Help me decide where I will live in 2012

What will 2012 bring? Will the earth be destroyed? Will aliens land on our planet? Will I once again fit into my skinny jeans?

I can’t plan for 75% of the possibilities that 2012 might bring but I can start to think about the other 25%. One of the key uncertainties right now is where I will live and work after I finish my MBA!

Since I am overwhelmed by a world of possibilities (literally, haha) I am now accepting suggestions. Send me your ideas, helpful tips and advice and your top reason for why I should live there (helpful if you can relate it to my particular lifestyle / interests, but even if it’s just because you had the best one night stand ever there, go ahead and give me your honest #1 reason) and I will keep you updated on what I decide.

If your idea captures my imagination, you get an internet cookie. If I do move to the place you suggested and yours was the reason that convinced me to do so, you get dinner out when you come to visit me. (If multiple people suggest the same place, the person with the reason that appealed to me the most gets dinner, the rest of you get to see pictures of dinner when you come over for a big beer and pizza party.)

If you’re still reading this, you must be wasting time at work. Just so you have more to do next time you’re bored, you can follow the list here and hopefully watch it grow.

Don’t forget, budding life coaches, send me as many ideas as you like via Twitter, Facebook posts, text message, email or snail mail. I look forward to hearing your ideas!!

The first fire

Do you remember that first spectacular moment when lightning strikes, and you are suddenly aware of the blood coursing through your body? When you are struck by the heat radiating from the most real creature in the world, separated from you by four welded pieces of iron and a porcelain coffee cup. When you look up and see a reflected burning in the eyes that look back at you. It’s a memory I have of you, and you, and you. Delicious, dangerous, divine, that first moment when you become aware of your own body as a tangible living breathing piece of flesh that has a mind all its own, and you realize that the world has conspired to bring you to this edge, leaving you teetering and fighting for breath and for control.

It doesn’t matter what comes afterwards, or if nothing comes of it, or it changes your life for the next four years. It’s only biology, chemistry, this physical spark that has nothing at all to do with the past or the future or common sense. It’s only your body firing up and ancient instincts awakened like they’ve been in others like you and unlike you, and it’s a heady rush to feel both prey to nature’s design and to feel all alone in that moment as if that desire flooding your senses is newly revealed to the world through you. You are an angel of fire and you are about to show us what it means to be alive.

To you, this could be about a meeting of minds, finding the security of a deep, calm emotional embrace that holds you afloat as you wade through the murkiness of everyday life, or the promise of an unchanging love. This moment is irrelevant in the long run. But in the short run, that spark, that feeling of heightened awareness, is more real than the dust you will walk home on.

In this moment, you talk to me about music, you talk to me about mathematics, you talk to me about the bird you once owned, you tell me about your addictions and vices and hopes and the dreams that slip out of your grasp when you open your eyes, and you understand that you have reached me. My eyes look into you and your hands are hot and your lips are alone and that ray of sunshine reflecting off my silvered hands binds us in silence.

Disappearance

I go to sleep with your hand in mine
I wake up at three in the morning
And you’re not where you were lying
And I wonder where you’ve gone

The window’s open, the wind is cold
The moon turns yellow and the night grows old
I wait all night for you to walk in the door
But I know I won’t be seeing you anymore

You used to come home with a smile
And we’d thank God for the life we’d made
We’d share some wine and talk for a while
About war, oil and how to make lemonade

One day you left the window open to the cold
It was dark and you weren’t there for me to hold
I waited all night for you to walk in the door
Till I realized I might not see you anymore

You kissed me softly and you put on your shoes
You said you were going for a walk in the park
At that moment I had a feeling I would lose
You promised me you’d be home before dark

But tonight the wind blows harsh and cold
The moon’s disappearing and my song is old
I wait all night for you to walk in the door
But I guess you won’t be coming home anymore.

Hope

I can’t wait to see you again!

We’ve met before
in the monsoon under cloudy skies

You’ve come to me
Over whiskey, wine, and cigarettes

We’ve spoken often
of change, beauty, and nothing at all

I miss you today
and I know you’ll come to me again

I will greet you with open arms.