The Magic Number

You know you move around alot when someone hears you're planning to stay somewhere for 7 months, and they say "WOW! Thats a long time!"

Norman and I have been living in Kelowna for almost 4 months. And I have discovered: the magic amount of time for living in a certain area is 3 months.

In the first month, you're just getting your bearings. Figuring out where the essentials are. What the best eateries are. Where to go see movies where the popcorn is fresh and not stale. (In case you don't know, popcorn is MY FAVORITE. And movies are EVEN MORE MY FAVORITE.) That sometimes, the chickens escape from their coop down the road and come chill in the orchard where you like to do yoga in the morning. 

Here's a photo from the top of a magical hike!

In the second month, you get to discover the extra little surprises - that every morning, there's a wind just after sunrise that makes all the fall colors shimmer like something out of a fairy tale. Or that there's a COOL little board game place where the owner can't organize to save his life, but he knows everything there is to know about all the thosuands of games in his shop. That there is a candy shop that carries every flavor of nerds.

In the third month, you get to benefit from your knowledge. Spend every day enjoying the magical little parks you've found, traipsing through the shortcuts you're sure no one else has figured out, and visiting your favorite breakfast place and chatting with the owner.

Then comes month four. The shininess of the place has worn off, replaced with a fatigue that has less to do with sleep, and more to do with needing a change. You're sick of that stupid wind. And the candy shop is always out of blue and orange nerds. The movie theater is too crowded sometimes. You're sick of the parks you've visited a thousand times, and don't have the energy to find any more. 

I go on a walk with Jewels and Lana every morning, and I walk by these homes of people who have lived there for long enough for their homes to have stone signs out front, proclaiming the name of the family that lives there. And I wonder what it's like to "put down roots". I picture these families as giant, sturdy, twisted oaks - strong, and deeply rooted to the ground. I wasn't built for "putting down roots".

I'm a tumbleweed. This is me:

Resolutions schmesolutions

So.
This whole "new year's resolution" thing.

I made a list of life goals a while ago (aka when I was in Armenia), and have been slowly checking things off and adding things ever since. Here are a few examples of ones I've already accomplished:


Have pink streaks in my hair

Me with pink streaks. On the left, people.

Have hair down to my waist

Get a professional massage

Dance with Africans

Kiss someone whose name I don’t know

Learn to bellydance

Learn to play the cello

Kiss in the rain


Learn to waterski/wakeboard

After learning to wakeboard.

Have 1 secret that no one knows

Eat a whole tomato

Perform santa baby

 

Build a Japanese folding screen

So for my new year's resolutions, I'm picking which ones from my list I am going to accomplish. Here are a few I've chosen so far:

 

Ask out a stranger

Take 40’s glamour shots


Ride sidesaddle


Wear a corset under normal clothes


Skinny dip in the ocean


Play hide and seek in sunflowers


See a ballet (like, fo shizzle


Send a man anonymous flowers


Learn how to cheat at poker


Wear 6 inch heels


Go on a hot air balloon ride


Eat blackberries freshly picked out of a basket


Knit a scarf


Learn to sew


Be able to do the splits standing


Cross country road trip


Attend/throw a masquerade


Walk a poodle in high heels


Harvest honey


Ride a horse bareback


Run away for a day


Eat a pineapple in Thailand


Ride an elephant - again


Learn how to make a corset


Graduate from college

Milk a cow


Now I just have to schedule these. If you would like to participate in any of these with me, please let me know. :)

Right after my seester and I performed Santa Baby.

this is a vague one...

So this is possibly one of the most traumatic weekends of my life. Without going into too much detail, or basically while remaining sufficiently vague, this is what happened:

1) I accomplished 2 overdue life goals
2) Got my nose rubbed in the dirt - figuratively
3) Worked FAR too much and had my nose rubbed in the dirt at work (figuratively again)
4) Had my men's choir perform a number
5) Got behind on my book of mormon reading
6) got the worst grade I've gotten on ANYTHING since I've been home from my mission
7) got in an epic fight with my roommate
8) Got debased in a situation where I thought I was in control

Awesome. Happy valentines day everyone.