All over the place. September 26, 2007

Fuck. I’m turning 26.
 
Next week, actually. Less than a week from today, if we’re getting technical. I almost don’t want to share the exact date because if it isn’t acknowledged on my blog then it won’t actually happen, right? Isn’t that how the universe works nowadays?
 
I don’t know. Does 26 sound old to you? 26 sounds old to me. 26 conjures up images of a suburban home and a healthy diet and a flourishing garden and maybe even a bun in the oven. Ok, maybe not a bun in the oven. Maybe not even suburbia. Maybe just a solid career and health insurance. But still.
 
As M reminded me last night, because he is awesome, because he always knows the right thing to say and the right tone to use, 26 is the year I’m going to be married. And that - no matter how old it sounds, no matter how it edges me closer to late twenties - means that 26 is special.
 
Plus, isn’t it cheaper for me to rent a car now? Yes?
 
I don’t have any big plans for my birthday, just a bunch of dinners with various groups of friends and a special dinner (Dylan Prime, why are you so perfect?) with M. And that’s how I like it.
 
Anyone who has asked me what I want for my birthday has gotten the same response: “A gift card to Bloomingdales so that I can rebuild my damn denim wardrobe.”
 
Why am I such a downer? I will stop being a downer now. I don’t think anyone under the age of forty has a right to complain about getting old. It comes across as obnoxious even though - in my case - it’s genuine.
 
One of the great thing about having a birthday is that it becomes a blanket justification. Spent $500 during an impromptu shopping spree this past weekend, like I did? Birthday! Drinking, uh, a little too much wine lately? Birthday! Don’t feel like doing laundry, instead beg your fiance to do it for you? Whip out that birthday card, girl.
 
***
 
Switching gears for a moment, I am currently knee deep in the book Something Borrowed, a BBC selection. I saw the pink and the diamond engagement ring on the cover and thought “oooh, perfect!” Just the book I needed to balance out Nathan Englander’s first novel, which I just finished, and Samburg’s book on Lincoln, which is up next. I love me some good chick lit every once in a while.
 
Except, um, the book is about (spoiler alert!) a girl who sleeps with her best friend (of 20 years!)’s fiance. And then shows no remorse about it. And starts to have feelings for him and him for her and OMIGOD, HI, WORST NIGHTMARE.
 
I stay away from Stephen King because I don’t like to be scared but this book is the one keeping me up at night.
 
I know it’s fiction. Duh. I know I trust M. Duh. But I also know that I have a very overactive imagination, an imagination that - if given the freedom - will drift to some very dark places, an imagination that I have to keep under control.
 
I’m just finding it so hard to root for the protagonist, even if the author is trying very hard to convince the reader that we should (I mean, the best friend works in PR and is pretty and outspoken and has lived a charmed life and therefore she surely deserves to be cheated on. By her fiance and her maid of honor).
 
I don’t think I’m technically supposed to be writing about the book as I am not the blogger who will ultimately be reviewing it but I’m oh so very curious to find out what other people who have read the book thought. Am I in the minority because I happen to be engaged at this very moment?
 
***
 
Back to being old. I got up to get a glass of water last night and my joints cracked.
 
“OMIGOD. I am so old. Seriously.”
 
M looked up at me from behind his Macbook with a raised eyebrow and a look that said “really? You want to go head to head on this one, shorty?”
 
And I shut my mouth. Because no matter how old I get, M will always be nine years older. And I will always take comfort in that fact.
 
***
 
Yay! I was tagged! Maybe the following can redeem this lackluster post (thanks, Libby!):
 
Four jobs I have had in my life (This is cut and pasted from the last time I did this as listing any other jobs would be all too revealing):
(1) Executive assistant to the creator and executive producer of a major children’s television show (my first and, to date, most favorite job); (2) Casting producer for a major network reality show (“Hi, are you crazy? Great, I’m going to book you on the show”); (3) Sales associate at Victoria’s Secret (sigh, those were heady days of a corporate discount, my parents’ limitless credit card and a newfound enthusiasm for lacy undergarments); and (4) babysitter (“So, do you know where Mommy keeps the chocolate?)
 
Four movies I can watch over and over (These are a very select few as I’m not really one of those people who can watch movies over and over and over. I don’t know why):
(1) The 25th Hour; (2) My Best Friend’s Wedding (I don’t own a copy of the movie but if I catch it on TV, I will always watch it until the end); (3) Blue Crush (ditto); (4) The usual suspects: Newsies, Clueless, Mean Girls, Sliding Doors.
 
Four TV shows I like to watch (Four?! I only get four?! It’s like choosing four favorite children; not possible. So I’ve chosen four shows that you might not expect):
(1) Meet the Press; (2) Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations; (3) The Price is Right; (4) Regis and Kelly (I start my days with those two.)
 
Four places I have vacationed:
(1) Europe (Greece, Ireland, England, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Belgium); (2) California (I heart you very much California. Why can’t you be closer?); (3) Long Beach Island, NJ (my parents used to have a house there before they were all “eh, let’s just go to Greece every summer”); (4) Maine (one of my favorite non-Greece family vacations of all time)
 
Four of my favorite dishes:
(1) The seared tuna with tomato and onion salad and parmesan crisp at Landmarc; (2) The four-cheese gnocchi (with bites of M’s lasagna) at Bianca; (3) Any of the rolls at Sushi Twist; (4) The margherita pizza from Angelo’s; (5) (I couldn’t stop at just four! I love food!) The guacamole at Dos Caminos. Oh and (6) The mac and cheese at Eatery. I’m done! I swear!
 
Four websites I visit daily:
(1) My blog roll (and then some – Sweet Juniper, Amalah, Dooce); (2) Gmail. I leave it up all day; (3) Jezebel (because they’re funny bitches and also, they watch all the same TV shows that I do; (4) My wedding website.
 
Four places I would rather be:
(1) In bed, next to my delicious sleeping M; (2) The house in Greece, eating a Greek salad (with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden) on my balcony; (3) Shopping for new jeans; (4) At a bakery. Because I’m PMS-ing and could really use something decadent.
 
Four bloggers I am tagging:
I’m a Libra! I’m bad at decisions! If you need something to blog about, by all means, consider yourself tagged.