May 2016 Recap

I've discovered that when work gets crazy, blogging is the first thing I let go. Cleaning my shower is probably the second thing that slips (super gross, I know, but it's my least favorite chore and I'm really looking for any excuse not to do it). But I am neglecting no longer! A blog post! Of the things I've done lately! Get excited!

BOATING
Dustin bought a boat! It's very exciting stuff. I've already claimed my seat (very front of the boat, on the opposite side as the Captain's chair), decided my drink of choice (white wine for cruising, rose for sitting b/c of the splashes) and crafted a playlist (I'm on a Boat, Boats n Hoes, Party in the USA, etc.). I can't wait for it to get really hot this summer so we can the boat out all the time!

^^Dustin and I during the boat's maiden voyage^^

^^Just douching around on the boat^^

^^Dustin is great at smiling for pics while driving. Cheers to him!^^ 

 ^^View of downtown Seattle from the boat^^

 ^^Mount Rainier and Lake Washington^^

 ^^yeah, buddy!^^

OCEAN SHORES WEEKEND

Over the first weekend in May some friends and I did our second annual Ocean Shores friendship trip. This year we rented hotel rooms at the Shiloh Inn and took advantage of their 24 hour hot tub and proximity to cheesy beach town gift shops. It was really windy while we were there but we still managed to eat a pizza meant for about 50 people, go to the beach for a few minutes, ride go karts and bumper cars, and go to the bowling alley. Bonus: we all got matching Ocean Shores clothes while we were there. I've been wearing my neon yellow sweatshirt way too much since I got back.

 ^^Clockwise from top right: Dustin, me, Ambur, Paul La, Erin, Adam, Brittan and Rob^^

^^Ambur, me, Brittan and Erin on Brit and Erin's deck after we came back from the beach due to extreme winds and sand EVERYWHERE^^

^^Killing it at bumper cars lol^^

^^Ready, set, go-kart!^^

MARINERS GAME

Seattle's baseball team, the Mariners, have been doing really well this season for the first time in approximately 15 years, so when Dustin's friend Pickle came up to visit a few weekends ago we all headed to a Saturday evening baseball game. The Ms ended up losing, but it was one of the most exciting baseball games I've ever been to (at one point I even jumped out of my seat, WHO AM I?!), AND I got to eat a churro and drink beers, so I'm calling it a win regardless.

^^Me, Dustin, and the back of Pickle's head^^

^^The roof was closed on Safeco Field that night because it was rainy. Typical Seattle^^

WANDERLUST

On Sunday my friend Katie and I participated in a "mindful triathlon" put on by the people at Wanderlust. It was at Marymore Park in Redmond, Wa (about 15 minutes east of Seattle, also where Microsoft is located) and included a 5K run followed by an hour of yoga followed by an hour of meditation. Katie and I both thought it would be a really good idea to run the 5K without any sort of training (I couldn't tell you the last time I ran) but it went surprisingly well (minus the fact that I was OMG soooo sore on Monday). The yoga practice was also fairly hair but also interesting and they had a lot of pump-up music playing before the events which was fun. I would definitely do it again next year if they have it again. Plus, I got to practice headstands in between events!

^^Getting ready to start some yoga^^ 

^^headstand practice!^^

OTHER
I signed up for a Zumba instructor training and I'm hoping to sub some classes this summer. Get ready! I also booked a very spur of the moment trip to Vegas with my friend Gaby for early June. We're hoping to hike Red Rock Canyon, lay by the pool and just generally de-stress from life. And finally, Microsoft's fiscal year end is June 30th so hopefully work will slow down in about a month, until then, I might be a little more MIA than usual!

Taco Libre Truck Showdown Weekend 2016

A few weeks ago my Beth-Friend saw on Facebook that there was something called the Taco Libre  Truck Showdown happening in Seattle on May 1st. She decided she wanted to go and booked a ticket up to see me. I picked her up on Friday and we kicked off the weekend with an Indian food feast at Taste of India followed by beers and word games on the erotic photo hunt machine at Ed's Kort Haus. I did a good job SnapChatting but a terrible job saving any photos of that night. Is it too late now to say sorry?

Saturday morning (after I had slept about 100 hours, sorry Beth!) we grabbed some coffees from Starbucks where I ended up getting the worst text from Gaby re: her boyfriend. I instructed her to come to Seattle immediately. After crisis intervention concluded we headed to Beth's friend Jamie's house so Jamie and I could meet and Beth and Jamie could catch up. Jamie's house was on the way to the Seattle Premium Outlets so we headed there next to use the 30% off coupon my friend who works for Nike corporate had mailed me. Beth and I both ended up leaving with a bunch of new workout gear (+ bonus throwback slides for me). After the outlets we met Jamie at the Latona Pub for lunch and day beers (duh, is there anything better than day beers when it's sunny out and your Beth friend is in town?!) while we waited for Gaby to get to Seattle.

Dustin met us back at my apartment and shortly after Gabby arrived. I parallel parked her pink nugget for her, gave her approximately 2 minutes to get ready, we all took a necessary shot of Patron, then I forced everyone into an Uber to dinner so we could introduce Beth to our friend Rob and also get Gaby drunk (again, necessary). At the end of the night Beth, Gaby, Dustin and I had a 4-way sleepover in my 400 square foot apartment. Seems legit, right?

^^#creepin on Beth and Rob walking from dinner to the bar^^

The next morning there was more coffee, Dustin headed home, and then Gaby, Beth and I went to brunch at a place near my house that ended up being delicious.

 ^^Gaby and I brunching^^

^^Feelings^^ 

We basically begged Gaby to stay but she had to get home and take care of some shit, so we said goodbye and Beth and I got ready for the taco truck festival.

It was an awesome day for an outdoor food festival (read: sunny and warm) complete with a beer and margarita garden. We ended up having Native American inspired fry bread tacos from Off The Rez, drinking margaritas and hanging out. Jamie and her husband met us, and so did Adam, Ambur, Brittan, Natalie and Rob!

^^Natalie, me, Jamie and Beth at the beer/marg garden^^

^^The most stunning car paint job I've ever seen. Meow!^^

When we decided it was too crowded at the festival, we went across the street to a bar with a patio to share a pitcher of beer and give Beth and Rob some more time to get to know each other ;) I'd say it went pretty well. My fingers are crossed.

^^Me, Caroline, Beth, Brittan and Rob at the George and Dragon^^

After everyone else left Beth and I eventually found another restaurant with a patio, made our way to Fred Meyer, rented a movie from the RedBox and went back to my place to chill out for the rest of the evening. I had to take Beth to the airport SO early in the morning on Monday and because of Viadoom it took a million hours to get to work after that. I was exhausted but it was totes worth it for a super fun, sunshiny, Bethfriend Seattle weekend.

Dear Beth, can you please start dating Rob and move up here already?! Kthxbyeee!

Boring Crap

I came back to this space and was all, YAY! I'M SO EXCITED TO BE BACK! And then I went to San Diego which was the most fun and told you all about it, and then nothing. I feel bad about the nothingness because I really am so, so excited to be back. To be honest though, I've been working a lot and also working on getting healthier/fitting into my bikini (24 days to Mexico!!) and that's not really the most exciting stuff to post about, right? Like no one wants to hear about all the time I've been spending in the gym/at yoga or about how I haven't had a grain or dairy or alcohol in like a million years. That's superrr boring. I bore myself just thinking about it. Chicken breasts and veggies errrrrrry day.

A few weeks ago I took a break in my health journey (yes, let's call it that, a health journey! ha) to have a fancy and giant dinner with Katie and Josh and Dustin and then go to a surprise birthday part for our friends Lauren and Caroline which I think was actually a surprise (win!). I'm in this awesome group text with 6 friends from High School and all but 1 of us were at the party -- we missed you Gaby!! I talk to them all almost every day but rarely get to see them all at the same time. I love group texts, especially when they include lots of screen shots of ridiculous things people post on the internet, knitting tips and other random/cute/funny shit amIright?

^^The best of the worst^^

 ^^Ashley, me, Rachel and Leticia^^

^^Me with the birthday girls, Caroline and Lauren^^

This past weekend I snagged a ticket to a yoga class  at the Chihuly Glass Museum which was awesome. I've done yoga there once before, and I was really excited to get in another class. Plus, I've been doing a bunch of hot flow yoga (at an awesomeee studio right next to my apartment), so it was really nice to do a non-heated class (so much easier! OMG!).

^^Kate and I after our yoga class, you can't see it but the Space Needle is just to our left^^

In other boring news, I went to a knitting class a few weeks ago with Ambur and Brittan. It was their first time knitting and the whole thing ended up being pretty comedic. We were supposed to be making a hat (from a pattern) and Ambur's hat didn't' quite turn out/had these weird, big loops on the ends? (ed note: she re-tried this past weekend and TOTALLY killed it, her hat looks amazingggg):

^^Ambur and Brittan and Ambur's "hat"^^

So yeah, I think that may be it for my boring news. But I do have semi-exciting news! I plan to take a time out from my health journey next weekend and I promise a fun post after! I'm taking next Friday off work and heading down to White Salmon to see my parents for a night (slash snuggle the shit out of Fluffy) and spend the rest of the weekend in Hood River where I've rented a house with Beth, her parents and her brother to celebrate her sister Emily's 21st birthday Friday night. I'm ridiculously excited! Emily is FINALLY 21!!! It's also Double Mountain's anniversary party on Saturday, which is great timing. GIMME A BEER! Seriously though... Double Mountain Beer! *drools*

Great Wolf Lodge & Gaslight Concert Weekend

Two weekends ago Beth came up to visit for the night on Friday. Her (our) friend Ashley had bought us all tickets to see Gaslight Anthem play in Seattle for the second time and we’d been talking about the show for months. I was able to leave work a little early on Friday and go hang out with Ashley and Beth on Ashley’s house boat for a few hours before the show. We eventually got hungry and decided to go grab some Mexican food and margaritas for dinner downtown. I could probably eat Mexican every day and be happy about it. It was a delicious pre-concert choice!

When we were finished with dinner we headed to the Showbox where we met Justin, a friend of a friend, because Ashley was selling him an extra concert ticket (her girlfriend was supposed to join us but missed her flight from Kansas and was stuck in SLC). Justin ended up hanging out with us during the show and we all had a great time together singing along from the elevated bar area in the venue.

^^Beth, Justin, myself and Ashley at the show^^

^^I ruin good pictures, sorry friends^^

It was so fun to hang out with Beth in Seattle, even if it was only for one night!!

The next day I woke up early and picked up Dustin from his apartment before heading down I5 South to the Great Wolf Lodge where we met Dustin’s sister’s family for a night of fun at the water park to celebrate niece Isabella’s 13th birthday!

^^a pretty terrible iPhone pano of the giant indoor water park^^

Dustin and I arrived before everyone else and got ourselves some bracelets to the park before heading inside to grab a beer and check things out (the fact that you could walk around the park with a beer in hand was a major PLUS for all the grownups in our group:). The park is totally indoors and it’s heated to about 85 degrees F which was really nice. Inside the park there were a bunch of fun and kind of terrifying waterslides (some required a tube, others you went down on your back), a wave pool (my favorite), some kiddy pools, hot tubs, and a giant structure that dumped a 1,000 gallon bucket of water over everything every few minutes. It was a really fun time.

Isabella and her friend, Becca, mostly did their own thing at the park, but I did join them for a few rides down the super scary water slides that required inner tubes, and I did teach them that spitting on someone can be considered a felony, so knock that shit off, and also I taught them the “tampon” game (where one person says tampon, then the next person says it a little louder, and so on. Apparently now the 2.5y/o won’t stop shouting TAMPON! Definitely my fault, sorry Dana! Haha). Dustin and I spent most of the afternoon hanging out with his sister, Dana, and her boyfriend, Justin, and their 2.5 year old daughter, Alessandra. We all had a good time, especially once Alessandra warmed back up to us.

When it was time for dinner we all went to the Buffet in the adjoining hotel for some delicious kid food (think: pizza, mac and cheese, chicken strips, etc.). I love me an all-white plate of food. That night the adults and Alessandra hung out in the hotel room (with some beverages for the adults) being silly while the mortified 13 year olds went to roam around the hotel (which is totally safe and there are lots of activities for kids to do around the hotel, like a magic quest).

^^Selfies with Alessandra^^

^^Photo cred: Alessandra^^

^^And again, Dustin and I in wolf ears, thanks to Dustin’s 2.5 year old niece, Alessandra^^ 

The next morning we got breakfast at the buffet before hitting the water park for a few more hours. Eventually Dustin and I called it a weekend and headed back up to Seattle where we grocery shopped and watched some March Madness and some Netflix before sleeping for a million hours because being at a water park with kids all weekend is exhausting but also super fun!

FIVE things for Thursday

ONE
Seattle has been having a really, really mild winter this year. While it’s been kind of alarming (where is all the snowpack in the mountains?! what does this mean for summer and water supply?! and wildfire season?!) I know there isn’t really anything I can do about it so I’ve been soaking up the sunny days to the fullest extent (YAY SUN OMG BEST WINTER). Also, SAD seems to be at an all-time low this year in Seattle, so that’s amazing for everyone too.

Last Saturday was particularly sunny and warm (64degrees!!! In March!!!!) so I took advantage all day. Dustin and I woke up early after a homemade pizza Friday date night and walked up the street for brunch with all the beverages (water, coffee and a little booze X2). I then walked around Greenlake with my friend Kate before going shopping at the outdoor mall, University Village, with Natalie and Danielle. We ended the day by having GIRLS NIGHT in Ballard. There were martinis then French food for dinner and a fun bluegrass band after. Sidenote: throwing espresso in a fire is never a good idea. Don’t ask me how I know.

^^Blurry Bluegrass pic of Natalie, Danielle, me and Brittan, photobommed by 4 strangers^^

TWO
Sunday was sunny and warm too. I had some very important shit to get done, so I opened all my windows and my door and I turned on Netflix and binge watched the entire first season of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. It’s good, guys. I also finished (a million hours later) my super-cool paint by number, which is now, obviously, very proudly displayed in my office:

  ^^majestic paint by number picture^^

THREE
Sunday I also became even more of a crazy cat lady than I already was. Right before I opened my door to soak in all the warmth and fresh air, I hear meowing outside. So I opened the door to see what was going on and a ginger cat ran inside, through my living room, to my bedroom and jumped on my bed. WTF cat?! I chased him out and he continued to meow outside. So I went out, discovered he was friendly, checked him for fleas, then let him in because he was DYING to get inside. No idea why he chose me, but I like it a lot. His name is Oliver and he belongs to a neighbor down the street and he is SO sweet. Guys, I contemplated shutting him in my apartment and keeping him forever.

^^Oliver making himself at home^^

I left my door open the rest of the day and he would come and go as he pleased. He would disappear for about a half hour then come back for some pets and to lay on my couch or bed for a few minutes before going back outside. I love him.

Sometimes when I would pet him he would grab my hand with his little clawless paw and pull it in towards him and give it a lick and a snuggle. I died, you guys.

^^Is this not the actual cutest thing you’ve ever seen?^^

Then, on Tuesday, I got home and parked and saw an orange cat on the sidewalk and ran to it. The cat was so not nice and it hissed and swatted at me and I wanted to cry. So I went inside and got some pulled pork from my fridge and went back outside and upon further inspection this cat didn’t have a blue collar or any tags, and it was still really mean, so maybe it was Oliver’s evil twin? Either way it hurt my feelings. Come back Oliver!!

I bought fancy organic snack treats at Whole Foods yesterday in case Oliver ever decides to come back and visit.

See, crazy cat lady status, for sure.

FOUR
I recently got another book from Blogging For Books. Soul Food Love by Alice Randall & Caroline Randall Williams.

The first 70 + pages of the cookbook are all about the author’s family history. The cookbook is a compilation of recipes from 5 kitchens, 3 generations and 100 years. As a bonus (in my eyes) many of the recipes have been made healthy, which is what really appealed to me about this book.

I really like the fact that a lot of the recipes call for ingredients that are easy to find. In addition, the recipes are somewhat familiar but they aren’t necessarily recipes in my normal repertoire. I have quite a few of them dog-eared to try soon. Most notably, I’m excited to try the sweet potato broth (instead of veggie broth/stock in a soup) and the black-eyed pea hummus. YUM!

FIVE
I’m constantly trying to eat healthier and eat less sugar and drink less alcohol and exercise more and all of those things. For me it’s a constant balance between wanting to be healthy and wanting to live my life, sort of a balance between I have my shit together, I should have my health together too, and I have my shit together and I work hard so I should be able to eat/go out when I want and also, YOLO.

I feel like I generally do a pretty good job. I’m a big fan of the 80/20 rule (eat healthy 80% of the time, YOLO the other 20%). Although some weeks it’s more like 60/40. So is life I suppose.

This week I was craving sugar SO HARD. I don’t know if it was because of the time change or because of that time of the month or what, but the night of the third day (after not giving in at all) I finally caved and justified it by making cookies and saying at least that was better than going out and just buying FroYo or a piece of cake or something. Also 3 days of intense sugar cravings are dumb and I just wanted them to stop.

Anyway, that was a really long winded way of telling you about the cookies I made. They’re so, so easy and so good. Like pretty much the perfect peanut butter cookie – a little crunch, a little soft, chewy, great flavor - but with only 4 ingredients. Here’s the recipe I used, in case you’re interested:

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup of peanut butter (I used creamy)
1 cup of sugar (wondering if you could use less and achieve a similar result?)
1 egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

WHAT TO DO:
Mix all ingredients together, drop balls of cookie dough a few inches apart onto a baking sheet, use a fork dipped in water to make crisscross smooshes on the the top of the cookie.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350degrees for about 10 minutes until they start turning slightly brown (mine were closer to 12 minutes, but I think it probably depends on your oven and the size of your cookies).

^^4 ingredient PB cookie FTW^^

Please let me know if you decide to make them.

What have you guys been up to lately?!

Beth and Sarah’s Seattle Visit

This weekend two of my best friends, Beth and Sarah, rode the train up (from the homeland) to come visit me in Seattle. I rarely have visitors in Seattle so it was an extra fun weekend for me. We ate Indian food at Taste of India, had two nights of girlfirend sleepovers in my tiny apartment, ate too much at brunch, went shopping in the sunshine, swooped up my friend Amy and met up with Dustin and his friend, my coworker Dave and his 2 friends at the EMP where we visited the Scream Booth in the horror exhibit and we paid extra to go into the really cool Star Wars room (I’m not even a big fan and I still thought it was neat). After that we had lunch with Amy, somehow managed to be freezing cold despite the sunshine, got FroYo despite our chills and then collapsed at my apartment for a few hours. Saturday night we met my friends Brittan and Natalie for a drink and it was one of the happiest moments for me. 4 of my besties, all together at once! In Seattle! We ended up at a shitty dive bar in Ballard that was also a Chinese restaurant and Beth miiiight have got sick and we miiiiight have went home early. But not after we discovered that Sarah (AKA Grandma) can drink like. a. boss. It was my favorite moment. Then Sarah and I drunk reheated our Indian food leftovers and baked frozen mac and cheese bites and ate it all standing up in my kitchen while Beth laid on my bathroom floor and yelled at us for making noises and smells. None of that has happened in one night since like, law school and it was so fun (minus Beth feeling terrible). They left too early on Sunday and I laid around for a while before meeting up with Dustin for open house-ing and sunshine beer drinking and Oscar watching. Legit weekend in Seattle. #isitfridayyet?

^^Me, Sarah, Beth and Amy actually screaming really loud in a booth at the EMP^^
  ^^Amy, Beth, me and Sarah, still at the EMP (PS at 5’4” how am I the tallest one in the group?!)^^

Thanks and Friends Giving (and Receiving)

I am getting v excited for Thanksgiving. I’m most excited: for the extra two [paid] days off work, to see friends, to snuggle my Fluffy cat, to see my family, to be in White Salmon & Hood River, and to eat my mom’s stuffing. So much goodness, I can’t wait!

This past weekend my friend Ambur hosted a Friendsgiving at her house. Before this weekend I had never been to a Friendsgiving (total loser status?). I volunteered to make pumpkin pies with bourbon whipped cream and bring some wine too. It was so lovely to share a delicious meal with good friends. I loved trying everyone’s favorite Thanksgiving dishes and hearing what everyone is thankful for. Most of the people at the Friendsgiving were fellow lawyers (we met in Law School), so a lot of what we were thankful for was similar. I am most thankful for a job I like, an apartment that I feel safe in, good people in my life and my Fluffy cat.

Ambur had a Thanksgiving tablecloth she procured from Target which you could color on. Natalie took it upon herself to write a satirical master list of all the things our friends are thankful for. I took a picture which is borderline NSFW but also borderline hilarious:

So, tell me, what are your Thanksgiving plans?

And am I a huge loser for never having been to Friendsgiving? Or is that normal?

And, what is your favorite Thanksgiving food? Mine is stuffing, for sure. Pumpkin Pie comes in a close second, though.

Cheers to 28 Years!

^^Blurry birthday bar pic + dance moves^^

Well, I’m 28 now. I’m officially in my late 20s. That happened.

Last Friday was my birthday. Friday birthdays are awesome. Dustin made me a breakfast sandwich and had it waiting for me when I woke up, my boss Trisha and my coworker Becky took me to coffee, Dustin gave me treats to take to the office, I got flowers and cards and more treats, I ate a quesadilla with guacamole for lunch and I got to leave work a little early for some acupuncture.

Dustin and I had birthday dinner at Delancy which I’d been dying to try. Of course there was a wait, so we went to the adjoining cocktail bar, Essex, for a drink and some duck fat potatoes which I wanted to eat a million of. For dinner we shared a delicious sausage pizza with the brightest, tastiest tomato sauce. It was good.

After dinner we met some friends at Ed’s Kort Hause, which is this really dive-y bar on Phinney Ridge that smells weird and has a jukebox serves exotic meat burgers and it’s kind of amazing. I could say so many things about the owner/bartender, Ed, who served me a birthday shot of his “finest tequila” which tasted and smelled exactly like Monarch. Ew. We had a good time there, though. We always do (ex: Dustin and I stopped there for a drink the night of our first date, we celebrated NYE 2012-13 there, Ed Jr. once bought us drinks, etc.).

I spent a good amount of Saturday nursing a hangover. Cheers to getting older. Cheers to 28 years!

Birthday Week

It’s my birthday week! I might be the only person who has been celebrating my birthday week, but it’s been a good one so far, so I’m just going with it.

Saturday: my cousin Tad and his girlfriend Kelsey came up for a visit. I met them at their hotel downtown Seattle and we went to see the Gum Wall before wandering into Pike Brewing Company for a beer. We spent the rest of the evening watching some football with friends, catching up and talking about cats.

Sunday: I roasted a chicken:

And then I made Bhan Mis with the chicken I just roasted:

My Banh Mi recipe: 

• Crusty bread (I used baguette)
• Spread on some Sriracha mayo (I do 2 parts mayo to 1 part Sriracha – I don’t like spicy or mayo but this is my favorite, don’t skip on this part)
• Layer on some chicken,
• Pickled carrots,
• Red onion, and
• Cilantro.

So good!

I also made stock with the chicken carcass.  Pro tip: if you make stock in your crock pot, and you accidentally leave it on high for like 13 hours, the stock will be incredibly rich. I wasn’t disappointed.

Monday: Monday was super normal. I worked, I went to Zumba, you know, the usual.

Tuesday: I went to Katie’s house after work for dinner and we ended up booking flights to Ecuador(!!!!!!!!!) to visit Katie’s dad for Christmas! Happy early birthday to meeee!

Tuesday was a high this week for sure. There’s just something about draining your bank account on a flight (OMG I can’t believe I did that) that really puts you in a great mood.

Wednesday: I went to Zumba after work and my Zumba teacher made me the Zumba birthday princess. It was so fun. My neighbor/Zumba friend brought cupcakes too and we danced to Luke – It’s Your Birthday.

 
After Zumba I ran to Acupuncture (like straight from Zumba, ew). Have we talked about Acupuncture yet? It’s seriously like some sort of miracle cure for everything. Last night I was having some sinus issues + allergies for literally almost a year straight, so my Acupuncturist put needles straight in my face. I was legit cat status. But you know what, it helped.

^^red faced from my fitnesssss #dontjudgeme^^

Thursday: And then there is today. My last day of 27. Nothing amazing has happened yet, but Dustin is supposed to make me dinner tonight so there’s that!

I have dinner and drink plans tomorrow night and I’m looking forward to that, mostly because calories don’t count on your birthday. Or do they when you get into your late twenties and your metabolism starts slowing down? I’ll have to consult someone older than me and I’ll get back to you on that one! Ha. Also, late twenties… YIKES! I guess that’s happening tomorrow… Sooo…