23-for-23

23-for-23

Okay – I’m biting. Steve’s remarkably similar post “26 for 26” was so inspiring that it would have been difficult not to do one of my own. As soon as I finished reading his, I started to consider my goals for the year (however simple they may be). For the sake of a good thing, here’s my own version, updated to reflect the fact that I was born in 1983, not 1980.

1. Graduate from my B.Ed with straight As.
2. Volunteer my time for something that I believe in
3. Lose the extra 20 pounds that I’ve been dragging around since first year university
4. Write heartfelt letters to my favorite grade school teachers
5. Open an ING savings account and start contributing to it monthly
6. Learn how to walk –really walk- in 4-inch high heeled stilettos
7. Learn to play tennis
8. Take a painting class
9. Spend a day hiking north of Toronto
10. Take Steve out west to visit my family
11. Organize my books, my music, my digital photos and my files (this one may take months)
12. Send Christmas cards to friends and family
13. Read a book on a topic that I know nothing about
14. Write a letter to myself, seal it, and label it “do not open until your 30th birthday”
15. Get a job teaching high school drama
16. See New York City
17. Decide where in Canada I want to spend the next part of my life and pursue it
18. Spend a night in a bed and breakfast
19. Swim in the Pacific Ocean (it’s been years)
20. Wear a bikini (it’s been YEARS)
21. Practice gratitude
22. Find a humble perspective
23. Learn how to design my own web page

I'll post a link on my sidebar so that you can check on my progress. Vive 2006!

Flashback: 1996

In three weeks, my little sister, the light of my life (seriously, I adore her) is turning thirteen. I was at the mall yesterday and struggling to find the 'perfect' gift for her ... struggling, in fact, to remember what it was like to be 13 at all. What did I want back then? What would have been the best gift?

I turned to my usual reference library: my diaries. The particular diary I was looking for was full (FULL) of angsty entries about various cute boys in my junior high, and how I didn't have any boobs, which wasn't fair because my best friend had been wearing a bra since grade 4.

Here's what I asked for for my thirteenth birthday (on a scrap piece of paper entitled "Brianna's B-day List, July 15 1996" in my loopy adolescent writing)
- Foo Fighters cd
- Stone Temple Pilots* (*which I spelled Piolets)
- Tragically Hip 'Trouble in the Henhouse'
- bush X cd
- black umbro soccer shorts
- 'Friends' poster
- Nike soccer bag
- birkenstock shoes
- plaid shirts

Yes, that's word for word what I wanted for my birthday. So indicative of the time period, isn't it? Friends, Bush (oh Gavin Rossdale!) Plaid, birkenstocks and the Foo Fighters. I have no idea how I grew up to be such so unaffected after surviving the grunge period. Needless to say, the list didn't give me much insight for my 2006 dilemma. I ended up buying her a shirt from American Eagle ... boring perhaps, but guarenteed to be a hit with the 15 and under crowd.

While I'm on the topic of diaries: it's amazing how grown up you feel when you're that age, and how little you really know. At the back of my grade 7 diary, I carefully wrote the names and phone numbers of all the really popular girls in my school, even though I actually hated them (hated!) That way, I reasoned, if I ever lost my diary and someone came across it, they would think I was popular too and immediately fall in love with me and ask me to marry them. Seriously. I also wrote in the name and number of my capital C Crush, Steven, and then crossed it out. That way if he ever saw it, he would know I was sooo over him.

I don't know if I would do that anymore. Then again, I don't know any popular girls that I really hate (Queen's was sort of the anti-social-hierarchy institution) Maybe there's a little bit of a 13-year-old in all of us. If, however, I ever start gushing about Steve on this blog, using phrases like "I think I have finally found my life-long love", a phrase which I ACTUALLY used in reference to a kid named Colin with short hair and big ears - please, feel free to tell me to grow up :)

What Do I Do This For?

The internet age is bumming me out. Yesterday I recieved a surprise late birthday card in the mail from a friend and was touched and even a bit choked up enough to think that he bothered to send me a hand written note. It's true that a written letter carries a lot more meaning and sentiment than an email - not only is a letter tangible, but it carries traces of the person who wrote it ... little spelling mistakes, a smudge of ink, a doodle in the margin. Email could never be as personal because it's so standardized. If I had recieved the same note in my inbox this morning, I might have never really stopped to consider it, to hold it in my hands, to re-read the funny parts, to tuck it away in a special box in my room.

Most things of value to me are located on my computer. Instead of a CD rack, I have an .mp3 library. Instead of photo albums, I have a "my pictures" folder. Instead of love letters, I have emails - hundreds of homogenous notes, indiscernable from one another with the exception of the address in the "from" box.

It's strange that none of these things actually EXIST, y'know? I can't hold them or rearrange them or show them off. Some things, maybe, were never meant to be ushered into the modern age. While I can't argue with the convenience of having my entire music library at the touch of a button, I do miss writing and recieving letters from people. I think I will write a note back to that friend of mine, spelling mistakes, ink smudges and all, and thank him for taking the time to remind me of something that is important to me.

Am I a total hypocrite, praising the hand-written word and then recording my life in a blog on the internet for the entire universe's potential perusal? I guess so. I still write daily in a personal journal, but for the sake of sheer convenience (and due to the fact that I have a bit of an ego), I like this blogging thing. I just think that balance is key for me - having cds, pictures and letters that I can hold is important to me

I feel OOOOOOLD. Like a 90 year old lady who refuses to stop listening to her record player, and has one of those huge VCRs from the 1980s :P

I guess this is the end of my post. I am, for the record, going to make a point of writing more here - it's important to me, as busy as I have been lately!