climbing to where the sky was once sea.

i scoffed yesterday when told the hike was a mere mile and a half.

no problem, i am in fighting form.

the thing is when given only a mile and half to climb more than a thousand feet in the air, well that's tricky.

okay not so much tricky as downright hard (miserable).

and then there's this issue of fear of heights that seems to worsen with age.

but at the end of it all i got to explore a cave that outdates the dinosaurs (yes outdates the dinosaurs!).

oh, and the view was okay, too.

sundance, waterfalls, and the tree room dream.

this saturday the gorgeous Bev showed me the part of utah i've been longing to see since the day i arrived. and suddenly i think i might never leave. everything's better up in the mountains (girl talk included. who am i kidding? especially, girl talk!). i'm thinking of taking up residence in any of the several multi-million dollar homes nestled into the foliage. in fact, if i hang around long enough, maybe robert (redford) and i might just strike up a friendship.

now i'm thinking of all the different ways to convince my father to take my mother and me to the tree room when they come to visit in just over a month.

holy cupcake!

there are days when i feel like i'm actually regressing. moving backwards. undoing any progress in an upward and positive direction for my life.

but for every ten of those days, there's one where i manage to make a batch of cupcakes for a cast picnic. i (1) finish said cupcakes a full day in advance. (2) the frosting does not get everywhere, as it has in the past. and (3) i do all of this in high altitude {which, need i remind you, i am less than unaccustomed to}.

and i think to myself, kid, you're doing just fine.

sammy's.

i told you i went to sammy's. i got the mint oreo pie shake. (yes, that means a whole slice of pie was actually blended up into it). and i'll tell you what: it may have taken the girl 15 minutes to make the darn thing, but it was worth the wait. i got to spend time with my friend aubrey who told me beautiful stories. i spent the night covered in goose pimples, and i'm pretty sure they were only partly a product of the ice cream.

nothing soothes the soul quite like saying goodbye to some dead-ends.

it has been an interesting couple of days for me here in provo. perhaps, it is the ending of the honeymoon period--the realization that this is no two week vacation, but rather a three month plopping of the soul in unchartered land.

there are things i miss about new york. like running to the corner store for the raspberries i forgot to get at the market. or evenings on the upper west side when the city finally begins to cool and the streets are empty. love never seems so possible as on a summer evening in new york.

yet even as i write this, i balk at the audacity of saying i miss new york. i mean i do, yes, but utah is so lovely. and the people are so lovely. and guys actually smile at me as i sit slurping my oreo milkshake on the sidewalk outside of sammy's and i feel...dare i say it...beautiful. so while i'm not quite sure how or when or even why my little funk began, it persisted today.

that is, until my haircut.

lisa emailed me when i posted about needing to trim my runaway mane and immediately i knew she was my gal. she's been cutting hair for five years now, working at a well-known salon in salt lake before leaving to take care of her baby boy. currently she works out of a salon in her friend's basement in sandy.

lisa was unbelievably kind and her friend's salon is amazing: dark wood floors, flattering (and very forgiving) lighting, and all the amenities of a normal salon. and here's the kicker, $25 for a haircut. yup, that's it. i just about fell off the seat when she told me that. i pay more than twice that in new york for half (not even) the experience. score-keeper, point to utah, please.

the best part is i left feeling lighter: the funk had begun to lift.

to contact lisa about haircuts and the like: lisabug_14@hotmail.com