love will die without a home.

cinderblock walls, blue carpet, and popcorn ceiling:

the trifecta of good design.

we're spoiled-- we got a corner unit in married student housing, which means we get an extra window and an extra foot or two in width. cha-ching. sure, we still live in one giant room; pretty sure chase could jump from our front step onto the bed (long legs), and we have to crack every window when the oven's on to prevent passing out. but it's home. we've got a walk-through closet (different than a walk-in, but sounds spacious on paper) leading to a little bathroom with zero storage and a small mirror that we're constantly shoving each other in front of so we can check ourselves out (so vain, us carlstons).

we also reap the benefits of living in a community of college-aged married couples, including the temptation to kidnap any one of an unlimited number of unattended children, left free to roam the parking lot, climb on top of cars, get stuck in trees and chat it up with strangers. we are also frequently the recipients of neighbor's baked goods, another perk of TVA living.

it's fun making our home a home together, doing things like thrifting, sewing curtains and building wooden shelves. chase even built a surf rack and screwed it into the wall, despite the strict no-holes-in-the-wall policy-- oops. i guess we're gonna have some patching to do before we leave.

i just love coming home to a warm, clean home.

especially to snuggle with this boy.

vegan march.

chase & i declared this month vegan march. beginning last thursday, we cut out milk, eggs, cheese & ICE CREAM from our diets . . .we already don't eat meat (or i don't, so chase is pescatarian by default), and we will still be eating seafood during march. i just can't feel bad for dying marine life! and shrimp & poke are on my top 5 tastiest foods ever created list.

anywho, vegan march is posted on the fridge, so you know it's official. along with my other goals for the month, like wear my retainer & learn how to cross-step on a long board. yes, i PROMISE, i go to school, and yes, i PROMISE, i have a job, but compared to mr. school president who's taking physics, 2 chemistry classes, & trying to prepare for the DAT, my schedule's pretty wide open. taking 8 credits is pretty much the best thing i've ever done, & i wish i had done it my entire university career, so that i had more time to focus on goals more important than receiving a college degree, like keeping my skin bronzed.

i've played around with eating vegan before, primarily for health benefits after reading books like eating animals by jonathan safran foer, in defense of food by michael pollack, and the food revolution by john robbins. i'm a believer. i also keep flax & chia seeds in the fridge, snack on goji berries, & try to remember to take my fish oil in the mornings. i figure these are all necessary health precautions when you consume as much ice cream as i do each week and have hopes of living past 35.

saturday was only day 3, but already the universe was conspiring against us. we spent the day in town with our friends taylor & anna, and chase & i paced around in circles muttering inspiring phrases about willpower as our friends walked from honolulu cookie company (sample paradise) straight into yogurtland (sample wonderland) and we stayed outside. i then spent the afternoon dodging sample booths in costco, after turning down the cookie corner employee offering complimentary cookies on the waikiki strip.

cookie corner giving out cookies? for free? unheard of. seriously, someone alerted the big guy & now he's having fun testing us. still, we're now on day 5 and we're sticking to our guns. it's incredible how two people with extremely weak willpower can join together & turn into a couple of cookie-dodging superheroes. i guess that's the miracle of marriage for ya.

***THIS JUST IN: the malasada truck, full of deep-fried, cream-filled, piping hot dough deliciousness is now parked in the laie shopping center after a good year hiatus? this is a joke. welcome to vegan march. the world's out to get me.