the first days

the first few days here all felt a little foggy. I think part of that is because a 16-hour drive through Nebraska is enough to make anyone feel off, and the other part of it was transition overload. the stark reality of what I’d just done (leaving everything and everyone to move to a place where I knew nothing) was sinking in, and all the emotions felt blurry.

so if you ever move somewhere by yourself, give yourself 7 days where you might feel like you’re floating (not in the good way haha. kind of like you just took NyQuil.), but then I promise it’ll go away! and soon enough you’ll have a real mattress and a couch and a schedule and life will feel like life again.

[also, if you ever have to drive 16 hours through Nebraska, I highly recommend bringing your cool best friend. Aubrey saved my sanity.]

but foggy as they were,  here’s what those first days consisted of (mostly for posterity’s sake):

– pizza on the floor. because what else do you do when you move into a new apartment?

– an air mattress on the floor.

– IKEA. In which I disrupted the flow of traffic at least twice and got in people’s way at least twice. But I left with a plant named Hugo and a sheepskin rug (actually idk what animal it’s supposed to be) that I named but later forgot what I named it, among other things, so it was a decently successful trip.

– Grimaldi’s. BLESSINGS that Grimaldi’s has a random KC location. Like, who just puts a Grimaldi’s in Kansas City???

– a rooftop. leave it to me and Aubrey to find a hotel rooftop deck with nobody on it.

– some tears.

– a really sad goodbye.

but even through the weird life-fog those first few days, being here still felt comfortable, and pretty okay, which was a blessing.

moral of the story: moving somewhere totally new by yourself is a weird experience. weird feelings. but get yourself some pizza and some patience with life, and then give yourself a few days and it gets better.

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the last night

i moved! yay! to kansas city! yay!

if you think kansas city is a lame place, or that it’s in kansas, I’m here to prove you wrong. (well, half wrong. technically part of kansas city is in kansas. but not the downtown part, or the part with my office, or the part with my apartment.)

but I’ve only been here a week, and it’s good.

also, moving to a new city by myself is probably one of the hardest things I’ve done.

but.

the place and the life are good. and that’s what really matters. I’m so, so grateful to be here. & even though this is one of the hardest things I’ve done, it’s also one of the coolest. how often do we get to start over completely from scratch, knowing zero people, and zero things about the world you’re suddenly in? that’s pretty cool, I think.

one of the by-products of living on your own is that you have thoughts! or at least I do. lots and lots of thoughts! but I’m going to save those for another day because I’m behind and I can’t just move straight on to the Kansas City thoughts without paying my respects to Utah and my last night there.

so here are the respects:

Utah, you made the last 4 years of my life the greatest. a lot of it was actually you (mountains!), but most of it was your people. so thx, peace, blessings, I’ll be back to visit, take care of my friends, don’t let the Wasatch fault line have an earthquake, etc. etc. etc. bye!

and here are some photos from the last night in Utah, which was a trip to Saratoga Springs, because I always wondered what life looks like from the other side of the lake.

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these next photos were my favorite…

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^^^is Joel’s leap not one of the most graceful things you’ve ever seen?

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^^^awkwardddd, the only one of these I didn’t edit hahaha…the editing ended up on the purple side of things, but oh well.

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^^^not a basic “peace out,” b/c please notice I’m just holding up my keys. also I need to get my hair done.

slc // in verbs

sometimes the world hands you a perfect night. and sometimes that happens to be right before you’re moving, and I feel like that’s not all that fair, right?? we went to Salt Lake last Friday with no objective in mind, and I think we were handed one of those solid nights.

aaaand here are the stories of the evening, told in verbs! (because I don’t feeel like stringing it together into an eloquent story tbh, haha. but sometimes story pieces are fun?)

SNEAKING // we accidentally snuck into the back of mass at the cathedral. (mass? a mass? grammar??) and by accidentally I mean that we happened to be there when mass was going on haha. and by sneaking I mean we just walked in and tiptoed to a bench on the creaky wood floor so we didn’t make much noise. Mass was super cool, actually!

DROOLING // over the Avenues. and tree-lined streets in general.

SPELLING // Me: “does capitol have an ‘a’ or an ‘o’?” / Kenzie: “it has both!” … That made me laugh more than it probably should have. & now I think I’ll always remember how to spell capitol.

WATCHING // this family on the capitol lawn was blowing bubbles with a giant bubble wand and it was straight magic. there was a little kid who would run after the bubbles every single time, and we decided that’s the epitome of childhood joy. and we also decided that if you’re dating someone who’s outgrown chasing bubbles, you probably shouldn’t date them.

it was a good night, that’s all. that part of Utah doesn’t feel like Utah, and I don’t know why I haven’t spent more time up there (in Salt Lake, and especially up by the capitol) this whole time I’ve lived here.

and here are some pictures!

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peaking???

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^^^the first time I saw KC properly in front of me, a couple weeks ago

Shoot, I haven’t been sentimental for the past couple weeks, but then I started listening to my mood music playlist at the end of work the other day. Freeeak, that did it. The life that I’ve built here—it’s a good one. I’m in a mild limbo where it’s too soon to really start packing, but I feel like I need to do something that gives me physical evidence of transition. Except for the 20 minute periods here and there like when I turned on my mood music at work and then all of a sudden it’s like, “noooooope, not packing, we’re not going anywhere!” and I feel like the kid in Walmart who just wants to hang out in the toy aisle and never leave. It’s weird to just be leaving all of it. I’m not just going away for a cute summer break internship. Nope, this is it. Provo holds so many people that have made me laugh and inspired me and pricked my emotions here and there and listened to me and brought me a richness that I never expected to find in college. Yeah I hoped and figured it would be good…but not this good.

Right now I have my people. I have people I can call when I need a ride to pick up my car from the shop, or when I need to talk something out, or when I need someone to eat the cheesecake I made just for fun. And hopefully those people feel the same way about me. But having people is a luxury I won’t have, at least for a little while, when I move to KC.

And beyond people, actually none of this life is going to be the same. Kinda scary, mostly exciting, but also scary at the same time. But progression is a thing. And most of the time I’m very ready to move on. But then other times…shoot, I just have so much here and it’s hard to get my brain to imagine a life with this much fulness anywhere else. But I’m sure it’s possible. (hahaha heck, it better be possible or else the rest of life is going to be a little rough. like, this better not be the peak!)

But any way you look at it, it’s a blessing to have so much here.

too cool for park city

[this is a story of not quite being in the same social class as everyone else in park city]

yesterday afternoon we went to Park City, just for exploration’s sake.

by the time we got there, we were hungry. so we walked up and down Main Street, examining menus outside restaurants, and it quickly became apparent that the majority of the Park City visitors must have a different idea than we did about what a sandwich is worth. either that, or Park City sandwiches must be have other-worldly flavor. idk which one it is.

so we settled on ice cream for pre-dinner.

then we walked through a neighborhood and climbed a mountain.

then we drove 15 minutes to find a McDonalds for real dinner.

then we went to a park commandeered by high schoolers.

then we drove home.

conclusion of the day: it’s definitely not that Park City is too cool for us. I’m pretty sure it’s the other way around.

(btw, did you know there’s a Banksy in Park City? so rad!)

*cue photo dump for posterity’s sake*

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