Summer 2015 Bucket List

I have officially shifted modes from WHY IS IT SO COLD AND WHY DOES IT MAKE MY SOUL SO SAD? to IT'S LIGHT OUTSIDE, MY HEART IS BURSTING, LET'S DO ALL THE THINGS.

So, let's.

So far my summer bucket list includes:

• Yoga in the Lincoln Park Zoo
• Yoga on the beach     x
• Yoga in Millennium Park     x
• Yoga in a butterfly haven      X
• Improvised Shakespeare    x
• Drinking cider out of cans (no glass allowed!) with my esteemed colleagues after work on our super swanky 11th floor outdoor lounge space, overlooking Lake Michigan and Millennium Park     x
• Dave Matthews cover band at a street fest
• Tacos at a street fest      x
• Dirty sandal group photo at a street fest        x
• Tacos at a food truck      x
• Live taping of The Moth, a story-telling podcast     x
• Wanderlust 108, a mindful triathlon      x
• Revisiting college, aka OAR at Ravinia      X
• Judy Blume (!) talking about her new book at the Chicago Humanities Festival     x
• The Revivalists at Taste of Randolph    x
• Niagara Falls/Canadian road trip with my family     x
• A really solid beach day on Lake Superior      x
• Camping in the U.P.
• Antiquing in the U.P. or in Chicago
• Watching Henley swim in the U.P.     x
• Grilling with my parents on their deck     x
• Dirty Dancing (!) in Millennium Park        X
• Cheap seats at the Sox     X
• Country bar in Chicago     x
• Downtown Sounds concert...in, you guessed it, Millennium Park
• Lincoln Park picnic       X
• Lincoln Park reading on a blanket; getting Henley to chill with me     x
• The Northman, a new all-cider bar opening soon
• Read the remaining 18.5 books on Huff Post's List of 21 Books From The Last 5 Years That Every Woman Should Read
• Re-reading The Great Gatsby
• A Ferris Bueller Day, doing something completely non-work during work hours

Epiphanies, Volume V

• "Stop listening to yourself, and start talking to yourself." Boom.

• There is a difference between complicated and difficult. You can be the girl in the country song who is complicated and maybe even a little crazy, whom the boy loves for just being herself, without being the girl in the country song who gives way more than she gets and loves difficult and stubborn men.

• Nailing it and not looking back > nailing and needing a little feedback that you did, indeed, nail it. > nailingggg? it? I think. I'm pretty sure. > not fucking doing anything

• Honey is magic. Seriously, make this greek orzo salad and do. not. omit. the. honey. (You can, however, omit the basil and mint, and the tomatoes. Just as good.)

• In Sanskrit, chair pose (utkatasana) roughly translates to "fierce pose." Also known as "hazardous pose" or "awkward pose." That's basically your elders saying, "Yep, we know this sucks."

More flashes of genius here.

A Cure-All Tonic

It must be something about my connection with my friend Alicia, because after my trip to Hawaii, I experienced another love hangover.

Exactly like what followed her visit to Chicago this summer, in the wake of my vacation I felt unusually thirsty for creativity, for influence, for progress. For love.

The love part was quenched when my friend Allison made a trip down for a belated birthday celebration with my Chicago girlfriends. Sushi, a dive bar, and late-night pizza punctuated by sweet toasts, loud laughs, and too many vodka sodas to count. My friend Whitney shared a touching tradition from her college friends: Each person went around the table to say how I came into their lives and why they love me. I think my exact drunk words were: "You guys, words are my love language!"

As if they didn't know.

 

Allison brought me a kombucha SCOBY so that I could brew my own tea, the supplies for which I finally moved to Chicago from my parents' basement a few months ago. I'd been reluctant to bring them prior for the same reason I have yet to buy a coffee table or a real bedside table: Why acquire more things if I don't know how long I'll be in Chicago?

 

I missed making my own, and I cringed (as one does) when shelling out $4 every time I bought one in the grocery store. But still, it took me two years to bust out my supplies.

 

 



You guys, I do these things. This is my way. I drag some things out unnecessarily, and I will not listen to anyone who tries to impart wisdom or offer alternatives. Sometimes it's as if I need to make myself completely miserable in one facet of my life before something breaks, and I change courses.

 

 

Today I bottled my first batch of kombucha in over 2 years, my first since selling my house and moving to Chicago. That was five hours ago. I listened to podcasts with Henley at my feet, and I am still smiling.

 

 

I won't wait so long next time to do something I know makes me this happy.

 

 

 

The hangover is inevitable, whether it be love or otherwise. I'm going to do the living anyways.