Somebody call out to your brother, he's calling out your name

This is what happens when you let double the amount of Brocks gallivant around pdx:

Christopher has the full Portland experience:

______Stumptown coffee_______________________Rain________________________Micro-breweries


Hey, girl gotta enjoy Spring Break Take II too!

Taking in the classics:

And ofcourse:


Leaving student squalor for swish hotel luxury I moved onto the roll-away bed in Christopher's hotel room for the week. Holy moley was it a change for little ol' Macnaughton! We brunched, we wandered, we shopped, we ate, we drank, we were merry (some of us a little more than others). I can't believe how quickly it all came and went! One minute it was Tuesday morning and we were sitting down for bagels in First Cup before inhaing the Dairy Milk supplies Christopher brought over as we wandered through Reed's canyon, the next, we were leaving the Blazers game (105 - 98 win for us waheyy) and heading back to camp to pack up and head on our merry ways! It was such a strange sensation, leaving the bro to be scanned through airport security and taking a solo seat on the MAX and heading back to base alone. But such a sweet little bit of home :)

Vancouver Sleep Club - Spring breaking

'On the Road again. The blue tinted morning lacquered leather seats which rose with the dawn. Highways. Alpine. Mountains. Music. The city of clouds calls...'

4am. Clackety suitcase bumbles through campus to find a fellow sleep deprived traveller under the arch in ODB. With this beautiful Canadian by my side, we begin our Spring break adventure. Another dawn chasing start. To another city. An 8 hour bolt to another country. Through the beautiful Seattle and North, North, North. We rascals shook the bus with our childish giggling until Vancouver laid maple leaves at our feet.

My words won't do justice. From champagne laughter shaking camera hands when taking non-ironic selfies suspended on a little rickety bridge 100 feet from canyon death, discovering 24 hour bakeries (hey London, take note) or hiding out from the rain and drinking copious amounts of tea and talking about art, talking about poetry, talking about life, in lush little cafes. Hopping on ferry boats and sailing into mountain shadows (again), we skipped through the city like little kids with clouds strapped to our toes. 

Granville Island Tea co. took too much of our money, as did the little thrift stores in Gas Town. Finches cafe borrowed our time. We snuck into Simon Fraser University to steal their views whilst a bobbing dock merrily whisked away more hours. Naima discovered the joy of Lebanese food, and in turn she showed me how a vegetarian could love sushi. Stanley Park tested our endurance whilst Christ Church Cathedral rekindled our faith in creativity. Visiting the The Vancouver MOMA (entry by donation wahey) with an Art major - would highly recommend. 

As much as the city was another reason the Pacific North West is fast becoming more like home than Bromley ever was, it was being there with a kindred spirit that moved me most. We could have been at the cherry blossom festivals in Gion or a gas station in Utah and it wouldn't have made a difference. I will miss Naima the most.

'I didn't realize Sheba was a real place. I though it was more, you know, a state of mind'

Just give me a second darling, to clear my head - A Preface

Whirlwind barely begins to describe March. But I can't start talking in hour glasses or my cup will start to seem half empty, when I've possibly never felt more awash with an airiness, a lightness that has not skipped through a pithed puddle heart for a very long time. I, being so smart, rolled eyes at the linguistic lexicon coated around this year - ' life altering', 'best year of your life', 'such a 'learning experience' were for fools and the adventurers. I've rolled oceans since then. And between dates with strange scriptwriters met on the bus, and Canyon crossing (the literal kind too) with a kind of sister I thought could not be found, to finding a kinship in sport and in dive bars on 'thurstdays' with the team, the scared little girl falling apart in red lounges is a ghost long lost along the shores of the Willamette.                    

Enough of this. I'm whimsical because after three weeks filled with mid-terms and spring breaking and breaking brother's into Portland, I'm just beginning to catch my breath. With Vancouver memories crackling closely in shuttered snapshots, nestling Naima into a pocket box whose lock will never shift, before scanning my brother through airport screens this morning, I must run words twice as far with half  the breath to hold them steady. Forgive me, I will do my best to honor both.

But just before, I wanted to try and tell of changes that could fill no words full enough to explain.
I am better. I am brighter. I am well.
Spring is in the air. I think it's catching.