List for 31

I love lists. I love Hula Seventy's lists of "x Things To Do Before I turn x+1." So here's my version:

1. finish a sewing project
2. knit a pair of gloves
3. complete a photo project
4. make donuts July 25
5. go snowboarding January 31
6. run a half marathon in under 2 hours
7. make a painting
8. create a signature granola recipe
9. learn the trail names of Tualatin Hills Nature Park
10. run all of Wildwood Trail
11. build a patio in the backyard
12. create art for my garden
13. run a marathon May 2
14. repaint my sewing room
15. write a work (novel? graphic novel? short story?) based on a music album
16. enter a photo contest June 7
17. try playing the cello
18. learn how to apply eyeshadow
19. try new hairstyles
20. make (& wear) spats
21. hike in the desert January 16
22. go out dancing June 11
23. watch FLCL
24. clean out my car
25. sew with LEDs (wearable circuit)
26. keep up with my book blog
27. write more often (frequency)
28. take a photography class July 25
29. improve my reading speed
30. do the splits
31. complete an olympic distance triathlon August 22

today

It's my birthday. This year it feels like the year I turned 19. I climbed out of my roommate Mollie's window and drank wine from the bottle on the roof of our rented rundown colonial. It felt like the day was marked by being the opposite of an important day. It was the turning away of importance.

I loved being 18, on the cusp of some thing giant, alive, electric. Being 19 was away from all of that. When I was 18 I traveled across the country on a newspaper ad whim, and returned alone on the Greyhound bus. Everyone exclaimed "18! Just 18!" or "18! So precocious!" Suddenly I was not a one of those things.

Last night I couldn't get to sleep. I read. I pet the cats. I saw the clock shine 12:05. My birthday.

I didn't want to do anything today-- not vehemently nothing, just that nothing sounded good, nothing sparked me. I don't want to leave the house, or make a production. But Erik inspired me, and we're going to the new crepe place. And just as things often work out in the end, most people can't make it, and it will be low key and casual.

On a side note, I love the shortened nicknames for "casual" and "usual." But how do you write out "cas" and "us" in the best way to be understood? "Casz?" "Ush?" Ugh.