awesome vacation + awesome friends + awesome determination = awesomesauce.

The title is just for you, Steph. <3



Hey everyone! Sorry I've been gone so long, I think I'm still suffering from a small case of brain lock from inhaling too much Hollister body spray and finding sand in places I thought I cleaned it out. Twice. But all is well, and I'm working to make everything stay on the timeline I'm dedicated to completing. Vacation was flat out AMAZING, and I think the best part (aside from getting some of the best cuddly sleep ever with my boy) was the fact that I put on next to nothing weight wise. Tim says it has to do with the fact that we walked a typical eight hours every day. Well, no wonder I slept so well. Too bad my couch here at home isn't the same.



I think I'm still stuck in beach-mode. I keep looking for a boardwalk to pour quarters in to win red tickets to save for a new pair of headphones, and I keep expecting to find fried calamari at every food place I stop at (come on PA! I miss my fried seafood!). Don't even mention lobster to me unless you have a box of Kleenex nearby. Tim took me to this cute little place called Red's Losbster Pot not even ten minutes from where we were staying, and I got the most delicious pound and a half of steamed lobster. If I keep talking about it I'm going to ruin my keyboard with drool. Ew.



But the whole trip wasn't exactly sunshine and daisies. Tim's Dad had a huge habit of calling... every two hours. Asking for cigarettes. Really? Tim even bought him a pack when I showed up, and we had just checked in to the room when he called asking for another pack. I have nothing against people who want to smoke because my parents do it, but going through a 20-count pack in less than two hours is a smudge excessive and left me a little jaded.



Then there was the rain. No, I don't mean the cutesy drizzle you run out to kiss each other in just so you can brag to your girlfriends that you were smooched under showers. I mean hurricane worthy storms (actually, it wouldn't have surprised me if it had been a tropical storm that had passed through. That bad, guys, that bad) that made it impossible to see two feet in front of you or your car. We had been making our way to Six Flags on Wednesday when the sky just cracked, lit up, and opened a faucet on us. People were actually pulling over it was so nasty.

That umbrella wouldn't have lasted two seconds.

So Wednesday's plans were tossed out the window. Tim spun around and treated me to the small mall in Tom's River, where I picked up my Hollister splurge I'm still sniffing addictively every thirty seconds. Hint; if anyone at Lehigh Valley Mall wants to hire me for the Hollister store, ahem. Hai. I live in their clothing, right down to the sweatpants when PMS bloating kicks in.

Overall, though, the week was just mindblowingly amazing. I won so many ticket jackpots in the arcade that I really thought I would go home with a second iPad, until I realized I only had 50k points and the iPad was 1.2million.

But enough about my wildly mild vacation! I want to hear about your recent vacations, good or bad! Or maybe you share a Hollister addiction like me? Or even better; maybe you love lobster! Either way, I want to hear about it.

And if any of this post didn't get your blood pumping with a little excitement, I'll give you one last ultra-super piece of information. A really good friend of mine, Amanda, said she would love to design the cover of Illumine for me! I'll be posting the synopsis here on the blog under the Illumine tab on July 6th, and the faster I edit this baby, the sooner I'll start the awesome haul of ARCs and teasers. Now come on, doesn't that make you happy?