100 Things About Me (61-70)

"How long will you keep pounding on an open door
Begging for someone to open it?"

Rabi'a al-Adawiyya
8th Century Islamic Mystic

61. I'm a big fan of inspirational quotes
62. I'm afraid of rats and mice (though this former phobia has improved to be just a low-grade fear)
63. I jumped out of an airplane -- it was a 28th b-day present to myself. I loved skydiving and hope to do it again. Having a mouse in my house was scarier than that for me.
64. After law school I took the California bar. I can honestly say it was one of the worst, if not the single worst, experience in my life. Nothing about the whole experience was in any way pleasurable.
65. After the bar I went on a post-bar trip. In glaring contrast to my bar experience, that was one of the most pleasurable and enjoyable 7 weeks of my life. I went to Vietnam for 2 weeks and Thailand for 5.
66. I was supposed to only be in Thailand for 2, then travel to Nepal for 2 weeks and Japan for 1. I fell in love (was seriously infatuated?) with a British personal trainer who was practicing thai kick boxing and basically just loafing around Thailand indefinitely and changed my trip to stay with him. It was paradise, though it all ended up quite weirdly.
67. After my bar trip I made my permanent move to Los Angeles. Within one week of my 26th birthday I got my first solo apartment, bought my first car (2000 silver Audi A4), and started my career. I felt very adult. It was terrifying.
68. My first two years in LA were not very happy ones. I really disliked my job, I really disliked the city, and I felt like a fish out of water. My job was so stressful that I ended up getting an appendicitis. My appendix ruptured [shortly after 9/11/01] and I spent 9 days in a hospital bed. When I realized that I was happier in the hospital bed than in the office, I decided that I needed to make a change.
69. Shortly after returning to the office [and trying to wrack my brain to figure out how/what I was going to do next], I got a phone call from Sean. He was doing a Fulbright in Argentina and suggested that I come and take over the position for him. At first I thought the idea was totally crazy and said no. After about one day of thinking about it, I cashed out my frequent flier miles and got myself a ticket to go down there for a year. That was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
70. Buenos Aires was my favorite place to live. I felt like a fish in completely friendly waters. I truly flourished there. When I first got there [a couple days after arriving] I went to get a massage -- because it only cost $8 for an hour!!! I was all knots. 3 months later my parents came to visit. I brought my mom to get a massage too (did I mention how cheap they were?). The masseuse told me what a pleasure it was to massage me... I had NO KNOTS! I never remember getting a massage before and having no knots. I desire to live a life like that again -- a knot free life.