed the password on day 1 and gave it back on Easter Sunday) followed by giving up coffee
The one I'll definitely do next year: Secular music (even though 104.7 The Fish is a pretty terrible radio station when it's all you can listen to)
The one I'll never ever give up again: TWIRLING MY HAIR.
Crowd favorite: Close parking spaces

See ya next year, adventure!