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Packing, Packing, Packing

I'm off to Cape Town in exactly 24 hours.

Yep, it's actually happening.

This calls for one of my favorite, yet strenuous, activities. Packing. I'm the epitome of the over-packer, the over-thinker, the over analyzer; basically, if it can be done over-board, then I have found a way to do it. So needless to say, packing is a slight challenge.

Also, did I mention it's winter in South Africa?  So not only do I have to figure out what to bring, but I have to make sure that it's warm enough also. I spent two hours last night "starting to pack", also known as "Oh I can take this" *throws item on chest in bedroom* "Oops, I can't even begin to narrow down all this." I haven't even gotten my suitcase out yet. .

And I'm absolutely estactic about finally heading off...except that teeny tiny minuscule detail about having to be on a plane for about 21 hours. But don't worry! It's not like I'm convinced that South Africa is just so far away and the odds of me making it back in one piece aren't so great. Or that I've never slept on an airplane in my life and it's not looking like that's about to change anytime soon! No worries, I've got it all together.

Oh wait.

I still hate flying. Come on guys, y'all should definitely know this by now. I strangely love traveling, airports, layovers, doing nothing for hours, etc. but I would just prefer it if we weren't suspended thousands of feet in the air. My mind is extremely over-creative (there's the over word again) so I'm thinking about thousands of different scenarios that could come up on this trip that would prevent me from making it home. Yes, I know that the odds are in my favor, and I'm safer up there than in a car, and yada yada yada, but that doesn't make it easier on my mind!

I'm also scared because South Africa is so far away. Like very far away and my mind can't wrap around the fact that I will be very far down on the southern hemisphere. The likelihood that we fall off the globe is highly unlikely (or nonexistent) but that hasn't stopped me from convincing myself that it's a strong possibility. I know I'm ridiculous. Bear with me. 

I'm prepared as prepared can be though. Kindle is stocked with the autobiography of Nelson Mandela, along with a fourth of the way finished Pillars of the Earth. Marilyn has supplied me with Benedryl to knock me out and keep me unconscious for as much as the flight as possible. And I've been praying about this for a long, long time. I find myself telling God (as if He didn't already know) that this was one of the scariest couple of months I've ever faced with graduation, this trip, and college. While I'm still terrified about it all, I know that He hasn't given me a heart of fear. He is present, and it's my job to be present in Him. While I'm terrified about what everything holds in my future, I know that now is the time to FULLY cling to God. So simple to do as a senior in high school when life was good. No other word could properly describe the simplicity, joy, and pureness that God has blessed my days with but good. Now that I start to shiver in the air of newness, on the brink of adventure in it's truest form, is the time to seek God's faithfulness rather than submit to my very human fear.

Keep me in your prayers, lovelies, and I'll do the same. Pray for a sense of place, unhindered love, and the fearlessness that comes from Him alone.

To the Moon and Back,
Allie

"For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline."
- 2 Timothy 4:7

Well...

Yeah, yeah...I know I completely bailed on that idea. 

BUT,

last time I checked, this was my blog and I am free to do as I please.

Apology accepted? 'preciate it. 

Along with my apology, please accept these pictures as a token of my sincere regret.

This past week I got a keratin treatment.

Before...

...and after.

Gotta love modern haircare technology.

I continue to surprise myself with my productivity at work.

I'm also digging summer veggies, along with rosemary chicken that Marilyn has been growing in the backyard. Rosemary, not the chicken. 

Tiger also digs it. Cursed, yet beloved feline companion.

I also baked peaches for the first time ever.

SO DANG GOOD.

Half and de-pit peaches. Throw them on a pan and top with blueberries, honey, nutmeg, and cinnamon.  Toss them in the oven for 12 minutes at 400 degrees and you have heaven.

I decided to try them out because we had a surplus of peaches, and I thought that if you could bake apples, then of course you can bake peaches!

Actually what I thought of was, "If Santa could do it, so could the Grinch?"

Speaking of Santa, did you know that when you burn a Christmas tree that this happens?

1 week from today I'll be on route to Cape Town. Slightly overwhelmed with both the packing and the flight times, but still so, so excited. 

My sweet friend, Libby, brought me back a coffee mug to add to my collection from "the cutest town ever" in Italy. And I love it.

And finally, before Justin Beibers, Channing Tatums, and even George Clooneys, the world had Captain von Trapp.

If that look doesn't say, "Get on my level", then I don't know what does.

Over and out,

Allie

"Somewhere out there is a lady who I think will never be a nun." - The Baroness, The Sound of Music

Day 4

Day 4 = Leaves.

Leaves = Fall.

Fall = Football Season.

Football Season = 

That's all for today, folks.

Allie

"Have class, show pride, and display character. If you do, winning will take care of itself."

Paul "Bear" Bryant

Happiness is a Food Truck

For day 3 {happiness}, I decided that food trucks are the epitome of happiness.

Okay, maybe I just didn't want to go very deep today, and happiness is a broad topic to write about. The fact that I'm going to the Summit in 22 minutes to a food truck congregation might have something to do with today's inspiration.

Here's the thing about food trucks that I didn't realize until I started to ponder the concept of one myself. There's nothing different than the food served there and the food served at their respective restaurants. So why do people become so very infatuated with these food on wheel establishments?

1. The food is generally extremely good. The expression, "the way to a man's happiness is through his stomach" holds true. Except for our purposes, it's more of a "the way to any human being's happiness is through his local food truck."

2. The food is fun. Period.

3. The vendors are quirky and local, therefore they are identifiable to customers. It's a fact that happiness comes with being who you truly are.

4. Food trucks are occasionally grouped together in one place, because have you ever met a person who isn't happy when they're around their friends?

5. They're something out of the ordinary. There's nothing better the surprise of finding a food truck parked on a summery Thursday afternoon.

6. They can move. Same good food as the mother restaurant, but the ability to seek an adventure of mobility.

Happiness is wholesome goodness.

Happiness is a spirit of pure fun.

Happiness is sometimes weird.

Happiness is being with people who you love {and who love you as well}.

Happiness is a simple unexpected perk.

Happiness is the ability to maintain your roots, but also to roam and explore.

*Some food trucks you should try to hunt down on your weekend days...

Couldn't find a picture of the truck, but these things are the BOMB.

Of course, the Seaside regulars.

You've gotta love a taco truck.

Of course.

To the Moon and Back,

Allison

"If you are not barefoot, then you are overdressed."

Day 2: Smile

Today's kind of a rough day to think about smiling, hate to admit it.

My morning began with my daily run, and let me just say, the bliss I enjoyed in weeks 1-3 is almost nonexistent in week 4. It's hard. Not just like "ahhh can I walk now?" More like, "Why is my side burning randomly? Dear Lordy, it is HOT. I've been running a while... I can go ahead and check how much longer I have. 3:34 LEFT???? (Keep in mind that the hardest parts of my workout is when I have to run the two 5 minute segments. I'm not a runner, no hate.) Why, oh why, do I live in an area with so many hills??"

So, this morning was rough and I kept thinking about the coyote I saw casually prancing down the road in broad daylight last week. Well, at least I was distracted while I figured escape routes from any possible unwanted animal interaction. My day continued slightly downhill (Not my run, that is. It was uphill and proud of it.) as I went to go get my first ever Keratin treatment done on my hair. I was excited, emotionally prepared for the cost that would lead to many afternoons in children's clothing retail in order to cope with the cost, and even enjoyed a diet coke while I waited for the oils to seep through my unruly curly hair. And then, as I'm sitting there, immersed in Pillars of the Earth, the receptionist came up to ask me if I drove a dark Toyota SUV. I replied that I indeed did, and she proceeded to inform me that some random driver pulled in, scratched my pride and joy of a vehicle, and drove off. 

LIKE WHO EVEN DOES THAT?!

Luckily, the nice guys inside of Davenport's Pizzaria kindly gave their eye witness account to the police officer while I finished my treatment. After I paid the cost of the treatment and shampoo, that actually was higher than I initially had planned,  I got to talk to the police officer who kindly figured everything out and got me settled to get the accident report. By the time my mom pulled up, I was standing by my bruised car, with my newly board straight hair, sobbing my eyes out because I was turning into a money pit. This breakdown continued to become yet another "Please don't make me go to college" rant, in the middle of lunch hour Mountain Brook Village.

But in the words of my sweet friend, Hannah, I just need to "Cheer up, Buttercup!" After I cam home and cried a little longer, I ate a lunch of corn on the cob, asparagus, tomato, and sauteed squash and onions with my mom while watching Animal Cops: Houston. Currently, I am sitting on my couch with a fresh cup of coffee, and a pile of newly acquired magazines to pick through. At this point, it can't hurt to smile.

Smiling through tears, smiling through the rim of my England coffee mug, smiling at the prospect of a Target run this afternoon (4th time this week...), smiling that this time in two weeks, I'll be on my way to Cape Town, and smiling that it is June 12 and I am home, healthy, and very content. Smiling that I can't run for two days because of my hair, and smiling that there is a half watermelon in the fridge screaming at me to cut a huge slice off and to enjoy the rest of my day.

Stay beautiful,

Allie

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us whether we find it or not."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

30 Day Challenge

So, I've been kind of in a writing funk recently. I blame summer boredom and the lack of anything remotely interesting filling my days as a non-senior/high school student and a pre-freshmen/college student. It's a sort of strange purgatory in a way; I'm straddling two different life phases and I'm just sort of hanging in the balance in a limbo like state. Stop me if I'm wrong, but I think you've heard enough of the everyday mundaneness that are summer jobs, baking experiments, and target runs.

What's a journalism and history double major to do in a time like this?

Resort to an Instagram 30 Day Challenge, of course.

If you can capture it visually, then it 100% can be captured in words. 

Day 1: Favorite Food

30 Day Challenge, you're making it way to easy. How did you know to start off on my favorite subject?

If I was to be sent off to a desert island, or better yet, anywhere outside of a 5 mile radius from Auburn campus center, and you said, "Allison, you get to eat one food to survive. What do you want?", I would most likely say birthday cake. But not just any cake, it would have to be an Olexa's birthday cake. Most birthday cakes have the "cake to frosting ratio" completely skewed, but not Olexa's. It's not that I don't like the actual cake part, but if the layers are too thick, there is no way in hey that the middle of the layer isn't going to be dry in comparison to the 25% that is closest to the icing border. In an Olexa's cake, the icing and cake layers are perfectly ratio-ed, 1:1, and so you are never deprived of the appropriate amount of each element. Also, the cake is fabulously moist, and the icing has the richness of buttercream, but the substance and strength to support the meat of the cake. Dear Mrs. Olexa, whoever you may be, I owe you so much.

And while we're at it, if the same person who asked me the question earlier, also inquired, "Allison, if you could eat at one restaurant for the rest of your life, which one would it be?" It would probably be Olexa's too. Technically this place is the poster child for chick food, but it's got my southern obsessions like chicken salad, and also my French favs like quiche and a mean goat cheese salad. 

Honorable Mention (Food):

Peanut Butter

Everything Bagels (toasted with light cream cheese)

Pancakes

Barbeque anything

Turnip Greens

Honorable Mention (Restaurants):

Chez Fon Fon, Birmingham

The Last Resort, Athens

Pablo's, Birmingham

DePalma's, Tuscaloosa

Irondale Cafe, Birmingham

To the Moon and Back,

Allie

"I learned to cook when I was 36. Before then, I just ate." 

- Julia Child

Wanderlust

Wanderlust:

(noun)a strong desire to travel

Summer has set in and my days are filled with college prep (that you had the privilege of reading all about here), long days in my little corner of Mountain Brook, and excessive quantities of lemonade and watermelon consumed daily. At the same time, as there is nothing I love more than an Alabama summer, the feeling of wanderlust sets in. You know, no obligations, no activities filling your schedule, no nothing, and all you want to do is get away. To the beach, to the mountains, to a different city, to a different country. Luckily, I have a perfect opportunity to answer this gnawing in about 19 days when I board the plane bound for Capetown, South Africa.

I know you're thinking, "Allison, that's a 27 hour flight time. Don't you hate flying?"

Yes, loyal reader, flying is not my forte to say the least and I'm choosing to just think about all the fun and new experiences I'm going to have when I have both feet firmly planted on the ground. Also, where there is a will, there's Ambien. 

Another concern I'm having is basically stemming from my biggest fear ever, which is of big things. I actually just googled it out of curiosity and it's actual term is megalophobia. I just always get intimidated by anything that is utterly massive like the earth, for example. It's HUGE; do you ever stop to think that the world is just a MASSIVE marble suspended in the air in just one galaxy that is GIGANTIC which is one of A TON of other galaxies. Gulp. Also, I'm slightly scared of big cities. I absolutely adored New York, but I always have a fear that one of the huge skyscrapers is just going to collapse randomly. Totally rational I know. This is also exactly why I'm scared of flying because not only are you in a big plane, high up in the air, going a long distance, but also the whole system of flying is so universal and complex that it overwhelms me. Think about it...millions of people fly every day and the system has to be perfect to get flights landing and taking off safely. Not to mention all the gears and contraptions in this massive plane have to all be working together to get the plane air borne. Megalophobia also is the cause of my fear of college, the ocean (not that I don't love the beach, I just can't let myself over think the ocean), and whales. 

One of my friends pointed out to me that basically this is me fearing the inability to control things that are too massive for me to either exert a power over or wrap my mind around, which is completely true. I've convinced myself that there is a possibility that the plane could be so far south on the earth that it can just fall right off into outerspace. Readers, there is absolutely no chance this could ever occur (trust me, I've googled that too) but it still creeps me out because I would be in a plane and there would be nothing I could do to stop it. I can't control the ocean tides, air traffic control ops, electricity in big cities, or whales' daily activities and that utterly terrifies me. Complex colleges, like Alabama, so big I'm still confused about how people's schedules work out or they have enough places for people to live. Therefore, it freaks me out.

If you're still hanging in there for the end of this rant and aren't looking up the number for the closest (and smallest) insane asylum, here's the gist of my phobia analysis. In this life, there is so much of which I have no control over. But here's the good news, God does. Not only is God the endless pursuer who follows His beloved to the ends of eternity, He also fills the heavens and earth. Though I often try to curl up and disappear, or flee from his grasp, He always faithfully returns to help me up from my rumpled heap of despair. 

"'Am I only a God nearby,' declares the Lord, 'and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him' declares the Lord. 'Do I not fill the heavens and the earth'" - Jeremiah 23:24

While I sit in my fear of being so far away from home on the other side of the world, I often forget that God is already there, just as much as He is present in my room in Alabama. One can't escape the touch of God, because His hand is in everything; the sky, the ocean, the whales. So why do I persist in my overdramatic fear of lack of control if He's got it covered? 

One of my prayer requests for this trip is to rid myself of the fear that robs me from the joy that my faith in Christ supplies. Oh I'm so petrified of that plane ride, of being in such a different place, but pray that I remember that God is still the Almightly in Capetown, just as He is in the plane cabin and in the edges of the farthest galaxies. Keep me in mind as I travel, because wanderlust doesn't just pop up without a purpose, therefore I firmly believe that God has some great plan awaiting me thousands of miles away. 

Y'all are the bomb and I hope you're enjoying your summer of softball national championships, Olympic mania, and unseasonably cool June nights.

Allie

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angles nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of Go that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:38-39 

7

...when am I allowed to stop moving?

School work and GPA building.
AP Tests.
Graduation parties.
Graduation presents.
Registration organization.
Graduation.
Senior Trip.
More registration organization.
Bama Bound.
South Africa packing/planning.
South Africa.
College packing/planning.
College.

...hold on one sec while I catch my breath.

Whew. Guys. I was not prepared at all for the busyness of this whole "graduating from high school, going to college thing". Not prepared in the least. I got home from the beach two days ago (Thursday) and I have yet to slow down since. Yesterday was dedicated to returning clothes, exchanging presents, stationary ordering, and college supply accumulating. Today was registration and Bama Bound boot camp. 9.5 hours. 9.5. I skipped a meal because I just forgot to eat. That never happens.


Even though this season is a hectic one, it's also a really, really fun one. Every time I walk upstairs and I see that colorful, monogramed, mini Bed Bath and Beyond sitting in our activity room, I get really excited. Like unnaturally excited, because organization supplies are my jam and I've gotten enough to keep me rocking for a long time.

Opps you thought I was joking.
And ignore that giant picture of me. No matter where I hide it, my family always finds it.

Plus graduation was really sentimental but it was also just like a big party. Here's some picture story telling for you.

Luncheon at The Club.

We had a mother-daughter luncheon on graduation day so we donned our dresses, took more pictures than a human being should, and sat and listened to our mother's give us advice. Some of my personal favorite tidbits were...

"Always say yes to the first guy who asks you to something, because he might not be your destination but your transportation." Mother then explained a story about how she said yes to this guy who she just didn't like, but then met all of his friends and a future boyfriend. Gotta love it.

"Walk in like you own it, walk out like you bought it."
Rush advice at it's finest.

"Whatever you do, don't drink anything out of a cowboy boot."
This was my personal favorite.

And then that night, I graduated.

Look who came to the Ingram's shrimp, corn on the cob, and salad night! My newly reunited childhood friend, Molly. She's awesome.

Oh yeah, we got another Olexa's cake. That makes four this month.

Check that off the list. Next? SENIOR TRIP.
We went to Seagrove to one of my friend's house mansion. Let's just say that we had 17 girls and 3 chaperones and we probably could have fit about 5 more people comfortably. I spent my trip doing what I do best: staying out of the sun, drinking coffee, eating excessive amounts of fruit and West Indie Salad, and reading my Kindle. It was absolutely heaven. That reminds me! I have a couple new favorite trickets to introduce y'all too.

My Kindle.
Best graduation gift ever. I devoured Sarah's Key and I got about 15% through Pillars of the Earth. Not only is it fabulous for the beach because it's light and portable, it's also glare proof. Can you say 27 hour trip to South Africa in 24 days?

My Aerolatte Milk Frother.

Fill up a coffee mug with about a third cup of milk, stick this sucker in there, and you have your very own latte. My friend's mom had this at the house and I fell head over heels in love with it, so much that I got mine from Bed Bath and Beyond the day I got home. I feel like this is the start of a beautiful friendship. 

Other picture highlights from the trip...

A little instagram love from one of my morning runs (yes, you heard right. this girl was up at 7 naturally every day and spent the first 30 minutes of it on a glorious run through the Seaside backroads). #whyamisoartsy?

Fruit bowls with the best peaches known to mankind.

She loves me very, very much.

Post run morning routine. Coffee and kindle time.

We loved our big bathroom. Especially the mysterious chair.
We assumed this was it's purpose.

Well, that's really all the bloggage I have in me today. I also need to get out of bed and tend to that cursed cat who is meowing at me to feed him. Bahhh.

To the moon and back,

Ali

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