Learning to live on my own (again)

"I'm sorry, I've never done this before," I said to the AT&T girl while I was trying to set up my internet.
"That's okay, honey, we've all been there," she consoled.

I've lived on my own before, but never really on my own. College was four hours away from my parents, but I lived one semester at a time. Things like water bills and internet fees were included in the housing costs and everything was gravy. After graduation, I moved back home to save money for my mission. And as a missionary, I relied wholly on the goodness of the people in my area. Senior mission couples made sure that we were completely taken care of and we were often fed by the members. I mean, there was a lady in one area that would do our laundry every single Monday because she felt like that's how she could help us in our work. I was so richly blessed. While I had plenty of worries while I was on my mission, temporal concerns were never among those.

Friday the 14th was the first time I'd ever been to Austin, my new home. I am no stranger to moving, having lived in a total of fifteen different places as far back as my memory extends. The longest has been five years, the shortest was only three months. I crave the change, but I hate the adjustment period. That's really the best way I can define how I feel right now. Adjusting.

Mom and Dad stayed here the first few days. We went grocery shopping a week ago and I stood in the bread aisle, feeling utterly overwhelmed. (That's really saying something. Usually the smell of the bread aisle calms me right down.) The last time I truly grocery shopped was back in college... and I graduated two-and-a-half years ago. I bought ground beef and promptly forgot about it, only to pull it out a few days ago to find the edges graying, which I'm pretty sure isn't supposed to happen.

I'll get the hang of it soon enough--I always do. I know how to find Target and the library, which are my two rules for survival. Everyone I've met has been extremely nice, which has made the transition infinitely easier. I was delighted to discover that Texans really do say "y'all" all the time. (A discovery akin to when I arrived in Canada and heard an authentic "eh!" I'll never forget that feeling.) In the meantime, I'm going to work on carving out a routine for myself, find a job, and focus on the things that I KNOW I know how to do--starting with chocolate chip cookies.

T-minus six hours

I leave for Austin ridiculously early in the morning. So early, in fact, that I'm going to sleep wearing my earrings and watch lest I forget to put them on in my groggy, morning-addled state. But I couldn't pass up a chance to blog one last time from Utah. (Okay, maybe not so much from Utah, but from my parents' house. I'll be back someday.)

A Short List of Things That I Will Miss From The Beehive State, In No Particular Order

The mountains
Cafe Rio and their succulent pork barbacoa drenched with creamy tomatillo dressing
The abundance of temples
Fry sauce (It's okay, I bought a bottle from Hires to tide me over)
The BFF--Holy crow, saying goodbye tonight was the hardest thing ever
Downtown Salt Lake (Temple Square, the Gateway, the Avenues)
Driving past my high school--Beetdiggers represent!
My parents...
...and extended family
Actually going to General Conference in April & October
The canyons, the desert, the Great Salt Lake
I'll tell you what I'm not gonna miss...the snow. Later, sucka!
The mountains deserve another shout-out
Lion House rolls

Yeah, that's all I've got for now. It's late and I'm leavin' on a jet plane pretty darn soon.
Next time from the Lonestar State!

Halfway Through The Dark

I don't much go in for New Year's Resolutions. Reason 1: After the indulgences of the holidays, the last thing I feel like doing is motivating myself to do better, thus making me feel guilty for how I behaved during the whole month of December. Reason 2: Because everybody else is doing it and what can I say? I like to buck against the trends of the world, unless that trend starts with "Lady" and ends with "Gaga." (I regrettably admit that I have caught her disease, whatever that means.)

But I do believe in trying to be better, especially following a year where I simply tried to survive. (2010, it's been real, it's been fun, but it hasn't been real fun.) So, without any further ado, here are 11 things that I want mold 2011 into being.

1. Equal amounts of input and output, input being everything I take in and output being everything I give back. I got this idea from a post shared on google reader. It is now days later and it's still on my brain. (Seriously, if the time I spent writing equaled the time I spent thinking about writing...well, let's just say I'd be a much better writer.)
2. Catch up at my own pace. Coming home from a mission meant that I had a year-and-a-half's worth of books, music, tv, and movies to theoretically embrace and I continually get overwhelmed and cranky that I'm not caught up yet. I hate feeling that way about something I love.
3. Love Austin. I want to explore with reckless abandon, get lost, and discover hole-in-the-wall establishments.
4. Don't buy unnecessary things. Ooh, that one's gonna be tricky.
5. Watch more Doctor Who. I'm a bit of a novice Whovian, but oh how I love it. The post title is from the Christmas episode and even though it refers to Winter Solstice, I have decided to make it my mantra for however long I need it to be.
6. Take more photos. Find the guts to show them to others.
7. Take an interior design class. So I was watching TRON last week and when they were in Jeff Bridges' man cave I spent the whole time neglecting the "plot" (not actually a thing in TRON) and instead obsessing over the furniture and decorating techniques. That's when I realized I should probably do something about that.
8. OR take a sewing class. Maybe both? Sewing because I went to a fabric store with the BFF a couple weeks ago. I told her, "I feel like I've found my destiny and I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO SEW."
9. Have fun with Goodreads. Be my friend! Please?
10. Spend more energy focused on building relationships. The move will mean creating a brand new social circle and I am terrified. But also kinda stoked.
11. Continue to be totally rad in every way, shape, and form.
Kidding. It's really...
11. Make a conscious, daily effort to be grateful. Call it cliché or whatevs, if I can accomplish that one thing, then I will feel like I've done some good to kick off what is sure to be the most awesome decade ever. Word.