So in my continuing (ok, really, just started) efforts to be a well-rounded citizen of the earth (ok, really, just be more social than I currently am), I strayed off the beaten path and joined a club. A glee club. But not just any glee club. The Blue Ribbon Glee Club. Why different, you ask? Well, they sing punk songs. And drink beer. AT THE SAME TIME! It was my first “official” out-of-comfort-zone thing I have done all year (besides chop my hair…with a new stylist!), but this one was free and just required me to show up…and I said, what the hell?! I’ll try it and see. So let’s just say I’ll be back next week.
But it wasn’t even so much going the THE GLEE practice, as it was doing something different everyday. The practice was on Ashland and Adams, like, SOUTH LOOP! and I was driving halfway down there, and suddenly became aware of where Lincoln Park was…Where Lakeview ended…where the West Loop began…and it was just kinda like, hm…look at all these places. I have been so preoccupied with wanting to move out of the city, that I realize I have yet to explore the city. Granted it helps when you have someone to do it with, and I would not like to end up under the el because I turned somewhere wrong…but I digress. I suddenly realized how lucky I was to have a car that can take me to places I’ve never been…be it Ashland and Adams, or just downtown….it was nice to get out of my comfort zone…because I think we all become too comfortable with life…like me, I have a condo in the city, a dog who is relatively trained, a car, a job, and nothing about any of these things is new…and I became stale. Day in, day out, just doing what needed to be done, then coming home and watching TV (although I can justify that because I work in TV)…but I just realized that life is not going to come to you, you have to come to it. As cliche as it is, once you start doing something new, no matter what it is, every time you try something new, it becomes easier. The nerves go away. The awkwardness dissolves, until you are so comfortable with new surroundings that being a stale blob is unacceptable. And now that I have taken that first step to “new discoveries” I find that I am a little less stale and a little more substance than yesterday. Now if I could only use this new found knowledge to find a date…
It comes down to this: Stale blob or interesting human being? Like my mother always said, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Which I read as, “I can always quit”. You can always quit experiences, but you should never want to quit life.
Seize the day and all that jazz…and on that note, to bed I go.
