the start of 2014

For the past week, I've forgotten what it's like to have a sister who lives across the country.

For the past week, I've forgotten what it's like to have an alarm or how to put on eyeliner.

I've also sort of forgotten about the internet entirely. Oops.

This week, I felt grateful for parents that teach me gym glares to ward the wondering judgmental eyes while you're lifting 7 pound weights and that it's okay to listen to One Direction as a 48 year old woman. My parents are the coolest and by that I mean the least cool. And I wouldn't want them any other way. Growing up and getting to know my parents as people is a pretty neat thing. I see myself in them now in a way that 15 year old me would want to dye her hair black and spend more time at the skate park if she knew I'd turn out exactly like them.

Spending time with my sister has also been, well, humbling. You know what? I am totally an annoying older sister. I totally worry way too much about what she thinks of me. I totally love on her too much. But this realization is a good one. A great one. My sister is her own person and she rocks it. I am my own person and I need to rock it more instead of worrying what other people think.

My boyfriend traveled across the border to visit me this week. It was only about five minutes before he showed up on my doorstep that I realized I had never introduced a new boy to my parents before. Upon telling my dad he was coming his response was, "That dude is coming here?" I think he fully expected me to introduce him to another skinny-jean-wearing metro piece of eye candy so I like to think that by the end of the trip when my dad had texted his few friends to come over to meet my new boyfriend that he was impressed by the floppy hair lanky marching band geek I brought home.

Have I mentioned lately I'm a really big fan of nice boys? NICE boys? The boys I wrote off in high school when I wanted someone who would write me poetry and go shopping with me?

On his last day, I wanted to go somewhere I'd never been. It took only thirty seconds and a few texts to declare that we were going to go the Palouse Falls where apparently the world record for biggest waterfall ridden by a kayaker is held. 186 feet. We took my trusty Subaru on the voyage and thanks to my overpacking tendencies, we shared a bag of pistachio nuts which was our only means of food for the entire afternoon. Oops. We listened to the likes of Beyonce and Arctic Monkeys on the drive. We found the treacherous trail that took us to the cliff's edge of the 200 foot waterfall.

This world and this life are pretty great when you make the most of a single day's potential. I'm going to miss this winter break. I'm going to miss it so badly. Every joyous splendid simple moment of it with the best people in my life.

satisfaction

Happy Monday! 

For the first Monday in fourteen weeks I did not: wake up at 6:30am to take a shower, walk to my bus at 7:54am, ride the bus at 8:04am, board my 8:45am ferry, arrive at work at 9:45am, work for eight hours, do the entire ferry/bus/walk thing in reverse, get home at 7:45pm, eat dinner, stalk the internet for an hour, read, and fall asleep by 10pm. 

I'm back in Idaho! Temporarily, for I move into my new apartment in Missoula in two days and I have a sister to say goodbye to before she goes to Virginia and last minute unpacking to do. 

I feel like I have a lot I could say. I have a lot of stuff I'll get to eventually, about Seattle, about my Internship, about city life vs small town life, about everything- and I'll get there. I'm still summer-ing and enjoying the present before it's gone so I'll just say this: I feel at peace. For now, I'm not eager to get somewhere else to do bigger and better things with my life because I finally started to do just that. I am satisfied. I feel okay with where I am right now in this moment and feel like I've been able to take a big deep breath of air for the first time in too long. Life is good and life is moving where I want it to go. There's no immediate rush to make any big decisions just yet about the future as it is finally just steadily going somewhere. I made the big choices, I got myself here, and I'm at peace with the now. Boy does it feel good.

I D A H O

There's a reason why I love my hometown. It's not because of the rolling hills or hanging out with my sister, though. No way.

I don't really know when my sister became so much cooler than me and surpassed me in her wit, likability, and way of negotiating really late curfews with my parents, but she did all of that and more. She got a better scholarship to go to a better college than I will graduate from, she managed to pick better friends than the ones I did in High School (and will probably pick better ones as a freshmen than I did), she watches way better movies and has better taste in music than I do, she has illustrated a childrens' book, and she did all of these things so dang effortlessly. I would be jealous but if there's any single person that I want to see succeed and be happy, it's her. And the fact that she does everything without making the mistakes that I made makes me happy, too.

This next week we will have our last family vacation before she goes off to college making my parents empty nesters. We're proud of her. But we sort of miss her already.
 

10 things you must do if you ever come to moscow, idaho

my home town, bless its little heart, is small but wonderfully so. for a town of 10,000 people whose population doubles during the school year when the students are here, it mangages to pack a lot into its two mile radius. i was never one of those people that hated what a small town i grew up in like so many of my classmates and i never felt like there was "nothing to do". i had my "things" to do and i still come back just for the cinnamon roll at wheatberries or the stroll through the cemetery (most beautiful one i have ever seen).

1) go to one world cafe and order an americano (best ever) or their chai tea latte. both are my favorites. get it for here and sit in the upstairs lot next to the railing in one of the adorable upholstered chairs. you can see every person that walks in and you're in the prime people watching location.

2) go to co-op and purchase virginia's tortillas for later. i've been eating her tortilla's for years and it wasn't until my senior year of high school that i actually got to meet the famous tortilla maker herself when she was my chaperone to save sea turtles in mexico. THEY ARE LIKE CANDY. i'm disappointed by every quesadilla i eat in missoula because they aren't used with one of hers.

3) drive on the old high way between moscow and pullman because it's the prettiest/best of the palouse you'll see. either that or drive on the old troy high way on lemhi because there isn't a more diverse drive. canyons, forests, rolling hills, and wheat fields all in fifteen miles.

4) visit the palouse mall. if only to see what a pathetically small mall feels like. mind you, i have to drive 500 miles to even step foot in an urban outfitters or h&m.

5) walk downtown and see the storm cellar because it's truly my favorite cosignment shop i've ever been in. the owner even follows me on pinterest and instagram. and if you wear a vintage dress, his wife/co-owner will compliment you and she's cooler than zooey d. i've found vintage lace boots, floral button up dresses, and the best sweaters. i'm partial to their vintage scarves, too. 

6) eat a cinnamon roll at wheatberries. they heat them up for you and they are the size of your head. my favorite is the caramel glazed one with caramel bits inside. absolutely mouth watering. and worth the 600 calories.

7) avoid campus. the university here is 25% greek. or at least, take a walk near the admin building but avoid greek row at all costs. unless you want to be entertained by idaho sorority girls in cowboy boots and flannel with greek letters embroidered.

8) walk through the fort russel historic district and see some of the prettiest houses you might ever see. many were built in the late 1800's or early 1900's. we're talking houses with turrets, stained glass windows, iron gate fences, bright colored doors offset with their brick exterior, white shutters, enormous multi level victorians, and everything else. it's my favorite part of moscow.

9) go to winco with twenty dollars and load up on all of their bulk food in bins. you can get everything in their bulk section; m&ms, peanuts, pesto, animal frosted cookies, sour patch kids, mozzarella, cocoa powder, white chocolate chips, and caramel covered pretzels.

10) eat at mike's. hands down best greek gyro's you will EVER have in your life.

time is on our side

I went back through some of my old blog posts yesterday and it kind of struck me how much things around here have changed. I've always blogged for the same purpose and I don't think the content has changed drastically, but I would say that my writing and narrative has changed. It's actually pretty embarrassing to read some of the posts I wrote when I was 16/17. I want to slap myself in the forehead rereading certain posts. But, unfortunately, I realize that we all probably look back at ourselves at a certain age and think we were all pretty ridiculous and in another couple of years, I'll probably think I sound ridiculous this very second. Unavoidable.

It's safe to say that I am a big fan of colored denim. I've worn these pants three times already and I already have my eye on another pair for fall. Today for the first time in a while, though, I got ready to post these pictures and felt a little bit underwhelmed because yet again, it's another "separates" post. Oops. Have no fear, I have a dress on today. Things will change up here pretty soon, I promise!

Let's just be honest here, everything about this post and the experience we had taking these pictures felt so very "Idaho". How many times when I take pictures do I get stopped to ask if everything is alright on the back country roads? Every single time. Also, as soon as we stepped outside of the car, we heard the loud "BAHH!" that was the sound of four sheep looking at us like we were dinner. Yeah, I'm going to miss Idaho when I go back to Montana in a few weeks.

shirt: Jcrew // pants & belt: Ruche // shoes: Modcloth

home

finally, finally, finally home in idaho.

rolling hills, co-op, seeing my preschool teacher at the post office, small town charm, old friends (best friends), my own bed, nights with my sister and her best friend, watching hours and hours of whatever television show we're obsessed with, *hot* showers, christmas season, my parents, being able to drive again, my dog, taking walks, babysitting, an abundance of ponytails, living ten minutes from niklaas again, the breakfast club, morning coffee made by my mom, my own laundry do-er (thanks daddy), passing out on my sofa which is way too comfortable for its own good, niklaas' lovely view of home, unlocking the front door every single time i leave the house, eating muffins every morning, unpacking (ughhhh), seeing presents under the tree, reading, missing dorm internet, sleeping soundly every single night, hearing my mom on the phone, neighbors & the gomez family, taking blog pictures, going to our favorite little church on the hill, josh ritter, and finally, finally, finally being in the place where i feel the happiest.

 

Idaho

In my last (and first) week of summer one month ago, I spent my last week at home doing all the things I didn't do for the first 11 weeks of summer. One of these things was biking as frequently as I could. I used to spend my summers biking on our bike trails that meander through the golden hills. There's nothing quite like biking through the rolling hills listening to Josh Ritter on a bike.








Oh, Idaho, how I miss you.