Birthday Thoughts

I’ve heard nobody likes you when you’re twenty-two. Is that true? I hope not. In any case, I’d like to think I spent year twenty-one well. In honor of the last year, here are twenty-one things worth celebrating.

I moved to Seattle (a place I have always had an affinity for)
I learned how to drink wine
I went skiing for the first time
I met my cutie pie boyfriend (and may I even venture to say fell in love?)
I’m going to grad school
I’m going to grad school at Johns Hopkins
No classes were skipped this entire semester (even when I wanted to)
When I wasn’t going to school, I found a job that I liked doing. (One for which I was completely under qualified, but did well despite that.)
I moved to Baltimore (even though I was scared to)
I’ve lived alone
I’ve taken public transport on my own (really 8. and 9. are a combination that say that I’ve become more independent)
A lot of really good friends were made
Old friends were not lost
I’ve cooked a really excellent meal
A pink couch was set up in my living room (yes, this deserves it’s own number)
This blog was started (and kept!)
I stopped being embarrassed to admit I like things that other people might not (aka music, art, books, food)
I learned to give advice with out being forceful (I think and hope)
I’ve become more empathetic
I’ve worked on listening to the things that the people around me are saying and learned that maybe everyone has ideas that are just as good (okay, sometimes a whole lot better) as my own
Many books were read this year (many new ideas were pondered)

A Holiday Story

We were driving

on a cross country

road trip.

I feel like

we were

always on

long, cross country

road trips.

Everyone in the car

was sipping those large

gas station coffees.

It had started

to snow.

I remember

thinking the flakes

that were coming down

made it look like our car

was going into

light speed,

the same way the

ships in Starwarz do.

Thanksgiving was coming up

in a few days.

My sister rolled down

her window,

snow was getting

inside of the car,

but freezing temperatures

were no match

for the hyperactivity

of kids

stuck in a car

all day long

drinking large coffees.

She stuck her

head out the window

and screamed

into the side of a mountain

“I LOVE THE PILGRIMS”

and I’m still thankful.

Christmas music was

turned on not long after.

After all,

it looked more like

christmas outside.

That trip is when

I found out

my sense of humor

had a tendency

for the dark.

We drove past

a snowmobile,

stuck in the snow.

I laughed at the irony,

I laughed that no one else

was laughing.

I still laugh about

it sometimes

and wonder how

our car ever made

it through that pass.

This is was nostalgia

looks like.

-EKJ

My Solo Salt Lake City Day

Spending time alone has never been hard for me. I’m easily entertained and am usually fairly flexible with plans. However, this Thanksgiving break was the first time I found myself wandering solo in an unfamiliar city. As a student, I was obviously on a budget. I was also without any kind of itinerary. I never took the time to plan the 12 hours I had to kill. Luckily, or perhaps willfully, the day was no waste.

At around 9:30 AM my plane from Baltimore was sitting on the tarmac and I took the opportunity to pull out my phone and look through several blog posts about what to do in Salt Lake City. Here is what I found. There were a few interesting locations worth noting. I was especially keen on keeping my eye open for what wasn’t going to cost me anything but a couple of hours.

Transportation

The first item of business was to get from the airport to the hotel in order to drop my suitcase and lighten my load enough to easily navigate the city. My original thought was Uber or Lyft. The ride was going to cost about $25 (actually fairly cheap compared to other places) and I was cringing at the thought of what else that $25 was capable of going towards. Fortunately, my fate was changed when I saw the light rail sign. Light rails get you where you need to go (or close by) for less than $3, and since I was in no real rush I was ready to commit.

No Need To Stick To The Plan

Around 45 minutes later I had made it to my hotel near Temple Square, had dumped my baggage (literally), and was ready to find out what the day had in store. City Creek Center was recommended to me by my sister who had spent a summer living in Salt Lake, so that’s where I set off for first. Her exact wording described the mall as “beautiful and huge” and I thought, although I wouldn’t be buying anything, it was worth going to see. My GPS gave me an estimated 20-minute arrival time if I walked and that’s what I set out to do.

About half way I was stopped by a charming bookstore and coffee shop called Ebore Books. I love reading and I loved everything about this little store. Upon walking in I was hit with the smell of old paperbacks and the cappuccino I ordered was exactly what I needed. After I spent some time enjoying my find (Pillars of the Earth, A Great American Read book!) I decided it was time to continue my adventure.

City Creek Center

I know malls don’t sound like place anyone needs to visit on their one day exploring the city but this one was! Honestly, I didn’t expect to be impressed but my sister was right to send me. The building itself was gorgeous (I mean, come on! Look at that ceiling) and there were plenty of cool views of temple square, which happens to sit on the next block.

Temple Square

Temple Square is captivating. The buildings and statues look solid and pure and lasting. I felt like they demanded more than a five-minute walk through and so I gave them more time. Walking slowly and pausing occasionally allowed me to really recognize the worth and the beauty of what I was looking at.

UMOCA

Next, I wandered over to the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art. In the past, I have found that I appreciate paintings the most, however I found the artworks witty and inspiring. This was the only thing I paid for all day and it was only $5!

The City Library

In case you thought I had my fill of books from the cozy shop earlier in the day, I hadn’t. The City Library was on several lists of things I should see, so I went and saw. The building had an interesting curve that gave way to a great mountain view. Plus, there were a bunch of cute shops to look through on the first floor.

IMG_1746-1

Café Rio

Last but not least, is it really a trip to Utah if you skip out on the best fast food Mexican restaurant ever?

Maybe it was the fact I was on my own schedule. Maybe it was because it was such a nice day for spending time walking outside. Whatever it was, I think I’ll be back to Salt Lake soon.

Also, in case you’re wondering if I’m capable of traversing the world on my own, I think this should give a good indication. Okay, okay, I’m being dramatic as per usual. At least the day was one well spent!

What’s the Matter?

I’ve seen people base their attitudes on the question: “Is this really going to matter in five years from now?” It seems to me the problem I have with this question can be best explained by using a philosophical argument called the slippery slope. Here’s how it goes:

Why stop at asking if it’s going to matter in five years? Why not ask ten? Or twenty? What about in a hundred years when you’re no longer around to care about the feelings you felt? All probability points towards this moment in question not mattering at some time, and if it won’t matter in the future than it shouldn’t matter now.

The problem is that nothing is really going to matter at some time in the future. (Not to make you feel small or insignificant but even the most important parts about humanity won’t be remembered when the universe no longer exists) Therefore, nothing should really be important to you now.

Since things obviously feel important now (as they should), the argument that we should base our current feelings solely on how we’ll feel in the future must be wrong. Right? I think so. I need to believe that if it’s important to you right now, then it matters.

In contrast, others live their lives based on the notion that every decision should be based on what is going to give you the most immediate happiness. This is the “live in the moment” philosophy. While I think that it’s important to be present in the moment you’re living in, I don’t think we should abandon goals and dreams. If we lived everyday for the sole purpose of living that day, I don’t think we would feel like we accomplished very much. In fact, I think that our lives would feel pretty meaningless.

Something that I wrote down the other day explains exactly how I feel about this: I let myself dream about future good things when I need to, because I never want to find that I don’t want to be in the future. For me, this daydreaming can be a ten year plan or it can be as simple as picking out names for a cat I want to get later. Someone literally told me that I shouldn’t wait to get a cat because I shouldn’t wait for the future to do what I want to do now. However, I’m not ready to get a cat yet because I leave town for weeks at a time and my budget is unstable and my apartment is tiny and that’s okay because I don’t plan on always living in this tiny apartment on a “I’m going to grad school” budget where I leave town all of the time. It’s just not the right time for a little kitten.

So, what do these thoughts leave me with? A balance between trying to enjoy the place of life I’m in right now, but still working towards something better. Being in the moment, and not telling myself that my bad days don’t matter. The good feelings I have right now and the bad feelings I have are both things that I’m experiencing and they are both making up what my life consists of. If part of living life means I might have a break down over a presentation for class, then I’m in because living life also means that I’m going to get to learn about things that fascinate me, and meet people that I genuinely love to be around, and drink really awesome coffee. I do enjoy my life how it is right now and I accept that right now, this is where I am.

So, what do you think? Bellatrix or Freya? (I’m talking about cat names of course!)

Also, if you want in on the really awesome coffee get yourself to a Vietnamese coffee shop and thank me for it later.

The Two Fridas

I finally broke my Halloween streak of dressing up as a witch after years of putting on dark lipstick and feeling especially spooky. I wasn’t tired of being a witch. I might even go so far as to say that I almost missed not pulling my black lace cloak out of my closet in celebration of one of my favorite holidays. However, I decided that it was time for a change inspired by one of the strongest, most admirable bad girls I know of.

Dressing up as Frida Kahlo didn’t feel like I was putting on a costume. The giant flowers on my head and the thick eyebrows painted on and the bright red on my lips all gave me confidence and strength that I didn’t think would come. In her life, Frida was fearless. She painted feelings other people shied away from acknowledging. She left her husband when their relationship wasn’t good for her, even though that meant she was going to be on her own. She took actions to support what she believed in. She struggled for most of her life against physical disabilities, and still she wouldn’t let the pain deter her from doing the thing that she lived for: painting. I find her art, and her life, inspiring. I might not dress like Frida Kahlo everyday of the year, but she is someone I think about when I’m feeling scared or too small for an obstacle in front of me. And being able to embody everything Frida represents for the night? Worth hanging up my hat for.

Meet-Ups through MeetUp

Walking into a unknown place filled with unknown people sounds awful (no, my Myers-Briggs test results did not tell me that I was an extrovert). So, how is it that I came to be in a certain local brewery, Brew House No. 16, talking with other people from the neighborhood, making friends (potential friends but with a good outlook) and drinking a half-priced beer?

I did not walk up to a random table and hope for the best. I’m nowhere near brave enough for that.

I signed myself up for the event — A MeetUp Happy Hour

Doesn’t that just sound magical? A cozy room with $5 drafts and friendly faces also looking for friends? Count me in.

Making friends is hard. Well, I like to think that it’s hard for everyone at least. I signed up for MeetUp as a desperate attempt for any kind of social interaction. I needed to get out of my apartment. I needed to find a place where conversation was welcomed. I really needed a drink. And all of this was gifted to me by a website whose goal is to connect people with similar interests in similar areas.

I’m not going to down play how nervous I was about walking into a place where I didn’t know anyone, but it was very much one of those situations that was a lot easier once I started. Everyone was there to hang out and talk and get to know each other and the experience was definitely one that made my night better than it was going to be (not that there’s anything wrong with sitting at home to read a book or watch a whole season on Netflix). Plus I had the chance to check out a cool brewery that was right down the street from me. I think that’s something worth trying again.. And cheers-ing to!