Berkeley Court

It feels like summer today. For some reason every time the sun pokes out here in Seattle it reminds me of hot sticky summer days spent in my college apartment at Berkeley Court.

Walking to class in a tank top, jean shorts, flip flops and a jansport backpack, sipping on a nonfat starbucks iced caramel macchiato with extra caramel. Tying my then long hair up in a ponytail halfway through my comp sci class hoping a little bit of breeze will come through and stir me awake. After 4 long hours class would finally come to an end and I would walk back across Aldrich Park to the Trader Joes. I had a love affair with Trader Joes for 4 years. My staples were pita bread, tzatziki and a bottle of Orangina. All put in a little brown paper bag I'd carry back to my apartment.

I'd come home, take a shower, spritz on Bath and Body Works Sweet Pea, and spend the rest of the afternoon doing whatever I felt like doing. Chatting with my roommate, watching re-runs of 90s television, working out, reading charlotte bronte, playing online scrabble with a boy I liked. In summary, being young and having no responsibility.

I don't really yearn for those days, I've come a long way since that apartment, but it's nice to be reminded of it every once in a while.

5 years

Recently everyone seems to be interested in my 5 year plan, and by everyone I mean two people, one of whom is my Creativity professor who I think just overslept and wanted us to have something to do in class that night.

In 5 years I'll be 32 two years old. That's not old but it's no spring chicken. eww chickens. I really wish chicken didn't taste good in salads and soup or pot pies, I'd give it up. It's weird we eat them. They're birds. Birds who don't fly. creepy. Anyway, I digress...back to the topic at hand...here it is, this is what I want in the next 5 years. It's not a plan, it's a list of goals. You can't figure how to get somewhere without having somewhere to go, right?

The first thing I definitely know is that I want to have children. I really hope they look like my husband. I want to experience that moment of looking at their little faces and loving them more than I ever thought I could love anything in the whole world. I'm also a little scared that if they do look like him they'll have me wrapped around their little fingers. On the other hand if they look like me it'll be much easier to discipline them, I'll just give them a look and say "I know what you're up to".

The 2nd thing is to have a job that is people related. I'm still figuring this out, I don't know if that will require a career in a different industry. I really love my job right now, I'd like to stay in it a while. 5 years worth? I don't know. It's full of good people with big aspirations, and a product that really does change the world. We'll see...

Spend time volunteering abroad. I've been wanting to do this for a while, but honestly never had the time to do so. I haven't had more than 3 weeks off since the 7th grade. That was 16 years ago. It takes money to uproot yourself even for a short while. People who say it doesn't don't plan to come back to what they had before. Someone has to pay the bills, take care of the family, and keep things going while you're away. I want to make decisions that will eventually allow me to do this.

Spent time volunteering here. Not much to say, I just need to do it. I have two charities in my mind that I've been throwing around for a while. I'm committed to do this after I graduate in June.

Become a good cook. I like to dabble in new recipes, I'm just not very good at it yet. I want to be able to make delicious meals for my friends and family. I want people to request things and have secret recipes of deliciousness.

Have a warm inviting home. I love having people over, I'll take any excuse to throw a party. I want people to stop by whenever they want, munch on food in the fridge and stick around for a while to chat about life.

Run a marathon in under 4 hours. I have something to prove to Portland.

Read the entire bible. I haven't read it cover to cover. I had a reading plan I was following for a while but I stopped so I could read textbooks about business strategy. A lot less uplifting let me tell you.

Take a trip with my significant other to somewhere really really quiet. Where for just a moment you look up and see all the stars in the universe and feel like the only two people on earth.

Love is

I spent the entire day yesterday with a new coworker of mine who is married to a old coworker of mine. They have an incredible love story filled with experiences that people only dream of. Meeting each other in Ireland while he was visiting for work, dancing with her on his last night there, writing letters to each other for years to keep in touch, moving halfway across the world to be together, getting married in a castle on a whim, climbing Mount Everest, teaching children in Kathmandu, quitting their jobs to go travel the world...the list goes on and on. As I sat there listening to her I realized what was most touching were not the stories themselves, but how she told them. How she talked about her husband after all of these years. She still sounded like a teenager in love. She still blushed when talking about he kissed her for the first time. They've been married for 20 years now. I asked her what the secret was, and she had a simple answer. They do things together :) They spend most of their time together, growing as a couple and as individuals through shared experiences. She described all of his unique characteristics and what makes them different but spoke of him as her other half. How she goes crazy if she doesn't seem him for two weeks, and him feeling the same way about her. How going home to him every night makes her heart whole. So as I boarded my plane back home I realized their relationship isn't just about being married for 20 years, it's about being madly in love for 20 years. It's beautifully inspiring and uplifting, and it changed me to hear it.