January 12, 2010

as you have gathered, january 12 is my birthday. this year i went about my business, mostly unaware of what was happening in the world. i heard about the earthquake in Haiti, but didn't actively pursue more information because i had more important things to think about, like what i was going to wear out that night.

in the days after, i saw news reports and read articles about the conditions in Haiti, the rising death toll, the reality of what was happening and it was too much. it didn't seem real to me and i felt really removed from what was happening.

then i got an email about the good friend of a family i'm close with. she is Haitian and hadn't heard from her extended family who lives there. on top of that, her parents had been in port au prince for a visit and she hadn't heard from them either. boom, it was real. it was touching me. i had spent an easter with regine, her husband, and their little boy when they were in town visiting the blundells. she had encouraged me to pursue a phd in literature.

thankfully, regine heard from her family and they are all as safe as they can be during this time. her parents are medical professionals and have been helping out in the hospital as much as possible. thank the lord that they survived and are able to put the gifts he's given them to work helping others.

i still feel a little hazy about everything that's happening. it's so big that i can't really wrap my mind around it. but i feel a bit more grounded and empowered after a meeting i had with local disaster response nonprofits yesterday. new orleans is going to start mobilizing efforts to provide whatever aid we can. supporting our local Haitian community and empowering them to help in reasonable ways. around the table yesterday people kept offering mental health and other services to the Haitian representatives who were present and they kept saying "what would help us deal with it is being able to help."

i feel the same way. and to all of you who might feel lost or hopeless in the face of this tragedy...you don't have to jump on a plane down to Haiti in order to help. donating helps. so does volunteering your time to inventory, sort, and package donations. trust me, that takes a lot more man-power than most of those relief organizations have.

overwhelmed...

okay, i know facebook makes it super easy for people to remember your birthday and comment and all that. but i also know how often i ignore birthdays and don't comment. and i can't help but assume that the rest of the population is like me.

so i was overwhelmed by all the happy birthdays i got yesterday. i know it's just a few seconds of someone's day to write "happy birthday" and click to post. but it still makes me feel loved that so many people took those few seconds to wish me well. especially the people i haven't talked to in YEARS! i mean, old coworkers from nashville. people i met my first year at CU. my mom's friends. they all paid attention to the fact that it was my birthday, and despite the brevity of their comments, i truly believe that they wish me well.

it is a good reminder that no matter where we go or what we do, we can touch people and leave an impression.

so that's my sappy birthday lesson for this year. cheers!

26 is the new 25

for some reason i feel like my life is more "together" than it was a year ago. maybe it is...or maybe my perspective has changed somewhat.

i'm leaning towards the latter.

back on track...

yesterday i mentioned a few of my resolutions. i did not include "writing more" as a resolution because i have no way to measure the results of "more." also, because i don't want to set some expectation for myself of writing every single day. i know that i would fail at that goal and then beat myself up about it later...

while i was home for christmas i watched julie and julia with my family. despite the fact that the movie has no real arc to the story, i thought it was entertaining enough. i mean, it combined two of my favorite hobbies: cooking and writing! so, while i'm not making it an official resolution, i am going to make a solid attempt to write more this year. just like i made a solid attempt to write more last year. one of these years it's going to stick.

i mean, i think i'm making progress in my writing discipline. i'm already more comfortable starting my writing this year than i would have been at this point last year. so that's good. but this is all just rambling and i did have something i wanted to say today.

i had a friend from new orleans come out to colorado to celebrate new year's eve and to visit for a few days. it was super fun to show her my "roots" (those of you who know me know that i don't really have roots, but the CO is the closest i get). she got to meet my friends, see my mountains, eat at my favorite restaurants, drink at my favorite bars, hang out with my family, etc... it was fun to show her what my life is like in the CO.

it always makes me feel a little bit more grounded in reality when i get to bring my worlds together like that, whether it is someone visiting new orleans from colorado or colorado from new orleans. it's like bringing the two halves together to make a whole. which also makes me more aware of the chunk of my life i'll be leaving behind when i leave new orleans. i know i'm making the right step and i am so excited to move back to colorado, but it's going to be a bittersweet move, heavy on the bitter.

a friend of mine once passed on a bit of advice (he's even more of a nomad than i am!): always live so that when you move away, you miss something about it. i think it's a good reminder for me to immerse myself in my present life. live in the moment. the here and now is the only REAL reality.

117 days left and i'm going to make them count.

new year/new you

i LOVE resolutions/goals/plans/etc... i love looking at the places where i want to improve or change my life and setting myself up for success. usually i go a little overboard at the beginning of a new year because everyone is writing resolutions and i just get so excited! so i put together a little (LONG) list of resolutions myself.

i'll share just a few of them with you:

-get regular haircuts this year! i usually wait and wait and wait until i look like a shaggy dog with a mullet before i begin thinking about making an appointment. not this year!

-play my cello more often i still get it out every once in awhile, but i want to be more structured in my practice/playing time. i really enjoy it.

-don't date anyone under the age of 24 i'm turning 26 in a few days and i think it's time to start focusing any dating energy on grown-ups. hopefully this will be easier to achieve in colorado.

-climb a fourteener!! i've never done this and i might be the only person in colorado who hasn't. it will be done before the end of the year.

-organize my favorite recipes i pull recipes off of food blogs and cooking websites, from friends, and out of the stack of cookbooks i have on my shelf. i want to put all my favorite ones in one place. my own cookbook.

there are a few more, but i think this is a good list to stick to. the tricky part of resolutions or goals is their tendency to be vague or open-ended. but out of this list of five, three of them are outright goals with measurable results (have i climbed a fourteener? yes or no) and the other two are simple enough to put into a schedule (hair appointments every 3 months...)

i'm pretty excited for what this year has to offer! and i'm still sticking to my overall motto of more men in 2010!!!