musing on the past year

Tomorrow I turn 31. This is not a very exciting birthday, as far as they go. I don't get any new rights or privileges and I'm not doing anything big to celebrate. (Going out for food with friends, yes, but nothing past that.)

My friend Sarah recently posted about the 30 things she intends to do before turning 30. I don't know if I have goals like that. Instead, here's a list of some of the things I've done between June 1, 2011 and May 31, 2012.

• participated in a community-supported agriculture farm share, and split the produce with neighbors
• attended vegetarian and vegan potlucks
• visited the Smithsonian Folklife festival
• went to a lot of museums: the Newseum, the Phillips Collection, the Hirshhorn, the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of the American Indian, the Air & Space Museum (both on the mall & the extension by Dulles Airport), the Smithsonian American History Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Boston, the Hillwood Estate & Museum, the Bonsai & Penjing Museum, the Museum of African Art, the Freer-Sackler Gallery, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
• hosted family and dear friends: both of my parents,Vani, Nadia, my cousin Andrea, Molly C, Craig, Jennifer J, Debbie, Beth, my cousins David and Yehudit
• visited the National Zoo
• pro-choice escorting at Planned Parenthood
• participated in Restaurant Week in Washington, DC
• visited Boston for the first time
• attended book sales at local libraries
• saw Linda Pastan and Sarah Vowell at the National Book Festival
• attended the Crafty Bastards art fair in Adams-Morgan
• visited Poplar Farms animal sanctuary in Poolesville, MD
• participated in the open house at Alley Cat Allies to celebrate National Feral Cat Day
• edited three books (two non-fiction, one fiction)
• weekly yoga and pilates classes
• attended the neighborhood farmer's market
• saw some amazing poets: Phillip Levine, Yusef Komunyakaa
• attended funerals and unveiling ceremonies for an uncle and aunt
• cat- and dog-sat for various fuzzy critters
• switched from a terrible doctor to a better doctor
• attended Handel's Messiah at the National Cathedral
• traveled to California and Michigan
• visited the embassies of Portugal and Estonia
• switched to strictly vegan food
• attended roller derby bouts
• visited lots of memorials: Franklin Delano and Eleanor Roosevelt; Arlington Cemetery; Jefferson; Lincoln
• got a massage
• saw "The Pruitt-Igoe Myth" and "The Avengers"
• attended the Reason Rally
• saw Doug Aitken's "Song 1" at/ on the Hirshhorn
• attended concerts: nervous but excited, Ani DiFranco, Magnetic Fields & Devotchka, Girlyman, Great Lake Swimmers
• took lots of pictures