eight weeks.

I've been in Washington for 8 weeks. EIGHT WEEKS. It's crayzeh. I've never been away from home for this long without visiting. And I've never been away from Utah for this long. I miss Utah a smidge. But the other day my friend told me that it was snowing in Logan and I was like, "I don't miss Utah today."

And ya know, I don't really have much time to miss Utah, anyways. A: Because I like this place and B: I'm always doing stuff. Twice this week I've left my house at 8:00 a.m. and returned at 10:30 p.m. Cause it's like, I gotta work and play, ya know? And then I have to sleep right when I get home because I've been exhausted from the moment I woke up that morning.

My friends are pretty cool here, too. We hang out 6 out of 7 nights of the week on average. And then if we don't hang out... well I honestly can't remember the last night we didn't. So maybs 7 out of 7.

We do things like karaoke at a bar, eat, go to institute, make cookies, jam, play volleyball, have bonfires galore...

The other day, we went to Killer Burger. They're famous for their peanut butter burger. It's a hamburger with peanut butter, pickles, onions, and etc. And it was divine. Sersly. It's a thing that every burger joint should do.

I've checked off a lot of my Washington Bucket List. Going to Forks, Seattle, the coast, bonfire on the beach.  

And tonight it's Halloween! Portland, look out!

My Halloween costume... well it's pretty good. So stay tuned.

delightful.

My current favorite things...

1. Sleep.
2. Sitting around a fire.
3. Rapping.
4. M&M's will be the death of me.
5. Taco Bell. Oh dear.
6. Long conversations with friends.
7. Phone chats with my sisters.
8. Earrings are starting to make their way back into my life.
9. Mellow music.
10. Dance parties.

fb friends.

Something I don't care for:

When you are starting to become goodish friends with someone and they ask you either of the following:
A: "Are we Facebook friends?"
B: "Why aren't we Facebook friends?!"

This usually happens with a member of the opposite gender.

To answer question A, if you don't know whether or not we're Facebook friends then obviously it's not that important. But then you probably really do know that we're not Facebook friends so you're just acting stupid for whatever reason. You really could just send a request and bypass the asking stupid questions, because it's obvious that you've already stalked me (Because that's just what people do in our day and age).

For question B, the answer is simple. Because you didn't add me. We're not Facebook friends because you didn't add me. So, now that we've got that cleared up. 

what's in a name?

pretty much... everything.

the name someone gives their child determines their destiny.

for example, if you name your kid angel, she will automatically be weird.

if you name your kid emily, she will turn out pretty neat.

if you name your kid stephanie, but spell it steffineigh, people will be confused about her race.

speaking of race, if you're black, you can name your kid whatever you want.

if you name your kid an old person name like roger or deborah, they probably won't ever get married. unless they find each other. but, then again, that's not really saying much because i have a nice name and i'm not even close to married... so roger, you might be my only hope.

if your last name has to do with nature, don't make your child's first name naturey too. like... if your last name is wood, don't name your kid autumn. or if your last name is meadows, don't name your kid crystal. maybe don't ever name your kid crystal though.

the other thing is though, that if you name your kid a popular name, like emily, there will be a billion other emily's. and then at school they won't go by emily. they'll go by emily j. and who wants to be called emily j? 

it's all very stressful.

multnomah falls.

On the last day of my excursion with Aleisha we went to church for an hour and bounced to go to the lovely Multnomah Falls. It was gorgeous.

Photos by Aleisha.

 We walked up to the bridge, a leisurely 0.2 mile hike.

 We took some videos and pictures and enjoyed the spray from the waterfall in our faces. But then it was like, really cold.

Along the whole trip we took little video clips to document our adventures and here is the video we made!

It was such a fun trip with such a fun friend! It was so great to see Aleisha when I haven't seen a familiar Utahn face for almost two months! In all the hours of driving (over 12) I talked that girl's ear off, so, sorry Aleisha! It was a ball.

Also, to see Aleisha's documentary of the trip, go here, here, here, and here. She has way more pictures and just has a better way with words.

twi-world.

Yep. We went to Forks. Haters, back off. It was pretty lame, actually. Thank heavens we're not Twilight junkies because I would have been heartbroken. Bella's house wasn't even Bella's house! The Cullen's house was definitely not the Cullen's house! And the high school was new! NOT the right high school. Luckily La Push beach was gorgeous and not government owned. We couldn't get into two different beaches because the daggum government barricaded them. They're the worst. 

La Push Beach

Daggum government ruining our day.

Me and the boys. They're lucky to have me.

 

 Some more La Push.

#theadventuresofjenkinsandwright

 Bella's truck, ya'll.

by Aleisha.

Thank heavens Aleisha has a good camera and skills.

i'm flattered.

 

On Saturday morning, we made it to Cape Flattery, the most northwestern point in the continental United States! How neat is that?!

It was a long and windy road (windy as in curvy, not wind) to get there. We got to the parking lot, walked in the forest for a while until we got to the water. We could even see Canada! So, it's basically like I've been there since I saw it.

by Aleisha

Getting there and back we had to drive through an Indian reservation and we made a couple friends, as you can see.

Of course, we continued to sing and jam out in the car to various artists including Backstreet Boys, One Direction, and Katy Perry. It was a party.

seattle

On Friday we woke up dark and late and drove up to Seattle. We stopped at Alki Park first, where you can see the Space Needle (sticking out of the mountain on the right). We got pumpkin steamers from Starbucks and they tasted lovely with the smell of fish in the air.

 

Next we went to Pike's Market, of course. We walked around, listened to the musicians, and went to the famous gum wall!

 

It was delicious!

This guy hulu hoops, plays guitar (sometimes behind his head), shakes a maraca, and plays the harmonica at the same time. He can multitask better than any woman I know.

We stopped at a 7 Eleven by the Space Needle for pizza and a nice view.

 

The Fremont Troll was a catch. The hideous beast is underneath a bridge, which almost crumbled on top of us and killed us.

At the end of the day we said goodbye to Seattle and drove my car onto the ferry across the ocean to some more of Washington. It was a really fun ferry ride but a mere 20 minutes! So we soaked it up.

We made it to Port Angeles where we spent the night. It was.. quite the party.

The next morning at the hotel's breakfast, I poured milk into my cereal. But it was expired milk. Not like just yesterday expired. Like yesterweek expired. How upsetting. Super 8 really isn't so super. Although their beds are quite bouncy.

portlannnnd.

This weekend, my dear old friend, Aleisha, came to visit me. We did a looong roadie, driving almost 800 miles total. She flew into Portland Thursday night and we walked around the city and had some good eats.

We did a really good job at obeying this sign.

We went to Salt & Straw for ice cream. It's all the rage. We tried blue cheese ice cream, snickerdoodle, salted caramel, and a fancy chocolate flavor. The rage was right.

We walked a trail along the Columbia River on the Washington side. This picture was not taken with a backdrop. This is legitimate footage.

Stay tuned for more deets of this trip. It was a good'n.

fire. on the beach?!

I've always wanted to have a bonfire on the beach. And it finally happened this weekend! This weekend we had a few fires, my friends and I. The first one was down on the beach of the Columbia river. It was lovely. You could see a few of the bridges in the distance with their lights  reflecting on the water and the silhouettes of all the trees. It was real neat.

Alyssa, me, Steph, and Jamie have become pretty tight. We bonfired it up Friday and Saturday with some friends. Saturday we went to ladies night at Deseret Book with Betty (the lady I'm staying with) and her friends and then went to the Waffle Window, this amazing waffle place. I'm becoming a true northwestern, going to all these local joints.

 

life lessons: on being a man

I am convinced I would be twice the man as most men if only I was a man (relating to dating). But I’m not, which is really quite fine. I just wish men would do their duties and not try to push them onto women.

The following are tips for men that should be common sense but became not so common of sense lately because of men becoming lazy. I have learned that men don't do these things from personal experience. And it is not appreciated.

1. Never ask a girl on a date over text. It's offensive. And also I don't really consider it a date cause it's like, how am I supposed to know it's a date? Then I'm all confused and then it turns out it is a date and then it's annoying that you couldn't actually call to ask.

2. Never take a girl bowling on one of your first dates. No one likes bowling dates. I've gone on countless bowling dates and they all just mesh together.

3. Don't get the girl's door when you pick her up then not get it later, like after dinner. It's trickery; making us women think you're somethin special. Once you get her door once, you have to commit. You have to get it every time. And if you never get it, then you're not a worthy date.

4. Don’t try to give a girl your number or tell her to text or call you. This guy recently said to me, "I'll give you my number so you can text me and we can do something." I called him out on that and he ended up getting my number, but it was already a large strike against him.

5. Pay with your card because it's awkward when the girl has to sit there watching you sort through your cash.

6. Don't be late for a date. Even five minutes. If you're running late, call her right away.

7. Don't be awkward.

So there you go. I promise you, if you take these tips to heart, your dating life will be much enriched.