Letter to my 30-year-old self

I've always loved the idea of writing letters to my future self to see how things were and if they've changed. Chances are, they have.

With three 30th birthday celebrations this month, I thought "What will I be like when I'm 30?" Who will be in my life and where will I be professionally, socially, life-ally, etc.?

So here, 30-year old self, a letter:

Dearest Jennifer,

I hope you're reading this on your blog "She Knows This Much is True" that you started in 2011. If you're not, you're a super-genius because this is the only place you're putting this. So you should keep blogging because otherwise the Google Gods will probably take your site away and then you'll never read this.

Anyways, I hope you're married by now, to that boy Zebulon and that you've started a band called Jenulon or Zebbifer. Just kidding on the second part. I hope you're thinking about having kids if you don't have any already. And I hope you dress them up real cute like those J.Crew ads you always admire a little too much. Seriously, stop ripping out pictures of that little Asian girl in Crewcuts and giving them to your sisters as inspiration.

I hope everyone you love is still around. This means your family, your friends, your puppies. Maybe some of the wuppies will be gone, but if they aren't, you are one lucky bizzo! I hope you're still saying bizzo. And I hope you're still stealthily taking photos of bizzos in public who shouldn't wear see-through clothes to a baseball game.

I hope you've changed positions in work and are working hard with your sisters to make your dad's company even better than it already is. I hope you feel happy in what you do daily and that you don't have carpal tunnel from all of those crazy data entry stints. Maybe you've got JB Data Collection down to an art form. I hope so! Right now it's still just a dream. I hope ISO audits are the breeziest and you don't tear your hair out over them. 

Are you still blogging over at T & L? I hope so. I hope you've met friends there and are happy with it and inspired by it. Remember, you wanted to start it to express yourself, but also to meet people who shared your interests. Have you met any of them? Or do you just tweet with them? Are you still being run by a computer? 

Did you ever run that 1/2 Marathon? Did you run more of them? Anything crazier? Do you feel healthy and look healthy and feel good about how you look? I sure hope you do. You always struggled with that. I think you're becoming a better you already though.

I have a feeling you are still the same way when it comes to packing your schedule with every possible thing you can. Do you still do nerdy things like craft and send letters? I hope so. If not, get on that, girrrl.

Have you had a reunion with your HK buddies yet? Have you gone back to Asia? You should go back to Asia, yo roots. Did you make it to Ireland or England? Also do that. Have you worked on your fake English accent anymore? Hope so, it needs a little work.

And last, Jennifer, I hope this leaves you feeling happy and accomplished and super schmawesome. I also think it's time you write to your 35 or 40-year old self. KTHXBYE. (Do you still say that? KTHXBYE?) Yahahhaa. (Or how about that?)

xx
Yo self

The weekend, in le nutshell

Hi friends, can you even believe it’s already another week? It’s already in the later part of May?! It’s already almost summer?! Gahhhhhhhh. If I resonate with anything in The Happiness Project, it’s that “The days are long and the years are short.” So, so short.

ANYWAY...

How were your weekends? Mine shaped up nicely! On Friday I teetered between going out and staying in and finally chose the former and was glad for it. It took me an hour to drive through detours from St. Paul to Uptown, then I had dinner at Stella’s (crowded, terrible service, mediocre food, good drinks) and felt extremely underdressed in pants and a tank top. I should have worn a body-con dress with cutouts, stilettos, and shimmery everything. Just kidding, but seriously. Then we headed to William’s Peanut Bar (always a good time in my book) and played some Skee-Ball and ate peanuts and met some rather interesting characters. And I took a photo of this girl, who was downing a pitcher of beer and dancing wildly at a table by herself.

I went back to my car to find a parking ticket (gotta read ALL of the signs, Jen) but since I didn’t really drink and I had such a good time, it was all worth it.

Saturday, I had a car appointment and caught up on reading the news and my book club book while I waited. Then it was time for Art-a-Whirl, which I wrote about here. Then, croquet at the boyfriend’s brother’s house for his wife’s birthday. But then it started thunderstorming and hailing like a banshee, so instead, we played cribbage to our hearts’ content. We love cribbage. Like, a lot.

Sunday was the graduation ceremony of my BFF, Jessica. She had to attend a “hooding ceremony” which was Catholic Mass in disguise, then we had a breakfast reception, split up, and reunited for the regular ceremony. The student speaker was a young student from Uganda, graduating Summa Cum Laude, a scholar of all sorts, head of everything, the only student member of some fancy board, etc, etc. She has a job lined up with the government working in Uganda for public health, but first, she must train for a bit at Yale. Then she’ll return for grad school. And she was funny and metaphorical and delivered a perfect speech. Sigh. What am I doing in this world? This girl has accomplished in University what most people hope to accomplish in tens of years.

Attending a graduation ceremony makes me wish I was in school again, which is kind of funny because all of the people in the ceremony are just glad to be done. On another note, I didn’t realize how beautiful St. Kate’s grounds are!

Hope your week is fabulous. I am sure it will fly by like a mothereffer.

Return to Blog Land & Seattle

Annnnd a month later, I have returned to this little blog. This is the longest it has been between posts on SKTMIT since I started it, and I’m sorry for neglecting you. I have found this to be true of my personality: I discover something, fall in love with it, work at it, feed it, breathe it, then somehow it drops off my radar. (This is not true for people or animals, luckily. Just fads, music, foods, habits, and the like.) Anyway, most of my Internetting energy has been over at Treble and Lace, so if you’re interested in those parts of my life, then head on over. Otherwise, here’s an update on this side. What have I been doing for the past month???

Friends from Michigan came into town and I spent a weekend going out with them, the next weekend I saw Florence + The Machine and celebrated my boyfriend’s graduation. After that, it was my boyfriend’s Grandma’s 80^th birthday – it was a surprise party and part of me thinks you shouldn’t surprise older people, but she reacted pretty mildly. “Oh, everyone from my life is here. How nice!” My grandma’s 70^th birthday was the following day but I sadly had to miss her celebration. (Side note – my other grandma’s 90^th birthday is coming up in July. A 70^th, 80^th and 90^th birthday in the same year, KEWL!)

Then it was off to beautiful West Coast, where the boyfran and I spent a week going to bed early, waking up early, running, walking, eating, drinking, and hanging out. I’d much rather post photos here or on T & L than on Facebook, so here you go. Although, I might start actively using Google+, but as you know, it will only be for a burst of time.

{Morning run}

{Ampersand on a stick!!}

{Obviously}

{Wish I had a kitchen in Seattle}

{My favorite}

{Fresh lunch}

{Trying to eat the field}

{Ichiro}

{My camera has awesome zoom}

{Another installment of our MLB stadium tour}

{Saving some Safeco dirt}

{I like when things are not the size they should be and I'm trying to avoid a TWSS moment}

{Brunch}

{Freeway Park}

{Gum, anyone?}

{Last night in Seattle, out of sequence}

{His alligator shoes had red tips on them}

{My first train ride in the US!}