The Scintilla Project and the Number 23

Hello all!  I am partaking in something called the “Scintilla Project” which in short is a way for the blogging community to connect and share their stories.  For two weeks the mad geniuses behind the Scintilla Project email all the participants blog prompts that you can choose to write about on that day.  We’re pretty far into the project but this is the first prompt I’m responding to.

Today’s prompt is “Write a list of 23. (23 things to do, 23 people you owe apologies to, 23 books you’ve lied about reading, 23 things you can see from where you’re sitting, 23 ten-word hooks for stories you want to tell….)”

I saw this prompt and thought to myself, “Boom.  Done.  I’m about to own this prompt”.  The #23 is a faily significant one in my life…something you will realize after you read….

MY LIST OF 23 THINGS I THINK OF WHEN I THINK OF THE NUMBER 23

Prepare yourselves for 23 overload……

1. My little sister Molly.  She was always the #23 in lacrosse and I was #33, so on top of the whole sisters thing, we had the similar numbers thing going for us too.
2. My brother’s championship game. My brother’s basketball team just won the state championships, and he wore #23, I also wore #23 on my shirt along with a picture of his face to embarrass/support him at the same time.
3. Michael Jordan. How can you think of #23 and not think of MJ?  It specifically makes me think of when my mom took us to see Jordan’s last game in the Garden.  It was awesome.
4. My family. For some reason when it comes to picking jersey numbers for sports we almost always end up with 11, 23, or 33…and I don’t mean just my immediate family, we’re talking aunts, uncles, and cousins too.
5. Health insurance. My health insurance for some reason thinks my birthday is 5/23 when in fact it is 5/29.  They still believe this despite the fact that I have told them otherwise…several times.
6. My Dad’s license plate. My family is big into vanity plates, we all have them.  We decided that for my dad’s birthday we would get him a vanity plate with all of the kids’ lacrosse numbers on it…we wanted 332311 but for some reason my sister insists that you can’t get just numbers on a vanity plate…I still don’t believe her but we still had to go with a different version of what we wanted.
7. 1st birthday I wasn’t super over the top excited for.  I love birthdays.  They make me incredibly happy.  But my 23rd birthday was the first one I wasn’t having kittens over.  I guess it was the beginning of the stage in life where you start to dread birthdays…although 23 was a pretty good year
8. It was the first birthday I had to work on. Which might have had something to do with why I wasn’t looking forward to it.  First day of waitressing.  Woof.  Although my parents did leave me a $100 tip.
9. The 23rd of December.  Its like the night before Christmas but times a million.  My three favorite holidays are on the 24th, 25th, and 26th of December.  By the 23rd I’m all sorts of antsy and excited.
10. My phone.23 is part of the number lock combo on my phone…which I will now be changing in case any of you ever come in contact with my phone…
11. My job. I was 23 when I got my first real grown up job.
12. Tyler S. One of my best friends from college…he played basketball at Trinity (he rocked #10 not #23) but he LOVES Michael Jordan and therefor loves all things 23.
13. Snowmobiling. I went for the first time on Ollie’s 23rd birthday…it was terrifying.
14. Countdowns. I always seriously start counting down to an event when its 23 days away.  My favorite number is 33 but that’s too far away to start counting and everyone uses the number 23…
15. Tattoos. I once briefly considered getting a 332311 tattoo to stand for myself, my sister, and my brother, but then I remembered that I’m afraid of needles. And my mom….DON’T WORRY MOM I DIDN’T DO IT.
16. Adults. When I was younger I always thought you were an adult when you were 23…when you’re 10, 23 feels like a million years away.  Turns out, I was wrong.
17. My Second favorite number. Behind 33 and tied with 11.
18. The List. I might have had the most fun crossing off #23 on the list.
19. Blog stats. I got really excited when my blog hit 23, 230, 2,300 views.  Each one felt like a great milestone. Next stop 23,000 views?!
20. Taylor Swift. My sister and I have a slightly unnatural obsession with Tay Tay who always rocks a #13 on her hand when she preforms….I’m always #33, Molly is always #23, and Taylor is always #13….do you see a pattern?  Coincidence?  I think not.
21. My parents. My mom was 23 when she got engaged to my father.  They’re celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary this month. Ah love, sigh.
22. My first apartment. I moved into when I was 23 it was right downtown and the size of a shoebox.
23. This list. Was a lot harder to write than I originally thought!  23 things is a lot! I probably won’t be able to think of the number 23 without thinking of this list again.

Thanks for reading! xo Whitney