18. Before it's too late

Full prompt: Describe 5 things you want to see or do before it’s too late.

Tricia reminded me that this blog is a thing that exists, and then I drank margaritas, and it's only 21:15 so I can't go to bed, so I figured, why the fuck not? I'll go back to reading 1Q84 later, which, by the way, is fucking amazing so far. I never realised how grateful I'd be for AP Spanish instilling a love of Magical Realism in me. I actually had a very angry rant in its defense not too long ago, which I quickly realised was pointless as the person I was arguing with a) didn't care and b) doesn't even read books. Who doesn't read books? Terrible people, that's who.

1. I guess this is vague, but I want to go back to Europe. Not too particular on where. But I want to go:
a. armed with the general knowledge of the cities I acquired during my 2010 trips
b. while I'm still young enough to drink and galavant
c. not necessarily for work
Travelling abroad isn't such a rare thing in the sciences- we like to host big, serious conferences in places like Switzerland and France and also smaller, slightly less serious ones in places like the Caribbean and what have you. Seeing as I've more or less accepted the fact that I'm a city girl through and through, I'm more partial to the former vs. the latter, though I wouldn't say I'd turn down a trip to the Bahamas, particularly if the department was going to comp it. The crucial thing is really just that I want to go back while I'm still relatively young and have a sense of adventure; I don't want to save all my travelling for retirement age.

2. Road trip. I believe this came up before, but I'd love to go on a proper cross-country roadtip. This desire has been particularly strengthened by my recent devotion to Supernatural. I'm not going to do it in a 1960's era Impala (the gas mileage! honestly.) but I'd still like to see the weird, quirky things my own country has to offer. Besides, I haven't been west of Oak Park since I was maybe 10 or 11, and there are some beautiful vistas out west. Or so I hear. Teddy Roosevelt was into them, and if Teddy liked something, it must be damn fine.

3. Write a book. Seriously, I've been vaguely working on one for forever now. I don't expect it to be any good or get published or anything, but I just want to finish one bloody thing I start when it comes to writing. I can't even remember this blog for ten month periods of time, so I'm not sure how likely any of that is.

4. Become a proper doctor (as in, PhD, not those flashcard-memorising, artery-severing, ego-inflated MD fools). I mean, this is a given. But seriously I want to be a doctor. So people call me doctor. But realistically, I'm not ready for it yet, seeing as I haven't really got the "post-PhD"goal in mind.

5. The aurora borealis. Pictures of it are so pretty, but you never see it this far south. Once, many years ago (holy shit, seriously over a decade) all the lights went out, a la Revolution. Okay, more like Eastlake, OH overloaded some crucial circuit breaker or something for the entire northeastern chunk of the United States, but same concept. For one glorious day and night, we were without power. So close to 9/11, many people assumed the worst, but it was just standard inefficiency and error. That night, I went to my neighbour's house- barely able to see the road there- and we had a bonfire. The adults did whatever it was adults with kids do (I assume drink copiously and talk about mortgages) while we set tree branches on fire. And the stars. They filled the sky. I used to want to be an astronomer (before I learned that calculus is really hard, like seriously you guys, it's rough.) and so I knew a lot of constellations and what have you. That night, the sky was so full, I could barely discern the constellations I knew. I think I only really managed to pick out the Big Dipper. Only it wasn't just the Big Dipper- you could see all of Ursa Major. Hell, you could actually see the Milky Way. Sometimes on Reddit, people post pictures of things like that, and I remember that night, and I want to experience it again. It was so pretty and peaceful and calm.

Okay so that's about it. My drunk is wearing off and I can't resist the call of this Murakami book any longer. Particularly because the sooner I finish it, the sooner I no longer have to lug a 1000-page tome around with me on the train. Until next time, which realistically will be like 2014.