on travel

i'm feeling antsy in provo, today.
it's an adventure - but some days i'm not sure if it's big enough for me,
or if it's my adventure for more than a short while longer,
it's a growing feeling, and i can't pinpoint when it started.

it must have been somewhere between a cross-cultural family development course
in which i have no previous experience with other cultures
and most of the others do.
the seed could have been planted when natalie left for london,
but more likely when she came home -
with descriptions of the markets, the food, the diversity.

it might have been before that:
something of my own doing, by displaying
the beautiful hand-painted blue turkish bowl.
the intricate spoon from uruguay.
an eiffel tower lamp, always hovering above my bed.
a miniature vintage mannequin - from natalie, in london.
a desktop image of italy.

last night, i was {yet again} opened to the possibilities.
my friends sat around me, talking about
the places they'd been
things they'd seen

i've always been content at home.
happy to let others travel and see their spoils,
but it's getting to me.

and i'm antsy in provo.
hopefully just today.

excursions

it's been three weeks since i moved from my beautiful sunny red mountains to the mysterious green and cloudy ones.  it's crazy how fast times flies - especially once classes begin and all thoughts of the passing of time (except for the upcoming deadlines) just sort of... fly out the window?  anyway, it's been a crazy three weeks.  natalie and i laughed so hard at the end of the first week because it had taken us so long to move in!  an entire week and there were still boxes everywhere.  so, to get away from the boxes, we decided to take a little trip.

notice natalie, buried behind all the boxes and completely unable to come out of her room.  this is why we needed a getaway.

we also needed haircuts; it had been a terribly long time.  so we took a little drive up to my aunt julie's for a trusted trim (and new bangs for natalie).  afterward, the real fun began.  we drove a little further north, to the gateway mall - i'd never been before, and considering the rather landmarkish destination point it is, we figured it would be worth the short drive from my aunt's to the mall.  and oh, oh oh, it was.  

my favorite part of the day: anthropology.  i'm a long-time catalog collector (the photography is so artfully beautiful!), but i'd never actually been inside the physical store, just the mental one.  luckily, we hit some killer sales, as well.  who would pass up a pair of two-hundred dollar pants for thirty dollars? not me, certainly!

the aprons were to die for.

and the home decor practically screamed my name.

two happy girls!

kitty missness

"WE the people of the johansen household, in order to form a more peaceful union, establish regular sleeping habits, insure domestic tranquility, provide for collective mental sanity, promote the general well-being, and secure the blessings of family peace and love to ourselves and our posterity, do plea for the complete surrender of hostilities and warfare between co-residing domestic felines everywhere."

this, the preamble to the extermination of feline contention, was written a little over a year ago by yours truly.  our two little cats had kept us (the entire family) awake for the past consecutive week with their midnight battles.  we were to the point of separation - breaking up the family, so to speak (although after two class periods in part devoted to the subject, i understand the cats in actuality never could be a part of our family system).  

it's funny how frustrated with the two little fur-balls we were.  now, i would give quite a bit to have them fighting in my apartment at night.  i miss these two just as much as i miss my family, especially waking up in the middle of the night being pushed off the bed because they wanted to snuggle so close.

i can't wait to see my holly and merlin!

baby holly (ticky), falling off the bed.

mr. merlin (merlincito), a little camera shy.

the LOVE game: III

1. i love coming home to a clean room with white sheets and pillowcases.
2. i love wearing aprons (even when i'm not cooking).
3. i love sunday afternoons, quiet and rejuvenating.
4. i love the counter after my roommates and i go shopping - as if we've stolen the entire produce section.
5. i love doing yoga with the lights off and my eyes closed {eleven-o-clock at night}.
6. i love the sunlight that streams through my window from four to six everyday making yellow stripes across my bed and walls.
7. i love walking through the streets of provo, dreaming up stories for the impossibly-perfect houses, and feeling content doing so.
8. i love ginger tea in the evenings, snuggled in the folds of my grandma-made quilt.
9. i love eating in a group, passing the food like family, talking about design or art and tasting exotic chocolate.
10. i love taking the time to drink in a moment or conversation with all the senses, committing it to a place of memory deeper than description.