this morning i saw hank green riding a bicycle

the best thing about seeing hank green on my way to school riding bicycle and slowing down to 10mph so i could stare at him through my rear-view mirror thinking is that really you, hank!? THAT IS YOU, HANK! LOOK AT YOU BIKE IN THE RAIN! HANK, HANK, HANK! was seeing hank green riding a bicycle in missoula after only hoping this moment would happen for the past three years. 

the worst thing about seeing hank green on my way to school riding a bicycle was that when i got to class and asked every person waiting outside in the hallway for class to start if they knew who john and hank green were because oh my gosh i just passed hank green riding a bicycle no one knew. they didn't understand. 

but nonetheless, it happened. 

and i have nothing else to say about today because nothing that happens could be more worthy of being talked about. i am sure of that much. 

on a date with a hipster and the worst question that could be asked was asked

enter scene. there's me, in a floral dress i did in fact purchase at goodwill for 99 cents and thrifted lace up boots (maybe i selectively chose these items in my closet for a reason but it's not like i don't love these items anyways), and a male specimen one might think was a hipster because of his unshaven scruffy face, square glasses, hoodie layered with a down vest combination, and adidas sambas. the story of how this came to be is not one of interest so let's just proceed with the fact that this was happening over a cup of coffee and the most daunting question a 'hipster' can ask you was asked: what kind of music do you listen to?

well, in a moment of sheer panic because this is without a doubt a game changer of a question, i came up with what i thought was the perfect answer: mumford and sons. largely and mostly due to the fact that it was a safe answer but not one that is untrue in the slightest and what i figured even to the most pretentious to be an admirable choice. however, how to proceed once you say that you listen to them is another matter. that was another test in itself. they might respond in a number of ways that actually require you to pass an even harder second test of how to follow up your acceptable answer by proving that you are a) not a poser b) knowledgable of further "good" music. and let me explain, please.

hipster man: so, what kind of music do you listen to?

you: mumford and sons

if they answer by saying...

hipster man: cool, they're pretty good even if they're overrated and shouldn't have won the grammy this year.

then you say...

you: i agree. have you ever listened to the tallest man on earth? they are great, too, but not as many people have heard of them.

you win because they then say...

hipster man: oh, totally! that's rad! i can't believe you know them. *admits in mild self defeat but strangely sits up straighter suddenly interested as if aware of they are in the presence before them someone that knows their folk indie bands*

but if they answer by saying...

hipster man: oh, mumford is a favorite, that's awesome. what else do you listen to?

then you try not to freak out by coming up with another safe alternative and tell the truth

you: well, actually, i listen to a lot of taylor swift...

if you're lucky then they appreciate the irony and they might say..

hipster man: i have 22 on my iPod and i can't stop listening to it. 

you: i actually met her. it was the greatest day of my life.

you win!

and if they answer by saying...

hipster man: oh, that's cool...

then you realize they consider you just a bandwagon follower so should you try to make yourself seem cool? EH, wrong. shove it in their scruffy homeless hipster face.

you: and i love taylor swift.

hipster man: *silence* that's... well. *silence* have you ever heard of (insert bad name that doesn't even sound real at all)?

you: ... no.

and you probably just lost but at least you were honest and you only want someone who appreciates every little thing about you anyways, flawed or not. walk out the door. immediately. no, wait, don't. finish the cup of coffee with the knowledge that if a person can't even light heartedly listen to a taylor swift song then they take themselves much too seriously.

i will let you decide which scenario actually happened. 

how {not} to be a gilmore

yesterday began as a less than satisfactory type of monday. womanhood. that's all i need to say.

i went home to take care of some things and because i had to go home to do those things, there was no making it back to class. so instead, i sat down and pumped out my four hour long timed essay i had to submit online. woot. by the time i was done, i was ready to be mindless for a while and also regain feeling in my fingertips. before i knew it, i had a plate of bagel bites, a homemade latte, and just so i could feel better about the 16g of saturated fat i was about to consume, a bowl of fruit ready to be devoured. i turned on none other than gilmore girls because nothing can capture my undivided attention like those two and thought to myself: holy crap, i am a gilmore right now. coffee, unhealthy processed food, bed, and tv sitcoms. i have finally done it. i have achieved all that i could ever hope to achieve in life. and purely by accident proving once and for all, i could have been rory's younger sister.

*mid way through i will follow you anywhere that you tell me to if you need, if you need-*

just kidding. maggie, you are not a gilmore.

as i reached to grab my coffee sitting on top of the inch and a half thick base of my headboard, i flipped my plate of bagel bites simultaneously as i tipped my coffee mug completely over so that it drenched my hair, covered my WHITE down comforter i got for christmas and treasure more than anything else, and nearly drowned my phone in coffee. 

yeah, okay. i'd say that it was the stupidest thing i've ever done, to drink scalding hot coffee in bed while eating in bed, but no, it isn't. it was just pretty stupid and definitely did not place me in the effortlessly cool ranks that lorelai and rory pretty much dominate. 

so, no. i'm not a gilmore. it was cool to pretend for a few minutes but let's be real, i can't pull effortless off.

there's the way i look when i drink coffee...

and then there's the way they look when they are DANCING.
clearly not a fit.

hawaii: days three & four

i've been figuring out how to put into words everything that the last couple of days in hawaii really were. i thought i was finally stumped into silence until i realized that it wasn't that i couldn't put it into words, it's just that i didn't want to. there were some things i wanted to keep to myself, some experiences i kind of selfishly want to keep contained in the contents of my journal. i know, i know. i'm a sourpuss.

i will say that it was beautiful. i will say that standing on the cliffs of molokai on the last day and feeling small in comparison to the world and life in general was a humbling experience. one i don't think you need to go to hawaii to feel, necessarily, and one i've felt while running the trails along the clark fork river in missoula. it's liberating and wonderful. stepping outside of your routine for a moment to see the big picture of things. it's the best experience, if you're asking me.

i didn't take a second of this trip for granted and i'm counting my lucky stars i was blessed with this opportunity. i soaked it all in. i wrote in my journal every night for hours trying to write it all down. i took pictures upon pictures upon pictures. i put my phone away and just felt it all.

and even though it's been almost two weeks since we were there, i'm still finding sand in my ears and suitcase.

sunday fun day

recipe to put the fun in a sunday when there's a blizzard outside and it's april:

(1) decide you don't want to cook for dinner and instead use your free punch on your frozen yogurt card. you can't feel the cold if you're inside, am i right?

also, i filled my entire 16oz cup with yogurt and toppings. the equivalent of this cup of yogurt would have cost $8.62.

(2) listen to this mash up and dance to it in your living room with the curtains drawn while your roommate isn't home.
(3) think about seattle until your brain hurts. 
(4) drink tea and call your grandma for two hours because grandmas make everything in life sweeter.
(5) will this dress to go on sale again so you can finally buy it after six months of staring at it online and trying it on in stores twice.
(6) if all else fails, watch these youtube videos:

good news and a 10k (+ then some) saturday!

this weekend is starting off wonderfully. as in, the best kind of way a weekend could ever start.

and it's only saturday.

the kids that i nanny are easily the best part of my week. i don't know how i got so lucky to get a job that is not only perfect for my schedule but blesses me with afternoons playing at the park with two of the most fun children ever, but it's too good to be true. even when i'm exhausted by the end of the week or cranky because of the piling on of a week's worth of stress, the second i walk through the door and i'm greeted with their hugs, it all goes away. it's the perfect way to recharge before the weekend starts and end the week.

i got the best kind of news yesterday after work, the kind i'm proud of and can't wait to talk more about when everything is said and done. i celebrated said news with a trip to target to buy a grown up kind of purse and chocolate peanut butter ice cream from cold stone. 

i spent the evening with two people i don't see enough anymore since i went to the dark side that is english literature. 

i woke up at the blissful hour of eleven am after ten hours of sleep and proceeded to go on a run right away. and accidentally ran seven miles. this isn't my best/furthest mileage since starting my running resolution at the beginning of the year, but since i got off track before going to hawaii and not running at all in hawaii, it felt good to get back to a good place after only a week back on my old schedule.

also, very best of all, my goodies from the aerie 40% bra sale came. if that's not worthy of a fist pump in itself, i don't know what is. 

p.s. my layout looks different, i know. and it's going to look even more different soon, but i had just had enough with the polka dots. i know, WHAT? did the world freeze over? 

you mean they aren't even related?

let's go back in time for a second to last weekend.

something i realized after these two set off on their merry way back to washington: i am getting old. i mean you don't really realize you're getting old while you're getting old until a 17 year old is staring you in the face and you suddenly realize you can hardly keep up. i couldn't believe the speed at which these two talked, ate, laughed, and did everything they did. i kept asking myself, what is wrong with me!? where did my energy go!? these two had me falling asleep on the couch by 11:30pm every night. danielle and katy, tell me how to get the energy you two have back. either i've lost it and it's never coming back or hanging out with 20 year olds has forced me to reign in the energy i once had.

thanks for reminding me what it's like to laugh to the point of tears and toots. seriously. tears and toots, guys. it was a fun fun fun weekend. these two can come back any time that they wish because not only did they let me drag them all over missoula to do my favorite things (coffee! pictures! ice cream! pizza! movies! drives! trying on clothes!) but they let me curl their hair and even cleaned my living room before leaving. i like them alright. and it was fun to pretend that i was friends with a set of twins because apparently that's what everyone i introduced them to thought they were, too. you two are the prettiest and funniest gals around.

they made me the happiest.

also, katy blogs. and took all of these pictures. and i only wish my blog had been half as good as hers when i was her age.

all day i thought it was thursday

these last couple of weeks just feel like they are those kind of weeks. at least this week seems to be better if only because having three full weeks of school left feels like a whole lot less than four. maybe.

montana, however, wants everyone to think it's actually fall. why i am so surprised every single spring when after a week of 60 degree weather it plummets down to the 30's i have no idea. it's MONTANA, maggie. get with it. 

i had my very last workshop today so i can successfully say i've written four short stories this semester and i'm actually the slightest bit proud of a couple of them? i think i may actually be improving *slightly* as a writer and i can attest to that because when looking over my short stories i wrote even just a year ago i want to delete them from my harddrive and never see again. but then again i hope the day comes i want to say that about the ones i just wrote and it's a never ending cycle of hating everything i've ever written and continually getting better. or at least, improving. i like writing, guys.

other than that, i'm busy being a proud older sister, putting all my summer plans into motion (!!!), wasting too much time on the internet finding a cheap leather jacket for spring/summer, nannying and falling more in love with my kids every day one of which insists his shoes are on the right feet but never are, trying to put an arm's length between me and my closet because our relationship is about to be severed when our lease is up, and realizing this year is almost over and realizing how crazy is it that looking at myself a year ago feels like looking at a completely different person.

someone else blogged what i did today for me

i'm e x h a u s t e d.

now i know i'm not in the position to complain, but hawaii can tire a girl out. i almost feel like i need a spring break to recover from spring break.

which is why i got halfway through going through all of the hawaii pictures on my computer before having to stop and catch up with school and generally want to get twelve hours of sleep a night.

and this is also why i didn't blog... all week.

so here! look! a blog post my dear friend pal katy wrote about our day because she and my other dear friend pal danielle are here! and it includes a wonderful picture of me burning my tongue on hot coffee. oops. 

hawaii: days one & two

oh, hawaii.

hawaii.

hawaii.

i'm splitting my hawaii pictures into two posts for the four full days we got to spend there. 

i missed hawaii before i even left, while i was still there, and that started when i knew that as the days were unraveling i was experiencing things i would always remember. isn't that a weird thing? sometimes you don't even know a day or a moment is going to hold significant meaning and then there are times when you know without a doubt you're always going to remember what's about to happen to you. full disclaimer: i had no idea this trip was going to be anything more than just a fun vacation. but i'll elaborate on that later. 

so. days one and two.

there was hiking to a completely empty beach with tide pools to swim in and be splashed in. in fact, almost every beach we went to we got to have all for ourselves. i mean, we could have skinny dipped if we had really wanted to. 

there were milk shakes that cost $6 but were worth every stinking penny because they were the best milk shakes i've ever had in my life. 

there was car singing in the jeep driving around the island ourselves. 

there was the best bed i've ever slept in and a roommate best friend turned travel companion soul mate who knows you so well she doesn't even question when you want to go to bed at 8pm because she knows you need an hour of alone time before bed to unwind. 

there was dinner at the neighbors that was accompanied by their son's best friend who was 24 and very clearly a set up for one of us. who was also extremely hot. and nice. and holy smokes, MATURE. i don't think i knew what to do with a polite boy and i don't think my roommate knew how to look him in the eye. it's okay, i didn't really know how to do that either.

there was waikiki, which i sort of strongly disliked because it was one of those places that could have been any other place with a beach in the country. there was a coach and sephora on the beach, after all. and the sand was even imported. shame, waikiki. shame. 

there was the puddle jumper plane that fit all of 9 people that i was terrified to step aboard on but ended up being sort of a huge treat because i got the window seat facing the islands so i got a view of the area where jurassic park was filmed and see the ocean which lived up to its cliche of being just SO BLUE.

there was the prettiest house i've ever stepped foot in. and the nicest couple i've ever met who made me feel like family that i was sad to say goodbye to. and one of which was a living breathing nigel thornberry.

there was being told i had to be a tourist just arriving because i was so pale. there was feeling like a cullen because i literally reflected light. i'm from montana, okay?

there was deciding i didn't care if i really annoyed everyone on instagram by posting so many pictures at the end of every day. 

there was sort of feeling like i was cheating on my love for indonesia by falling for hawaii by day two. 

there was my roommate who could prance around the beach effortlessly and take really spectacular jumping pictures and me who got thorns in her feet three times so that they bled all over her flip flops and then looking like a flailing idiot taking jumping pictures.