Extra long weekend adventures in the Gorge

Almost two weeks ago I went back to White Salmon/Hood River for the weekend. My friend Beth was moving back from Boise (and into my parents' house) and it was her birthday weekend so some celebrations were in order.

I drove back to the Gorge on Thursday after work. When I got to town I met Sarah, Gaby and Launa for a drink at Brian's Pourhouse. After it was time for Sarah and Launa to go to bed, Gaby and I headed to Double Mountain to say hi to Josh and ended up hanging out with him for a while when he got off work, before calling it a night.

Friday I worked from home at my parents' house. I took advantage of my lunch break and spent it cleaning out my childhood room for Beth. I found so many Beanie Babies and ridiculous clothes and funny pictures when I was cleaning out my room. Oh memories! Needless to say I had a big load of things to go to Goodwill.

And of course Fluffy was there to keep me company during my cleaning.

 

Friday night Sarah joined me at Everybody's Brewing for some "networking," then Sarah, Josh and I talked about life and our futures over dinner at Solstice. Some commune dreaming happened for sure!

 

Saturday I got a haircut and then met Beth and her boss, Michael at Chip's for a beer as soon as she got into town. Nothing says "welcome to town" like a beer at a dive bar, amiright?

 

 

After we drank our beer and Beth settled into my parents' house and opened her birthday presents we headed down to Henni's for a welcome back birthday dinner with the crew.

 

 

After dinner we all headed across the river and met back up at Double Mountain to watch some friends play some music (Smoke on the Water) before heading to River City then eventually Jack's. Needless to say, Beth and I ended up having a sleepover at Josh and Sarah's.

 

^^alcohol induced inside jokes with some of my girlfriends^^

 

The next morning we woke up to a crazy and surprising amount of snow. We decided to walk to breakfast at River Daze while we waited for the roads to be plowed and our hangovers to subside.

 

 

 ^^Photo cred: Sarah (and her new awesome camera)^^

 

After breakfast Beth and I braved the roads to my parents' house. We stopped at Thriftway to get snacks along the way because we didn't anticipate being able to leave again once we got home. The drive up Snowden Rd. was super sketchy but eventually we made it and decided we were going to stay in for the rest of the day. There was no way I was driving back that night - the freeway from Hood River to Portland was under an ice advisory (oh yeah, after all the snow the freezing rain started immediately) and traction devices were required. Snowed in. I can't say I was too sad about having to work from home Monday (only a little).

 

^^My parents' road^^

 

We spent the evening watching the Oscars with my dad, hunting for ciders in the snow (funny story, we bought a 6-pack of ciders at the store and put them in the snow outside to keep them cold. My parents' have a German Shepard "puppy" who likes to hop over his fenced in area and come up to the house. He jumped over the fence, came up, stole the ciders and hid them in the snow in random places... After it happened we couldn't for the life of us figure out where they went. Such a trouble maker!), and being total fat kids.

 

I spent Monday working from home, eating breakfast with Dylan and Beth, and taking a break for a lunchtime beer with friends at Double Mountain #dontjudgeme the view was so pretty. That night, after work, I finally headed back to Seattle. It was so nice to be able to be "home" for an extended period of time, even if it wasn't totally planned and I ran out of clean clothes. Ha! I'm planning on heading back this weekend for the Double Mountain anniversary party (and because Dustin wants to go to Portland and we can split gas/driving) and I can't wait.

 

 

 





three things

ONE:

Saturday I had my very last transition to practice class. Saturday classes are such a bummer. Especially when it’s a sunny March day in Seattle (which is so rare). I would say never again, but I’m done with school after this semester (YAY), so I won’t have another chance, unless I decide to go back #nothappening

Because it was all sunshiney outside and I was so happy to be done with my Saturday class, when I got out I decided it would be fun to go walk walk around U Vill. I went to H&M and Sephora where I found the most PERFECT red lipcolor Bare Escentuals, Pretty Amazing lip color in Stregnth. Guys, it’s good.

After that I enjoyed some drinks and some Neapolitan style pizza at Cornuto (which is apparently owned by the same people who own Via Tribunale and Cafe Vita, who knew?) with Dustin and friends. Things got a little crazy there for a second.

Needless to say Dustin and I were home by 11:30 to watch LeLo on SNL (I was a little disappointed. Did anyone else watch? Thoughts?). #exciting

TWO:

Sunday I lounged around, took another trip to U Vil with the BF and then spent 4 hours making this chili which turned out to be WAY too spicy for me, and in the process I got burned by jalapeno juice on my nose and underneath my fingernails. I will NEVER again touch a jalapeno or eat anything with jalapeno in it – apparently I just can’t handle it. #miserable

On the bright side Dustin liked it. He will be eating chili all week.

And while I was chili making, these two lounged in the sun coming through the window (Dustin and Battle Cat are my favorites):

THREE:

Today I’ve had the MOST productive day. I woke up early. I went to the grocery store early, where an old woman randomly came up to me and shouted at me about how if people are going to work at the grocery store they should know how to speak English. It was too early in the morning to be shouted at by strangers. I just stared at her and said “oh” then walked away.

Next in my productive streak, I OCD cleaned our kitchen and at the end of that found a NASTY dead rat in a trap in the wall. SO gross. The exterminators came and took care of it. Hopefully they will be gone for good in the next few days.

That was followed by school all day, me getting REALLY ambitious in Constitutional Law of Terrorism and volunteering to talk in class for like a 1/2 hour, some more school then the gym. I am tired now. I wore myself out and probably won’t be productive for the rest of the week (let’s hope that isn’t true).

Oh and did I mention, when I woke up this morning at like 7am (what the what?) I looked out the window and saw this SNOW on my neighbor’s roof?:

I contemplated not leaving the house all day, because apparently that’s legit when it snows in Seattle? I’m glad I did though.

Good story. The end.

Oh and P.S. Hi Brittan!

Guess What?

I’m typing this post on my computer bestfriend. It got fixed today. Hallelujah! 

Some computer fixer man came to my home right as Kylee, Kate and I were about to sit down for dinner (we had Kate over for dinner, then Julia came later then Erin got home even later than that. And we ate and then chatted and it was good. Mini PC05 funtimes). So clearly I forced him to fix my laptop at the dinner table and also forced him to eat dinner with us. Awkward? Maybe. I was just so thankful he was bringing my computer back to life. And I think maybe he was thankful for the free delicious dinner of creamy tortellini with spinach and chicken, asparagus and bread. He didn’t want any wine though (so weird, I didn’t understand).  

Also, the computer fixer man put a new cover thing on my computer (you know, it’s the part on the back side of the screen). It’s matte black. So fancy.

I need to get better at technology. And technology terms too. 

Or just buy extended warranties on all my electronic purchases for all time and make up words. #done

I don’t think I would care about all of this if I were you (ok, I lie, I would DEFINITELY care, DUH). But, at least you’re able to read this via the interwebz. Because you have power. Unlike my parents, who haven’t had power since Wednesday. I would be going crazy about now (and by “now” clearly I mean last Thursday).

Also, remember when I was all: yay instagram picture a day!!? Well, I suck at it a little. I haven’t posted yesterday or today. Judge away. Today’s picture is supposed to be of something old. Can I just take a picture of myself? 25 is old (enough). I’m probably the oldest thing I have? Can I have myself? So confusing. Anyway, this is the last picture I posted (two days ago), of a “reflection”:

This was the day the snow melted. We could finally leave the house! I finally had a reason to do my makeup. On Dustin’s floor, in front of his closet mirrors.

And there you go. I’m off to finish my reading for tomorrow and go to bed (since it’s like 11:13 and clearly I should be sleeping instead of blogging or reading). Ohh the life of a law student!

#seasnow

I am currently typing this blog post from my GIANT, 2005 laptop.

During the great Seattle snow storm that was last week - more on that in a minute - my bestfriend laptop broke. Physically. The power button decided it would be cute if it disconnected itself from the main part of the computer, breaking all the wires that apparently make the computer turn on in the process. And now I am left with a computer that won't turn on. And the worst part? It's selfishly hoarding all of my notes. I get that it's probably tired. I use it a lot. But c'mon! It knew what it was getting itself into.

Luckily though, I bought the extended warranty (I'm sure thinking that I NEEDED my laptop to last me through law school, so warranty = probably smart). Thank you for that, 2009 Rebeka. Anyway, someone will come fix my computer tomorrow or Tuesday. The day my computer is fixed and happy again can't come soon enough.

Anyway, it started snowing Monday of last week. So in a panic, I put on my UGG boots (crazy Seattle snow mode, clearly), went to Trader Joe's and bought a TON of frozen food (and some beer and wine and a few perishable items too). I put 1/2 in my downstairs freezer and took 1/2 to Dustin's. I clearly was not going to starve to death if I were to get trapped in the snow at either location.

I then went to Dustin's with like 9 days worth of clothes and food. Just in case.

P.S. he lives across the street from a safeway and about a 15 restaruants/bars. Clearly the snow had gotten to my head.

We then stressed out over how Dustin was going to get to the airport the next morning (since the news people were predicting 7-13" of snow that night). So we booked a shuttle that would pick him up like 2 miles from his house (they were on snow routes). And freaked out about how we would get him to the shuttle in my corolla. And then woke up the next morning to ZERO snow and Dustin went to Chicago for work.

Then, after a 1/2 snow day from school with zero snow (they were all, it's going to snow SO MUCH this evening, go home now. I was like awesome) I was skeptical. I woke up on Wednesday morning to so much** snow. And then my roommates and I were snowed in for two days. We ate a lot. And watched A LOT of TV. I'm pretty sure I didn't leave the big couch in our livingroom for two days. Except for when Erin and I went late night sledding down our street on giant tupperware lids. It was fun. And scary. That hill is steep.

(** so much = picture below, so I guess so much = not very much at all)

Really though, this is most of the snow. And then there was like 1/2" of ice on top of that on day 2. That made things awful. But Seattle freaks out when it snows. True story.

Dustin flew home very late on day 2, and when he got here he picked me up in his cab (clearly I could not drive - really though, it was super icy at this point) on the way home from the airport at like 2am (airport closed for most of the day b/c of snow and ice, his flight was delayed like 5 times). Probably mostly because he needed his keys and I had them. And then we spent the next day snowed in at his apartment (in case you're keeping track, that's day 3).

On the 4th day we could drive again. So we went to Target and Bed Bath and Beyond and there were about a million people out. It was stressful. And then we went to dinner at the Barking Dog Alehouse and it was good. We had beer and food. So good.

beer size = imperial pint = magic

just in case you were wondering, I got the chicken sandwich with caramelized onions, cheddar cheese, bacon and some veggies. Oh and tofu fries. It was good you guys. Dustin got Fish & Chips which was also delicious.

And tomorrow I resume my normal schedule.

Computerless, though (well mostly).

The end.

I’m hopping on the SNOW bandwagon

It’s snowy outside. Oh Em Gee.

just look at that view from my kitchen (it’s clearly very fancy) & that 1/2 inch of snow (it’s clearly worth freaking out over):

In most places the snow isn’t a big deal, but in Seattle it snows like 1/2 inch and everyone (including me) freaks the F out.

I think it’s because there are SO many hills in Seattle. And also they don’t have snow plows here or something? I don’t get it. But really, it might be because the snow is always on top of a crapload of ice. Truth.

Dustin told me it is supposed to start snowing again at noon today. He is cancelling his work trip to Chicago for fear of not being able to get to the airport tomorrow morning.

My roommate, Erin, told me it is supposed to snow EIGHT inches by Wednesday. Snow day tomorrow? Please?

At home in White Salmon it’ll snow like three feet in one night and I’m all “no big deal, I can totes drive in this. Peaceout, family!” Here I’m like, “I NEED TO GO TO TRADER JOE’S IMMEDIATELY BEFORE IT STARTS SNOWING MORE TO GET 2 WEEKS WORTH OF WINE AND VEGTIBLES AND FROZEN FOOD SO I WON’T DIE WHEN I GET SNOWED IN FOR DAYSSS!!”

Even though TJ’s is only probably a mile away and I could totally walk there if I was starving (or out of wine). I’m so dramatic.

But guys, I can’t help it. I get sucked into the snow frenzy-ness everyone in this city feels. And it’s kind of fun. Probably because it only snows like once a year here (if that). And the snow is a legitimate excuse not to do things, like get dressed or go to school. It’s too dangerous to drive in these conditions, professor. And also I live on a really steep hill, and I drive a corolla. So I’ll be staying home, thanks. And they’re like it’s ok I’m not going to school either! And we all win and then I sit by my fireplace all day long.

Alright, I’m outtie to go stock up on essentials at the grocery store, then I’m going to do some legitimate hibernating (and eating and maybe day drinking?). Probably in my fleece lined leggings. Because of the cold. Be safe and warm, friends!  

Happy Thanksgiving

I’m thankful for:

the fact that I’m home with my family today
Dustin – because he is the most kind & wonderful person I know (truth)
pumpkin pie and stuffing
my real life friends
my blog friends
music
the man who I spent an hour on the phone with this morning while setting up our wireless internet
on that note, the internet
my fluffy face cat who is so sweet and playful
canadian tuxedos
the fact that I’m so so close to being done with law school
warmth (wood stoves and heat blankets and other things too)
”the homeland”
and probably unicorns too, for good measure

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, FRIENDS!
I hope you all have the most amazing day

 

p.s. this is happening outside now: