Magical Oregon Weekend

After work on Friday I headed down south to Portland, Oregon. The traffic was fucking terrible and the 3 hour drive took 4.5 hours but it was totally worth it. I met Marissa at her apartment in Kenton (N. Portland) and we shared some Rosé, meat, cheese, hummus and crackers before putting on lipstick (and a heavy, winter coat for Marissa because August? lol) and heading out to sip Moscow Mules at a cute bar with a patio on Mississippi. After that there were raviolis, fries and vodka sodas at another bar patio down the street. We hopped in an Uber from there and headed to Dig A Pony to drop it low and take snapchat selfies while waiting in line for the bathroom (as one does, duh).

^^Rebeka and Marissa running wild on the streets of Portland^^

^^HEY GIRL^^

When we were done sharing a beer with a stranger on the dance floor we ran out of Dig A Pony and into a random bar where we saw one of Marissa's ex-flings who  many summers ago asked me "Where abouts you be lurkin to, girl?" #winner. We hid from him in a photo booth and then emerged long enough to shout "HI!" at him and literally run out of the bar, down the street and into my first ever strip club!!

^^Photo Booth Goodness^^

I've always been a bit weary of strip clubs (is it degrading to the women? are they there against their will? do they hate it? are there a ton of pervs there?) but Sassy's totally changed my mind. It was so magical. It was like a really fun, packed-full-of-hipsters bar with badass, beautiful, real, talented ladies dancing around naked/mostly naked. I wanted to literally throw all my money at them.

Side note: can we talk about how I was definitely the least cool person in all of Portland? THERE ARE SO MANY COOL PEOPLE WHO LIVE THERE! I don't know where they all came from, but my self esteem is glad they're not in Seattle. Lolz.

Then, as we were leaving the strip club, Marissa wanted to take a picture of a sign on the door and she accidentally left her flash on and the bartender came over and literally screamed at us "NO PICTURES" (no joke, screamed) and we RAN out of Sassy's and down the street and called an Uber that we made drop us off at a 24-hour donut shop where we bougth donuts from a literal child and walked the rest of the way home and I face swapped a pic of Marissa with Spock and it was so so good. And then Marissa made us frozen pizza which we ate before passing the F out at approximately 3:45am. In case you're keeping track, that's: meat, cheese, hummus, crackers, raviolis, fries, donuts and pizza. Fat kids so hard.

^^Best Face Swap^^

Saturday morning we grabbed coffee and went for a walk in Marissa's neighborhood before grabbing some things, some snacks and heading down to the Willamette River for a mini-beach/river day. I ate a Reuben on the beach (logical) and we played on our phones behind a stump and waded out in the water and I sunburned the back of my legs like the ginger soul I am. It was great.

^^A Reuben is a totes approps thing to eat at the beach, duh^^

^^River chilling/back of leg sun burning^^

 

 ^^Hey Gurl^^

^^Only Marissa wears flannel to the beach^^

^^River River River Riverrrr^^

^^LOOK AT MEEEE^^

^^Beach selfie^^

After the beach we headed to Salt and Straw on Alberta (my first time!!) for a long line and eventually ice cream. It was worth the wait. I got the carrot cake batter that had cream cheese frosting chunks, OMG you guys, so good. Eventually we made our way back to Marissa's apartment where I showered, squeezed her goodbye and then drove to Hood River.

^^Waiting in line at Salt and Straw for ice cream^^

When I got to Hood River I headed to Beth's house (because Beth moved back to Hood River, eeeeeeeeeee! yay!) to get ready for the pFriem 4th Birthday Party event at the waterfront park. We ended up meeting Beth's sister Emily at the party and ran into more friends there. We had beers, listened to music and took pictures in the really cute photo booth. It was a blast!

 ^^Sun setting and all the festivities and Beth's face at the pFriem bday party^^

 ^^Beth, me and Emily at the pFriem party^^

 

^^Photo Booth Magic^^

After the party I was a little drunk and got a SUPER delicious quesadilla from a street cart before meeting up with everyone again at the Pub. We eventually headed for Double Mountain and then I met Brian to chill and drink some pink wine.

My liver hates me.

The next morning there was breakfast at the Hood River Inn (coffee, water and mimosas included which is my favorite thing at breakfast) before I headed back over to Washington see my parents and Fluffy Face for a bit. Fluffy was begging for a biscuit for like 20 minutes so eventually we finally gave him one and he went to town. We are bad pet owners for giving him human food, but also, it was hilarious.

^^Fluffy and his biscuit^^

When I got back to Oregon a few hours later I grabbed coffee at Doppio with Gaby. We gossiped and discussed our V EXCITING upcoming trip before hugging goodbye so she could go on a boat with some friends. I then grabbed a pork belly banh mi and a beer for lunch on a patio with Josh and Sarah where I third-wheeled really hard and peer pressured Josh into coming to my birthday party in Mexicooo (successfully, I think?). It was a really eventful 1/2 of a day. I spent the 2nd 1/2 of the day driving back to Seattle (6 hours I'll never get back, UGH, thanks traffic) and then slept for a million hours that night.

Thanks again for filtering all that alcohol, liver, you're the best. And thanks again friends, strippers, alcohol and the state of Oregon for the great-ass time.

xo

^^I am impressed with the amount of photo booth pics I took this weekend, high five Oregon Rebeka, killing it^^

Noelle and Tim's Wedding Weekend in the Gorge

The week of the 4th of July was a crazy one to say the least. I was at home in White Salmon/Hood River from Saturday to Tuesday to: pick 40 lbs of cherries with Sarah, wear red white and blue, teach my first Zumba class, hang with my besties, drink drinks and watch fireworks. On Tuesday I came back to Seattle and my 6 year long relationship ended. I worked and tried to function like a normal person on Wednesday and Thursday (extra big props to Katie, Natalie, Beth, Gaby and everyone else who helped with that fun couple of days) until I could head back to Hood River on Thursday after work for a weekend of fun celebrating Tim and Noelle.

^^The best Bing Cherries from the Larsen orchard^^

 ^^Beth, me and Gaby getting full on patriotic at Ben Berger's house for the 4th of July fireworks^^

^^And one more for fun because look at this! PS Beth is in little boy's cargo shorts from Top to Bottom, LOLz^^

When I got to Hood River on Thursday night I immediately headed to Solstice to meet Josh and Sarah for dinner and then drinks at Camp 1805. I followed that up with a beer with Brian and before I knew it, it was Thursday morning and I was hazily getting Dog River Coffee and getting ready for a hike up the middle of a river. 

We drove out past Multnomah Falls to the Oneonta Gorge where we first did a "dry" hike the boys promised us would be super quick up to Middle Oneonta Falls and back down to Horsetail Falls but ended up being a few miles longer than expected which was fine except Elee and I were wearing $4 WalMart water moccasins. After the dry hike we met up with the rest of our group and headed up the freezing cold Oneonta Gorge (via the middle of the river), over log banks, into chest deep water, until we finally reached the lower Oneonta waterfall. When we got there the boys swam into the pool for a picture or two and then we turned around and waded back down the river which wasn't quite as cold because our entire bodies were super numb. High five to MOH Elee for forcing me to go the final distance in the deep part of the river to get to the waterfall. I felt like a total badass when it was all said and done and I was really glad I finished the whole thing!

^^Elee and I bringing up the rear of the hiking crew^^

^^One of the log jams in the middle of the river we had to climb over, they were intense. Thank the baby J no one fell off and broke an arm or something the day before the wedding!!^^

After the hike we headed back to the rental house (which was SO gorgeous, OMG) to get ready for the rehearsal dinner. I ended up heading out before the rehearsal dinner to grab a beer and a salad at Double Mountain with Gaby because I was starving after all the hiking and a way too small breakfast.

When I got back to the house Alli, A Jo and Erin had arrived from Seattle and it was time to get the party started!! The rehearsal dinner consisted of smoked meats, mac and cheese and pie! It was super good (nice choice, Tim!) and the cateror was wearing overalls and a shirt that said PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals) and on the back it said "you can jerk anything" Lolll what, why? Stay classy, Hood River!

^^Sisters at the rehearsal: Erin, A Jo, Noelle, Alli, Elee and me^^

^^Full Sail beer in Full Sail glasses and the amazing view from the deck of the house^^

After the rehearsal din I met our my old roommie Kylee for a beer and then ended up seeing Tim and his friend out and decided to stay out to hang with them, Gaby, Josh and Jon and ended up staying out later than expected having fun with friends at the British Pub.

Saturday Alli, A Jo, Erin and I woke up in our communal room (took us right back to Sorority sleeping porch days), got ready in less than 20 minutes (SO impressed by that) and headed to downtown Hood River for coffee at Dog River followed by Colby's pop up Ramen at the Hood River Farmer's Market for breakfast which was mind blowing. Soo tasty!!

 ^^Colby in the pop-up-Ramen tent^^

^^Ramen porn^^

While we were enjoying our ramen (and our first beer of the day thanks to the Full Sail beer tent at the farmer's market) Colby came over and showed us his 1999 yearbook which he had scribbled all over as a kid. There were doodles of his name, notes, stars next to some people, some people were scribbled out, the word "hot" under a few people and when I got to my name the words "very hot" were there and it was the best thing ever. Thank you Colby for making my whole week! It's exactly what my newly single heart needed!! That yearbook was pure gold, we all loved looking through it so much!!

^^my first ever, 6th grade boyfriend Colby and I at the Hood River Farmer's Market^^

After the farmer's market we did a few minutes of shopping to kill time before the Full Sail Brewery opened, which A Jo was dying to try. We got tasters of beer, made fun of Erin for always embarrassing us (see: painting all 10 of her fingernails at Parts+Labour while Alli was buying a romper), gave Kerry a hug, chatted with Brian, enjoyed the view and then Alli DD-ed us back to the Gorge White House to get cider for Elee (the MOH) and to take some pics before heading to the rental house to get ready for the BEST WEDDING EVER!

^^Full Sail is open, RUNNNN^^

 ^^Me, A Jo, Erin and our Full Sail taster trays, out on the Full Sail Patio^^

^^A Jo, Erin, me and Alli at the Gorge White House^^ 

^^Gorge White House groupie!^^

Noelle and Tim arranged for a school bus to take us from the rental house, pick up some folks at Full Sail and then head over to Underwood, Washington where the wedding was happening. It was super fun drinking cheap beers on the bus with my fav college ladies!!

^^A Jo and I, school bus drinking in the back seats, like you do!^^

 ^^Erin and Alli bussing it up!^^

The wedding was at Gorge Crest Vineyards which is the MOST beautiful venue. It was partly cloudy for the wedding which was great for pictures but meant you couldn't see all of Mount Hood (worse things have happened). Tim's brother officiated the wedding and did a really impressive and wonderful job. He was so sincere, short but sweet and captured them and their relationship perfectly. I got to sit in the front row with Noelle's mom and brother, Erin, Alli, A Jo and Kylee which was so, so special. After they said I do we enjoyed the bombbbbb reception - the food was super good (bacon and bleu cheese mashed potatoes!) and assortment of cakes were some of the best I've ever had, there were a ton of drinks (being poured by Morgan from the Red Carpet!!), Elee's MOH speech was sooo funny, we learned how to use Boomerang, and best of all, the dance floor was hopping off with jams from the coolest DJ! Noelle did such an amazing job planning everything and I think everyone there had a really, genuinely good time.

 ^^Noelle and Tim saying their vows^^

 ^^Mount Hood peeking out. At one point I was standing off to the side of the dance floor, looking at this view, filled with joy for the day and though that I was really, genuinely happy for the first time in days. I had this moment of clarity that everything was going to be ok and that I am so lucky to live in such a beautiful place with such amazing people^^

 ^^Me, A Jo, Erin, Alli and Kylee^^

 ^^ZTA sisters with our sister bride!!^^

^^This DJ knew how to get down with the BSB and Ja Rule #collegefratjams^^

After the wedding was over we all loaded back on the bus and headed to none other than Jack's for the after party!! We drank way too many scorpion bowls, danced our faces off, ate $181 worth of fried appetizers and partied it up until 1:30am when we were finally shuttled home and I immediately passed out on my twin bed in the communal bedroom.

^^Me, A Jo, Erin and Noelle on the stage at Jack's^^

The next morning we woke up, packed up, at breakfast sandwiches from River Daze and then Alli, A Jo and I headed back up to Seattle in my car. It was so nice having company on the drive back. I had the very best time this past weekend celebrating Tim and Noelle and spending time with some of the very best people!

CHS Class of 2005 10 Year Reunion Weekend

This past Saturday, July 18th, 2105, was my 10 year high school reunion. As most of you know, I planned it after I discovered our class president wasn’t going to do it, and it was a lot more work than I expected. To my delight though, it was totally worth it.

I took a 1/2 day on Friday and at noon I left work and headed to Katie’s house to pick her up before heading down to Hood River. Katie helped me SO much with reunion planning stuff and I literally could not have done it without her. She is the best.

^^Katie and I at a gas station/rest stop about 1/2 way to Hood River^^

When we got to town we stopped by Katie’s hotel so she could check in and then we headed to the British Pub for a Radler in the blazing hot sun (hah). After we chatted with our favorite bartender, confirming our time and drink special with them for our bar crawl the following night, we headed down to Sushi Okalani to put our name in for a table. While we waited we had a drink & some fries upstairs at Celilo.  Sarah, Launa and Josh joined us for a drink too!

 
^^Cracking up at being “gifted” the ugliest butterfly dress by Sarah at Celilo^^

At sushi we entrusted Josh with the ordering and we ended up having a really huge, delicious sushi feast complete with the most amazing Uni Shooters that included Uni, a raw quail egg, Ponzu sauce and a drop of Tabasco. Mmm! I will entrust Josh with my sushi ordering 4eva.

After dinner we all headed back to the British Pub for a nightcap and to wait for Katie’s husband, Josh, to get to town.

^^My fav couple to third wheel with: Josh & Sarah^^

^^Katie and I after our Sushi feast!^^

The next morning I hung out with Josh and Sara, drank coffee, got a bagel with lox + smoothie, and headed up to my parents’ house to hang with my dad and fluffy before I had to go to the reunion. I sat with my dad and painted my nails and chatted and he got me some burger toppings from the garden while I showered and put on makeup. I also aksed Brother Jim if he would be my date to the reunion (Dustin was in Chicago for a bachelor party of sorts) and he LOLd at me and said no and called me weird. Whatever, brother. A few hours later I headed down to the Hood River Waterfront Park to meet Katie and Josh and get the park shelter ready for the reunion.

Here is what the park shelter looked like before:

^^Hood River is the prettiest, right?^^

And a few pictures with decorations/mid decorating before everyone arrived: ^^Yearbook, hashtag, gift bags for a game, name tags complete with our senior yearbook photo, and can koozies (designed with help of Sarah – thanks Sarah)!!^^ 

^^Extra pictures hung on poles, big poster boards with pictures and a bar for the food (buns, condiments, and a strawberry shortcake bar)^^ 

After everyone arrived we hung out, caught up, looked at pictures, listened to a sweet 2005-throwback Spotify mix complete with songs I asked people to suggest on FB, took pictures with a disposable camera (2005 throwback, amiright? can’t wait for those babies to come back) and played some lawn games (corn hole, giant bananagrams, and Katie made giant yhatzee). We had probably a few over 30 show up which was a few less than we were expecting (based on tickets purchased), but out of 67 in our graduating class I feel like that was a pretty great turn-out!

Kevin from our class brought 2 gas grills to the park shelter and he grilled for us which was so amazing (after some panic over what we were going to eat! Thanks for saving the day with that one, Kevin). We ate hamburgers, black bean burgers, hotdogs, chips, and strawberry shortcake. And because we only charged $15 for tickets, we told people that we wouldn’t be providing alcohol at the BBQ, but that they could bring their own because there is no open container law in Hood River and you can drink in the streets, Vegas style! It’s the best! So most people brought beer and we all drank a few of those which faciliated some extra #sociallubrication. Katie also organized a fun “game” with prizes we played toward the end of the BBQ. She asked questions like “who has the most kids? if you have 1 kid, raise your hand. Keep it up if you have 2…” etc. She did prizes for each category, like a lacy thong for “married the longest,” ear plugs and an eye mask for “traveled the furthest to get to the reunion” and a map for “lives closest to the high school” hahaha. I won “highest degree earned” and I won a notepad with funny sayings on each page (“shit I don’t want to do” for example), and everyone’s bag came with a mini-bottle of alcohol in addition to their prize. It went over really well.

 ^^Me, Jegar photo bombing, Alicia and Becky at the BBQ part of the reunion. Becky, Alicia and I use to be great friends growing up, it was so fun to see them again^^

^^A pretty early on pictures of most of the classmates at the reunion + 1 spouse and some kids^^ 

^^A blurry pic of me thanks to Alicia’s daughter^^

We were at the Waterfront Park from 4-8:30pm hanging out. Around 8 everyone chipped in and helped us pack up things and we all headed to the River City Saloon (including 2 of the 3 teachers we invited), which was the first stop on our post-BBQ bar crawl.

^^Me, Jegar and Mr. Miller taking a shot of Jagermeister at the River City Saloon^^

Before the reunion I contacted all the bars and asked if they would be willing to do a drink special for our group. The River City gave us $2 Rainers and Miller Highlifes. At 9:30pm we headed to the British Pub for $5 Rum Punch Special! Mmmm!

^^Alex sitting on the ground at the Pub along with Matt, Keith, Cayenne and Will in the background^^
 ^^Melissa and her husband, Will and Katie at the Pub^^

I spent most of the time at the Pub bullshitting with Mr. Kasenga which was so fun. I also got a little drunk and un-friended and blocked this girl on FB from our class (who didn’t even graduate with us!!!!!) who had given me a bunch of shit leading up to the reunion “it’s so expensive, are you going to be feeding us on diamond plates?” “Girl, I’m married, of course I’m bringing a date!” “Can I pay you there?” and who posts borderline offensive things like a million times a day. Reminds me of this. It was so satisfying to unfriend and block her IMMEDIATELY after the reunion was over and I had no obligation to ever talk to her again.

Our next stop was supposed to be at a Taco Truck down the street but as we were leaving the Pub I got wind that the taco truck wasn’t open. WHAT?! So, as the group leader, I shouted at everyone that there was a change of plans (good thing I’m loud, right?!) and we headed to the next scheduled bar which was the Trillium. Katie ordered a bunch of fried food for everyone because she is the best and I ordered a round of Jello-shots for the group. #partytimeUSA

^^Will and I at the Trillium. Will just finished his first year of law school at Northwestern and he’s living in Seattle for the summer doing an internship. It was so fun to see him and bond over how terrible 1L is haha!^^

^^Melissa, Jegar photo bombing again, Will, Me and Katie at the Trillium^^

At one point at the Trillium one of our classmates fell asleep on the bar. To give him credit, he works the graveyard shift, had been up for like a million hours and has 3 kids. Wow! The bartender told me I had to get him out so we took him outside thinking he’d already called his wife to come get him. A little while later, he was in rough shape and we asked him to unlock his phone so that we could call his wife and see where she was. He couldn’t get it unlocked but a spouse of another classmate saw the shape he was trying to use to unlock the phone, took the phone, figured out the pass code after a few tries, looked at the call log, saw his wife hadn’t been called, called her from his phone and she came to get him. Not before he threw up on the sidewalk though. And then we got him to the street where he continued to throw up. Everyone in our class was so great, they helped hold him up and keep him awake, helped the bartenders clean up the mess and when our classmate’s wife got there we hugged him, got him in the car, gave him a plastic bag just in case and everyone was standing in the street waving bye to them when they drove off. Immediately after they pulled away I shouted, “Jack’s?!” and everyone was like “YES!” (lolz) and we all headed to the next bar. It was actually really nice how supportive and awesome everyone was. Warm fuzzies.

Our next stop was Jack’s which is a sweet Chinese restaurant bar turned dance club after midnight on the weekend. We got Scorpion Bowls for everyone to split and drank those before grabbing one more and heading to the dance floor. We danced HARD for about an hour which was such a blast. Katie also requested Nelly and Ja Rule which everyone in the bar loved.

^^This picture Cracks. Me. Up. I’m taking that Scorpion Bowl SO seriously with my devil eyes!^^
  ^^one more Scorpion Bowl shot^^

^^Ordering our last Scorpion Bowl and touching Will’s fancy moustache before heading to the dance floor^^

^^Me and the guys watching the dance floor action^^ 

^^Katie and I getting down on the stage haha^^ 

Right as the lights were about to turn on at Jack’s we ran out and headed back up to the Trillium where they basically told us before we left that they would serve us after hours. 2 classmates got in an argument, I tried to mitigate, we got some beers and hung out before they called last call and we decided that we NEEDED FOOD NOW. A few of us wanted to see if the taco truck was open so we headed down to the food truck pod. The taco truck was still closed (WTF) but a noodle truck was open. Me, Matt, Nick, Kevin, Alex and Katie ate noodles at 3am on the sidewalk. After our noodles we called our rides and were home by 4am. ASK ME HOW I STAYED OUT PARTYING HARD SO LATE?! I HAVE NO IDEA! Ha. It was seriously the most fun night I’ve had in a million years, though.

Katie and I split a cab, I dropped her off at her hotel and headed up to Josh and Sarah’s where I only slept for a few hours (#exhausteddddddd) before getting woken up by cries from the brand new puppy, Kobuk, who they picked up while I was at the reunion on Saturday. 

^^Kobuk the Malamute puppy^^

Kiva was NOT happy about her new puppy brother. They’re so cute next to each other though. Big Malamute, tiny Malamute! ^^Pissed Kiva means she came to snuggle with me on “my” bed^^

After spending a few hours in the yard with Josh, Sarah, Kiva and the new puppy, Brother Jim came to get me on his motorcycle which was the most terrifying thing ever, even though he promised me we didn’t go over 24MPH and we rode downtown to Bette’s Place for breakfast and so I could meet his new girlfriend who works there. We split a GIANT cinnamon roll (mistake, too much sugar too early), ate eggs and had a great time breakfasting.

Shortly after breakfast I embarked on the longest, sleepiest, traffickest drive back to Seattle. I then met Caroline for a little bit to drop off stuff Alex left in my car and ended up chatting with them both after he showed up at her apartment too. I had to pick up Dustin at the airport at 11 that night so I went home and unpacked for a bit before heading to get him. I was the sleepiest monkey on Monday. UGH!

It was so worth it, though. My reunion was the most fun 12 hours I’ve had in a really long time. I love CHS’s class of 2005! (except the people who live in town and decided not to go, they are dead to me) HA! All the stress of planning for 9 months was totally worth it! CHEERS TO 10 YEARS!