Blogging, Moving, and Birthdays, oh my!

Well, I clearly didn't take to blogging as well as I did the first time. I started my first blog in 2002, and even though I didn't think anyone was reading, I wrote almost every day. Many of the friends that I made from my first blogging endeavour are still friends today. Maybe I've associated pressure with blogging now, or maybe I'm just more forgetful. I'm 25, after all. I'm getting old.

Yes, yesterday was the inevitable day when I became a quarter-century old. It was less painful than I thought it would be, but it was strange that for the first time I can remember, I was actually facing my birthday with a bit of dread. Life on my 25th birthday is not how I expected it would be ten years ago, even five or six years ago, so during the past few days, I've been wondering if I'm okay with that or not.

The verdict? I'm fine with it. The first two decades of my life were very goal-driven, and I ended them with a broken heart and a crushed spirit. My twenties, thus far, have been much more difficult than my early years, yet more fulfilling. Sure, I sometimes skip meals because I'm broke and I have accrued debt up to my eyeballs pursuing two dreams that will probably never make me rich, but I'm happy. I have wonderful friends and dreams to chase and sometimes, I even feel like my family is supportive of my choices. And I don't have regrets. I'm very anti-regret.

Yesterday, I was surrounded with wonderful new friends that I have during the last year. Lauren, Adam, Jamie, Marynia, Nikki, and Allison all came out to help me ring in my second quarter-century. We had cupcakes at Molly's, one of my favourite places in the city for dessert, and then went to Guthrie's, a delightful neighbourhood bar in Wrigleyville (but not douchey, like the bars closer to the stadium) that has a huge cabinet full of board games. BOARD GAMES! Do you know how much I love board games? Lauren (now called Lo) introduced us to Speed Scrabble, then at my request we played Apples to Apples, and closed the evening with Trivial Pursuit, also at my request. I get a little vicious with Trivial Pursuit. And I advise staying far away from the entertainment category when the game is from approximately 1985.

I promise not to turn this blog into a "this is what happens on every day of my boring life," but I wanted to write about my birthday because I really think there might be something wrong with my memory. I can remember seating arrangements from my fourth grade class, but I can't remember the names of professors I had two years ago, or what I did two weekends ago, or that I have this job for my mom that I'm supposed to be doing this month in my spare time.

Speaking of my spare time, I'm always setting up house in a new place. My mom has been wanting to buy a condo in the city for a long time, I needed a place to rent, it's a "buyer's market," and she found a great deal on a place we both loved, so she went for it. And now I'm renting it. I'm in the West Loop now, but still completely walkable to work and school on nice days, which is awesome, because I really didn't want to have to start paying for train passes regularly. Anyway, the process has been ongoing, but I have most things in place to finish organizing my things, so I've set a goal of next weekend for a finish date. I work better with deadlines.

Maybe I should start setting blogging deadlines for myself. At any rate, I have a few post topics brewing, so I hope to reappear soon. If you didn't give up on me, thanks.