Saturday, March 20, 2010

Listless (not that kind)

The other night when I was packing for the aforementioned trip, I went through my usual mental check list of things to pack. Straightening iron – check. Chargers – check. Unnecessary amount of pairs of shoes – check. As much as I rely on lists to help keep me organized, I wondered during my flight how many lists actually ran my life. There was the list of things to pack, things to do at work, questions to ask during the trip, school assignments to catch up on… and in the midst of these piles of lists, I feared that my life was becoming just one big bulleted item.

There’s a show on MTV called the “Buried Life” which follows 4 guys cross-country in their quest to accomplish the 100 things they want to do before they die. Brilliant concept and a much more respectable way to earn fame compared to their MTV counterparts, Tila Tequilla and Snooki. For example, one of the items on their list was to play basketball with President Obama. (And here I thought I was ambitious for wanting to meet with the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan).

So given perseverance and persistence, it may be possible to achieve the seemingly impossible. Coincidentally enough, as I was kicking around the idea for this blog, I came across a timely article on CNN about lists women create for the “perfect man”. Here’s yet another seemingly impossible task: finding Mr. Perfect. I’m sure we’ve all have had a similar list of essential ingredients we require in “him,” but I’m glad to report that I chucked my list a long time ago – not because it was unreasonably long or even unreasonable, but because I stopped checking it. Sure, I’d like to find an honest, tall, cute, smart, funny, rich Indian man but given my track record, I’m lucky if the guy possesses even 3 out of those 7 qualifiers. I’ve fallen for a whole gamut of guys – from the hot model who couldn’t form a single grammatically correct sentence in English, to the 50 year old eternal bachelor (and I’m not talking about George Clooney).

Rather than check off a grocery list of height, salary, and degree requirements, my pre-requisites are a bit different. I’m looking for a feeling, not a type. I want the butterflies, the spark, the longing, the joy, the simplicity… and maybe these things won’t come packaged in an honest, tall, cute, smart, funny, rich Indian man. So forget the list because sometimes the only thing you need to check is your reservations at the door.