work from home is the best kind of work

Since Hood River is basically the only thing I blog about anymore (I definitely blame work for the lack of blogworthy things, and my general lack of a life, while I'm in Seattle) I should probably keep the ball rolling, right? Right...

 

If last night wasn't just the best then I don't know what is. Work has been a lot lately. High stress, and just a lot of hours. So, in an attempt to return to some normal, low-stress version of myself I decided to drive back to Hood River yesterday afternoon to work remotely for the rest of the week and also to help Beth house/dog sit. Pop Tart and I are chillin' tough today.

 

But last night. Last night was good. I got to sit at a café by the river drinking a beer, listening to my handsome friends play music, chatting with my friend Gaby who I haven't seen in forever, and being a happy, low-stress version of myself. It was much needed. 

 

 

^That up there, was the view from the Sandbar Café last night. Prettiest thing ever? Probably. I never want to leave, but I've definitely already told you that. 

 

^That up there is me, Gaby and Andrea (from left to right, naturally). We used to work at Ground together. Ground bonds you for life. #truth.

After the sunset faded into night and the sprinklers turned on next to the café we decided to head to Double Mountain for a beer, and then to the Pint Shack to listen to our friend Tall Paul play some sweet jams #DJtallpaul - it was great. Other highlights of the night included meeting Kurt with a K, who I've been hearing about for years, dinner at 6th St. Bistro with Sarah, and chatting/laughing/loving life with Hood River friends.

Guys, I kind of went out on a Wednesday night. Who am I? That 8am conference call this morning might have been a little brutal. But totally worth it.

A certain line from GIRLS comes to mind "CAUSE IT'S A WEDNESDAY NIGHT BABY, AND I'M ALIVE!"

^Gaby and I loving life. On a Wednesday night. Bring on Thursday and Friday! Working from (the) home(land) is the best.

Things are looking up.

Katie and Josh's Wednesday Wedding

Yesterday I got off of work at 2, picked up Katie, took her to get her bridal bouquet, took her to my house and we got ready for her wedding. You guys, yesterday Katie got married!

After Katie's mom met us at my apartment and we had fixed our hair and makeup, and had a few sips of pink champagne, we drove to the courthouse downtown Seattle.

The only time Katie freaked out all day was when we were sitting in terrible i5 rush hour traffic on the way to the courthouse. Josh called her and said that they were waiting, and ohmygoshwhyarentyouhereyet?! And there was a moment of "I'm not going to make it to my own wedding" panic, but otherwise things were happy and totally smooth.

When we finally got downtown I dropped Katie and her mom off, found a really lucky parking spot on the street, sprinted up a hill in my dress and heels in the pouring Seattle rain while being laughed at by a parking attendant, and made it in time for a few pre-wedding pictures.

the wedding party: me, Katie, Josh and the best man, Will 

Katie and Josh right before they said "I do"

 



After waiting a few minutes the judge took us up to the top floor of the courthouse where there was an incredible view. She performed a short, sweet ceremony and it was perfect.

After everything was done at the courthouse we headed to Staple and Fancy for and incredible multi-course dinner.

The dinner was a special chef's menu served family style. We started dinner with bread, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar while we sipped on delicious drinks. The first real course was a ton of appetizers which were all interesting and totally delicious (think: white fish crostini, chilled asparagus and ramp soup, house made ricotta with peas, etc.). We then had a pasta course which consisted of a clam pasta and a chicken ravioli. The third course was the most amazing pork any of us had ever tasted and not-at-all-fishy bass. Before we left we enjoyed wedding cake, which was topped with Katie's grandmother's cake topper from her 25th wedding anniversary. It was just all so fun, low-stress, and perfect.

I'm so happy for Katie and Josh (my new best-friend-in-law ha). Hooray!!

P.S. This might sound totally weird but Wednesday weddings are awesome, and it somehow seemed extra special. I also loved that there were only a few of us there so we all got to really enjoy each other's company. Katie and Josh decided they wanted to "elope" a few months ago, after they started planning a bigger wedding and decided it was too much stress. They chose yesterday (Wednesday, May 15th) because it's their two year dating anniversary and they're heading to Ecuador this weekend, so that trip can act as a honeymoon until Katie's grad school schedule calms down a bit.

Ahh Law School Life

Tonight I went to dinner with 3 of my friends from school. We go to dinner most Wednesday nights and we have a rule that we aren’t allowed to talk about law school. It’s one of my favorite parts of the week.

Tonight at dinner Brittan asked us all what the best part of our week was:

Me: I got a heated blanket as an early birthday present
Lisa: I’m not pregnant
Natalie and Brittan couldn’t come up with anything

And so are the lives of law students. Pathetic.

At least the end is near. I registered today for my last semester of law school. I’m kind of scared though, that I won’t find a job when it’s over. So maybe I should just be content with the days of Wednesday night dinners with friends and never ending homework.

chocolate and bread equal love

Last night I went to dinner with Brittan, Natalie and Lisa at Via Tribunale on Capitol Hill (which arguably has the best pizza in Seattle - although we also really like Piecora). It was delicious. We split two pizzas between the four of us, and mandated a no talking about school rule. And we drank red wine too, and it was good. I love Wednesday nights.

But that's not the point of my story. The point of this post is love. More specifically: my love for chocolate and bread. Together. It's. So. Amazing!

After dinner last night when our waitress asked if we wanted dessert, Brittan immediately responded yes and ordered us a nutella calzone, insisting it was amazing and we HAD to share one. Done and done. I was down. Oh my gosh! It was so good. I don't get why chocolate and bread are SO good together, but it's magical.

Baguette and melted dark chocolate (especially from cafe presse?). Yep, delicious.

Croissant stuffed with Nutella from Ground (or really anywhere). Yep, also delicious.

I want to eat chocolate + bread every day. And Trader J's frozen chicken fried rice. And drink lots of coffee. So much coffee, because did you know, coffee reduces depression in women? Amazing, right?

Ok, now I should stop procrastinating and go to school. But I don't want to. School = stress, and drinking coffee at my computer and blogging doesn't. True story.

And P.S. YUM:

CREDIT HERE

Food Porn

Last night I went to dinner at Skillet with Brittan and Natalie and Lisa for our standing Wednesday night, no boyz allowed, dinner date.

Skillet was my suggestion. The restaurant was built by the people who started the food cart (a gourmet food cart in Seattle – maybe even the first gourmet food cart, I don’t exactly remember) after it was such a huge success. I can see why it’s so popular. Dinner was pretty delicious. 

Before dinner, though, Lisa and I drank almost a whole bottle of wine while watching 30 Rock at her apartment. This was between the time I got out of Intellectual Property and the time Natalie was done with her Clinic Office Hours and we left for dinner. It’s really so convenient that Lisa lives across the street from school.

Then at dinner, Skillet had this amazing looking grilled cheese sandwich with bacon jam on the menu, but I was afraid if I ate it I would be doubled over in stomach pain for dayz. So instead I got a salmon burger with olive tapenade and it was good, but maybe the olive tapenade was a little overpowering. But it didn’t matter because with my burger I got Poutine (which, if you don’t know, are fries covered in gravy and cheese curds.. um YUM!). And I ate all of them. And then I was really, really full, but luckily no doubled over stomach pain. And then I accidentally went pee in the men’s bathroom. #awkward

Anyway, as promised, here is some food porn for you:

And if you’re ever in Seattle, and you like trendy restaurants (Capitol Hill style), then you should go to Skillet. And get the Poutine. Because you probably can’t ever go wrong with fries smothered in gravy and cheese. Am I right? Right!

Mug & Emotion

I’ve been having a weird week. In a good way, though. And I’ve decided that I have overly strong emotions. Like I shouldn’t feel this extreme all the time (about everything). I don’t think it’s normal, and I don’t think that normal people feel this way. It causes me extreme amounts of anxiety. But it also causes me extreme amounts of joy. It’s like I can’t just be in the middle. And right now I just really want to be in the middle. I want to be content. I want to be calm. I’m pretty sure my overactive emotions are making me fat from stress and going to cause me to die early, again, from the stress.

Or maybe I’m just PMSing?

On the bright side, I get to have no boyz allowed dinner tonight with my law school favorites. They always listen to my crazy girl emotions. That’s good for me. It makes me feel more settled. And then maybe after that I will pick up a new French Press from someone who doesn’t use theirs anymore because they are rad and I am too cheap to buy a new one. Then I will probably just end up feeling more emotional all over again from the normal human interaction and the caffeine (stupid caffeine, I’m so addicted to you, and you get me so worked up). Standard.

I’m tired of being over stimulated. That’s not what she said, BTW.

On the bright side, though, this morning we had an early morning meeting for the law journal I’m (we’re) starting (the American Indian Law Journal – yep, that’s right). Well I guess that isn’t the bright side. The bright side, instead, was that Professor Eberhard (aka Eric) brought the 4 of us these mugs:

Now, most of you already now how I feel about all things Pendleton. But if you don’t know, I love Pendleton. Not so much the town, that town gives me anxiety after my internship, but the woolen mills and the things that come from there are rad. I digress…

Anyway, I was really excited about my new mug. It’s big and awesome. That is what she said! Ha.

And now I should stop this and go read for Intellectual Property like a good student. Right. Best student EVER right here!

Wednesday Nights

“On Wednesdays we get drunk” was definitely my, Lias, Brittan and Natalie’s motto this week. Whoops! Good thing I didn’t have class until 4pm on Thursday (oh the joys of 3L and the first week of school).

I’ve just been so go go go lately that today I’m exhausted. After breakfast this morning at the Rusty Pelican in Wallingford (right near my house) with some of my sorority pledge class (PC05) Erin and I came home, plopped down in our very hot living room and watched hours of Keeping up with the Kardashians. Don’t judge. It was necessary.

Anyway, back to my Wednesday night adventure:

After I got out of class Wednesday I met Lisa, Brittan and Natalie for pizza and a pitcher at Piecora’s (our fav pizza spot in Seattle, and it is conveniently right near school – have I mentioned that I love going to school on Capitol Hill?). Anyway we place our order with the waiter and he comes back with the pitcher of beer we ordered and also 4 free key lime vodka shots. Um, awesome. The perks of being 4 cute girls, I suppose! And also flirting with the waiter, just a little. WHOOPS!

We take our shots, thank the waiter and say goodbye to Lisa who had plans. We get our pizza and Brittan, Natalie and I go to work. The waiter keeps coming back to chat with us, and after we figured out that he is from The Dalles (which is like 15 minutes away from my small hometown and Brittan’s actual hometown) he brings us 4 more free shots. Lisa had already left so we convinced him to take the extra shot. Awesome.

After lingering for a long while and having more conversations with said waiter, things actually starts to get a little awkward. We take it in stride though, especially when he brings us our bill with only a pitcher and a pizza on there, discounted 50%. Perfect. We then decide its time to go meet Natalie’s boyfriend for another drink at Tavern Law.

And just our luck, when we got there we went to the secrete phone and phoned up to the speakeasy who had just enough space for us to have one drink. Perf!

Too bad we were a little drunk at this point and definitely got yelled at for taking a picture with a flash. WHOOPS! Apparently the speakeasy is classy? Who knew. Haha! Anyway, at least we got this sweet picture of Brittan and I in the cool princess chair!

Also the waiter totally friended Brittan on FB. Love connection? Probably not. After all, he definitely went to school at Chennoweth. Yeah we judged. So sue us.

So that’s the story of my first Wedneday night of 3L.

Also, P.S. I realize that I sound kind of like an alcoholic lately :( Boo. I’m really not, I super, duper promise. Usually I only have time for school, so I guess it’s been fun updating you all on all of my fun adventures (which often include some boozy goodness). I’m sure my drinking will curb drastically in the next few days as school starts to pick up.