enjoy the third quarter of 2008 by having one NEW and FULFILLING experience in July, August, and September

Just to top it off

• Read in my first mass, a wedding for a dear friend. Definitely new and fufilling. Would love to do it again, but there aren’t too many oppertunities for heathens like myself to get to read
• Had a full 43 things list for the first time since joining the site. Looks like it’s time to do some fall cleaning, but fufilling to know that my life is so full of things I want to accomplish
• Responding to a personals ad. Would have been more fufilling if they had written back, but definitely new!
• Attending the Hell’s Kitchen flea-market. First flea market in NYC. Heck, first flea-market I’ve ever been to as an adult of my own free will, although I remember getting dragged to plenty of them as a child
• SEEING THE DYMAXION CAR. Honestly, I can die happy now. So. Much. Fufillment. Words. Cannot. Express.
• Meeting Jane Yolen. A childhood icon live and giving advice. That was definitely new and fufilling.

It’s been a busy month. In sumary, I think September’s “new and fufilling” was both (a) getting out more and (b) doing things on my own. Both of which were new and fufilling in themselves, and also contributed to my many other sucesses over the course of the month.

Thanks John Lee. This goal always challenges me to learn and grow. See you next quarter!

So I might as well post a mid-month update.

I got free fan club tickets to a television show taping of Spectacle with Elvis Costello I had never been to a television taping before, so that was sort of fun, and the music was quite good, and Zooey was adorable as always.

I hosted a picnic in central park. It was the first proper picnic I’ve been to in New York, and it was absolutely lovely, and luckily the weather held up most admirably. We played catch with an apple, and spent a lot of time chatting and catching up on each other’s summers.

Meeting Templetone2. That was skippy. :)

Started out the month going on vacation with my family to Wolverine Michigan. Some new and fufilling highlights of that trip:

• I had never before been to woverine (mildly fufilling)
• I had never before seen a vending machine that sold live bait (That it “excepted quarters” may have been the best part… that or the $3.00 leeches!)
• I had never before been bike riding with my parents, but we all went on a 8-mile bike around Mackinac island (VERY FUFILLING)
• I had never before eaten deep fried pickles (very filling)

After I got back, I stood up to myself against a guy who was being a jerk. Which is new for me, fufilling in a way, but I resent being made angry like that by someone who doesn’t even really know me. I got to see NWP for the first time in years, not new technically, but the first time since we’ve been back in touch, and very fufilling. And I went rollerblading on the streets of Brooklyn and didn’t die!! (Yes, I have a helmet)

The end of the month was capped with a trip to Pittsburgh, in which I took the greyhound there for the first time (I’d only ever taken it as far as DC and back!) and got to meet Shortstack! That was fabulously new and fufilling!

I moved into my own place, on my own.

I’ve been single before (briefly). But never comfortably. And I’ve lived on my own before (now and again). But it always devolved into a cohabitation arrangement within a few months.

So this marks the first time I’ve been living on my own—emotionally as well as physically. And it’s be a rollercoaster working through it… times when I thought that just because I was ready to be on my own, the rest would all come easily and found myself cruelly brought back to reality, times when I couldn’t be happier to walk into an empty house where absolutely nothing had changed since I last saw it.

It’s an adventure, that’s for sure. Done more listening to myself and my own desires in the past month than I think I did over the previous several years combined. Even things like “what do I want for dinner” have become oppertunities for thoughtful introspective reflection.

Fascinating.

I am teammate #2! For the WIN summer!!

(And I already have a new and fufilling in the works for August… was looking at Amtrak tickets today for it…)