natashafranziscaivanovic

my favorite animal is the Sea Cucumber

[nivanovic]

The Christmas Story

“So, how was your Christmas?” my friend asks while taking a sip from her hot chocolate. “Yeah, how was it?” another one chimes in. I stare at my three friends who are huddling around the table, eyes fixated upon me as if I’m holding a piece of steak in front of my face. Not even men look at me with such intensity. My hands are wrapped around a hot cup of Chamomille tea, I’m blowing on it every…

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[nivanovic]

Jesus and Cream Sauce: How to survive the Arizona desert

Jesus and Cream Sauce: How to survive the Arizona desert

“I don’t wanna walk this fucking mountain,” sixteen-year-old me says, as I stare out of the car window. “Did you know it’s called God’s Thumb?” my dad says, ignoring my bitch moment. “It doesn’t even look like a thumb,” I say with slight tone in my voice, hoping that it will instil fear in my family and result in us going back to the vacation house. “It looks like a thumb,” my brother says, tying…

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[nivanovic]

Hunting with the blind

Hunting with the blind

“Natasha, you have to get up,” a voice says from the bedroom door. The footsteps walk away and I hear a door close. I groan and readjust my body that was reverting back to my fetal position days. With a solid stretch, I rub my eyes and stare at the ceiling. I can hear footsteps crunching in the snow outside my window. I grab my shitty drug dealer phone and look at the screen, it’s dead. I get up…

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[nivanovic]

What happens in taxi cabs

What happens in taxi cabs

“Can you tell me what you were wearing, Ma’am?” the woman asks me expressionlessly. “What?” I ask, refocusing my attention. My mascara is smudged on my face and my leg is jiggling up and down, under the table. I’m sitting in an off-white room consisting of a desk and two computer chairs. There’s a camera in the top corner pointing at me. “What were you wearing at the time of the incident?” She…

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[nivanovic]

How to make a murderer

How to make a murderer

“So… remember how you had a theory that I murdered my guinea pig?” I stare at the floor of the cafe, there’s a feather stuck between the waxed hardwood floor and my chair’s leg. My friend stops stirring in her cup of tea and looks up at me. “Yes…” “I didn’t exactly kill h–” “I fucking knew it.” She takes a bit of her complimentary cookie, “you’re a murderer.” I stop stirring my tea and look up at…

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[nivanovic]

How to go on a road trip with your 75-year-old roommate

How to go on a road trip with your 75-year-old roommate

“You come with a-me on holiday tomorrow a-morning?” the words struggled through the lips of my 75-year-old Italian roommate, Dina. She sat on the other end of the table with a napkin laid out in front of her that was safely holding her sliced marinated eggplant – her chubby, wrinkly fingers dripping in olive oil. As she waits for my answer, she licks the olive oil off of the tip of her thumb. I…

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[nivanovic]

Crying at the discotheque

Crying at the discotheque

“I don’t get how I got this shit,” I say with my head laying on the kitchen, feeling as though my energy is being funneled out of my chest through a swizzle straw. “I guess we all got the same virus,” my dad says as he’s drying a dish. I raise my head up from the table in an investigatory nature. My hair is in a messy bun and my mouth tastes like the kale I threw up all night. I’m wearing a worn…

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[nivanovic]

Death over cocktails

“Here’s your mojito,” the bartender says as he hands me my glass. He has one of those mustaches that curls up on the ends and is wearing a Hawaiian themed t-shirt. I look around the bar and realize that all the staff are wearing Hawaiian themed t-shirts. I look around again and notice there is not a single piece of Hawaiian decoration on the walls, I turn my focus back to my Mojito. My friend is…

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[nivanovic]

Beer breath and denim: A Serbian Wedding

Beer breath and denim: A Serbian Wedding

“Just be yourself,” a man says to me drunkenly. “What?” I yell over top of the jazz clarinet playing in the background. “I like you,” he slurs while holding a beer, “just be yourself. You’re dressed like a – you know.” “What, what do I look like?” I ask him. He fumbles trying to say his next sentence. “I’m at a wedding, you’re wearing fucking jeans and a polo,” I loudly say in his ear. “Just be…

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[nivanovic]

The night that kept on giving

The night that kept on giving

I’m sitting on a rusty metal chair on the roof of a theater. The film’s about to start. The theater, once closed, was taken hostage and squatted by a group of film students. Now, it plays daily films for $1, one of them being my friend’s new feature film. Planning on out going after the film I’m dressed unusually fancy for the event with high heels and cherry red nail polish on my toes. In the…

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[nivanovic]

Revenge with puppy eyes

Revenge with puppy eyes

I’m staring at my dog eating a raw potato under the kitchen table. It’s the third potato she’s eaten this week. She’s shredding the flesh with her tiny jigsaw teeth, splitting the skin open with each gnaw. I look away avoiding the pile of potato bites covering the floor. A veterinarian moment:  Because she is only 3 months old, she must have her third vaccine in order to go outside. Until then,…

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[nivanovic]

JIGGLE JIGGLE JIGGLE. Filming credits to my mother, poor woman. #shortfilm #dance #heatwave #icanttakethis #lookatthatleggo #jiggle #film #legs #summer #tan #summerfashion #fashion #summer #natural

[nivanovic]

This is my ceiling lamp. #wavehello #imsittinginaheatwave #sweat #dying #heatwave #summer #selfie #nemoguvise #beograd #belgrade #serbia #homedecor #design #photography #style

[nivanovic]

The future is now, people. #goals #betterthantesla #sharktank #thefutureisnow #future #design #beograd #belgrade #art #abstract #photography #photooftheday #walkabout #makeshift #babies

[nivanovic]

I have my mother's eye. #backintheday #streetart #photography #photograph #creative #design #beograd #belgrade #walkabout #travel #faces #history

[nivanovic]

Give me that purpay luruuuuuv. #cannothandlethis #puppy #love #animal #animallover #beograd #serbia #selfie

[nivanovic]

Summer Camp is fun, they said.

Summer Camp is fun, they said.

I’m sitting in the cafeteria at a table for six, alone, eating the same breakfast that I’ve been eating for the past twenty days: one hard boiled egg, a bun and a bowl of muesli with yogurt. I’m wearing the sweater that my ex-boyfriend gave a week before he cheated on me and my hair hasn’t been taken out of its bun for two days. I have a cold sore on my mouth from, well, I’m not sure what, but I…

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