Someday, I won't walk 3 flights to do laundry.

Apartment living. Do I love it...or do I hate it.
Jury's still out.


Things I loathe:

1. My old bent key that picks a fight with the lock EVERY time I try to enter our humble dwelling.
2. The upstairs neighbors that disregard the fact that they have laminate flooring and seem to have mistaken their apartment for a basketball-court-fight-club-ring-ninja-dance-club-concert-hall-bowling-alley. They're loud.
3. The fact that maintenance can enter any time that suits them--even when you are in the shower and yell, "One moment, please!" as you hear them entering to fix your light that keeps going out & your bolt lock that fails to function.
4. My light that keeps going out & my bolt lock that fails to function.
5. The. Really. Slow. Internet. (I just want to get through one episode of Grey's Anatomy without it freezing...does McSteamy live? I guess I'll never know.)
6. Buying your own groceries = $KA-CHING$. On the verge of becoming an extreme coupon-er.
7. I have yet to meet my neighbors. I miss the dorm's sense of community. I did however, meet one neighbor across the hall--of course I was out of breath and sweaty as it was upon my return from a run. 
8. The classy cigarette burns in our coffee table and the lovely dragon chalk mural adorning our patio--courtesy of the past residents.
9. The sink faucet that doesn't fully turn off unless you jam the handle back in place.

Things I love:

1. My amazing roommates. Seriously, they're pretty bomb. Sore abs from laughing = success. (I think this point alone can outweigh all the negative ones.)
2. DECOR EVERYWHERE. Thanks, Pinterest.
3. No need for shower shoes.
4. My very own pantry. 
5. The seven minute walk to Starbucks. 
6. Buying your own groceries = Baked. Beans. For. Days.
7. The couch. I would have killed for one of those bad boys in my dorm room--not that it would have even slightly fit.
8. Sitting on our patio watching the sunset. 
9. Someone is always baking. Macaroons. Cupcakes. Brownies. Banana Bread. Rainbow cake. Zucchini bread. Cinnamon Rolls. (Although still undecided on the how good/bad this really is.)
10. Being able to say, "why don't you come over to my place?"

Oh okay. I can't deny it. I love apartment #234. Loud ninja neighbors and all.

Someday, I'll be a good bowler.

Just needed to express {complain} publicly that the gene for bowling technique skipped a generation--my generation. I'm lucky if I break 100. With bumpers.

It's bad.

Points for style?

Someday, they'll shed their mythical implication.

When they come up in conversation--which is quite often--people often ask me if narwhals are real animals.

My response:

*laugh*

*realize they're serious*

*want to cry*

Yes, narwhals are real. Please stop stupidly inquiring about the existence of a clearly tangible arctic dweller.

That is all.

Someday, they'll go to Texas.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Overalls from this post, now have a new destination. So proud of my girl, Bonich Meister! Living her dream and going to TCU {Texas Christian University} now calls for our overalls to venture to Texas! Missing my sisters already as many of them are beginning to depart for another long school year away from our hometown of Wilsonville but thanks to these beauties, love is just an ugly XXXL Winnie the Pooh embroidered denim jumpsuit away.

Traditional photo for J & B...

Someday, I'll remember to pack my toothbrush.

It's the one thing I ALWAYS forget to pack. Just ask Natalie...in grade school, I just kept an extra at her house for sleepover purposes. Well a weekend trip to Sunriver, OR proved nothing had changed as I neglected to pack any agent of oral hygiene. It's okay. One gas station was fully stocked.

The trip was nothing short of entertaining. Between learning and rapping {almost} all the words to Hoodie Allen's "No Interruption," taking an accidental 13-mile hike {in full-on Bear Grylls mode}, getting eaten alive by bloodthirsty mosquitos, associating with tipsy Bend Brewfest goers, attending an  {to avoid the risk of sounding insulting} "alternative" music performance--we were only interested in the opening act--and many other accounts that delivered gut-busting laughter...I'd say it was a successful  trip.

So glad I could spend the weekend feasting my eyes on beautiful central Oregon.

*Oh and one final note: to the guys floating the river, awkwardly paddling over and asking if our inter tube device is actually a kiddy pool will not prove as a successful method of flirtation, nor will gushing about the flip flop you lost yesterday.
~That is all.~

"I be working like I'm Anders Holmvik."

Someday, it'll all make sense.

After slipping into a pretty regular running schedule over the last few months, I've experienced a lot of frustration as a recent back injury slowed me down and regressed my progress. I would go half my usual distance before a sharp pulsing pain cut into my spine. I gave it a few days and though the pain had eased, it was still present and the regression it has caused was highly un-motivating. I cursed this pain and wondered why things that hinder the plans we make for ourselves find it okay to make themselves so comfortable in our lives. It wasn't until a few days ago that I realized running more upright caused the pain to vanish. The annoying back pain that I cursed actually began to act as a cue that I wasn't running with good posture. So as this back pain acted as negative reinforcement and corrected my form, I noticed that running essentially became easier.

This principle, I've noticed, has become increasingly applicable to many aspects of my life. I make plans for the future--I think I know what I want and what will be best. God seems to have a funny way of putting roadblocks in the way of those plans that we often fight and question. However, if we can muster up the patience, we are blessed with experiences that unveil an ultimately positive reason for our struggles.


Cause the pain that you've been feeling
It's just the dark before the morning.
{Appropriate lyrics from Josh Wilson's song, "Before the Morning"}

Someday, I'll be graceful {part 3}.

First of all, the prodigal blogger returns! Summer hasn't exactly made me lazy, it's just changed my priorities I guess. Dog sitting, nannying, starting a new job, and breathing have kind of trumped blogging but I'm determined to get back at it...

In other news...yes, I have the ability to compose a third post on the subject of the clumsy accounts of Brittany Alexandra Hallin. This one's a doozy. It all started with an unfortunate spillage of au jus back in the kitchen of my workplace where I waitress. Upon getting slammed with more tables than my rookie, unexperienced waitress abilities could handle, fate graced me with an unfortunate step in this greasy puddle.

Well one thing led to another and before I knew it I was bum down and feet up with broken glass in my leg and a bruise on my tailbone. I am not sure what hurt more...my pride or my back. Well now, I'd say it's my back.