Twentysomethings

I just received a call from Mike, the guy who interviewed me for the SLC Public Library, and yes, the circulation people skipped past me, but they were looking for someone with more language experience. This isn't LA or NYC, this is Salt Lake people!, but I suppose speaking Spanish is helpful even when living in mayonnaise-white Utah. Of course I'd prefer to bone up on my French (semi-useful) or even learn Italian (totally useless) than Spanish. This is all part of my ivory tower syndrome or complex and whatever you want to call it. And I mean Elizabeth Gilbert decided to learn Italian just to feel sexy again after coming through a harrowing divorce and a passionate affair that ended in messy heartache. I'm reading her memoir Eat, Pray, Love which I am enjoying. I love Elizabeth Gilbert, and she has done some great work for GQ. The only thing is she can be a little glib which sometimes bothers me only because I am glib. I don't know if it's competition or self-loathing or I expect more from her. Anyway here's an example: "What I said to God through my gasping sobs was something like this: 'Hello, God. How are you? I'm Liz. It's nice to meet you.' . . . In fact, it was all I could do to stop myself from saying, 'I've always been a big fan of your work...'" It's funny and it's something I might say if I were writing about a conversation I had with God. Anyway, Mike called me and now I'm going to be a temp for the SLCPL. I will basically be on call and it will be flexible and will probably work better with my current job and life and stuff. I'm very excited!

Speaking of life, I have added a new item to my life-list: running a marathon. Let me assure you that I have not gone insane, but instead have been listening to TBTL. This is a radio show from Seattle hosted by Luke Burbank--not a relation (as far as I can tell)--that I have been podcasting since October. It's great but it's not for everyone. And recently it has overwhelmed my life a little bit. I had a dream that I was in the Kiro studio with Luke, Jen, and Sean. And today I was trying to remember which friend had said or done something when I realized it wasn't a friend at all but something that Jen had said on my iPod. Anyway, Luke ran a marathon and I decided I should run one. What gave me hope is that Luke is not a svelte runner or really very athletic at all, and I know this because he weighs himself at the beginning of every show. He may also be the only person to gain weight after running a half-marathon. Now running a marathon is not something I plan on doing within the year, but many years down the road. However, I need to start training now. My friend Kristyn is running a 5K in April and she turned me onto this running schedule titled "The Couch-to-5K Running Plan" and that seems to be something I could work with. Also, 3.2 miles or whatever it is sounds manageable, unlike say 26 miles. But after running a 5K or two, I may want to try a 10K, and then a half-marathon, and then full-fledged marathon. I feel no need to be a person who runs marathons--plural, active--just the one. In fact if I run a 5K, I may call that good and be done with it.

The reason I am discussing my marathon and life-list is that today is my half-birthday, which seems like a better time to set goals than say New Years. So here's a review of my life-list. I have indeed read an erotic romance novel that was also a gay romance novel so check! (I'm still not ready to add Finnegans Wake to my list though). I am continuing to cook--with friends and by myself--and I make awesome spaghetti carbonara. But I am not as active in this endeavor as I should be. I do enthuse about wine with the help of the Wine Library TV podcast and Gary Vaynerchuck. I have seen a few more Meryl Streep and Mike Nichols films--most recently Heartburn which wasn't great, but we can all blame Nora Ephron for that. I still need to get myself over to NYC and catch a Broadway play. Or even better something on the West End in London while I am living there. I am applying to grad school and hopefully in two years I'll have my Master's. I attended Sundance last year, but unfortunately not this year. I have a couple days left, I suppose. I have not continued with yoga and I need to get myself to a class. There's a writing contest my aunt sent me a link to and I think I'll enter that--perhaps get an essay or short story published. Continuing to study canonical literature has fallen off the path a bit. But I am running a book club which is fun and usually ends up with us getting drunk--also fun. And my friend Rae and I are trying to read all the books that appeared in The Reader. We'll see how that goes. There's a slew of other things on my life list, but these are a few I can work on this year. Along with these, I would like to join Alec Baldwin in his three hopes for 2009. 1) Slumdog Millionaire wins Best Director and Best Picture, 2) Detroit manufactures the most fuel-efficient technology ever (I personally would actually like to see major strides in an alternative fuel source that is not ethanol), and 3) there is no SAG strike. Yes, that would be a good 2009.

Of course all of this ties into the larger issue of twentysomethings. Twenty-year-olds have always been so old to me. Not in a wrinkly way, but just having their shit together and living life. As a twentysomething I know this is not true as many twenty-year-olds do not have their shit together. But sitcoms like Friends and How I Met Your Mother feature mid- to late-twentysomethings living in New York, pursuing professional careers, developing long-term relationships. And so I wonder when I'm in my mid- to late-twenties where will I be in my life? I will be twenty-four when I plan on earning my Master's which is doing better than my brother-in-law who will be twenty-five when he earns his Bachelor's. (It is rather odd to have a brother-in-law who is two years older than I am. But that's Utah for you.) So now that I'm half-way between 22 and 23 every time I encounter a twentysomething in art or life, I wonder where will I be when I'm that age. Sometimes I hope to God that I am so far beyond where certain people are, and other times it would be a fantasy to even be close to what some twenysomethings have accomplished. For now I think I will just take life as it comes--working on my life-list--and try not to be terrified of turning twenty-three this summer.