"Sweeter than this"

I think right now is a great time for me to appreciate the things that I can do now that I won't necessarily be able to get away with later in life. I hope that I can appreciate my youth now without getting lost in that fountain of youth chase that many of us seem to get caught up in. You know what I'm talking about: "oh, I wish I could be young again", "youth is lost on the young", and "please make my face plastic so I can look like I did when I was sixteen".

Maybe the last one is an exaggeration, but I think I could argue successfully that our culture has an obsession with staying young. Anyhow, the purpose of this blog is not for me to create a list that I can look back at mournfully while sighing, "those were the days". Rather, more than ever, right now I feel like I'm on the stepping stones of adulthood (although I still contend that I'll never truly grow up). And while I'm excited to embrace new changes, I'm also starting to come to the realization that I cannot simply do everything there is to do in this world. Short of planning meticulously each hour that I have left to live, I am certain that some things will be left undone (goodbye learning twelve languages, visiting every country, fathering two football teams- so they can play each other, starring in an Oscar-winning performance alongside Natalie Portman, and fighting that hobo in NYC). The list goes on.

Although I refuse to plan out the rest of my life- I think that perhaps the most fun we can have sometimes rests in the unplanned- I have been thinking much about what I do what to accomplish. I think I'll post a more comprehensive list later but right now I'm settled at an advanced degree, multiple years living abroad, and writing at least one book, for the future.

Anyway, enough of the future. What follows is a list of things that make me incredibly appreciative of where I am now and how far I've come, as well as super excited for the future:

1) I just ate a whole pot of mac' and cheese, plus four hotdogs. Cheers to metabolism.

2) I can wear flipflops around town and people don't think (I think) that I just forgot shoes today.

3) When I wear t-shirts inside out, it makes me look edgy, rather than cheap when it comes to laundry.

4) I can sing in public places and not get carted off.

5) The music I listen to isn't uncool...until tomorrow, when I start listening to different music.

6) Aside from obligations to friends, family, the IRS, and a few others, I have no obligations. Feel like spending a few months abroad? No problem. Want to stay up all night talking about how much Glenn Beck sucks? Sounds like a plan!

This last one really gets me. I try every day to not under-appreciate the liberties I have.

Anyway, as far as updates: work is still going well. I figured out today that I've been working on TPP reports, which is a little too close to TPS reports. Furthermore, I'm supposed to be stapling them and putting them on my boss's desk. Yes, my life has turned into the movie, Office Space. No, I refuse to come in on Saturday.

I know that it certainly sounds ambiguous as to what I've been up to recently, so if you want to know more about what's going on in DC, just shoot me an email or a question in my comment box.

New music: Katie Herzig