Driftin'

Since classes started in Chapel Hill, all the days blend together.  Long days up in the lab that turn into the kind of Franklin nights only Carolina students understand. Bungalow mornings with a girl who's become more a sister than a best friend, hungover lunches with the sister who's more than a best friend, and all the boys we share our lives with in between. 

The past couple weeks I've felt so removed from campus knowing I'm leaving here for the semester, but I've also never felt so connected.  3 years, and it's like it's been 21.  Chapel Hill has a way of sweeping you off your feet freshman year and holding you tight every year after.  And while I'm karate chopping air in excitement every time I look at my passport, I already miss it here so much. Such a typical pre-departure post. 

Also, if these last weeks in Chapel Hill have been perfect, there was nothing like yesterday. 

I've got an iPhone background and little red pin to prove it.

I actually don't have the pin. For reasons too perfect to write on this blog.

 

 

west coast heart from youngandable on 8tracks Radio.

And I don't know why this one gets me, but it does

I wanna take you for a ride on a big jet plane

I'm much too wild to have anything but the life-proof case for my iPhone, but I still find myself browsing new cases as if one day I'm going to wake up careful and sensible and I'll never drop my phone again ever. But if you're good with your hands, maybe you can buy one of these cuties and I can be jealous that you look awesome while I look clumsy and lame.

For every single one of these and more, do what I do and type in "iphone cases" at Etsy.com. These are just some top pickz.

Atwood

For colorful you.

Voguecase

For hungry you.


For messy you.


For District 12 you.

Handmad Shop

For dancing you.

Crafic

For hipster you.

Lisa Russo 

For beach you.

Herrbonbon

For Thailand you.

Weird Old Snail 

For cold you.

Let's be the dreamers we are and pretend that last one comes with the 100 tucked in there.

Shanlife abroad: Turning your packing nightmares into designer dreams, one pair of Mosley Tribes at a time

Italy essentials. And a song while you look.



I know this post will be irrelevant for people who aren't studying abroad this fall, but where tf else am I supposed to put this stuff.  If you are studying abroad, you already know all the packing tips and hints they tell you, so we won't talk about that. We'll talk about what you're going to need in real life, in real Europe.  Because the most important question that runs through your head every morning -but what should I wear- (pout optional) is going to get a whole lot harder. And because if you think for one second you're going to walk on that plane in your Norts.. think again.

Disclaimer: If you're thinking an InDesign graphic would have been much nicer for this, I know. I don't have it on this laptop so forget it. Anyway this post is just a brain spill/draft of the stuff I'm packing, so. Appreciate the spacing design or die. Each link opens in a new window! 



















Top Shop maxis
The jersey knit maxi skirt leaves all other bottoms behind in both style and comfort. It's like the socially acceptable way to walk out the door with your sheets still wrapped around you. I'm packing at least 3 for travel and emergency outfits. Seriously, you could sit for hours on a train or walk around town all day in one of these and guys wonder why we love em so much.  Now before you leave for the airport, take off the Norts and pair one of these with a white ribbed tank (god I hate the term wife-beater) and look at youuuuuuu, ya jet-setter.



Mosley Tribe Cardens
Had to find some cheapies at Urban Outfitters but I don't think I could set foot in the most fashionable country in the world without some American designer pride.  Oliver People's Mosley Tribes have been on my eye since Mary-Kate and Ashley and these 2012's have recently become everything to me.  Although we maintain a strictly screen-interface relationship. ($245 worth of butterflies and starry eyes going on over here)



The hoodie
It's already paid for itself working in my chilly lab, so naturally --despite it's grungy I-look-hungover-or-like-I-don't-do-laundry sex appeal-- I'm bringing it along for freezing planes and 12-hour studio class days.



Beaded cuff bracelet
The one I have was made by a jewelry artist in my grandma's little surf town on Lake Michigan, so I obviously couldn't find the exact one, but this one from Swell is similar enough.  I didn't like it at first and literally never wore it, but it re-surfaced recently so I gave it a go on my bare, right wrist. Haven't taken it off.  Bringing it as a travel essential because it adds effortless color and accessory to the infamous plain travel wardrobe. And goes with virtually everything.



Chucks
Lab shoes prove sturdy and reliable. Stonewashed because black is for gamers. You know the ones. Who eat potato chips and wear the wrinkly black t shirts that say stuff like "I'm out of bed, what more do you want?" Yes. I knew you knew the ones.



UO SkarGorn tee
I started the summer out with the Daydreamer LA tie-front boyfriend tee, but a summer spent living with one of your best friends means you both end up with half the clothes you started with because the other has the other half. So while this SkarGorn tee doesn't have any intention of tying the knot (haha pun definitely intended) I have every intention of setting her up with those new light-wash Citizens that just came in the mail. Oh look, now my clothes date.

I have a few more nicer tops, jeans, of course, and one of those short, stretchy going-out skirts that you're supposed to wear going out but I've worn more to the pool/beach than I have going out, in the suitcase, but honestly.......this is it.

 Happy Packing homies, hope it's everything you dreamed it'd be!

Could've been a princess and why living in the moment has become my greatest downfall

 

What is it about looking forward to something that makes you so happy? The satisfying distraction from the present. The excitement of the unknown. The possibilities of the future. The idea that it really can get better than this. 

I wouldn't know.

I have this problem- although most people would call it a gift- where I"m stuck in the present.  I can't look forward to anything.  To me, it doesn't get better than this. The Now. Thinking about what's next has always stressed me out to the point where I am crying myself to sleep or snapping back at the people around me (often the ones trying to help me) or even skipping meals.  I think, if I'm focusing on tomorrow, why bother with today?  And then today is shot to hell.

It's frustrating when things need to get done/something big is happening/I'm going to art school in Italy for a semester in less than a month.  I should be skipping around the house at just the sight of those words at this point, but here I am sitting on my couch with my mind on this bagel I just put in the toaster and whether I'm going to want cream cheese or butter. One on each? Jelly?  C's texting me. My bunny is licking my ankle.

It's like I can't find a balance.  This is a nice trait when I'm say, babysitting or out to dinner, doing something I can be fully engaged in something in which I'm supposed to be fully engaged.  But it gets complicated when things slow down, lists start to formulate, logistics start to matter and what's supposed to happen 3 weeks from now is more important that what's happening right now.

I don't know how to pack my charcoals in a suitcase.  They're all going to crumble.  Where do I put my turpentine? What if my brushes get messed up in my suitcase? Do I bring a bathing suit?  I want to wear my bathing suit today.  Email your adviser.  You have to eat every day, make sure you set aside money to pay for food.  What if I spend all my money on dresses in Milan? Why isn't that bad?

Why aren't any of these questions running through my head? I'm leaving in 3 weeks. The only thing I care that's in my suitcase are my paints and some Advil. My mom is asking me questions.  I don't know the answers. My adviser is asking if I have questions.  I don't.  Will it work out in the end? Hopefully. Probably not. Doesn't it always?

I'm going to help my best friend move in to her new place at her beach school now.  She started packing last night.

I was flying on a jet pack and then hit a stump

Well hi! I haven't dropped by in a while. Partly because I've been homeless and partly because I really don't have a reason.  The convenience of one lease ending 5 days before the next one begins should be starred and circled under the "ways to make life easier" section in the Popular Mechanics for College Living. That was supremely sarcastic, if you didn't pick up. So here we are at home home, late morning on a Friday just me and the littlest brother with the house to ourselves, and I'm stopping by to say whatever it is I've been meaning to say.  I asked little brother what I should say for why I haven't posted in so long and he said, "say you were flying on a jet pack and then hit a stump."
 ....So that's where that came from. In case we fooled you into thinking they were awesome lyrics or something. Nah.. just Kev offering a perfectly fitting story for this blog. We have the same mind.

I guess I could tell you about my morning. Not that it was particularly interesting, but because it was particularly wonderful.  I woke up early with that feeling that you just can't go back to sleep until you wash your mouth out immediately. Sexy, I know but I fell into bed last night extremely late and a little bit drunk so brushing my teeth didn't happen.  Anyway, I didn't end up going back to sleep but I found equally heavenly laziness on the couch with one of those intensely soft Target blankets and music videos on Vh1. I rewinded No Doubt's Settle Down 3 times. Later Kev came down and asked if I wanted eggs. First of all.. aw.  Second of all, he didn't mean just eggs.  A few music videos and low-budget lawyer commercials later, he brings out 2 glasses of this pineapple orange juice he mixed up and 2 bagel sandwiches so good, we ended up talking for 45 minutes about the restaurant we're going to open up and serve them at.  And how we couldn't call it Kev's Kitchen because that's the kind of place that would be in an abandoned strip mall with old flyers taped on the storefront window and the sign in white Arial-font letters with the lights burned out in the "tc" and the "ev's." haha! Instead he said it should be called Shannon's Art Room and he would hang up all my paintings on the walls so old rich people having brunch would look at the one above their table and be like hmm. ohh. That's nice, isn't it Kath? That would look nice in the parlor. I told him jackpot and he would have to play live music on his ukulele/guitar/piano/harmonica/electric banjo at lunch and dinner. (He really plays anything classified as "instrument.") We've got big dreams, him and me.

Here's the thing about the bagel sandwich. Just so you don't think I'm this obsessed with just any old breakfast food. Which I am so.. never mind.

Bagel toasted
idk why I wrote it like that
1. Toasted bagel
Baby swiss cheese (? I think it might have just been American from the deli, but I love how baby swiss cheese is called baby swiss cheese)
Onion
Lettuce
Bacon
Egg, sunny side up
One secret ingredient that I was instructed not to disclose. You know, in case the whole Shannon's Art Room thing takes shape. Thinking ahead.

Have lovely Fridays, it really is the best day of the week. And if I don't talk to you before the weekend is over, have lovely ones of those too. Mine's about to be spent with tax-free clothing and the people I'm going to miss most this fall.

CIAO
(I can start saying that now, right?)