34
Poke emailed this morning from a library with internet access in Carberry, Manitoba and wished me a happy birthday, teased me about being six months older and asked me to share any pearls of wisdom I may have gleaned from my advanced age. After far too much thought I realized I was much closer to the grains of irritation stage than anything resembling pearls of wisdom.
Whenever my birthday rolls around, which in the last few years it has done if not more frequently, then at least more quickly than it used to, I do take a few moments to evaluate the current state of affairs and what I would like to do about same. Which is to say I enter a resolute phase. Which I then mostly do nothing concrete about, just like every January. Because it’s marginally better to occasionally wave at reality from a distance than forget it exists all together. (<- Pearl of wisdom, baby!)
My to-do list, compiled while scrubbing the green off my bathtub while in my UnderRoos on Sunday morning (unlike clothing, skin is not ruined if you accidentally splatter bleach on it - pearl!) went something like this:
Read more, write more, take more pictures, stay in better contact with the people I love (or love to hang out with), breathe with startling and efficient regularity, post something here more often than once a month, stop ignoring the things I want/need to do in favour of the things that are easiest/habitual and find a job that either feeds my soul or gives me time to do so outside of it.
Usually my lists are longer and it's not like that's all there is, but rather that I have about ten mostly-finished posts for about every half post that gets it up, so if I truly hope to do this more often, something's gotta give. Screw completeness! A motto for 34 if ever I heard one.
And so far, so good, all seven waking hours of it. I arose at a decent hour after being sure to wake up, stretch extravagantly and then fall back asleep until I was positive I was ready for verticality. After that I puttered around the house, read a little and then wandered off to Womyns’Ware, because…I have this friend. Who is a little worn out. And has to be held a very particular way these days before she(?) starts humming, and…after a while the holding gets annoying. (<- Pearl!) So. Time for a new friend! Then it was off to the non-euphemistic hardware store for a few essentials and now – now I am waiting for my brother to show up before we escape the West End fireworks lockdown madness and go to my aunt’s for a fambly dinner. Which – at my advanced age – two grandparents will be attending. Life is good.