Sunday, June 9, 2013

27 new things

one of my favorite blogs is yes and yes, written by sarah von bargen.  each year, sarah writes a list of new things to try before her next birthday.  i recently turned 26, and was inspired by her to write my own “27 before 27” list.  some things are exciting, some are low key, some are unabashedly lifted straight from sarah’s list (i really want to make pickles!).  i wrote this list a few weeks ago, so some are already in progress.  here’s the list, and the status of those that i’ve already done or started on:


1. take a belly dance class
2. make an ice cream cake
3. try stand-up paddling
4. go to montauk
5. ride a bike in new york city
6. learn to hit a golf ball
7. wear red lipstick (in public!)
8. have mom teach me cross-stitch
9. paint something to hang in my home
10. grow something i can eat - in progress
  • look at my precious tiny baby tomatoes!  these are on my cherry tomato plant.  i also have bell peppers and roma tomatoes growing.


11. attend a community board meeting for my district
12. learn how to mix an awesome signature cocktail
13. take a cooking class
14. watch at least one lord of the rings movie
15. get a promotion
16. make pickles
17. take a hot yoga class
18. propose - DONE!
  • on june 1, daniel and i proposed to each other in fort greene park.  i said yes (typical), he said yes, i cried one million tears, and then we went out for brunch and ate amazing thick cut bacon.  it was perfect. proposing to each other was something that was important to us, as the decision to get married was a mutual decision following plenty of open and honest conversations about what marriage meant to us. we were inspired by traditional scandanavian engagements, in which the couple exchanges simple gold rings as a symbol of their mutual decision to be married. doing it this way fit our style much better than the usual american tradition. it makes for an interesting conversation when people exclaim "let me see your ring!", expecting a diamond, and i instead show my ring, explain that dan has one too, and describe the way we altered the traditional gendered engagement practice to something that felt more "us".



19. eat an italian meal on arthur ave in the bronx
20. bake sourdough bread from my own starter
21. eat properly cooked lamb
22. go to a museum i haven’t been to before
23. go to a lecture
24. take a vacation with daniel
25. see the new york philharmonic orchestra
26. make cheese
27. read: of mice and men, 1984, pride & prejudice, and catcher in the rye - in progress
  • somehow, i made it through about a billion years of school without ever reading a lot of the classics. i chose these four for this year, but i know there are several more essentials to read down the line. right now i’m almost through catcher in the rye.  i'm enjoying it, but i'm grateful it's almost done because i don't know how much more of holden i could take.