Last post before 30…

The next post you read I will be 30! I’m sure you’re all pretty sick of hearing about it by now so you are off the hook for a while…until 40 approaches 🙂

Tomorrow I head to AZ to visit an old friend, spend time with my family & the boyfriend and do a little relaxing and soul searching in between. I plan on spending my 30th at the Grand Canyon! Coincidentally, it will probably be cooler there than it is currently is NYC (it’s close to midnight here but the temp is still triple digits!). They’ll be lots of pictures and reflection to come – but you’ll have to wait a whole week since I am digitally detoxing and will likely not touch a computer for the next 8 days. *GASP*
Disclosure – I WILL still have my iPhone so I won’t be totally out of touch. Stay well NYC – see ya in a week!

30 ’til 30!

Yup that’s right. In 30 days, I’ll officially be the often-dreaded, newly celebrated age of three-oh. Thankfully I have some good stuff planned in the next 30 days to ease the blow…and more importantly, I have a great feeling about my 30 PLUS chapters…

Upcoming cool things!
  • Celebrating the 4th in my “happy place” of Newport, RI (with a detour to visit the old sorority house at URI and a day spent “down the line” in Narragansett)
  • NYC-joint b’day party/commiseration with some of my same-aged gals
  • Birthday week trip to Arizona (Grand Canyon! mountains! nature!) with the best people in my life
To fully enjoy the last 30 days of my twenties – I plan to post (nearly) EVERY DAY – even if it’s just a short excerpt or photo! (Except for when I’m away because who wants to bring their laptop to the beach?) See ya tomorrow!

Sunday night somethings…

The big 3-0 is getting closer and my mind is racing! So many things to start doing and stop doing and focus on and not worry about and places to see and people to meet – oh my!

Some random summer focuses…
1) Run, run, run – and get new running shoes from The Super Runners Shop where they let you run around for them and then they tell you the best shoes for your stride – however awkward and “Phoebe-like” it may be (Friends reference number 4,864…)
2) Take advantage of the coveted rooftop deck of my apartment building – anyone want to join me for sunset cocktails? (weather permitting!)
3) Beef up my international travel fund (so I can stop spending so much time loitering in the Travel section of Barnes and Noble living vicariously through Frommers and Lonely Planet…)
4) Decide where I should live for the rest of my life (or at least for the “early thirties – no kids” chapter of my life…)
Oh, and in honor of the Tony Awards that I am watching LIVE while writing this (from the Beacon Theatre a few blocks away) I’ll add “see more Broadway Shows!” to this list too… 🙂

Love…

One thing I decided my blog is lacking is photos… I’m really more of a words person than an artsy picturey type person but I do love taking pics and hope that I am getting more artistic with age! That being said, I’d like to integrate a lot more photography or at least fun moment-capturing pics into this blog. I also think it will help me “cheat” on days I don’t have a lot of time to type a lengthy post – I’ll just post a cool pic and a caption and be on my way 🙂

Anyway…

This picture might not seem like anything great but it was a moment in my weekend worth sharing so I thought I’d do so here.

My few and proud loyal readers know that my boyfriend currently lives in a far away land called Buffalo, NY. The long distance thing is hard and sometimes I turn all winey girl and admittedly make it even harder. Last night was one of those nights…

This morning I woke up to a rainy Sunday and my mood wasn’t much better than the night before. But then I got a text from the bf telling me to check my twitter (editors note, FF is NOT a frequent tweeter by any stretch…) When I checked it this was the tweet I saw:

About 30 minutes later, french toast and coffee arrives from Big Daddy’s. This little gesture made my heart melt (something I normally don’t admit) because it was thoughtful and perfect and one of those “little things” that is really a big thing.

Also major bonus points for incorporating social media into it all! 🙂

Getting back on the (blogging) horse…

It’s been nearly 6 months since my last post! So long in fact, that I contemplated trashing this blog all together and starting over again. But then I read through the last three years of blog posts (I started this blog back in January of 2008) and realized there is some great stuff on here and I owe it myself and my short list of readers to get back to bloggin’! While reading through old posts, I was able to take a trip down memory lane and relive some really life changing milestones over the past few years. Meeting my boyfriend, changing jobs, adjusting to living in NYC, and missing old friends have all been documented, and after re-reading years later, I was brought back to specific places and moments with vivid clarity.

Ironically, one of my first blog posts, written on February 2nd, 2008, mentions a “neighbor” who is now my boyfriend of almost 3 years. Read the post here if you ever wondered about one of FF and I’s first encounters…
As you can imagine, a lot has happened to me in the last 6 months and I’m not going to re-hash it all now. One thing that has inspired me to resurrect this blog though, I will share now. A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to go on a cruise with my entire company. We shared a lot about our goals and dreams and I shared my goal to one-day write a book that incorporates a lot of my life stories including my crazy college tales, my summers spent in Newport, RI and my years working at 2 different bowling alleys, as a jell-O shot-girl , a magazine intern, a cocktail waitress, a freelance writer, a publicist…the list goes on. Needless to say, I’ve been told many times after sharing a funny story or two with new friends, “you need to write a book.”
As I shared this passion and dream with my co-workers, many who know my quite well by now, I realized that I have put that dream on the back burner in recent months and have been very caught up in the sometimes “rat-race” of living and working in NYC. I love my job, but haven’t stopped to make time for my passions in a while. That being said, as I approach the big 3-0 this summer and come to terms with the fact that many of the things I long ago thought I would have accomplished by 30 may not happen, I am going to focus on accomplishing them in due time, at my own pace, in my own way.
I always tell people that I “got a late start in life” because I didn’t get a full-time job until the age of 26. So to be fair, my “by the time I’m 30” list really deserves at least a couple year extension!
On the top of my list is making more time for writing and travel. As I enter a new age bracket, I plan on solidifying these goals and making an iron-clad strategy for accomplishing them. Join me?