Here's to another trip around the sun

I turn thirty tomorrow. (In lieu of gifts, donations can be made in the form of purchases at your local bookstore.) Of course turning thirty makes me typically self-reflective and slightly philosophical. So I was thinking today about those blogs, songs, essays, et cetera that offer advice to the me of the past. Sometimes that gets turned on its head to offer a child's advice to his or her future self--don't forget to eat candy, it's ok to get dirty, that kind of stuff. I'd like to try something different. In preparation of my thirtieth year, I would like to offer a list of advice and comforts that I want my future self to tell my past self.

Things the 30+ Me Wants to Tell the 30- Me

1)You are REALLY good at something.

2) You are more patient.

3) You are less critical.

4) You don't care about Facebook anymore.

5) Write more, stupid!

6) The concept of God is only as complicated as you need it to be in order to learn what you need to learn at that moment.

7) That thing you find so difficult isn't so difficult anymore.

8) That other thing you find so difficult is still difficult, but also really fun.

9) That other thing you find so difficult, you don't care about it anymore.

10) That decision you agonized over turned out different than you expected, and also better.

11) Stop taking yourself so seriously.

12) Take more advice from yourself and less advice from others.

13) You are sometimes wrong.

14) Learn to meditate.

15) Eventually you figure out what to do with your hair. It looks fantastic!

Well, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to you, here's to another year of questions and wonder.

New Toy = New Post

Christmas came early for me when I ordered myself an iPad. I quit smoking in October and decided to do it properly. I don't mean that I followed some sort of 12 step cessation program. I mean I took the money I would have spent on cigarettes and put it in a pickle jar so that I could see the fruits of my sacrifice for health. I came away with two things; first, a bunch of twenties that smelled like pickles, and two, enough money to go halvsies with my awesome parents for this fancy new toy.

So what have I been doing lately? I'm sure you can guess I've been downloading as many free apps as this 32 gig sleek piece of techno-marvel can handle. I've got Angry Birds and the like, sure, but I've also got newspapers, social networking tools, organizational tools, and a great word processor. And the most exciting bit is I've got my thesis on here, and I've since added to it. My latest writing funk (and if you know me you know they come often and intensely) was a particularly bad one, like seek psychological help bad, and this novel new space for writing this novel has definitely sparked my enthusiasm.

Which got me thinking about how much writers and scholars love new pens and notebooks. Have you ever had a notebook that you couldn't write in anymore because it lost its mojo? We need that feeling of untarnished, innocent space where we can make our impressions. I think I may have just compared writers to dogs marking their territory, but there you have it. Sometimes I think inspiration doesn't come from your ideas but the spaces where you put them. I hope the novelty of this nifty tablet doesn't wear off for a very long time and the word count just keeps going up and up and up.

Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, joyous holiday season, and here's hoping you all get new pens, notebooks, or any kind of agent of authorship and we all have a creative, wordy New Year.