Extended Vacation

I love the farmers market, almost as much as french cheese or a hike in the Rocky Mountains. 

Going solo is not quite as bad as sitting alone at a drive-in movie. I approach the market like one might an art museum, each booth is a new display, complete with built in artist eager to explain their masterpiece. 

There is nothing more energizing than for a conversationist (strength finder: woo) like myself to approach each booth with gusto and animately engage the bee keeper/farmer/wino etc in how-they-do-it tête-à-tête.   

But here is the truth, the Farmers Market is a unique situation, its very purpose being to share food, conversation and hopefully a monetary exchange. I feel well loved because I am eating delicious bread, spread with a cream cheese salmon dip, and they feel well loved because of the new green bills on the table. 

So what do you do when reality is not as inviting as the farmers market? 

Last summer I wallowed in self-pity. No friends, no community, just me and my childhood bedroom. 

Enjoying the place I seemed to be planted was not an option, I just did not want to get comfortable...

...in Saginaw. 

And this May, I moved to the city I had dreamed about last year. Starting all over, living in my Aunt and Uncles house, basking in the radiance of a cloudy afternoon in Portland. 

And yet still, I catch my sneaky little thoughts painting a picture of the next adventure. 

So what do I do about it? 

I have decided to start treating my time in Oregon as an extended vacation.

 (Not in the sense of being lazy and sipping Sonic drinks by the pools my rain water in the backyard) But..

...reminding myself to enjoy today.

To eat lots of summer berries.

To praise my uncle for his smoothie making skills.

To take pictures of every delicious meal we eat together, aunt, uncle, cousins, friends, new friends, or maybe just by myself. 

Vacation, much like the farmers market, develops an expectancy that every minute will have a purpose, to rest, to explore, to eat, to laugh. 

Both venues engulf you in new and exciting sounds and experiences. Set up to please and entertain--

It is not the event or the location which draws me in, but the expectation. 

I want my life to be lived with eagerness for every new food, each hour of work, anticipation in the relationships I build on daily.  

How about you?