Currently :: June, July, & August

If I were a more brilliant person, I would title this edition "Retroactively" because that's a bigger and more accurate word for this right here, but what can I say. Brain cells have been zapped by too many days out in the direct sunlight. Thanks, Obama.

Without further ado... I have been:

WATCHING // so many beautiful sunsets, and so many beautiful giantesses (those Eastern Europeans! so tall! so mighty! I felt particularly midgety!) strolling down Stradun, the main street in Dubrovnik. Once back in USA Land, we beelined for the movie theater and checked off Trainwreck and Mission Impossible 5 Million (which was surprisingly impressive). Now? Finishing off Parenthood and FRIENDS.

EATING // well, everything. I went from daily English breakfasts to a personally curated Paris goodies tour to carbs ahoy in Italy to seafood in Croatia, meats in Bosnia & Herzegovina, too many brunches in LA and SF (there was one day in San Francisco that we had three breakfasts. Three.) and now to perching on the kitchen counter and snagging samples from my mom's stovetop whenever she has her back turned.

WANTING // to be on the road again, and to be moved in and settled in my new apartment at the same time. Can there be a happy medium?

PLANNING // a bridal shower! I'm single-handedly buying Etsy. Not even a tassel here and a cakestand there. No. I'm buying Etsy. All of it. And also, I'm arranging my new room, of course, so I'm also buying Amazon and maybe IKEA too because why let an excuse for meatballs go wasted.

READING // The Muse. I stumbled upon this career advice resource for millennials by accident, but think that we all need to be following it diligently. Does anyone else have any great career resources, columns, etc. to recommend? I've heard good things about Levo League as well. #GIRLBOSS. There have also been texts about Southeastern Europe, WWI, former Yugoslavia and its war in the 90s, etc. Notable: Ivo Andric's The Bridge on the Drina (a pain, but... I *heard* it gets better, *cough*) and Aleksander Hemon's The Book of My Lives, which was really engaging! And! Hemon came to speak to us in Sarajevo, which was quite the treat.

MAKING // my own food. In a relative sense. Okay so maybe not yet, but I went from Googling "how to turn on a stove" two weeks ago to begging some lessons from my mom and my friend Leah to now scrambling up some pathetic eggs, cooking some passable pasta, and asking for a Crockpot.

SAYING // "sve je dobro u mome svijetu," which is Croatian for "all is well in my world." It was on the label of a very inspirational bottled water company that always had something interesting for us to read. I haven't learned a new language since high school Spanish and I forgot how frustrating and confusing it can be, but I've got to say that it's so much more enjoyable when you're immersed in it all day everyday!

NOTICING // how, although Europe... I mean Europe is Europe, the USA can be pretty great sometimes too. Free water. Target. In-N-Out. Friends in the same time zone. It can also be pretty awful sometimes, but... aren't we all.

MISSING // that girl up there. After four years of living together – some years in one suite, some years in one room, and this summer sometimes in one twin-sized bed as she was coughing up bronchitis germs all over me but I'll take my chances because HOTELS. ARE. EXPENSIVE. – it's kind of sad-weird not being two feet away from her and our Apple TV remote at all times. 

NEEDING // the heat and the humidity to peace the eff out. Sorry. (But I'm really not.)

LEARNING // not to be a broken record about this, but I spent two and a half weeks learning about former Yugoslavia – all the way, way back when it was under empire rule to WWI to the devastating war in the 90s, all from an Eastern perspective. Therein lies one of the most important lessons from this summer: to constantly challenge myself to be open-minded. I didn't ever know that I never knew. I kind of want to learn forever and forever and well shucks too bad, diploma's in hand get outta here.

FEELING // the in between. The gray area. Like I'm in transition. 

Happy Monday to all, and to all ... a venti double-shot?