lists + life + travel plans

first, I want to thank all of you who sent emails and tweets and comments of sympathy. this has been a rough week. but you made me feel very loved, and a little less alone all the way over in this corner of the world. thank you.

second, I want to say that I find the first post after a post about something serious hard to write. I feel like I need this post to buffer whatever comes next. the transition is rarely graceful... but then again I have a tendency to be a little random in my ramblings at any point in time. so, on we go.

summer has arrived in Taiwan. there are still three weeks of school left [poor Husband!] but the temperature is starting to soar. this means that I will be in a permanent sweat for the next few months. regardless, I've been running. I get a lot of stares when I do... it may be that not many women here exercise to the point of sweating, or that I'm white, or simply that I'm crazy and running in the heat. most likely the crazy, because it's 4pm here and 88 degrees and once I finish this post I'm going out for a 2 mile run. but it's only going to get hotter, so I may as well get used to it now.

summer also means things are about to get busy. my mother-in-law is coming to stay for two weeks and our apartment is somewhat of a disaster right now [more on that later.] once she's here we'll be hanging out in Hsinchu and traveling around Taiwan. even though we have been here for nearly a year, there is still so much we want to do + see. I'm excited to dig deeper into Taipei and the touristy things around here [and of course to share them with you!]

after the MIL leaves, we will have a week before packing up and meeting a friend form the states in Kuala Lumpur for a trip in Thailand. we are going back to Railay and Bangkok and I am beyond excited! I know some people always want to go to new places, but there is enough to do in Thailand that we didn't cover it all in January. [and enough that we loved and would want to do again.] adventure and newness are great things, but it's also nice to go somewhere and know how to navigate yourself around. both Husband and our friend have been busy with teaching, so I took it upon myself to play travel agent and book everything. if you know me, you know how much I love planning and organizing... so the preparation for this trip has been almost as enjoyable as an actual vacation. I haven't gone so far as to make a detailed itinerary of our daily activities, mind you, but we have flights and hotels and a vague idea of what to see.

and that will take us nearly to august... which also has some exciting plans. but we can talk about that later.

AND. a few items of business before I go:

I am doing away with the disqus comments. back to blogger! which means all your comments from the past week will disappear [sorry] just like that brief time I tried out the google+ comments [sorry about that too!]

I decided to make my instagram account private for personal reasons, but you are more than welcome to request to follow me.

a few of you have asked for buttons [and I'm ever so flattered] but you may have a bit longer to wait. I've been thinking of designing a new banner, but that means shooting some new photos, and that means deciding what I want and then making time to go and shoot. I'll get it done, eventually.

until next time, friends. 
xo.