Holiday Things 2014

This past week has been full of fun holiday activities. When Microsoft bought Nokia, my legal group absorbed two members of the Nokia legal team. They were in town visiting last week so we moved all of our usual holiday festivities to last week so they could join in. This included a lunch and toy exchange (where the toys were donated to charity after) at my boss’s boss’s house, and a smaller group lunch at Maggiano’s. It was an exciting week.

In addition to my work holiday events, last Thursday Dustin and I went to Sun Liquor’s first annual Nog Ball. Sun Liquor’s Erik Champan hand makes the eggnog from fresh eggs, cream, apple brandy, bourbon, rum and sugar. Sun Liquor’s Aged Eggnog is made in small batches and aged for 30 days in glass, a process that breaks down the fats and proteins, making the nog silky smooth and delicious. The nog is usually only available on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, but this year they decided to offer it at a party as well, along with some amazing Seattle snacks.

 
^^Dustin and I in our ugly Christmas sweaters^^

We had a great time eating fry bread tacos and eggnog topped Top Pot donuts, and sipping Seattle bourbon, boozy milkshakes and of course eggnog. I think I gained 6 lbs just at this one event. #worthit

On Friday evening I attended the Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure (&) Operations Holiday party as Dustin’s date. (sidebar: can we please note that the below is Dustin’s Microsoft group’s holiday party, while mine is a gift exchange in someone’s livingroom and we don’t even keep the gifts?! Must be nice to work for a group that makes money and has a substantial morale budget haha.) It was the fanciest holiday party I’d ever been to (granted, I don’t have much to compare it to) and we had a blast. It was at the Hyatt in downtown Bellevue which is huge and beautiful to begin with. There was a prefunk for Dustin’s smaller group at one of the restaurant bars in the hotel before the main party. The prefunk included chicken quesadillas and an open bar and I got to meet some of Dustin’s coworkers and their dates before the actual party began which was nice.

The actual party took up two ballrooms on two floors. There was an Alice in Wonderland theme and it included a million open bars, servers walking around with plates of really delicious snacks, an oxygen bar that may or may not have saved us from terrible hangovers the next day, a sit down dinner, a photo booth, gambling, dueling pianos, karaoke (with a live band as your backup) and at the end of the night, they brought out a tater-tot bar and it might have been the best thing that has ever happened to me.

 
^^Posing with the flamingo croquet^^

^^I put all my dollars on 4 numbers, then 17 hit and I won like $500 fake dollars and immediately gave up when I realized there was no point in playing with fake money and no prizes ha^^

^^Holiday Party Selfie^^

 ^^Awkward smilez^^

 
^^Giant flowers FTW^^

We had so much fun at the party, and we were glad that we got a room at the Hyatt so we could order $10 room service beers and then immediately fall asleep after the party. Good times.

Saturday we did a lot of Christmas shopping. We shopped in Bellevue first and then Saturday evening we headed up to the Seattle Premium Outlets to finish up things. While we were there we stopped in the Kate Spade store because they were having a crazy sale (50% off everything + and additional 20% off handbags). I scored a cross body bag, originally $248 for $35! Best score everrr. After the outlets and watching Marcus Mariota win the Heisman while snacking on fries at the Ram, we headed back to Seattle and stopped by Sephora on our way home to get some makeup for me as well as some spa-night-essentials. We then had a spa night and I fell asleep on the couch right as SNL was starting (fail).

^^Activated charcoal mud masks^^

^^Super moisturizing masks that make us look like serial killers^^

Obiv we had baby skin on Sunday. I even refrained from wearing makeup all day. I’m sure Kate really appreciated that during our dinner together that evening ;)

It’s been fun doing holiday things even if my pants are a bit tighter this week. I’m sure this work week is going to feel a million years long with no holiday events planned and as I look forward to my trip to Ecuador happening a week from today (eek!). I hope you’re all having a happy holiday season as well! xo

Day of Caring 2014 and a Heart Concert

This past weekend seemed to kick off a day early because instead of a normal work day on Friday, my team at work participated in United Way’s Day of Caring. For day of caring, almost 12,000 people in King County spent the day volunteering at various nonprofits in the area. My group chose Little Bit Therapudic Riding Center. Little Bit is a 17 acre ranch that houses 40 horses that provide life-changing physical benefits to disabled children (and adults) including strengthening muscles, preventing bone weakness and joint dislocation, improving balance, and enhancing hand/eye coordination. These benefits improve a rider’s overall health, which, in turn, can increase life expectancy. They also ripple into other aspects of daily living: promoting confidence and independence, improving communication skills and peer interaction, enhancing concentration and memory, stimulating problem-solving, and providing achievable goals. I spent most of the day there cleaning the office area (an office attached to a riding arena and barn gets really dusty really quick) which isn’t the sexiest volunteer job, but one of the perks was that I was able to watch some of the children on the horses. It was really inspiring to see the effect the horses have on their riders. It made me realize I should probably give back more of my time to awesome organizations like Little Bit.

^^Most of Microsoft’s LCA Corporate team at Little Bit on 9/19/14^^

We wrapped up our volunteering a little earlier than I would normally wrap up a day at the office, so I took the opportunity to head out of Seattle toward Hood River before traffic got too bad (some of my coworkers went back to the office – over achievers! ha).

I drove back to Hood River and immediately met up with Beth and Sarah for dinner. Beth never gets Friday nights off (she manages a really delicious and popular restaurant in White Salmon and Fridays are always busy) so I had to take full advantage of the fact that she was off on a night when I was in town. We had dinner then wandered out to grab drinks with friends.

^^L->R: Sarah, Beth, Justin, Huggie and Tonya at the British Pub^^

Sarah was a grandma and went home to go to bed early(ish), but Beth and I stayed out later until we eventually wandered back to Josh and Sarah’s to crash in their spare bedroom instead of driving home #responsibledecisions

Saturday I grabbed a green smoothie (which I’m trying to drink more of) from the Juice Bros and then went to my parents’ house to snuggle with my cats for a bit. Everyone knows about Fluffy, but this is Fluffy’s Grandma, Socks. She is probably the oldest outdoor cat EVER (she is like 22), she is so sweet (except to Fluffy), she still hunts and until last year she had kittens every single year. I was convinced she was going to die when I went to college like 10 years ago, but she’s still going strong.

^^Fluffy’s grandma: Socks^^

After cat time I headed to my BFF’s Grandma’s home for Grandma Bev’s birthday party. I spent a lot of time in Middle and High School at Katie’s Grandma’s house (Katie lived with her Grandma) and she knew both of my parents when they were kids too. She has always been really wonderful to me and I don’t get to see her nearly as much as I’d like, so it was nice to chat with her and hear all the things she’s grumpy about these days ;) hint: she hates the way downtown White Salmon has evolved haha.

I had to leave the party a little early because Beth, Sarah and I had tickets to see Heart perform at Edgefield!! We went a little early to wander around the gardens and have dinner and enjoy one of the last nice days of summer outside. There were a TON of people at the show so we ended up sitting pretty far back but we still had a great time.

^^Beth and I in the garden^^

^^L->R: Me, Sarah, Beth waiting for the concert to start^^

 
^^Heart performing (thanks Sarah for the pic)^^

Sunday morning I had breakfast with Josh and Katie at Pioneer Pizza (their eggs benedict pizza is on point) before packing up and heading back to Seattle.

^^Of course I chose the cat mug at Pioneer^^

I think I mentioned that I’m on the go for the next million weekends in a row, but these busy weekends have been fun, so I’m hoping the trend will continue. I think I’m finally getting adjusted to being gone every weekend (I feel less overwhelmed this week), and I’m looking forward to lots of good things coming up like: Hops Fest, LAS VEGAS, and hunting season!

Cheers!!

It's finally summer in Seattle 2014

Last weekend I took full advantage of the long, sunny, Seattle days. Also, it has been really hot in my tiny, second story, brick apartment so I've been looking for every excuse to spend evenings out and about. Friday night I went to a Mariner's game with some coworkers, significant others and some a bunch of friends. We ended up running into a few more friends at the game and by the end of the night there was quite a big group of us hanging out in the beer garden. (side note: I took a lot of pictures but they're on a not-yet-developed disposable camera, so here are some photos I've stolen from other people who used their phones like normal people living in 2014).

^^Me, Brittan, Danielle & Natalie (Mexican Food Club does a Mariner's game^^

 

The Mariner's won at the last minute against the Oakland A's and it was a really fun game. Afterward a few of us attempted to go out in Ballard, but we were all tired and my flip flop blew out (even though I was walking normally) as I was going into the bar, so we didn't end up staying long.

 

Saturday was Seafood Fest in Ballard. Dustin, Katie, Josh and I ran into my coworker Dave and his girlfriend immediately upon arrival. It was Dave's birthday and we ended up hanging out with them and meeting up with Art and Amy for beers in the beer garden. Eventually we got hungry and wandered into the Ballard Annex Oyster House for some happy hour and a place to sit.

 

^^Selfie during HH^^

 

 ^^Katie and I at HH^^

 

After happy hour we met up with Justin, Brittan, Natalie and Boyd for some more beers, seafood and fun.

 

Eventually Art, Amy, Dustin and I got tired and decided that we wanted to head back to Dustin's for some Rock Band and a sleepover. Adult sleepovers with your friends who are kind of like your family are totally normal, right? :)

 

Sunday I ate Mexican food with Justin and Brittan, attempted a beach day (but it was overcast and Natalie was over the elements), and ended up on a patio drinking a glass of chilled Rose with Brittan and Natalie.

 

It was a very successful weekend before a very stressful week. After receiving an e-mail from Satya Nadella (Microsoft's CEO) talking about significant changes that would be made to the company in the coming weeks, then hearing numerous news reports that Microsoft was expecting to lay off as many as 6,000 people this week, reading last night that they layoffs would happen today, freaking out last night, not really sleeping all night, then waking up this morning to e-mails from Satya and Brad Smith (the head of legal at Microsoft) saying that not 6,000 but 18,000 people would be laid off today and in the coming months. Brad's e-mail said that 10%(!!!!) of the legal department was being laid off today. I cried when I read that, first thing this morning. I cried a few times today. It was nice to know that I would know today whether or not I would be laid off, but also very stressful going to work this morning. Part of me was like, "they're not going to lay me off, they JUST hired me!" and the other part of me was like "well, they went that long without me, maybe they don't really need me after all, and I know they're expected to make cuts, and like, I get it." I, luckily, still have a job. One of my favorite coworkers, however, was laid off. My heart hurts for her. It was a really emotional day for my whole group (and probably for everyone at Microsoft). Now I'm attempting to de-stress with a glass of Rose and some blogging :)

 

This weekend I will attempt to de-stress even more (with two other Microsoft employees who are also "safe") with some camping, round 2, in the Hood Canal! Yay!