London Calling
Changes (David Bowie)
Changes (David Bowie)
6 February 2014
So many changes right now. I don’t even know where to begin. So let’s go through some of the major changes.
Kim and Nate bought a house! We are all preparing to say goodbye to Camden and I don’t even know how to begin about feeling. Leaving the flat will be bittersweet. It’s the first place I lived in London. It’s where everything in my life started. It’s where I found a place that felt like home. Two jobs that mean the world to me. But the next step is big. Kim and Nate have a house. Their lives together are going to be starting in this wonderful way. We will be packing up the flat and moving on.
To answer the question that I know is buzzing through your head. No, I’m not moving with Kim and Nate. And no I’m not moving in to Nate’s old flat above O’Brien’s…Niki is living there. I’m moving in with the best change in my life. And yes…he knows I’m blogging about this. He’s sitting here next to me on the couch as I write this. He says ‘Hi!’ asked if I’d include a picture of him in here. So I promise I’ll add some pictures and maybe if he’s lucky he’ll be in one. This change is probably the biggest for me, personally. I’ve never lived with a boyfriend. I’ve never even talked about living with a boyfriend. And here we are already feeling like we don’t want to live apart. I mean, yes, logically it makes sense that I move in with him rather than find a flat to rent or move in with Kim and Nate and take over part of the house that they intend on starting their lives together in.
So H and I are diving in the deep end and moving in. I love him so truly there is no where I’d rather be than in this house…our house. God that even sounds weird to me. He’s been making me practice all week. Every time I say it without saying that it’s ours or mine he corrects me. We had dinner tonight with a large group of friends and by the end of the night him correcting me had turned in to a drinking game. Louis had a tally going on the chalkboard at O’Brien’s. It was high…I’m not giving the exact number it was just too frequent. But truthfully I’m excited. I’m preparing to move the last of my stuff tomorrow after work and this weekend as I’ve suddenly been given the weekend off so I can move.
Okay…moving on…other changes. Oh yeah! I’m blonde again! If you follow me on Instagram you’ve already seen that.
I am a little bit crazy when it comes to my hair. It could be black, blonde, or blue depending on my mood. I’ve changed it quite a bit over the years but I moved here with blonde hair and quickly decided that wasn’t who I wanted to be anymore so I bought some boxed hair dye and BAM brown hair. Thankfully with the help of Louise and the girls at Bleach I’m not using a box on my hair. And blonde again! I want the weather to warm up so I always tend to go crazy with the color right before my birthday in hopes that it will encourage Mother Nature to stop being an evil witch and make the snow and cold go away. I didn’t put a finished product on Instagram so here ya go!
What do you think? Love it? Hate it? I wanted to put pink in it for Valentine’s Day and my birthday next week but we decided to let my hair deal with the shock of all the processing we did yesterday to it. And what can I say other than THANK YOU LOUISE! It was fun to spend an afternoon with Lou and Gemma and get to know them better without Harry around. He moped around that he wasn’t invited but when I asked if he’d let me dye his hair blue he told me to have fun and he’d see me for dinner.
So many changes it’s crazy. But awesome. I can’t wait for the next part of my life in London. So I’m not officially a Hampstead resident and can see the Heath from my bedroom window. I’ve got a bathtub that is glorious and an amazing shelving unit for all of my vinyl to go in! I am so lucky and in love with not only this city but the curly headed boy who is telling me that it’s time to go to bed. Oh and here's the picture of him. He's weird. ;)
xx Annie
Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song) (Billy Joel)
8 February 2014
I don’t think I’ve ever been so exhausted. Or so thankful to have so many amazing friends. Today with the help of those amazing friends I successfully moved every last thing out of my flat in Camden and in to the house in Hampstead Heath. Tonight I go to bed in MY bed. Once I’ve showered because I refuse to climb in bed when I feel this gross and dirty. But everything is out and here. I can’t believe it.
I wish I could update more but I need to shower and relax. Plus H is whining about being hungry. I should be a good girlfriend and help him scavenge for food. I promise a much better update tomorrow.
Here's some of our helpers from today. Crazy friends.
xxAnnie
Raining on Sunday (Keith Urban)
9 February 2014
Waking up this morning was amazing. As much as I’ve known for a week that Harry wanted me living here and I’ve been here every night actually waking up with all of my things in this house…our house…was such this amazing feeling. This is not where I imagined my life going when I left Iowa last summer. I didn’t think I’d end up meeting this incredible guy that made my world complete just by standing next to me. I wouldn’t change a thing. This is where I want to be.
So we’ve taken a rainy Sunday in London to unpack me in to the closet. I finished putting my vinyl in the shelves in our living room. Harry has had way too much fun going through them to find things he couldn’t believe I owned. Let’s just say he loves that his girlfriend has every Pink Floyd album on vinyl. Less excited that she has a mint condition New Kids on the Block record. I told him that he better lay off my first love, Joey McIntyre, which totally aged me. It’s sort of crazy to see the similarities in our taste and the drastic differences, I guess 10 years difference in age will easily provide the differences but the similarities are endless. We’ve sang along to every word of Who’s Next by The Who and Abbey Road by The Beatles. We had a pretty epic dance party to Duran Duran while we picked up the kitchen after the massacre that occurred there between our friends and pizza delivery. Just so you know…Niall and Kim won, the pizza lost. He told me this morning that he’s learned more about me from looking at the music I moved in to his house than most people would discover about me in a month of knowing me. Every time he’s put a record on he’s asked me to tell him about what it means to me or the story of when I bought it. He’s held me while I cried through songs that made me miss home and friends I left behind. A life that doesn’t exist for me anymore. And he danced with me in the kitchen when he put on something that made him feel like he should try being romantic. I couldn’t have imagined a more perfect day.
I knew London would be a new life. A second chance at some adventure and happiness. This is nothing what I expected. It’s the greatest adventure of my life. And I’m so happy I finally found my partner-in-crime. Someone who loves to scavenge through my vinyl as much as I do. That steals my camera to take pictures so that it’s not just the things I’m enjoying but ME enjoying life. My parents are unbelievably happy about that part. I’d not sent pictures of myself in ages that weren’t crappy iPhone photos in dark pubs. This is what Harry text our parents this morning with the message: She seems to be settled in. Our house is full of beautiful music and love. Thank you for your support with this decision.
And this house, our house, will always be full of beautiful music and love.
xx Annie
The Perfect Ending (Straylight Run)
13 February 2014
So this will be the last blog of my twenties. Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and I will not be blogging, I will be working. Yes, I am finally in a wonderfully happy relationship over Valentine’s Day and I will be pouring pints for the Camden Lonely Hearts Club at O’Brien’s. I promise the music will not be happy love songs but also not all terribly depressing power ballads or broken heart anthems. It will be a fun time. I hope to see all of my single London friends for a pint or a shot or many of both. My super amazing fantastic (and bribed) boyfriend will be there to smile and keep me company and remind me that as much as it sucks that we aren’t spending the day doing something romantic that at least we will be together. And anyway I hate Valentine’s Day. I tell him I love him every morning when I wake and every night before I go to sleep. I don’t need one day to tell him. But I do know he is slightly disappointed that we aren’t doing something more special. He whined today that it is our first Valentine’s Day together…I reminded him that I wasn’t going anywhere and he could do it next year.
Now I’m not sure what he has up his sleeve for my birthday on Saturday but I’m sure it’ll be fun. Lizzy has been trying to plan a birthday party for me for MONTHS. But I told her to forget it. I’m turning 30, nothing exciting. We have Lyla’s 18th coming up soon so that’s where we should focus. But Lyla insisted on a joint birthday party which will be hilarious if you ask me.
I must admit that I am so lucky to have this family of sorts in London. I’ve been dreading this birthday since the calendar turned on my last. I didn’t want to turn 30. Not out of vanity. Not out of the feeling of being old. But out of sadness. My dear Jason never saw his 30th birthday, it didn’t seem fair then that he was taken from the world when he was so young. Turning 30 is knowing that I’m older than the memories I have of him. Harry figured out what was bothering me about my birthday and told me that Jason would be disappointed if I didn’t want my life to move forward because I didn’t want to have more than he got. Time can’t stand still and I shouldn’t let it stand still. So Saturday I will be experiencing a birthday that he never got and when I blow out my candles I’ll be thinking of him and what he would want me to do with my life when I make a wish. I miss him every day, but this month is harder. His birthday would be the week after mine. We should be bringing my 30s in together but we aren’t. So instead I will go in to the next decade fearless, the way he would’ve wanted me to. Happy, just the way he wanted. And in love, which I know has him over the moon. He was a hopeless romantic and taught me to believe in love just by the way he lived his life. So 29, thanks for the memories and the adventure. 30…let’s do this! Life is ours!
Here's the last blog selfie of my 20s.
xx Annie
6 February 2014
So many changes right now. I don’t even know where to begin. So let’s go through some of the major changes.
Kim and Nate bought a house! We are all preparing to say goodbye to Camden and I don’t even know how to begin about feeling. Leaving the flat will be bittersweet. It’s the first place I lived in London. It’s where everything in my life started. It’s where I found a place that felt like home. Two jobs that mean the world to me. But the next step is big. Kim and Nate have a house. Their lives together are going to be starting in this wonderful way. We will be packing up the flat and moving on.
To answer the question that I know is buzzing through your head. No, I’m not moving with Kim and Nate. And no I’m not moving in to Nate’s old flat above O’Brien’s…Niki is living there. I’m moving in with the best change in my life. And yes…he knows I’m blogging about this. He’s sitting here next to me on the couch as I write this. He says ‘Hi!’ asked if I’d include a picture of him in here. So I promise I’ll add some pictures and maybe if he’s lucky he’ll be in one. This change is probably the biggest for me, personally. I’ve never lived with a boyfriend. I’ve never even talked about living with a boyfriend. And here we are already feeling like we don’t want to live apart. I mean, yes, logically it makes sense that I move in with him rather than find a flat to rent or move in with Kim and Nate and take over part of the house that they intend on starting their lives together in.
So H and I are diving in the deep end and moving in. I love him so truly there is no where I’d rather be than in this house…our house. God that even sounds weird to me. He’s been making me practice all week. Every time I say it without saying that it’s ours or mine he corrects me. We had dinner tonight with a large group of friends and by the end of the night him correcting me had turned in to a drinking game. Louis had a tally going on the chalkboard at O’Brien’s. It was high…I’m not giving the exact number it was just too frequent. But truthfully I’m excited. I’m preparing to move the last of my stuff tomorrow after work and this weekend as I’ve suddenly been given the weekend off so I can move.
Okay…moving on…other changes. Oh yeah! I’m blonde again! If you follow me on Instagram you’ve already seen that.
I am a little bit crazy when it comes to my hair. It could be black, blonde, or blue depending on my mood. I’ve changed it quite a bit over the years but I moved here with blonde hair and quickly decided that wasn’t who I wanted to be anymore so I bought some boxed hair dye and BAM brown hair. Thankfully with the help of Louise and the girls at Bleach I’m not using a box on my hair. And blonde again! I want the weather to warm up so I always tend to go crazy with the color right before my birthday in hopes that it will encourage Mother Nature to stop being an evil witch and make the snow and cold go away. I didn’t put a finished product on Instagram so here ya go!
What do you think? Love it? Hate it? I wanted to put pink in it for Valentine’s Day and my birthday next week but we decided to let my hair deal with the shock of all the processing we did yesterday to it. And what can I say other than THANK YOU LOUISE! It was fun to spend an afternoon with Lou and Gemma and get to know them better without Harry around. He moped around that he wasn’t invited but when I asked if he’d let me dye his hair blue he told me to have fun and he’d see me for dinner.
So many changes it’s crazy. But awesome. I can’t wait for the next part of my life in London. So I’m not officially a Hampstead resident and can see the Heath from my bedroom window. I’ve got a bathtub that is glorious and an amazing shelving unit for all of my vinyl to go in! I am so lucky and in love with not only this city but the curly headed boy who is telling me that it’s time to go to bed. Oh and here's the picture of him. He's weird. ;)
xx Annie
Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song) (Billy Joel)
8 February 2014
I don’t think I’ve ever been so exhausted. Or so thankful to have so many amazing friends. Today with the help of those amazing friends I successfully moved every last thing out of my flat in Camden and in to the house in Hampstead Heath. Tonight I go to bed in MY bed. Once I’ve showered because I refuse to climb in bed when I feel this gross and dirty. But everything is out and here. I can’t believe it.
I wish I could update more but I need to shower and relax. Plus H is whining about being hungry. I should be a good girlfriend and help him scavenge for food. I promise a much better update tomorrow.
Here's some of our helpers from today. Crazy friends.
xxAnnie
Raining on Sunday (Keith Urban)
9 February 2014
Waking up this morning was amazing. As much as I’ve known for a week that Harry wanted me living here and I’ve been here every night actually waking up with all of my things in this house…our house…was such this amazing feeling. This is not where I imagined my life going when I left Iowa last summer. I didn’t think I’d end up meeting this incredible guy that made my world complete just by standing next to me. I wouldn’t change a thing. This is where I want to be.
So we’ve taken a rainy Sunday in London to unpack me in to the closet. I finished putting my vinyl in the shelves in our living room. Harry has had way too much fun going through them to find things he couldn’t believe I owned. Let’s just say he loves that his girlfriend has every Pink Floyd album on vinyl. Less excited that she has a mint condition New Kids on the Block record. I told him that he better lay off my first love, Joey McIntyre, which totally aged me. It’s sort of crazy to see the similarities in our taste and the drastic differences, I guess 10 years difference in age will easily provide the differences but the similarities are endless. We’ve sang along to every word of Who’s Next by The Who and Abbey Road by The Beatles. We had a pretty epic dance party to Duran Duran while we picked up the kitchen after the massacre that occurred there between our friends and pizza delivery. Just so you know…Niall and Kim won, the pizza lost. He told me this morning that he’s learned more about me from looking at the music I moved in to his house than most people would discover about me in a month of knowing me. Every time he’s put a record on he’s asked me to tell him about what it means to me or the story of when I bought it. He’s held me while I cried through songs that made me miss home and friends I left behind. A life that doesn’t exist for me anymore. And he danced with me in the kitchen when he put on something that made him feel like he should try being romantic. I couldn’t have imagined a more perfect day.
I knew London would be a new life. A second chance at some adventure and happiness. This is nothing what I expected. It’s the greatest adventure of my life. And I’m so happy I finally found my partner-in-crime. Someone who loves to scavenge through my vinyl as much as I do. That steals my camera to take pictures so that it’s not just the things I’m enjoying but ME enjoying life. My parents are unbelievably happy about that part. I’d not sent pictures of myself in ages that weren’t crappy iPhone photos in dark pubs. This is what Harry text our parents this morning with the message: She seems to be settled in. Our house is full of beautiful music and love. Thank you for your support with this decision.
And this house, our house, will always be full of beautiful music and love.
xx Annie
The Perfect Ending (Straylight Run)
13 February 2014
So this will be the last blog of my twenties. Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and I will not be blogging, I will be working. Yes, I am finally in a wonderfully happy relationship over Valentine’s Day and I will be pouring pints for the Camden Lonely Hearts Club at O’Brien’s. I promise the music will not be happy love songs but also not all terribly depressing power ballads or broken heart anthems. It will be a fun time. I hope to see all of my single London friends for a pint or a shot or many of both. My super amazing fantastic (and bribed) boyfriend will be there to smile and keep me company and remind me that as much as it sucks that we aren’t spending the day doing something romantic that at least we will be together. And anyway I hate Valentine’s Day. I tell him I love him every morning when I wake and every night before I go to sleep. I don’t need one day to tell him. But I do know he is slightly disappointed that we aren’t doing something more special. He whined today that it is our first Valentine’s Day together…I reminded him that I wasn’t going anywhere and he could do it next year.
Now I’m not sure what he has up his sleeve for my birthday on Saturday but I’m sure it’ll be fun. Lizzy has been trying to plan a birthday party for me for MONTHS. But I told her to forget it. I’m turning 30, nothing exciting. We have Lyla’s 18th coming up soon so that’s where we should focus. But Lyla insisted on a joint birthday party which will be hilarious if you ask me.
I must admit that I am so lucky to have this family of sorts in London. I’ve been dreading this birthday since the calendar turned on my last. I didn’t want to turn 30. Not out of vanity. Not out of the feeling of being old. But out of sadness. My dear Jason never saw his 30th birthday, it didn’t seem fair then that he was taken from the world when he was so young. Turning 30 is knowing that I’m older than the memories I have of him. Harry figured out what was bothering me about my birthday and told me that Jason would be disappointed if I didn’t want my life to move forward because I didn’t want to have more than he got. Time can’t stand still and I shouldn’t let it stand still. So Saturday I will be experiencing a birthday that he never got and when I blow out my candles I’ll be thinking of him and what he would want me to do with my life when I make a wish. I miss him every day, but this month is harder. His birthday would be the week after mine. We should be bringing my 30s in together but we aren’t. So instead I will go in to the next decade fearless, the way he would’ve wanted me to. Happy, just the way he wanted. And in love, which I know has him over the moon. He was a hopeless romantic and taught me to believe in love just by the way he lived his life. So 29, thanks for the memories and the adventure. 30…let’s do this! Life is ours!
Here's the last blog selfie of my 20s.
xx Annie
Notes
I don't know that there are words to explain how grateful I am for your patience. I've had a lot of stuff going on the last month and just needed to take a mental break from a lot which meant that I took a break from writing and honestly I needed it. I've been struggling with writer's block in a crazy way. Looking at the blinking cursor on my laptop waiting for the words to appear on the page and nothing came. Tonight I found the inspiration and the words spilled out of me. Granted I know it's just a blog post chapter BUT there's more than one blog and it advances time a bit. The next chapter is something I'm VERY excited about writing! Valentine's Day, Annie's Birthday and their lives together!!I'd love to hear not only what you thought of this chapter but of the story in general. And feel free to tell me I'm horrible for not updating sooner, I know I am. I tell myself I should be writing every day but I truly needed to separate myself from it for a while. And this was quite the way to come back. I literally wrote all of that in less than 4 hours! I'd also love to know what hooked you in to the story if you're reading it regularly. I really want to get better at my craft and knowing what drew you in is something I would LOVE to know.
As always feel free to message me on here, find me on Twitter or Tumblr. Or find the spotify playlist for London Calling which will be updated shortly to not only include the chapter title but also the title of Annie's blogs from this chapter.
Thank you SOOOOOO much for following along. Please rate, vote, comment and let me know what you think.
xx
@raybansncoffee
sorry I just saw this!!! I was rereading London Calling on my phone (LG Slide life) and I saw you responded but couldn't respond until I had a computer. I will go read your other story now but i can't promise the same insights- I'm happier now and might've lost my artistic edge
H
9/23/17