250 Words

I tried to do the prompt the way Jenni wrote it. I swear, I tried. Apparently though, I do not know how to write the story of my life in 250 words.

I keep trying to think of a beginning and a middle and an end. But every time I start to tell it, all the stories get jumbled in my head and I can’t remember what happened first. I was born in South Korea. I am about to start my final year of my PhD work in Columbus, Ohio. And somewhere between those two facts, there are like fifty billion tiny microscopic Elizabeths running around, doing things, learning things, screwing up, falling in love, falling apart, mending fences, and crashing through them again, screaming into sun (before it was cool), breaking, blogging, fighting, and I am one of those Elizabeths. Maybe tomorrow I will be a different Elizabeth. I’ve been to school. I’ve graduated. And then I went to school again. And again. I sometimes think I’ll be going to school forever. And I sometimes think I want to go to school forever. And I sometimes think I should have majored in something useful like macro-economics or adolescent psychology or creative writing. I have great friends. Maybe they’ll write that on my tombstone. “She had great friends.” That would be a good epitaph, I feel. My dog is probably my best friend (which will not annoy my human best friends because they are, in fact, my best friends and they get it). Madigan is my dog and she can see into my soul and when I do things I am ashamed of, she knows but she licks my face, anyway. Fin.* **



*Glad to know I am not already breaking my “Blog Every Day in May” commitment since I am posting this at 11:21 PM Eastern Standard Time. Whew. That’s a relief.

**This paragraph is exactly 250 words. I counted.

love, elizabeth

PS: Are you taking the Blog Every Day in May challenge? If not, it’s not too late to join!

Blog Every Day in May

Jenni at Story of My Life announced a blogging challenge for the month of May. And because I have been feeling like a total failure as a blogger this year, I am DOING IT.

You should do it, too! You can even follow Jenni’s awesome calendar of prompts for the month! I’m really excited about this…

Get ready…

love, elizabeth

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1 and 15: Girls’ night in. Did my nails. Drank some cabernet. Watched Grey’s Anatomy.

2 and 16: Kyle at work. I was a super embarrassing wife and kept taking pictures of him. He still made me a café misto so I call it a win.

3 and 8: The Broadway tour of West Side Story is in Columbus! It was fun to see the Jerome Robbins choreography re-staged.

4, 6, and 9: At Panera Bread with Marni and Emily and French onion soup.

5, 12, and 14: Thrifting at Plato’s Closet. I did not purchase any of the things purchased but I might have if those hot pink jeans had been something besides a size 3 (my thighs literally LOLed when they saw that).

7 and 10: In the theater before Titanic 3D. I kind of wanted to steal the 3D glasses. They were quite flattering.

11: I actually remembered to take a picture of what I wore…cardigan: Old Navy, ribbed tank: Target, skirt: thrifted, galoshes: Wal*Mart, necklace: vintage thrifted from the Outer Banks.

13: With Zoey at the end of the movie…we’re a little bleary-eyed from all the weeping we did. She’s so photogenic!


love, elizabeth

GUEST POST: Jenni from Story of My Life

Today, I am honored to be welcoming my very first guest blogger, Jenni, who writes a beautiful (and extremely popular) blog full of gorgeous pictures of her family, her adorable dogs, Gracie and Cooper, her darling home, and all the great places she's been visiting. Not only was Jenni was my very best childhood friend but she continues to inspire me as a blogger and a photographer (although I am nowhere NEAR as talented as she is in either department!).




Why, hello Elizabethans.  My name is Jenni, and I blog over at Story of My Life.  Elizabeth and I were the bestest of friends way back when we were suuuper nerdy homeschooled kids both living in Germany.

Now we're just super nerdy grown-ups.  Some things never change.

I found a mildly terrifying rather endearing picture of us together back in our glory days, but I seem to have misplaced it now.  I wish I had it to share with you.

Anyway, Elizabeth and I reconnected thanks to the wonderful world of Facebook, and I have so enjoyed getting to know my sweet childhood best friend again.  Elizabeth is a doll isn't she? And hilarious. And disgustingly smart.  All traits which, I remember quite well, she embodied at the tender age of 9, as well. 

While rummaging around in my "memory box" the other day (the place I put all of the funny little trinkets I don't have the heart to throw away), I stumbled upon an old letter that Elizabeth wrote me after my family moved back to the U.S. and away from hers (we were 9 or 10 at the time).  I must have laughed for days after I read it, and it seemed appropriate to share it here. 

"Ynnek" is code for Kenny, by the way.  He's the boy we BOTH had a major crush on.

Oh, and I used to spell my name with a Y (it wasn't a typo).

Enjoy.

My favorite parts are:

Who will tell me to put my glasses on?

and

I will tell you what Ynnek looks like.  Remember our code words, Jenny

and

As soon as your email is hooked up, write me!  It is important to the well-being of our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren!

Hilarious.  I'm sure you need no further proof that we were pretty darn nerdy.

Thanks for reading!  Come visit me at SOML any time!

Story of My Life

.......

Cough. I don't think anyone is surprised that I went on to get THREE degrees in theatre. I'm so surprised Jenni saved that! On a serious note, I really did cry for weeks when Jenni moved away. For a nine-year-old to lose her best friend across an entire ocean was pretty devastating. Very grateful for technology and the ability to reconnect after all this time.

So if you're not already addicted to Jenni's remarkable blog, go visit her right now and say hi! A million thank-you's to her for taking the time to post here today!

If you're visiting Love is the Adventure for the first time, I hope you'll come back again! I love having you here!