30 at 30

I have no idea if the internet has created such a thing as this.  I suspect so.  If everything goes well, I'd like to read this again when I am 50.

Here are 30 thoughts/facts on my 30th birthday.

1.  I still don't feel like an "adult," but after yesterday's fantastic party, I definitely feel like it's actually my birthday.

2.  I have a pair of jeans that I bought when I was 17 and worked at Meijer that still fit and I still wear, even though they are risqué and lace up the sides.

3.  It's about 72 today here in Brasil and I am a bit cold.

4.  I love to eat sushi and would eat it everyday.  Salmon and tuna, mmmmmmm.  Seaweed, mmmmm.

5.  After living in Brasil for six years, I have reprioritized what I feel is a want and a need, just in time for things to arrive in Salvador that we have not had access to. 

6.  I still like to wear miniskirts because I think my legs look good, but I don't like how my butt touches where ever I sit down.

7.  I love doing waterbike.  It is the best exercise and I think everyone should try it.  I feel like it is what has gotten my asthma under control and helped me destress over the last two years.  Plus I have muscles in places I haven't ever seen them before.

8.  I used to only wear tall platform shoes and now I prefer flipflops.  It has been so long since I wore regular shoes that touch my heels that nearly every time I wear them, I end up with blisters no matter what the shoe.

9.  Someday I want to have a small house on a decent piece of land in Chapada, where I would have a garden, orchard, and some goats for milk.

10.  I love to sew and am determined to make all my own clothes from now on, either from fabric or adapting used things to my liking.  A friend said "you are all kinds of cool at 30, sewing up a storm" - I loved this statement.

11.  Yesterday we had the best party here, by far the most fun adult birthday party I have ever had.  I credit my wonderful friends and spectacular husband for making it happen.  I certainly didn't do much ;).

12.  Doing art with Ju is a great way to spend an afternoon.

13.  Three cats in one house is definitely enough cats.  Ducey, Pila and Lela have amazingly different felinalities and contribute to a well balanced household.

14.  Machines I cannot part with - my laptop, my camera, my sewing machine, my ipod.

15.  I have known and loved my husband for eight years and he is the best man I have ever been with.

16.  I absolutely must drink a cup of coffee in the morning or I just feel like I am coming down with something all day.

17.  My favorite thing to eat is a honey crisp apple, even though we don't have them in Brasil and I rarely find them in MI when we go.

18.  I love teaching little kids.  They are so interested in everything, everything is exciting...

19.  This year's world cup has ignited a real love for watching soccer that I never knew I had.  Brasil is infectious, yes, but there must be more to it.

20.  I believe in the Destination Imagination program.  It should be made part of every school curriculum in a major way.

21.  When I eat apples in Brasil, if they are really good, I eat the whole thing and leave only the stem. 

22.  I spend too much time reading craft/art/DIY blogs and such online, being inspired by what I see, but rarely getting up off my butt to do what I read about.  (But I'd really like to)

23.  My kid is bilingual.  Our whole house is bilingual.  We mix English and Portuguese in every sentence every day.  I still would love to study our language habits.  (and it has been hard to not write Portuguese words into many of these list items)

24.  Being a Quaker is a huge part of who I am, even though it seems like it's such an unknown fact in my life and where I am.

25.  I often fall asleep 8:30 at night, wake up at like 11 and stay up until 12:30, then go to bed again.  I am pretty sure this is not conducive to health.


26.  I only wear glasses because it feels like too much time to go have my eyes examined and get contacts here in Brasil.  I wish things weren't so far apart and complicated down here.

27.  I miss having pink hair, but feel like it wouldn't go over well down here.

28.  If I could do any job, it would be creating window layouts like those in Macy's in NYC.  So cool!  I would also enjoy making theater or movie sets.  Or maybe those big scenes behind glass you see in museums.

29.  A perfect lunch is a big salad of baby spinach and spring greens that has salmon, mandarin oranges, chopped walnuts and Gorgonzola cheese.  At least, that is what I feel like eating at the moment.

30.  I love my friends, even though we hardly see each other.  I have no idea where I would be without internet.