birthday

Goodbye 26, goodbye 27, hello love?

/ SallyJBrz / 1 Comment

Where did the last year go?

It was full of adventures, tears, tasty food, triumphs, and life lessons.  Since my 27th birthday, I lost my Grandma Sugarplum, one of the best people I’ve ever known and someone who inspired me to cook, read, and love relentlessly.  And just a few months later, I ran across my first (and far from last) half marathon finish line.  I got to help three great friends celebrate their weddings, with one final fall wedding ahead this evening.  I played two seasons of softball, got a promotion, had my heart broken, read great books, drove down Highway 1, and tried out for a game show.  I also got to spend tons of quality time with the people I love – from shopping at Target with Grandma BooBoo to running with Mom to going to baseball games with Dad to laughing my butt off with my sister and making last minute plans with my awesome friends in the city.

Since I set myself some goals last October, I have done them all except leaving the country.  Given how much else I did that I never thought possible, I’m going to call 27 a victory.

Now, what’s ahead?

Living up the single city life – every moment with friends while we’re still in the same place, every frenzied playoff season (go Sox!), every office pie day, every morning run on the bike path.  Hopefully flying a plane for the first time.  Ideally leaving the country.  Definitely celebrating as two best friends (my sister, Kat, and Priti) each marry the loves of their lives, with perhaps more weddings yet unplanned (you never know!).  New risks, new dates, my first full triathlon, volunteering at camp, and checking more items off my 5-year bucket list, since I only have 24 months to finish it all.

And really trying to attend to every moment that I’m in.  Even if that moment is waiting for the ridiculously delayed red line because our city’s transportation system is falling apart.  A friend’s partner recently died at a young age, and it reminded me how grateful I should be – for youth, for love, merely for life.  So this year, I’m going to honor her and myself – past, present, and future – by really being grateful for these moments, no matter how late I might be for work.

Thanks for sticking with me these three years so far – let’s go out and live a little!

*Bonus points for anyone who gets the musical reference in the title.

What 27 means to me

/ SallyJBrz / 4 Comments

“Did the world change when you turn 27?”  I asked my best friend when her birthday arrived last week.

“Not yet!” she said.

25 meant I could run for the House (and it spurred me to start this blog!).
At 26, I knew that it would be a little cheaper to rent a car.
But what’s 27 all about?

Here’s how my 27th year is going to be different:

  • The Price is Right will have male models.  It’s groundbreaking for the show, which I’ve loved since I spent all my childhood sick days watching it, and I can’t wait to see if the boys can point at watches, jetskis, and jacuzzis as well as the ladies.  I’ll have to find out the next time I hurt my back and have to stay on the couch all day.
  • I will no longer have a “dumb phone” – I’m getting an iPhone later this month and will no longer need other people to tell me when the next bus is coming or how late the library is open.
  • I will stop burning my mouth on food that is too hot to eat.  Laugh if you want, but I have a terrible tendency to rush into things, including food, with an intensity that leaves me burnt… literally.  I would like to dedicate 27 to slowing down a bit.  Maybe then I can finally learn how to drink a hot chocolate without my tongue going numb after the first sip.
  • I will give back to my community.  I’ve been in Somerville for more than two years – now that I finally vote here, it’s time to up my game and contribute to my neighborhood.  First stop: canvassing for Elizabeth Warren this weekend.  Anyone want to join?
  • I will write even more letters.  Someone has to keep the post office in business!
  • I will finish my first half marathon.  Not sure when or for whom, but watch this space because it’s definitely going to happen.
  • I will leave the country.  (And then come back.)  I had to use my passport to transfer my driver’s license from NH to MA, and it made me realize that it’s been far too long since I went abroad.  Even if it’s just to Canada, I am getting outta here while I’m still young, just so I don’t get stuck in one place too long.
  • I will make each day count.  Seriously.  I know that I won’t be twenty-seven – or twenty-anything – forever, and I want to live it up.  If that means board games, cook-offs, singing kareoke until I’m hoarse, working late on causes that matter, riding buses up and down the Eastern seaboard to see my best friends, waiting in line at crowded bars, or some combination of all of those – I plan to make this year count.  You only get to be 27 once – I plan to make it a life-changing year so I have something to say when people ask “What exactly is being 27 all about?”

 

How do you measure a year of life?

/ SallyJBrz / 1 Comment

How about love?

Or, measure this last year, my 25th year in:

  • 119 blog posts
  • 2 pairs of Tevas
  • 11 months at a great new job
  • 1 stellar Oscar party
  • 0 sweepstakes won (HGTV Dream Home, I’m coming for you this year!)
  • 1 new family member (yay Lillian!)
  • 50+ books read
  • 3 new places that sell Strongbow
  • 2 new pashminas
  • a unquantifiable number of amazing friends

Thanks for being a part of this adventure – I can’t wait to see what comes next!

Quarterlife Kickoff

/ SallyJBrz / 6 Comments

This week (today, in fact), I turned twenty-five and started a new phase of my life.

I also lost my job.

Don’t worry, I knew both of these things were coming.  The 25 thing was inevitable, or so I’m told.  The job, which I have loved for the last 16 months, was originally supposed to be an 8 month gig that kept getting extended.  Now, AFFIL has shut down, as we’re both ready to move on, having accomplished our goal of passing comprehensive financial reform (and meeting Elizabeth Warren, my personal objective).  I have gained skills in online organizing, alliance building, social media management, grassroots lobbying, and Bananagrams. Now, I want to use those skills to continue to change the world, and have a great time doing it.

I’m hoping that the next stage of my life, this 25-30 chunk, will lead to lots of new fun things and a new way of interacting with the world.  I’m kicking it off by starting this blog, which I will use to write about:

  • my misadventures in Boston
  • my efforts in the kitchen
  • the world around me (particularly about politics, feminism, and people who are making a difference)
  • home design daydreams, aka what my apartment would look like if I had all the money and time in the world
  • my “five year plan” and bucket list
  • other interesting tidbits as I happen upon them

I hope you’ll join me – online and in real life! – and see what this next phase of life brings.

I leave you with this final dose of quarterlife inspiration:

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” –Mark Twain