{insert brief statement about modcloth coupon}

I'm not positive how many people pass through my blog on any given day, but I thought I'd throw this out there anyway! I buy a lot of clothes at Modcloth, and they have a pretty good referral program where if you use someone's link you can get $20 off your first order! Usually, it's only $15, but occasionally they bump it up to encourage new customers. If you've ever been on the fence about shopping there, I'd urge you to at least give it a try--they have some cute stuff! Plus, they're currently having a big 30% off sale, and the $20 stacks on top of it!

Personally, if I had all the Modcloth credit in the world, I'd probably be using it on novelty dresses and infinite shoes...I'll probably need to hold off on that for awhile, though! This space is a little too tiny for such voluminous skirts! ;)

Anyway--have at it, and let me know if you decided to use my link! :) I get $20 off too, so everyone wins!

{ sunflower award }

I was so pleasantly surprised to see that Kayleigh of Petite Femme Noir had nominated me for the Sunflower Award today! From what I gather, I get to answer a series of questions and then pose a few of my own to some bloggers I enjoy. Personally, I think that's exciting, because I love seeing what kind of questions people can come up with. All right, let's see what I get to talk about. 

Do you collect anything, if so, what?
It could indeed be argued that I collect novelty-printed dresses.

Who is the most influential person in your life and why?
Oh, it's hard to say whether it was my grandmother or my mom. They both raised me without judgment and left me completely free to become who I wanted to be. Also, my grandma instilled the idea in me that a true lady knows when the appropriate time to curse like a sailor on shore leave is. I feel like it's hard to go wrong with women like that as guiding forces.

If they were to make a movie about you life, who do you think would play you?
Oh, lord. I have no idea. I've been told I don't look like anyone. Can I just get Benedict Cumberbatch and call it good?

What makes you feel most confident?
Agh, it's going to sound so silly and overdone, but Marcus really makes me feel about as confident as I ever have. He has this remarkable ability to keep a balance between telling me every day what I'm worth and why he loves me and also not blindly coddling me when I get too down on myself. He's really matter-of-fact and knows how to keep me grounded without making me feel uneasy or judged. There's a ton of stuff I never thought I'd be able to do that I can now because of the way he's helped me learn to look at myself.

What three words best describe you?
Deadpan, introverted and wanderlusty. It's a word, I've decided it.

Where is your favorite place to be?
I love to be outside. Ever since moving to Washington, I spend as much time outdoors as I can and I can't get enough of it. The forests and mountains here are insanely beautiful. Don't even start me on the farmer's markets. Have you ever eaten a fresh banh mi sandwich while enjoying a nice breeze and the smell of fresh cookies from the next stall over? Agh. That's living, people.

What is your favorite flower? 
I love hydrangeas. I want them to be in my wedding bouquet someday. 

All right, that was fun! I think for my round of questions, I'd like to pick:

Emma at Race & Emma
Samantha at Nettle & Honey
Sammi at Soubrette Brunette
Alexandra at Into the Woods
Jes at Potentially Lovely
Hannah at Stupid Happens.

1. Who makes you the most happy?

2. If you could drop everything and move someplace else, where would you go?

3. What makes you feel most at peace?

4. What's something that's completely impractical and unnecessary that you'd love to buy for yourself?

5. What's one style you really wish you could pull off?

6. If you had to change your name, what would you change it to and why?

7. Can you write me a short haiku describing yourself?

Thanks again for having me answer your questions, Kayleigh! :)

happy birthday, mom!

Today was my mom's birthday, and even though we're on opposite sides of the country now, I couldn't just let it go unnoticed. 

She's the most incredible mother in the world.

We've been best friends since I was born. She always said she used to carry me around the house and dance with me to that 1990's bluegrass country music I pretend not to really enjoy too much anymore. She said I was her company. The three of us were, and when my brothers were born we did everything together. Even into my 20's, she'd spend the day just walking around the mall with me or getting coffee. I still ask her what I should do about everything even if I know the answer--whether I'm buying clothes or sorting out more pressing life issues, I at least have to ask her. She always seemed to have the right answer.

She's so easygoing and mellow, but damn, did she teach us how to work hard and be good people. You never messed around with our mom, and I'd argue that you still don't. She always seemed to keep such a great balance between friendship and parenthood. I never felt the need to keep anything from her, because no matter what you tell her, she listens. I love seeing her around her family members, because they really seem to bring out her sillier side. From what I hear, she's doing great in Ohio and really coming into herself more. 

I love my mom. She's played a lot of roles in all of our lives, and she's always put us first. Now that we're older, we try to do the same for her. We've had our issues--for example, she's no longer allowed to plan trips, because her favorite thing to do is wait until the last minute to do anything--but honestly, what is that? It's mostly just funny in retrospect. We went through a terrible year together, but I know she's on her way to happiness now. She really deserves it more than anyone I know. 

Happy birthday, Mom!

(Isn't she cute? Everyone's shocked when she says she has kids in their late teens and early twenties.)

legendary donuts!

Food is a pretty significant part of my relationship to Marcus. When we met, he was so particular about what he would eat, there were practically no options that he wanted. Now, after a few years of prompting him to leave his comfort zone a little bit, he's all over the place! We're constantly trying out new places that look like fun--which is how we discovered Naked Pizza and this Thai place by the movies. 

Fun story: when we first came to visit Washington a little over a year ago, Marcus's parents lived a few cities over in a place called Auburn. One day, we got bored and decided to try finding a new coffee place or something. We ended up at Legendary Donuts, which happened to be by the grocery store closest to the old apartment. To this day, we remembered how outstanding those donuts were--so, we decided to take a trip back!

It's only about twenty minutes away from where we live now, but damn, Washington traffic will double your commute if you catch it at the wrong time of the day. When we got there, about half the donuts were already cleared out. Thankfully, as you can see, we were able to score the last giant glazed donut, a blueberry cake one, and a few little mini holes that seemed interesting. As usual, Marcus also needed his carton of milk. 

 

He really enjoys his oversized desserts.

Also, he felt really bad because he told me "no" on the coffee I wanted to get. (To be fair, he's trying to help--I have this really bizarre caffeine sensitivity and it seems to be most prevalent when I drink strong coffee. Once, at a Denny's, I asked for decaf and accidentally got regular, and I spent the whole night violently sick. Ever since then, he's very wary of any coffee that I can't order decaffeinated.)

I just went next door to McDonald's later and got one of their decaf coffees. :P For $1, it's pretty remarkable.

He's not a big picture guy, but he puts up with it once in awhile. :) I really love that we can go exploring for food together--his parents were telling us about this time they tried to "eat their way through Manhattan", and I think that's possibly going to be the case with us and Seattle. We're already scouting the grounds for good sushi and Indian.

Agh, damn. Now I really want to go for some Naked Pizza. It's so hard to pace yourself here! ;)

on adjusting

It's been a few weeks since we moved to Washington, where everyone warned us that we'd hate the weather and have a terrible time adjusting.

You guys, I have to be honest. It wasn't going to get any worse than it was, which is why I had no problem coming here so suddenly. I was depressed in the desert.

That term gets tossed around a lot as a hyperbolization of  less-than-desirable circumstances, but I need it to be very clear that I wasn't just underwhelmed or discontent in Arizona. There was legitimately only so happy I could ever be while I lived there, and for the longest time I thought a general melancholy was just part of my demeanor. It wasn't until I was able to leave for a visit someplace else that Marcus pointed out how drastic--and instantaneous--of a change there was. He said I was like a whole different person, and I'm sure I was. I always tried to take care about voicing it, because to many people I know, it is very much home.

Since moving to Washington, I feel the difference immensely. My ratio of good to bad days has shifted almost all the way around. There's an adjustment, if we're being honest, but it's minimal. I spend all my time outside. Some of my interests are coming back to me! My mind used to race and this thing would happen where my jaw was always set really tensely--now, I catch myself sort of spacing but not really thinking about anything in particular. I think it's because I really get a kick out of staring at all the green around me--I think I'm happy here. That part really does take getting used to. I didn't think I was ever going to leave the desert. It's not the easiest thing in the world to pick up your life and go, especially if there isn't anything waiting for you wherever you're going. We were very fortunate to have Marcus's parents here, and even more so that they were happy to come have us be with them for awhile.

They're tons of fun, by the way. We try so much delicious food here and they love to go to the movies. Thus far, we've been to a farmer's market at least once every week, which excites me because I love the fresh fruit and all the bakeries have a ton of samples.

I don't know if I'll stay here forever, but I no longer feel this urgency like I need to run away or change my situation. As my interests resurface and I approach them with enthusiasm and happiness, I could see things going a few different ways! I know I want to travel again--and soon enough, I'll make it happen. For now, I'm happy to be here.

issaquah

Today, Marcus left for his Lock and Load convention, so I got to spend the day in Issaquah with his mom. We drove over and started walking around this place called Gilman Village...I'm not sure if that was a good idea or a bad one, because all of the shops were stocked with cute kitchen accessories, cookbooks and decorations that we both couldn't get enough of. His mom is really big on the idea of having her own garden one day, so she loves looking at vintage-y signs and flowerpots. I had to be steered away from the shelves of baking pans--they had this fantastic shortbread cookie sheet with flowers imprinted onto the molds--and prompted to choose someplace to eat.

This place also happened to be full of interesting cuisine, which made deciding extremely difficult. We walked past an Afghani restaurant, a Greek place, an Indian one with a lunch buffet...and that was just in the couple of minutes we took to peruse before we got too hungry! I ended up picking Tantalus, the Greek restaurant, and even though the Indian place was a close second (only because buffets mean you get to sample a little bit of all the most popular dishes, which is helpful when scoping a place out) I was thrilled that we chose it! We both got gyros; mine was chicken, Jo's was lamb. They were delicious. We both really love international food, but it's hard to find Greek food around here that isn't intensely heavy and greasy to the point of distracting from the rest of the dish. All of the vegetables and meats on our plates seemed fresh and light. The flavor was phenomenal! I really can't speak highly enough of good pita bread, and this place had it. I wanted to dunk it into some hummus or something...maybe another time!

We spent most of the day checking out apartments since we'll be moving there sometime in the next month or two. I love house-hunting, so it was a really nice time. We found one or two "maybe's" and one place that we really loved that might be a "yes" depending on timing. Issaquah seems like a great town! The apartment we liked the best was literally walking distance from most of the downtown stores and restaurants, which the leasing agent told us would be great for saving money on gas and parking for big events. I wish we could have seen a little bit more, but we got a better idea of the options in that town.

After that, we decided to try getting our nails done together downtown! I was excited, because I normally just do my own and call it good. It was fun--I got a little watermelon design (minus the dots, I guess--I think I'll just add my own!) and Jo got some cute flowers. There was a little family with three girls that came in right as we were finishing up, and they were all psyched because they got to get their nails done for the oldest one's birthday. It was so fun to watch them! The littlest one was sad because only two at a time could go sit in the chairs, so she had to be last. She ended up accidentally dropping her bottle of nail polish and breaking it on the floor, but her mom was extremely sweet about not making her feel bad about it and wiped it up in less than a minute. They seemed really nice--actually, a lot of the people we ran into in Issaquah today did. I'm optimistic!

I had a great time with Marcus's mom today. (Side note: they really do need to come up with a word for "significant other you aren't married to's parents", because "in-laws" sounds really ambitious and formal, but calling them "Marcus's mom/dad" sounds like I don't know them. I'm trying to get used to it, but I feel kind of strange just calling them by their names (we were raised from a really young age to always refer to anyone older as Mr./Mrs./Miss, and even in my 20's I'm trying to shake it).) We love to talk about a lot of the same things, and neither of us can resist checking out cute shops. I'm excited to do this more often!

I think tomorrow I'm supposed to be up really early to go with Marcus's dad to the gym, too. Hmm. We're productive in Washington!

:)

final day : kent!

We both woke up excited because we knew by the end of the day, we'd be with Marcus's family in Kent. The day was supposed to be about ten hours long, so it was daunting, but the excitement outweighed the anxiety.

It ended up being that we skipped the hotel's advertised free breakfast--I think the main office gave Marcus the creeps, plus there wasn't actually any food on the table. We ate in the car; luckily, I make pretty good peanut butter sandwiches while balancing a cooler on my lap, so we were fine. That thing was a lifesaver this entire trip, by the way. We had plenty of fruit to eat and the bread and peanut butter stayed good. Seriously, when we got to Kent and calculated the cost from all our receipts, we came in way under budget because of how many meals we just made ourselves from the cooler.

Anyway, California is huge and takes forever to actually leave. We kept looking out the window trying to see if the last little bits of desert landscape had completely faded away yet. Eventually, we crossed into Oregon and it was evident that there were no more spiny plants to be found. It was sort of a culture shock, because immediately upon entering Oregon, we stopped for gas and learned that you're not supposed to pump it yourself there. The young man who was our attendant was extremely cheerful and friendly--and, of course, Marcus just had to ask why attendants got your gas for you there. I'm not sure if it's true or not, but the guy explained that at some point in the 1920's, some person was pumping gas, decided to light a cigar, and the entire place exploded.

Also, the inside of the gas station was like part restaurant and part hotel. There was a washing machine next to the bathroom. I've never seen anything like it.

We stopped for Subway and switched spots because Marcus needed a nap. Unfortunately, although I'm a fairly competent driver, I was off that day or something. I'm thinking that it was partially due to not being familiar with the area and general anxiety around traffic and large trucks. Anyway, I was able to go for a while, but Marcus did the majority of the driving this trip by far. (I felt bad, but I also think it also kind of worked for him. When he's in the passenger seat, he likes to stomp on an imaginary break or move to correct the steering wheel. I imagine it's hard to let another person drive your car--I get that way when someone's in my kitchen, let alone my vehicle...)

The scenery was vastly different from Arizona's, and we both couldn't get enough of it. The northwest is so green. We drove past Portland and immediately wanted to stop and see what it was all about, but we were getting close enough to being done driving that we kept going. From the car, it looked like one of the most interesting cities I've ever seen. Everything looked really clean and crisp, if that makes sense. Anyway, we spent several hours talking and pointing out how not like the desert our new surroundings were. We've been here about a week and I still don't think either of us has gotten tired of that.

Around six or seven, we got to Kent! His parents were eagerly waiting for us at their apartment with dinner, and we couldn't have been happier. Now, here we are.

Altogether, I was immensely happy we took this trip. Before I left, lot of people said things to the effect of "you two are going to hate each other by the end", and I found that to be some strange (and untrue) advice. The only remotely negative thing that happened at all was that Marcus wasn't intensely enjoying Disneyland for the first hour, and even then, nobody was really that upset. All it took was a round on Space Mountain and he was fine. Besides that, we enjoyed all the stops we got to make and the food we tried out together. For something that was supposed to be wildly stressful and the ultimate test of our relationship, it mostly just felt like a fun vacation and some good bonding time. We even learned to change windshield wipers together in the parking lot of a Walmart, so...I'd recommend cross-country road trips to anyone! Granted, we were both extremely tired by the end, and I think being crunched in a car full of our worldly possessions for extended periods of time can do a number on your back, but I still say it was worth it! :)

If you read this far, thanks for tuning in to my little recount of our move from Arizona to Washington. I can't wait to see what happens next here!

day three : red bluff

We knew the next day of our trip was going to be a long one--when we planned it out earlier in the year, we decided to drive as far up from Anaheim as we could get in one day, then save the last stretch of the drive for the next morning. Marcus and I came up with a rough estimate that, after eight to nine hours of driving, we'd end up in an area called Redding. I browsed some discount travel sites for a bit and booked us a night at a hotel in Red Bluff for $40, and we figured our day would end whenever we got there.

It was sort of sad to leave our "fun" part of the trip (and Disneyland!) behind, but we were both excited to get moving at the same time. After one more free breakfast, we headed out!

The driving part was indeed very long and involved a whole lot of nothing as far as scenery goes. I have to give Marcus his due credit--we had originally mapped out sort of a schedule for taking turns at the wheel, but he kept saying he wanted to go a little longer. Eventually, it turned out that he made the entire trip himself. Serious stamina. I felt bad, because I kept offering to take over, but he declined and requested that I just feed him snacks while he focused on the road. His current favorite thing to eat is those bags of Brookside dark chocolates with pomegranates and acai berries--stolen from me, of course!

When we finally got to Red Bluff around 6 PM, we were sort of surprised by how small of a town it was. I personally thought it was pretty cute--it reminded me a lot of Flagstaff, especially because it seemed to have one main road connecting to the highway surrounded by small businesses and chain restaurants. We found our hotel, and we were literally the only people staying there. The parking lot was empty except for our car, which was slightly creepy, but we figured we wouldn't jump to conclusions. Based on some of the reviews we'd seen for this particular hotel, we were admittedly a little concerned (one specifically said to "run far away") but upon entering the room, we realized there was nothing to worry about. Granted, the place was quite old, and the bathroom floor was a tiny bit questionable, but for what it was--a place to hang out for the night--I was fine with it. I've definitely stayed in worse! The beds were comfortable, the TV worked, and the swamp cooler was incredibly efficient.

After checking in and putting our things in the room, we remembered it was dinner time and that we were actually pretty hungry. We scoped out a Denny's nearby and enjoyed one of the best cheap dinners I've ever had. Did you know you can order their "value Grand Slam" thing with wheat pancakes, turkey bacon and egg whites? I found out that evening that you could, and it was delicious (I have a thing for fluffy wheat pancakes)! I think the two of us got to eat for a little over ten bucks, which I personally considered a victory.

Later, Marcus revealed that he'd been craving a trip to the movies. He'd spent the entire day driving, so it seemed fair to let him pick what we did with our evening. We found the one movie theater in town and made it to the 7:00 showing of X-Men. The theater was so little you could hear the other movies playing through the wall! I thought it was cute; Marcus, who grew up in a tiny town in Alaska, assured me that the novelty of a tiny theater wears off quickly. We agreed that the popcorn was delicious, and I enjoyed the show despite not having seen any of the other X-Men movies. Altogether, even though I suppose technically there wasn't a whole lot to it, it was one of the best nights I've had in awhile! Even now, about a week after the trip, I remember this part in particular pretty fondly.

Last up: our home stretch!