As of April 9th, 2017, I am 29 years old. This is it, the last of my twenties has arrived.
As I type that, my stomach does a sort of drop.
I’ve been obsessing over time lately and the fact that I’m finding myself at 29 ever so slightly freaks me out. It doesn’t startle me because I’m approaching 30 and I’m having issues with becoming less youthful, but it alarms me because I feel like I’ve arrived at this point in time abruptly.
Life, with its mix of mundane and momentous, between work and errands and celebratory occasions, is moving too fast. I find myself feebly attempting to hold on to moments, however big or small, more tightly than I used to. Even more so, I’ve become increasingly guilty at not being present for every moment of every person’s life that I love. There is just not enough time. Life, in general, has picked up to a pace that I am not necessarily comfortable with.
I remember getting frustrated at the pace of time as a kid. I couldn’t wait to be older, to do all of the things; drive, work, et cetera. It’s funny how things change, how I want more time now. I want life to slow down a bit so I can savor the various simple bits of life. I find myself wanting to do small and insignificant things like tend to a houseplant or enjoy a cup of coffee with a loved one more so than ever lately.
With that existential rant in mind, Allan and I decided to celebrate my birthday (one of life’s celebratory events) in a simple, but exciting, way. We drove up to Napa County with intentions to eat at one of Thomas Keller's eateries, Addendum. We hit the road early on Saturday morning and headed to Martinez to start the day off right, with a cup of coffee at States Coffee (surprise, surprise my day started off with a coffee shop right?!). From there we drove up to Napa County and stopped in a small wine town by the name of Yountville.
Yountville is an unassuming, small wine town at first glance, but it contains one of the country's? most decorated chef's in its midst (I believe Thomas Keller has approximately 7 Michelin stars in total?). One day Allan and I will be posh enough to enjoy his super fancy restaurant, French Laundry, but until then we enjoyed his "to go" version instead and it was delicious! After we consumed our yummy fried chicken lunch we went to his bakery, Bouchon, and walked past (and heavily ogled) French Laundry.
French Laundry was pretty cool and mesmerizing (even from an outsider's point of view). Allan and I love this show on Netflix called Chef's Table (watch it if you haven't already) and SO many chefs talk about French Laundry and the influence Thomas Keller had on them or their career. In the show's opening they have a crazy fast paced violin playing, so OBVIOUSLY that was playing on repeat in my head as we creepily watched from afar. We could see the maître d's going in and out of the restaurant like a well orchestrated dance, we could see the buzz of the kitchen through the modern glass windowed kitchen in the far back (not to mention we were walking along French Laundry's HUGE GARDEN. It had to be the size of a city block at least). Walking alongside the restaurant and garden was thrilling enough, so I couldn't imagine the thrill of ACTUALLY eating in the restaurant.
Afterwards we drove home, but even the drive amongst the wineries, blue skies, and green hills with one of my favorite bands, Beach House, playing in the car was magical.
Once at home, the Worrell's surprised me with a birthday song and Willow and Winnie presented me handmade birthday cards. It was good.
So...here's to my last year as a twenty-something, I'm looking forward to what's in store and to savoring whatever that may be.
