I am me.

I am me.

I am my husband.
I am my father.
I am my mother.
I am my brother.
I am my friends.
I am my memories.
I am my childhood.
I am my lessons.
I am my education.
I am my future.
I am my environment.

Out of all of these and more, I choose which parts are me.  That is what makes me me.

When I grow up...

I want to be whimsical.

I want to be quirky.

I want to take a deep breath and change the moment.

I want to be a roadie.

I want to be an artist.

I want to be a crafter.

I want to be a writer.

I want to be a reader.

I want to be a critic.

I want to be a mom. (Maybe?!?!)

I want to be motivated.

I want to be a graduate degree graduate.

I want to be a hiker.

I want to be a poet.

I want to love.

I want to change the world for the better.

30 Before 30

I turned 27 last week.  Exciting, right?  For me, it marks the time that leads up to 30.  I'd like to do what I've seen a lot of others do - make a 30 before 30 list.  Why wait for later to cross off some of those items on my bucket list?  One of the first items I've considered is reading a few great classics.  Sticking with the 30 theme, I'd love to read 30 classics in the next three years.  10 a year doesn't seem too bad, until I consider that I'll be grad school for a large portion of it!  I'd better get reading.  I've started my preliminary list, which will be a working list.  If I deem one book more worthy than another, I will have no qualms crossing off one and adding another.  What do you think?

1. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
2. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
3. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
4. 1984 - George Orwell
5. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
6. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
7. Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
8. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
9. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
10. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
11. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
12. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
13. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
14. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
15. Winnie the Pooh - A A Milne
16. Anne of Green Gables - J M Montgomery
17. Atonement - Ian McEwan
18. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
19. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
20. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
21. On the Road - Jack Kerouac
22. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
23. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
24. Dracula - Bram Stoker
25. Frankenstein - Mary Shelly
26. The Inferno - Dante
27. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
28. The Three Muskateers - Alexandre Dumas
29. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
30. Emma - Jane Austen

Some of these books I've read before, but would like to devote a second look. After the book I'm reading now (by the great author, K.A. Thompson), I think I'll get started with either Dracula, the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, or Anna Karenina. Which books on this list do you want to read? Do you have a recommendation where to start? And, what books would you remove and replace?

Five

Last week, I went away with T.  We spent three glorious days checked out from the day-to-day world we live in.  We sunk into a soft, feather bed.  We swam in a pool of marble-tile with blue-beyond-blue water.  We hiked up a mountain...literally.  We held hands and cuddled.  We read and watched TV.  What mattered most wasn't what we did, though.  It was that we did to together.  Celebrating five years of marriage is magical.  And, yes, there were also tears and allergic reactions to the soft, feather beds.  There was also boredom and sore backs and muddy trails, but there was love.  So much love!  That's what life is about, though, right?  I want to share my tears and muddy trails and splotchy, red face as well as mountain tops and clear, deep blue waters with T forever...not just five years.

Creativity

I worked for six years at an architecture firm, so I was able to be pretty creative on a regular basis, even if it was just helping the graphics department with coloring floor plans.  Now that I've been with a nonprofit in a management role for five months, I had less opportunity to be artsy...and I'm craving it.

I'm considering a few projects:

• Painting a wall in my house like a tree and hanging photos of my family on it.
• Finally sorting and completing my wedding photos (yes, T and I were married five years ago this May)!
• Moving furniture and space within my house (not so artsy, but lots of decorating would be included).
• Painting something.

What do you think?  Any suggestions??

How am I, presently?

Free flow thought process on this one, kids...

• Stressed
• Excited
• Loved
• In Love
• Tired
• Learning
• Wanting
• Needing
• Reading
• Succeeding!
• Believing
• Happy
• Did I mention excited?

How to define values?

"I think masculinity and femininity is something that is very old fashioned. There’s a whole new generation of people that aren’t defined by their sex or their race or by who they like to sleep with. I think as a person you know what your values are and what you believe in and I think that’s the most important thing." - Johnny Weir.

Watch it here.