My name is Jordan. Hi! This is me cooking dinner for my husband, Kendrick, my lovely downstairs neighbors, Stephen and Dave, and two of my favorite girls, Francesca and Bevan. I firmly believe that food turns out best when you cook in heels and a checkered apron.
I’m 28, married to (and madly in love with) a gorgeous younger (!) man in an indie rock band, and think that domestic life is pretty amazing, even though I can’t imagine you would be able to tell that by looking at me, since I don’t exactly scream Martha Stewart. I wear dangerously short dresses, have a penchant for very high platform heels, and believe that one’s home life should be filled with beauty wherever and however possible. I also love Kraft macaroni and cheese, bars with dartboards, organic dog shampoo, lavender-scented candles, and mirrored everything (I know how that sounds, but trust me: the more mirrors in an apartment the better).
When I tell people that I’m married, their jaws drop. Literally. Which is strange, because being married at 28 isn’t all that unusual. But in New York City, at least, it seems to be the more “stable” and…well, slightly more conservative people who are the ones getting married young. Some of my peers worry about “settling down,” about conforming to someone else’s ideas about domesticity…about getting married, and getting boring. Others are dying to get married because of the comfortable routine that they believe comes in the box along with the ring.
But let me tell you something: the night after my husband and I got engaged I made guava-champagne sangria and we cooked hamburgers topped with whatever kinds of weird cheeses we found in the refrigerator and then danced around and around to Aerosmith until we were laughing and kissing so hard we could barely breathe. And he said to me, “Is this what being married will be like? Can every night really be like this?” And to that, my answer is a resounding yes.
Am I a chef? No. An interior designer? Hardly. A fashionista? I’ve been known to wear the same old college t-shirt and ripped jean shorts three days in a row. But I have very definite ideas about what it is to live differently, and to live well: you have to find what works for you, and run with it as fast as you can.
I don’t know if anyone out there is interested in my ideas about…well, anything, but if they’re not, that’s OK: the Web is wide, and they can always look elsewhere. But I believe in living actively, in paying attention to the creation of an extraordinary life that is all my own, and I’m indulging myself in the fantasy that maybe I’ll inspire someone else to do the same. Right now, my life is going in thousands of different directions, but all of them are mine. It’s true what they say: you’re not waiting around for your life to start. This is it…right now. And if painting your chairs hot pink or buying way-too-expensive olive oil to cook with makes you happy, then so be it.
Photo credit: Bevan Mahaney
