Small Town Wren

So in the quiet hours of yesterday morning, I became 24 years old. Twenty-four. Officially in my mid-twenties now. That’s a pretty big deal, maybe?

Some friends and I went bowling on Tuesday. My highest score was a 114. I never claimed to be good at it.

Why yes that is the shirt I was making last month. It made its debut that night. And yes that is a birthday crown I made for myself. Birthdays shouldn’t happen without a crown.

As for being twenty-four and all…let me present you the bucket list to do before being twenty-five.

1. Finish book of poetry
2. Knit a (real) sweater
3. Redecorate the spare bedroom
4. Spend more time outside
5. Eat less bad ice-cream and more good ice-cream
6. Climb a 5.9 route consitently
7. Hell, let’s make that a 5.10
8. Guess I’d better learn how to belay, too
9. Practice more Random Acts of Kindness
10. Move out
11. Learn how to sew
12. Pull my hair out less
13. Cook more
14. Don’t mind the dirt
15. Find a real job
16. Take more pictures
17. This includes the polaroid
18. Figure out how to walk in heels real good
19. Ride 30 miles in a day on a bicycle
20. Lay in the grass.
21. Be more consistent about posting to the blog
22. Twitter, too
23. Finish reading War and Peace
24. Continue to not grow up

I’ve been a little mean lately. I’ve been really relishing calling Daniil an old man ever since he turned 28 on Wednesday. But in my defense, he is an old man.

He didn’t actually want anything for the occasion, and I had class on the actual day, so I had the genius idea to go on a bike ride. It’d been awhile since our last ride, so it seemed like a great idea. I made sandwiches and everything. Sandwiches full of tomatoes. The sandwiches themselves were delicious, and the ride was really fun.

It was also really cold.

We rode through Fermilab, which is always beautiful this time of year. Past the bison, past the seed harvest, through the village… We made it to Blackwell Forest Preserve in no time and had our freezing, freezing picnic. Technically we were in an area that was closed since we were near the campgrounds, but we missed the sign entirely.

It started to rain on our way back, which just added to the hilarity of this misguided ride. Cloudy, cold, miserable, and raining. But it was incredibly fun. It was the thought, anyways.

Of course the sun came out as soon as we got home.

This year was the year of the Never-Ending Birthday. A solid week and a half of celebrations.

If I include every single thing that I did that I don’t normally do, this included: bowling, billiards, dancing, drinking (heavily), milkshakes, icecream, icecream cake, long-lost friends, long-lost dates, movies, swimming, hiking, dunes, baking, more baking, cake, soup, wine, wine, wine, heels, driving, trains, boys, girls, fake-lesbians, creepy dudes, free drinks, birthday crowns, birthday hugs, end-of-school hugs, end-of-school tears, smiles, new buddy games.

Oof. Pardon me while I recover.