Living out of suitcases

So, for the past few weeks my life has been in a state of general disarray. All of my clothes are stuffed away in suitcases, shoved into some corner, or are boxes away and traversing across the country in the back of some eighteen wheeler. It drives me nuts! I'm desperate for a time when I can simply fold my underwear into a designated drawer instead of leaving them piled on the carpet. I know, my troubles are hard.

The upside is that Matt and I have been having fun playing house and buying new furniture. Its slowly coming together...the other day he and I purchased these fabulous 60's armless chairs from the nicest antique dealer. Apparently the chairs had be stashed away in someone's "stamp collection" room, simply waiting 40 years for me to come and give them a happy home. Along with the chairs, we got a small dresser that is from the same era, a credenza for the television, and a sofa from Ikea that I have been wrangling to assemble. The damned thing is giving me more trouble than I care to elaborate about.

High on the priority list is learning some French, dammit. This language barrier has reduced a once independent young woman into shy girl who hides behind her husband when a stranger says "bonjour" to her. Pathetic. I already suffer from a mild form of social anxiety (mainly answering the phone and having to talk with strangers), so the difference in language has only acerbated my condition. Maybe Rosetta Stone can cure my ills. Or maybe I need to stop being such a wuss...

Anywho, please enjoy the pictures of my favorite new chairs and my morbidly obese cat.

Well, where do I begin?

Nearly three years in the making and here I am, finally in Montreal with my freshly wedded husband. After several months of stressing and preparing for the event, Matt and his parents flew into Dallas on September the 26th and had our little ceremony on Sunday, the 27th. Now, I have never been the type of gal to meticulously daydream about weddings, but I have to say that I was very pleased with how everything turned out. The food, weather, accommodations, and company were perfect...well, except for the fact that despite a mild weather prior to the wedding, it was 90 degrees outside during the ceremony...but I guess thats the blistering charm of Texas. I found it cute that Matt kept commenting on how our wedding was "very Gilmore Girls" with the gazebo and folksy venue. After all of the familial rituals Collete invited all my friends over to her place for one of those unforgettable evenings. Friends brought over bottles of my favorite wine, we sat outside in the atrium and chatted, then spent the rest of the night playing on Jamé's Casio making the most supreme of beats. Most nights ended that way at the casa de Collete...sitting on the bedroom floor playing music, making crafts or wrestling with the kitties.

Saying goodbye to Denton and all the friends I made has been one of the most challenging events in my life. That place felt like an old pair of jeans that fits just right. The people are warm and all know you by name or by whatever antics you're famous for. The white Christmas lights that are wrapped around the great oak trees on the square are on all year round. J&J's pizza rumbles with the sound of live music playing in the basement. There is always something exciting in the night-time air...its the energy of 30,000 twenty somethings planning something great, or just doing nothing at all. That little summer town was the perfect place for me to grow into myself.

Now I'm here in Montreal after a 4 day long car ride through much of the country that I have seen very little of...Its a side of America that I have always known about, but was never sure it really existed. Its those rolling hills dotted with red barns and silos like one of those painfully nostalgic Norman Rockwell paintings. Its a different type of Americana. But, I'll discuss that later. There has been enough change in my life to ramble on and on, so I'll spare you for the time being.

It seems as though this rainwater will never cease from tumbling from the slouching sky. I'll just be here, in this box, sleeping on this bed, waiting patiently for the sun to come out of hiding and show the world her pretty face. But until then, its embarrassingly long naps and wistful sighs seeping through the cracks under the window.

10 things I highly recommend

1. Share a one-person umbrella with a good friend
2. Make yourself a decedent breakfast. Eggs, toast, sausage, coffee, the whole nine yards.
3. Shout out the answers to "Cash Cab" even if you are watching alone.
4. Make a pot of coffee at 2 a.m. so you can stay up making crafts in your friend's bedroom.
5. Go see William Kentridge's exhibition if it's coming to your local modern art museum.
6. Get high. At least once.
7. Keep a sketch pad on you at all times because you never know!
8. Buy some absurd shoes and wear them to inappropriate events.
9. Never pass up the chance to make your friends laugh by making an absolute fool of yourself.
10. Make a pizza from scratch. It's astoundingly time consuming.

There comes a time when you finally feel as if your past is beginning to compound into some formidable history. I look back on the map of my life and trace the history with my finger, smoothing over each serpentine road that carries my story. With each leap forward there is a very definitive marker that sets the standards of what my life will be like in the future. This is a big one, up there with moving out of my parents home to go to college, my sister moving away to California, and graduating. But, my goodness how the time accelerates as I grow a little older each day. My childhood is rushing further and further from view... Those memories are becoming a little more fuzzy and improvised as time passes on. Eventually my history will only exist in the fading photographs and the often-failing memory of people.

This oh-too-long-goodbye has given me the realization that I should try be kind and give something good to everyone. Even to the people that I cannot find any common ground to stand on between us. Because when I leave this town or country or this life, I won't have the ability to explain my motives or apologize for sketchy behavior.

fall lovelies

I am absolutely in love with all of my finds! I hope you are too! This will most likely be the last Etsy update for a while. With a small wedding and great-big-move to plan, I'm going to be unbelievably busy. So, get 'em while you can!

When I think about those grown over alleys and spiral staircases, I feel my heart pitter-patter. There are times that I cannot believe that I will inherit such an amazing city...all to myself! No more waving goodbye from the elevated seat of an airplane or "last night" excursions through the slanted streets. I have to keep my mind focused on these wonderful treasures or else I start to dwell on all the investments that I'm leaving behind here. Sometimes its hard to believe that I will be doing all these "adult" things all at once...with one felled swoop I'll be moving to another country, becoming a citizen, and becoming a wife to a spectacular man. I'll be the first amongst all my friends to leave. Maybe I can pave the way, show them that humble beginnings can lead to a greater elsewhere. Wherever they find their elsewhere to be.

One month and everything is new again.