sister, sister!

my face in this picture says everything that this weekend was. in a frightening mildly freakish way, i'm sure, but in a "this weekend made me THIS happy" way, too. of course, it says everything that it was for my sister, too, which was "maggie, when are you leaving already? you really annoy me."

someone said that the difference between my sister and i was that i like to take selfies and wear lipstick. which is more or less probably the truest fact anyone ever said. they also left out that i take 45 minutes to get ready in the morning, that i'm on my way to having my own episode of hoarders, and that i'm annoyingly l o u d.

this weekend in idaho was perfect in every single way. 70 degree weather, car singing while driving on the back roads, glitter sandals, eating at my favorite places, running into second grade teachers that still remember my name, walking/running with my mom on the mountain, and seeing the people here that i love.

tomorrow i go to hawaii. i might miss idaho. a little.

to heck with it all!

excuse me for the next nine days while i just forget about everything. every little thing.
school, last year, people getting your phone numbers in the last week and oh my heck what is that about, snapchat creepers, things that are annoying, chores, spending all of my money on gas, charles dickens and genetics, and how much money this plane ticket cost me.

because, none of it will matter! ...at least, not until april 8th. but that's okay. something tells me it'll all be okay after nine days of bliss. and even if it's not... it's nine days. of not thinking about anything.

i assure you, however, the one thing i won't forget is my cat. who i will miss my daily cuddle sessions with.

just so you know

• there are some things you don't know about me. things that people who know me even moderately well in real life know that i'm sure roll their eyes when they read my blog because  well, i am not one without serious faults. i have many. and a big one happens to be that i eat like a five year old. maybe even a four year old. my mom visited this week as we all know and she filled my pantry and refrigerator with healthy foods. let's just say i was forced to eat three whole servings of vegetables and fruit in one meal which is maybe more than i eat in a week. this is progress, friends.
• also, i know. i'm actually a horrible human being, you see.
• you know when you need a haircut so badly you end up not even bothering if you blow dry it anymore and just kind of put it in a wet pony tail all day? i was getting so desperate i didn't even try with the wet pony tail and have gone to class with wet hair for almost two weeks. so i made a last minute appointment with my guru hair stylist who fit me in the only time she could before i leave for spring break. unfortunately, it was at the exact time my last class of the day got out so i kindly asked my lab TA if i could leave ten minutes early for an "appointment". she smiled and said of course. yeah. oops.
• i tend to overreact about... everything. so that a hundred texts get sent to the same person about it until unremarkably everything is... fine. 
• someone in an enormous truck with tires taller than i am parked behind me today in the very clearly marked compact parking area. i may have accidentally bumped him while reversing out of my parking space (...by accident, in all seriousness) but i didn't feel guilty in the slightest and secretly kind of hoped i'd left even a tiny scratch.
• at the josh ritter concert when the girl next to me asked me to stop singing so loudly, i sang louder. and when she said she thought she was in love with josh ritter to the girl next to her, i said as loudly as i could to my mom, "...AND THEN JOSH HUGGED ME AND ASKED IF MY NAME WAS MAGGIE BECAUSE HE THOUGHT HE REMEMBERED SEEING MY PICTURE." she definitely turned her back to me for the rest of the show.
• ... i'm only finally announcing that nataly and heather won the greeting card giveaway! yay!

what i was wearing when i met THE josh ritter

when and if your favorite musician is in town, always:

- dress in your best. do your hair. wear lipstick. 

- walk around downtown especially near the venue on the off chance your favorite musician happens to be lost and looking for a way to get into the venue for their sound check.

- ASK FOR A PICTURE.

i unfortunately forgot the last part of that.

forever my biggest regret as of an hour ago will be not asking for a picture while my iphone was in my hand and although he was lost, josh ritter took five minutes to talk to me and thank me for buying a ticket to his show. 

but really. my life is now complete. and this is what i was wearing when i met THE josh ritter and looked into the most beautiful eyes i've ever seen. too far? never.

and if you've never listened to josh ritter, you really should. he is the literal best. it was perhaps the best concert i've been to (i'm looking at you taylor swift)(I KNOW, I KNOW!) with the best set list i could have asked for. also, just as a note, it seems to me that if you are bothered by people next to you singing and dancing, don't stand in the front row! i tend to be a little bit enthusiastic at concerts. 

my "i just met josh ritter!!!" phone call to my mom and below, my reaction

about the whole thing. extremely accurate, really.

top- american eagle // skirt and cardigan- urban outfitters //

shoes: steve madden

polka dots and mint and being a lumberjack on saturday nights

yesterday, i confined myself to my bedroom with the door closed and a cat on my lap for the sole purpose of churning out a short story. i wrote. and wrote some more. and at the end of the day i hated every single word. despite what i said about my workshop previously, one thing about myself remains: i can't turn in something i'm not even the least bit proud of. so there you have it. finally, i gave up and realized i couldn't write something i could connect to from my room. if i needed ideas, i needed to get out of my bedroom and do something. i needed people and experiences and emotions to exaggerate. so i did just that. and today, my friends, in half the time i did it. i wrote a brand new story. it helped that last night was, well, interesting. maybe, just maybe the creative writing world is the only world in which procrastinating on your work by socializing and getting out of your bedroom is productive.

i'll give you a hint: montana has a thing called the forester's ball put on by the forestry department at my school in which swing dancing and flannel are required.

on a different note, my momma is coming to town to visit me and attend a concert tomorrow and i'm looking forward to some much needed mom time. moms really are the smartest people when it comes to everything, aren't they? they have the answers to it all.

also, this outfit happened sort of very accidentally. as in, i was downtown with my camera and best friend/roommate and was like, well hey, i haven't been taking outfit photos very frequently lately so now is as good a time as any! so thank you miss jenny. for procrastinating with me and being the best saturday night gal there is.

shirt: modcloth // skirt: francessca's // tights: the gap //

scarf: jcrew // boots: steve madden

next week and i will try to get along better

at one point today, i only had $4.83 in my bank account. but i got paid and deposited my paycheck, so have no fear, i can afford to buy frozen strawberries and yogurt tonight.

after a really bad start to the week, i went on a long run on tuesday. and maybe it was because of something i saw on my run or the urge i was resisting to yell at more than a few people in my life, but i ran better than i ever have at a pace nearly two minutes faster than my usual. and my pace was even getting half way decent at that! trust me, this probably doesn't mean anything and was a one time thing because all i care about is actually getting the miles finished in any way, shape, or form.

the official countdown to hawaii has begun. ten days. t e n.

my fiction workshop right now is kind of a big joke in that almost no one turns in their work on time so none of the kids who do their work have any work to critique. because of this, i thankfully now have a homework free weekend and a short story deadline pushed forward which is good because so far i am completely out of ideas.

when at target and buying nail polish, i may be the horrible person that tests out every color i'm considering spending the $8 on because yes, those eight dollars go far. that's two packages of yogurt, am i supposed to blindly hope the color looks half as good on my fingernails as it does in the bottle!?

getting dressed for the day when it's spring in montana is the worst. somehow i always forget how frustrating it is to wake up and have to spend twenty minutes scraping ice off your car while it snows but then peel off your jacket and sweater by 2pm because it's almost 60 degrees. on the day i wore my rain boots, it snowed, rained, and was 57 degrees all at different times of the day.

it amazes me that no matter how mad something or someone can make me, when i go to work with the kids i nanny it all suddenly seems so trivial. we had one of our best afternoons together since i started in which we went to the park with a backpack full of books and laid on a blanket in the grass reading. we took breaks to look at the clouds and told stories about the shapes we saw. missoula was kind and gave us some sun for the afternoon and in one word it was magical.

my roommate sent me a picture of our cat and asked if we had cuddled earlier in the day because he smelled like my perfume. i was proud.

i repeat: it's not weird, it's not weird

it's not weird to wear sweatpants to class. it's uncomfortable in that it is so comfortable and i kind of feel like i should be at home in bed which is the only place sweat pants usually happen because if i am too cozy at school i start to fall asleep. but it isn't weird.

it's not weird to be afraid to go to your hairdresser for the fourth time to get your bangs cut for free because you haven't paid for a haircut in six months. okay, it might be time for one. and my bangs definitely need it. but i don't think i can go back in there promising that yes, yes, i'll be back soon and give you money to do things with my hair until i actually have an appointment.

it's not weird to cry when taylor swift plays your favorite taylor swift song of all time never before played at a concert and replay it over and over again. also, not weird that it made your bad day okay.

it's not weird to have a terrible tuesday, no, the worst of tuesdays, and go get coldstone by yourself. it had to happen. it just had to. and did i feel better? yes.

it's not weird to accidentally befriend people that work in retail stores and your coffee baristas and grocery store cashiers... and, well, your friendly river hobo who you sometimes run into while literally running.

it's not weird to skype your best friend who lives in california and maybe accidentally bond with her boyfriend. and proceed to steal him and dominate the skype call with your conversations about scary movies and boys and city life compared to small town life. janelle, I APPROVE, and i'll make it up to you soon.

it's not weird to hang out with your "ex" and actually realize sometimes you need to hang out with someone who has known you the longest of anyone in your college town away from your home town. and yes, let's just establish that we are friends and it's actually kind of an underwhelming story.

it's not weird to realize the kid who's been talking to you since day one of lit but you kind of, maybe, wrote off for being a freshmen is actually a sophomore and therefore, suddenly befriend him in one class period. it's not weird. especially not to add him on facebook the same day. right!? it's not. it's not weird.

it's not weird to have owned this shirt for months and only now wear it on the blog. oops.

shirt- forever21 // skirt & belt- urban outfitters //

 lipstain- revlon in gothic

the dark side

today at noon, i finished my day, spotted one friend of mine i don't see on campus much anymore and never in class because i'm no longer a biology student and she is on the fast track to pre-medical science student success! i.e. she's going to get in. we meandered into the chemistry building where another one of my old science major buddies was slaving away on chemistry related things. she asks me how the english world is treating me. i ask her if she's going to OMG, the josh ritter concert in a week. 

her: "on a monday? i have a test the next day, i can't. i really can't!'

me: "oh, just do it anyways...!"

...

her and other friend simultaneously: "maggie, you are an english major."

oh, yeah. that's right. so then the subject of my schedule (being done at noon... what?) and free time (...you have nothing to be doing right now?) was discussed and my friend says, "maggie, your life is weird."

my life is weird.

nah, it's not. i thought. and then i went home, ate a cupcake that was one of two dozen i made over the weekend during the day, curled up into bed because it had started snowing outside, opened my computer to watch only 30 episodes of the lizzie bennet diaries and somewhere in-between, i fell asleep. and didn't wake up until almost 6pm with my eyeliner rubbed off on one eye. and concluded that, yes, my life is weird in the sense that my homework takes no more than an hour to do most nights when a short time ago i definitely used to be friend #1 and #2. though not really, because even then i could study for hours and still just pass as a mediocre student. also, i have time to do things like curl my hair every other day and put on lipstick. and i work. and i have time to go running. and all i have is time, time, time. 

so maybe they have a point. and as my english advisor said today, "welcome to the dark side!" with an almost unsettling but still friendly toothy smile.   

habits i should probably put an end to

i should probably stop taking naps after dinner. i'm blaming daylight savings. because yes, it does still feel like i'm waking up at 6:00 instead of 7:00am.

i should probably stop reading two books at once because splitting my study break between the two never works. oh, it's time to switch to the maze runner? but they just found another lead on the quest to find out where margo went! oh it's time to switch to paper towns? but holy crap, there is a GIRL in the glade now!

i should probably, no definitely, stop reacting audibly when i see boys i gave nicknames to freshmen year (...who i never actually introduced myself to) that are still adorable as juniors at the same coffee shop as me. especially when i know they are creative writing majors and i mean, that's just kind of adorable in itself.

i should probably not go to target when it's that time of month because every single thing i might even want a teeny bit can be justified by an emotion. OF COURSE i need a new tea flavor, tea makes me relax  OF COURSE i need new running shorts, exercise does wonders when you otherwise feel like curling up into a ball! OF COURSE i need nail polish, i just deserve it. ugh ugh ugh. not okay. in my defense i definitely only bought those three things...

i should probably stop wearing the same outfit two days in a row just because i have different classes each day so i figure no one will notice. they noticed. twice.

i should probably stop thinking sometimes because sometimes i think too much.

i should probably stop watching the '22' music video by taylor swift. well, maybe not.

i should probably stop meeting people from the internet because they're always more awesome than i expect them to be and i hate that they live so far away.

i should probably stop wearing snow boots to class because seven times out of ten it's 50 degrees by 3pm even when its 20 when i walk out the door. but the other three times it does snow, so there's no telling in montana what to wear in march.

i should probably stop making peanut butter cupcakes with peanut butter cream cheese frosting. from scratch. because now i'll never be able to bake anything else again. and i may not be able to run a race because of how many i expect i'll consume.

i should probably stop trying to make 'yo' happen in every day dialogue. no, wait, i shouldn't. because today my coffee barista greeted me with a profoundly enthusiastic YO! and my heart melted. 

mole hill paper company giveaway!

YOU GUYS.

one of my favorite and dearest blogger friends that i have had the upmost pleasure of knowing since i was a senior in high school and posting pictures of myself in awful floral forever21 dresses just opened a greeting card shop and they are to die for. trust me. so much so that i immediately emailed her and said that everyone in the world needed to know about her shop. because they are that darling. i pretty much begged her to let me host this giveaway if not just to spread the word that her quaint little shop exists and also because i will probably buy out her whole shop for the rest of my life. 

to enter!

• leave one comment with your favorite card design from her shop.
• include contact information so i can email the winners.
• two winners will receive a greeting card pack of their choice!

*you don't need to be following my blog to enter!

**also, her blog is adorable, too, if you feel like saying hi! becca is a newly wed and was possibly the most beautiful bride i've ever seen. and her love story is one of the sweetest around, too.

happy friday!

coffee in seattle

it was on my plane flight back to montana that i realized just how many planes i've been on in the last six months. i don't even want to count. it's a lot. and then i came home and the feeling of holy crap why did i leave my bedroom in this state before i left now i have to spend five hours catching up on all that i didn't do before i left set in. apparently i still haven't learned to clean everything before i leave. but, i was exhausted, so it wasn't until this afternoon that i looked at my bedroom floor and said to heck with all of this clutter! and i buckled down to it. it was the ultimate challenge! could i vacuum, do three loads of laundry, tidy everything, carry everything to my car and drive to the recycling center, do my homework, paint my nails, and do it all in less than five hours before bed!? turns out, i could! except when multitasking maggie gets busy, she gets way too far ahead of herself. and while all of my homework got done, the laundry was put in, and i even found time for a lovely run in the sixty degree weather, i may have put the laundry in before my shower resulting in an image i'm not going to dare describe to you. way to go, multitasking maggie. at least it's all done and i'm finally dry without the use of towels because they are still in the drier...?

anyways, outfit photos! what do you know! it's been a long time since those happened. while in seattle on sunday, i got to steal dillon (or rather, he stole me because he drove all the way out to where i was staying to get me) for the morning. breakfast and coffee at the sweetest little cafe occurred. just as we were leaving, he asked me if i wanted blog pictures taken. in my head i was like, you're asking ME!? because i'm so used to begging my friends and dragging tripods to railroad tracks by now. i even hesitated. so, we can all thank him for these pictures because it surely didn't cross my mind to even bother and in case you were ever wondering if i really do dress like this in the real world... i do. impractical skirts for montana wind and all! the realization that a long coat solves every skirt-blowing-in-the-wind problem was a big one in my life. har har har. but let me just say, this dress is my new go to for every occasion dress. so far it has met two incredibly dressed bloggers. 

aside from that i have exciting things that benefit you all if you can type a comment in an entry box soooooooon!

and thank you for the morning, dillon.

dress: ruche // tights: modcloth // shoes: steve madden

being tourists in seattle

this weekend was perfect. when i woke up this morning to snow falling outside my window in my apartment bedroom, the reality that i was back in montana hit hard. if i could relive a day in my life over and over again, saturday would be a pretty great one. waking up in a living room with my two best friends from home and sister, walking around seattle sans coat with my mom, doing every single touristy thing there was to do, eating a lot of good food, laughing constantly, and trying to navigate the city as local idahoans was priceless. and then there was meeting dillon, who also hung out with my family all day and when we were all done being tourists for the day with them, was the best dinner/breakfast/ice cream/coffee date around. so much so it took me twice as long to eat because i was talking so much and intent on listening. oh, and i also tried new food. and it was maybe one of the best meals i've ever had. it was a blast.

perfect weekend.

did i say that march was going to be great or what? so far it's off to the best start.