June Bug!

First of all, thank you to WordPress for featuring my previous post, “Dunder Mifflin, this is Toni” on Freshly Pressed. That was the second time WordPress has featured my blog; the first time was my “NYC! (Photo Dump).”

[Insert random photos of recent food here.]

Tomorrow I leave to go visit one of my oldest friends in Louisiana for a few days! We’ve decided it will be somewhat of a Martha Stewart weekend. My friend is excellent at baking, decorating, scrapbooking, and all things arts and crafts. When we were kids I loved spending time in her bedrooms because they were so pretty (we both moved from Missouri to Florida in the early 2000s and went to school together in both states!), and her scrapbooks were like masterpieces. I attempted to scrapbook in high school because of her and it. was. ugly. The captions alone are so bad I can never share them with anyone. Anyway, on this short trip, we will probably take on some artsy projects that she will excel at and I will fail at. And I can’t wait.

I’ve had some  fun and relaxing past few days, probably a little bit too much so for my own good. But I don’t regret it. This post-graduation “vacation” was much needed, or at least, much appreciated. I’ve been browsing through design books and murder mysteries, writing in my journal (of the non-digital sort) for the first time in 10 months, eating good food, spending time with friends and family, and more.

In my journal, I came across an entry from August 2009–a “Lifelong To-Do List” apparently inspired by Real Simple magazine that month (seriously, I love that magazine). After reading this post on the blog hithatsmybike (see her recent entries on spending a month in Paris, gah, amazing), I decided to post my 2009  list here.

• Travel: New York City, California, Great Britain, Switzerland, France, Croatia, and/or others within and outside the USA (I have since gone to NYC, Scotland, and several other U.S. cities and added Portugal, Greece, and Argentina to the “someday” list)
• Learn how to drive (I recently passed my driver’s test and am practicing often with experienced drivers)
• Take a road trip with my mom and sister (We’ll see, sometimes I think road trips are better in theory than in practice, but maybe)
• Take more hobby-related classes: photography, foreign languages, yoga/fitness, cooking… (Now that I’m out of grad school, this is something I will absolutely do after I am working again and settle into a new routine)
• Be politically active (See above note; I would also amend this to include other forms of community involvement such as volunteerism as well)
• Do everything I’ve ever wanted with my hair: chop it off, go platinum, get extensions, etc. (Lol, um, we’ll see–I suppose over time I’ll try a few anyway)
• Find my father (Unfortunately he has since passed away, however, I have now gotten in touch with my half-sister online and she is wonderful; she lives in Switzerland and I plan to meet her in person before long)
• Get published, whether academically or doing freelance style writing (still a nice goal, if not something I’m currently pursuing; not even sure where to start)
• Have the home of my dreams–nothing fancy or large, just in tune with my taste (I’m confident I’ll love my next place; I cannot wait to start fresh)
• Get married, become a parent (Well, still on the list, but almost too huge and complex to be included here)
  

A few no longer on the list at all:

• Possibly get a tattoo (Not interested anymore)
• Sell vintage (I was envisioning an Etsy shop but that no longer really appeals to me or seems practical)
• Do something glamorous (Okay, nothing against glamor, but I don’t even know what this means…Toni circa 2009, were you imagining something in particular?)

New to the list:

• Not as fun but lately I’ve become very concerned with developing and living within a budget that  includes building an emergency fund, a savings/retirement account, and a travel fund. I’m also focused on getting on the best possible plan for paying back student loans and I will need a car soon enough. However, it will be easier to think concretely about finances when I have a job. As of now, the goal is basically to stretch out what I have until that time.
• I’d like to help other people do some decorating, just for fun, after getting so many nice emails about my home from people when I was selling my stuff on Craigslist
• In general I want to be braver socially–to be more assertive when necessary, to ask for things, to say no when I need to, but also to be less shy about making new friends and more proactive about maintaining older friendships
• Insert general aspirations for professional success here, this will become clearer with time