Searching Out Culture.

I’ve been trying to take advantage of cultural enrichment opportunities lately. As my friend (slash my friend’s mom) Jeanne said earlier this year, there are cool things that happen in Maine, but you really have to seek them out. They don’t just magically appear in your own town at regular intervals. You kinda have to look for them and keep your finger on the pulse to know what’s coming up.

It’s sometimes surprising what all opportunities there are for things even in sleepy little Maine if you just watch for them. For instance, one day in February I saw on Instagram that a poet I like, Rudy Francisco, was landing in Portland, Maine. I was like “whaaaat?!?!” And then I looked at his events page and found out he was doing an event at Bates College that night. So I headed over there to see it! Rudy was actually on the Tonight Show recently and performed a spoken word poem that I really loved. You can watch that performance below. (I also recorded it when I saw it live, but I missed the beginning of the poem, so I figured I’d post the Tonight Show version.)

Then I saw that another poet I follow on Instagram, Olivia Gatwood, added a Maine tour stop, so I looked into that and found out she was doing an event at Colby College for Women’s History Month on Saturday night. I headed up to Colby for that, too, which was really fun. I already had a copy of Olivia's book of poems and had read it, so it was fun to see her perform them live. Here's a video of her performing a poem that I really like.

And I also found out that Andrea Gibson is going to be doing an event in Portland in May, which I’m going to try my best to get to. Andrea Gibson is even FROM Calais, Maine! Though they live in Colorado now and have for years. They are heralded as one of the leaders of the modern spoken-word poetry movement, which is really really cool.

I went to a poetry reading in college once, and thought it was kiiiiinda boring? But poets reading their written work aloud is nothing like poems that were intended for live performance. Spoken word poetry, while probably not something I’ll ever do myself, is really really really cool to go to. If you ever get a chance, I would highly recommend that you go to a spoken word poetry event.

And, because I love you all, here's another video of a spoken word poem (By the aforementioned Olivia Gatwood along with Megan Fally) that's really great. Enjoy!

27 Things About Being 27.

One of my favorite YouTubers (okay, I'll admit, the only one that I actually watch at all.), Hannah Hart, posts a video every year about turning her new age. I did something similar last year, although I called it "Reflections on 25" and it was a written out thing, not a video. And this year I decided to follow her format more closely and write out a list of 27 things about being 27. (Which means that I jumped over 26. Whatever.)

1.  The money you spend paying for your own health insurance is worth the peace of mind to not worry that every sore throat you have is strep that you won't be able to get medical help with because you don't have health insurance. 
2. Listen to the bands that your friends tell you they think you'll like. They know what music you already like and are probably right. 
3. Also, the thing about music is that it's really easy to like all sorts of things. So if lots of people like it already, you probably will too. Stop being such a hipster and just accept that.
4. With that said, it is okay to still hate Justin Beiber.
5. It is also okay that you really really like that one Chance the Rapper song he's in.
6. A desktop happy light is your winter bff. Remember that next year. 
7. You haven't really learned to be careful what things you put your email into on the internet. You have been getting both pro- and anti- Trump emails for about a year now, and if one more person asks you to give Trump's campaign money, you might scream.
8. You like poetry. A lot. In college, you thought that maybe you didn't but you were wrong. You just didn't like boring poetry. And that's okay.
9. Despite what you feared based on your extreme extroversion, living alone is not the worst thing in the world.
10. It isn't, however, the best thing in the world, either. For you, anyway. But you've adjusted. You  spend a lot more time reading books now. Which is pretty great, actually.
11. You are in a book club for the first time in your life. And despite it getting off to a rather rocky (six months delayed) start, it is really wonderful. You love hanging out with a group of intelligent young women, and this is the first opportunity you've had to do that since...college. Talking about books is cool, too.
12. Your ideal sleeping temperature is 50°, which previously seemed abominably cold to you—  you know from experience because that's how cold your bedrooms were in 2014-2016, too— but for whatever reason starting in 2017, it really worked for you. And now you have a terrible time sleeping if it's 60° or warmer.
13. You have realized there is a reason people go out for drinks with their coworkers; it is fun. If you have the chance, you should definitely do that.
14. In fact, unless there is a reason you really and truly can't do something, you should do it. You never know what you might end up liking. And it's usually the things you didn't do that you regret more. 
15. You wash your dishes on the same day that you used them and have discovered that when you do that, they don't ever get overwhelming. (And yes, it took you 27 years to figure this out. You are aware that that is an embarrassingly long amount of time.)
16. You live within an hour of several great colleges. Colleges have events that are open to the public. Colleges have good events that are open to the public. Take advantage of them.
17. Two things that make you feel like you have your shit together are wearing lipstick and wearing perfume. The difference between the two (other than that one is seen and one is smelled) is that it takes you five minutes to put on lipstick (sometimes more!!) and only five seconds to put on perfume. 
18. Eating dinner alone at the table feels sort of pathetic, but if you add tapered candles it gets much much better. Which seems ridiculous but it's true. It's also a better alternative than simply eating on the couch or in bed (as you have most days for the past several years) because you don't want to feel silly eating at the table alone.
19. For the first time this year, you considered joining a gym. You didn't do it yet, because you have a little more self respect than that still. But you consider it every couple of weeks anyway. 
20. If it is warm enough for you to wear a jean jacket (or, better yet, SHORTS!), it is warm enough to go for a walk. Go for a damn walk. You'll thank me later.
21. The saying "out of sight out of mind" is TRUE. If you really want to do/make/get to something, leave it out where you can see it. Otherwise it might never happen.
22. The same is true for things that you don't want to do/make/get to- if seeing it around is making you feel bad, then put it out of sight. That might mean you just have to suck it up and deal with something you don't want to. If so, then do that. Because it is better to just deal with something than to let it make you feel shitty indefinitely. 
23. People seem to really like when you mail them little notes. You should do that more.
24. Comparison is the thief of joy. But really. Comparison is the thief of joy.
25. You can do anything! This year you climbed mountains for the first time in years! And you did it alone for the first time EVER! Nothing can stop you!
26. You realized this year that you think your toenails look creepy when they're painted. Previously in your life, you realized that your toenails look creepy when they aren't painted. This will probably change again, and that is okay. 
27. You have conversations with people whom you think of as "your age" during which you realize that they are currently experiencing something in their life that you experienced several years ago now. During these conversations, you will realize that despite the fact that you feel like you haven't really grown up or gotten your shit together that much, 27 is actually very different from 23 in some ways. 

This morning I was planning to get up and do the puzzle my sister gave me for Valentine's Day/ my birthday (it's a bunch of pictures of me and Mackenzie and it's great!), but then I decided that what I really wanted to do was go to Rockland and get a partly caffeinated beverage at my favorite coffee shop, so that's what I did. And I'm oh so glad that I did, because it was beautiful and sunny over there! And I got to drive for an hour each direction with my moon roof open, singing along with some of my favorite songs and I wasn't even cold and it was just really really great.

Today I also got a haircut! It's something that I try to do on my birthday when possible because, as my college roommate tweeted a few years ago, "Everybody I know is getting engaged or having kids and I just wish I could pay for a haircut." Or something to that effect, anyway. And I realized that she was right; when you get a haircut you sort of feel like you have your shit together. Or at least I do, anyway. And then, while I lived in Minnesota, my friend Sarah got her hair cut the day before her birthday and I was like, "Of course! What a great way to make yourself feel like a million bucks for your birthday!" Assuming your haircut isn't awful. But I've never had a haircut that I hated, so whatever.

Anyway, here's my birthday haircut!

Later, I'm buying myself a bacon cheeseburger in a bun made out of mac and cheese patties from Nosh and then I'm going to see Brett Dennen in concert. Because YOLO.

Hope you all have a lovely day, too! Remember, there are only eleven days until spring! We're gonna make it!!

Living Alone.

As you all may or may not know, I moved into an apartment about a month ago. It's a short term thing, and I mostly just did it because I could and so why not? It's my first time living alone...ever. And it's been an interesting experience.

On the one hand, I'm neighbors with my mom (as in, we literally share a wall), so it's not as though I'm really far removed from my family. But my mom is also hardly ever around. It is very convenient to be able to raid her kitchen for the cooking implements I'm missing when I need, say, a vegetable peeler, and don't have one among the limited kitchen utensils I brought over.

On the other hand, I spend the majority of my evenings in solitude these days, which is kind of a first. When I was living at the house with my sister and brother-in-law and niece, I definitely spent a fair amount of time alone in my room, but I could also walk downstairs and socialize with them all most of the time. I would spend hours sitting with Britt and Mackenzie, shrieking and laughing and playing the let-me-pick-that-up-for-you-three-hundred-times game.

Now, I get home from work by 4:40 at the latest, because I leave at 4:30 and I'm only five minutes away. Most days I feel like I could eat dinner right away, but tell myself I really don't need to eat dinner that early, so I settle down on the couch with whatever book I'm reading that day (I finish them in just a couple days now, because I spend so much time reading) and get absorbed into another world for an hour or two.

By then, it actually is a good dinner time and I spend some time cooking something for myself. I take this opportunity to listen to whatever audio book I'm on, and in this way I get through a lot of those, as well. Then I sit down at the table and eat alone, probably while still listening to my audio book.

After I eat, I actually do all the dishes from cooking and eating right away. Because usually there are only about five of them. Go figure. After all the cooking, eating, and cleanup are done, I usually either do some crafting while listening to my audio book or settle back in with the physical book and spend another hour or two with that.

By then, it's pretty much time for bed. I might take a nighttime shower (because I'm still not a morning person, though mornings have become slightly easier since I now have a sink, toilet, and shower all to myself) and maybe do a little more reading in my bed before falling asleep. But only if I'm feeling really crazy.

All that being said, it is actually pretty easy to decide at the last minute to get a drink at the Liberal Cup or the Quarry Tap Room with anyone who asks me, so I have had several occasions come up where I decide to go out. But mostly, I just stay in and read a lot more books than I was reading at this time last year.

And it's nice.

Here are a couple more pictures of the apartment. It's super cute, but I don't really have a lot of pictures of it. Oh well.