following in bella swan's footsteps.

okay okay. so i realize the twilight saga is a bit lame...

all you twilight haters are probably
wanting to shoot yourselves from all this new moon talk.
if that's the case, come back and read me tomorrow.
but if mysterious, handsome, dangerous men like edward
make your heart beat just a little faster...keep reading!

i haven't always been a fan.
i went to the movie last christmas rather reluctantly.
and then....
i came home and read all four books in quick succession!
while they certainly aren't the best written,
they are definitely exciting!
passionate!
full of twists + turns!
{and perhaps most importantly, hot vampires.}

this summer, my summer my friend jenny and i
did a little road trip in washington state.
the plan was to visit the eastern side of olympic national park
before heading back to seattle.
we took a wrong turn and ended up heading around the western side instead.
{this may or may not have something to do with me accidentally
erasing the google map directions of my friend's ipod touch. whoops!}
we decided to roll with it
- not realizing how many hours it was going to tack onto the trip!much to my delight however, this meant we ended up passing through
all the twilight hotspots!
i would have felt really dumb intentionally planning to visit them all,
but the spontaneity of it all made it much less lame.
{...right?}

we visited:
forks

where bella + edward meet and fall in looooove{i'm biting her becuase i'm a vampire...get it?}

the town of forks is really embracing their vampire status.
apparently their tourism has seen a
600% increase
since the publication of the books.
bella + edward fanatics can enjoy the numerous
twilight {tacky} gift shops, restaurants, and tours

{the movies aren't even filmed there...
but people still seem to be interested in seeing "dr. cullen's hospital"}{twilight home-made crafts!}{card-board cut-outs!}

excuse the horrible hair. we hadn't showered in awhile...

and t-shirts + water bottles + books + mugs + dolls + signs keychains + toys
...you get the picture.

{and most of this stuff was made locally.}

la push

dear jacob's indian reservationhonestly the town of la push was pretty ghetto

{my friend wouldn't even stop the car so that i could snap a few pictures}
but there were lots of tourists milling around on the beach front
so we got out and played.
i kept on looking for a quileute indian tribe hunk
to walk along the beach with like bella + jacob do here:{no luck}{even the quileute indian reservation got in on the twilight fun.
they had signs informing you when you were entering/leaving twilight country!}{there was even twilight evidence at our campsite. pity about the grammatical error...

port angeles
bella + jessica hit up port angeles to go shopping,
bella ends up getting followed,
edward swoops in with his volvo and saves her - swoon!{image found here}
we didn't stay in port angeles long enough to take any of our own pictures.
we basically stole safeway's wifi connection,
realized my ipod had been telling us the wrong time
{meaning we were actually two hours behind schedule!}
and left in a flash!

and there you have it!

if anyone is more interested in olypmic national park than twilight,
it was absolutely gorgeous.
and if you have the time, i definitely recommend the drive around it.
{you can't actually drive through it}

while i have never missed a harry potter midnight movie screening,
i have to admit that i'm not sure when i'm going to go see new moon.
maybe once exams are done??

may i leave you with quotation than from none other than dear edward + bella:

Edward: And so the lion fell in love with the lamb ...
Bella: Stupid lamb.
Edward: Sick, masochistic lion.

ha. goodnight friends.

xo

one of those days...

this is how i felt at approximately
four a.m. last night,
slaving away on this project.

after 1½ hours of sleep,
i eagerly stepped into the shower...
only to find out that
the shower head was broken,
and my usual blast of warm water was reduced to nothing but a trickle.

went to work with the kiddies at the elementary school.
came home to make myself some lunch,
and almost fell asleep while eating it.

seriously considered skipping my 2.30 pm french lit class...
but my motivated student self wouldn't let me.
so i dragged my tired little hiney to class,
only to find out that it was
cancelled.
you have got to be kidding me.

at that point i felt like dropping to the ground
and sleeping on the university's cold unsanitary linoleum.
and never waking up.

but....
if i had opted for for the linoleum floor,

i would have never popped over to my brother & sister-in-law's for a
quick snooze
on the couch before my next class.

and i would have never thought about
how much i appreciate those places where you can drop by
unexpected, unannounced, and just pull up on their couch,
no questions asked.

and i would have never experienced the pleasure ofmy dear little niece coming over and giving me a
warm gooey banana chocolate chip muffin
{straight out of the oven}
and a
lovely little kiss.

and i would have never had the chance
to enjoy the stunning combination of
louis armstrong belting out cool yule
and the shining sun streaming in
on my drive back to school.

i guess all's well that ends well right? {photo taken by me this summer during my blissful road trip in washington state}

xo