For a while there I was stuck in the metaphysical world of Haruki Murakami, reading my first book from the Book Challenge list. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle was a serious challenge since it consists of 671 pages, however, I successfully completed it together with my amateur review for 100knygu.lt. For something more down-to-earth and graspable I'm proceeding to Mantas Martišius' [ne]akivaizdus karas. Sadly, these were the only 2 books on my list I personally own, so I need to start looking for the rest. Since borrowing is not really an option, I think I'm just going to have a look in sena.lt - it has never let me down once. I'm taking the advice of one of you and putting The God of Small Things as my choice #3. I've wanted to read it since forever and I have high expectations for it. Hopefully I'm not going to be disappointed.

I'm going to leave you with a song that I hear on the radio every single time I'm driving (or, to be more accurate - learning to drive). Surprisingly, I'm still not sick of it.

I caved in. I'd promised myself not to do it this year, but finally I've made a compromise not to go all out and just settle for a short and reasonable list of things I've always said I'm going to do soon, but never actually did. Brace yourself 2013, I'm gonna cross out every single thing on The List this year, I'm sure of that!

#2 Get a job.
#3 Donate blood for the first time (planned).
#4 Register for organ donation (planned).
#5 Make breakfast my daily routine: cook, eat and enjoy it longer (in progress).
#6 Cook more: prepare at least 12 dishes I haven't made before (in progress).
#7 Finish getting my driver's license.
#8 Send at least 5 handwritten letters to my friends.
#9 Buy my first pair of high heels.
#10 See a performance of a symphonic orchestra.

Hopefully I can start with #7, it looks pretty promising so far. On Friday I had my first driving lesson and I can sincerely say that I'm totally hooked. It's hard to understand now why I've been postponing it for so long...

So here goes the story. On my 21st birthday I got this little fella here. I'm 23, almost 24 now that I think about it (yikes), and all that's left of him is half a packet of fish food and an empty bowl.

I know that at least in Lithuania the whole dance mania has started approximately 4 years ago when dance  shows appeared on the national TV, but I've never even thought about taking it up as a hobby. Okay, I'm lying, I've just remembered that I'd dragged my friend to a free try-out jazz lesson a couple of years ago. I wasn't serious about it, just wanted to get a taste of what it felt like. And that taste was quite bitter. First of all, we were probably the only girls in their 20s among all the teenagers, and on top of that they'd schooled our asses hard. I kind of calmed myself down with the idea that they weren't newbies, probably practiced in front of a mirror at home with a youtube tutorial on or something. So after this first miserable attempt I've pushed the idea of doing it as a hobby into the back of my mind and decided to stick to dancing only during Friday girls' night outs with my friends. However, after this New Year's party and my 2 awesome dance partners I kind of re-discovered dancing again. Ahh, it's such a thrill! I remember the time when I watched Dirty Dancing and thought to myself: Okay, so what's all this fuss about?! Well, now I know. And I want to experience it again and again! I know for sure that I want to take up a partner dance, but I'm still debating which style I should choose. I'm leaning towards lindy hop, because it involves basically everything I would look for in a dance: awesome music, great vibe, challenging dance steps and most of all - the history and the feeling that lies behind it. So all I need right now is a willing dance partner and a steady living place. I guess I'm going to start in spring when I finally settle down. And for now I'm just going to marvel at all these incredible couples tearing the dance floor apart...

A C C O M P L I S H M E N T S

Bachelor ✓

Last year on the very same day, or, rather - early morning, I was boarding the plane to Frankfurt for a connecting flight to San Francisco, going back 10 hours in time for the most amazing holiday I've ever had.  Somehow I managed to switch off my inner control freak and just enjoy the time off with not a single worry on my mind for 16 days. That's gotta be my personal record!

... and the next day I roamed the steep streets of San Francisco and looked down from the majestic Golden Gate Bridge.

This video brings back kind of a similar feeling of that peaceful harmony mixed with the silent excitement of the unseen and the unknown. Thievery Corporation was with me on every single trip there and it's my personal California sound from now on.