Summer in Seattle and a Cautionary Tale

 

I've been feeling in a bit of a funk lately. I've been unsettled or something. It's never a pleasant feeling, especially in the middle of summer in Seattle which has been unseasonably long and wonderful this year. So, this last weekend I decided I should get out of the funk and spend some time with some of my favorite Seattlites, because my favorite people are my favorite thing in life and spending time with them makes me the happiest. Saturday I had a delicious celebratory bacon jam, grilled cheese sandwich and a kale salad at Skillet Diner followed by a ladies' night in Ballard. I deemed Sunday a Sunday-Funday and spent the afternoon on towels next to Greenlake with friends. I'm feeling much more settled and happier this week.

That being said, I do have a cautionary tale: never ever get lime juice on your skin and then proceed to sit out in the sun (with or without sunscreen), it will result in a crazy lime-burn (no jokes - it's a severe chemical burn) which might be hand shaped on on both of your sides where you put your hands on your shirtless hips while taking a rest from playing Frisbee. It will be incredibly red and blistered and make you miss work because of it's severity. Then you will have to call me and I will come over and pop your huge blister with a syringe and suck the blister juice out and you will record it and we will both hate it. Also, I promise never to make any of you peel a lime for me in the sun, ever again. #chemicalburnfail #nursebekie

And now that I've sufficiently grossed everyone out with my cautionary tale, here's a picture of Seattle for you, because, I mean! Summer in Seattle is really good.

Some Wednesday Afternoon Randomness

Shirt (Gibson), Jeans (Citizens of Humanity), Pumps (Nine West), Watch (Michael Kors)

I know you've missed awkward bathroom selfies! Or maybe you haven't, in which case you can go ahead and pretend I didn't post that.

Long days are making my brain mushy and all I can think about is how badly I want a doughnut. One of those old fashioned, cakey doughnuts. A girl can't eat super healthy all the time, am I right? This craving probably means I'm missing something crucial from my diet. FroYo would also likely satisfy the craving. Maybe I'll get FroYo for dinner after Zumba (probably I'll be more healthy than that though)? By the way, have we talked about how much I love Zumba? Does anyone else do Zumba? Guys, it's so good!

A bunch of my Hood River friends are going to the see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs play at Edgefield tonight and I'm super envious. I wish I could be there. I'm having a serious case of FOMO today, which I'm sure will only be worsened when I see all of their instagram pictures and snapchats I see later while I'm sitting on my couch working away. #firstworldproblems I love how connected social media makes me feel when I'm physically separated from people I love. That connection is totally worth the FOMO in my opinion. Do you get FOMO? I can't be the only one, right? I also recently read about FOMD which is Fear of Missing Documentation which I may have experienced once or twice ("hold on, I need to take a pic!" "OMG I'm totally putting this on Instagram" "are you going to blog about this?" #guilty).

And, just for good measure, a few pictures from a thunder/lightening storm in Hood River on Friday night, which was accompanied by sudden torrential downpour, crashed our plans of going to see live music down by the water and was followed by FroYo and martinis with some of my favorite ladies #sogood:

Some Tuesday Afternoon Thoughts

Well, somehow it's already mid-August and I'm sitting here thinking surely I have not experienced all the things I love about summer yet, right? Surely this isn't the tannest my skin will be all year, right? Surely summer is not almost over, right? Wrong? What? Well, I'm vetoing. Maybe I need to move to SoCal? But no. Soon the rain will be back and I guess that 10 months of rain is what makes me love the summer so much, isn't it? Also, let's be honest, I'm trying to move closer to Hood River, not further from it!

I've been working a lot and subsequently I've also been stressed out a lot lately. And I've been complaining about it to anyone who will listen, but I think it's almost all out of my system. This is how I know I could never work in a big firm. I'm just not cut out for all the yelling and stress and long hours and things. On a related note, I'm now seeking a professional mentor. And maybe a life mentor too? But maybe that is just called a therapist? Ha.

Earlier today I was walking to Café 4 to get a sandwich and some nice middle-aged gentleman struck up a conversation with me. His name was Steve and he was telling me about Microsoft in the early days, circa 1990. I wanted to be all, Steve, I don't even think I was in pre-school in 1990, but I bit my tongue because I've found that people don't really like it when you say things like that. We got to the café and said goodbye and it was nice to meet you and then I ran into my co-workers and told them that I met a friend and they were like "Rebeka, did you just meet Steve Ballmer?" and I had this moment of panic. And then I did some internal Microsoft stalking and no, it was not Steve Ballmer (because oh my word how embarrassing for me to have met him and not know - I would have known), but he is the VP of LCA. And that's pretty cool, I think. But maybe it's not a very blog-worthy story? Probably. Sorry about that.

Other things that probably aren't very blog-worthy that are about to happen anyway: some pervy mosquitoes got up inside my dress at Kylee's wedding and had a feast, so itchy; I forgot how amazing match making is, I love seeing other people in love (or something like it) and being able to take a little bit of the credit; I'm ramping up my coffee intake lately and oh, how I've missed it; and last of all, I would very much like to watch another amazing thunder and lighting storm in Hood River with my favorites. The end.

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.

A Weekend of River Floating, Wine Tasting and Friendship

This weekend I went to Hood River in an attempt to make it down there as many times as possible both before summer is over and just in general. Friday night Beth and I had crab legs and filet mignon at her parents’ before meeting friends for sunset drinks at the Columbia Gorge Hotel and then a night of high-stakes jenga, mingling and dancing. We ended things with a post-2am-hot tub sesh and it was all just really great.

Saturday morning Beth, Greg and I ate bagels and drank coffee downtown and then met a group of our friends, piled into the back of a van (I got to sit in a camping chair in the van, very safe, obviously but also very awesome) and drove to the Klickitat River which we then proceeded to float down on inner tubes and air mattresses. I had never floated a river before and inevitably flipped over navigating some rapids, immediately after which my friends were there to pull me, the non-swimmer with the life vest, out of the water, back into my tube and then hold on to me through the rest of the rapids. It was a really great time and I’m so thankful to have such wonderful people looking out for me.  

When we got to the end of the river we loaded back into our vans and headed to a few wineries to do some wine tasting. At the first winery Beth and I broke a chair we were sitting in together and then I made Dave laugh so hard he fell on the ground after hitting myself in the face with a wine bottle. At the second I ate cherry tomatoes and basil out of the garden and saw some goats. After wine tasting we all went to dinner at Henni’s and then had a low key, early-to-bed night.

Today Beth and I visited with Marissa, ate breakfast, shopped for bras and undies, napped and walked Pop Tart the dog. Then I proceeded to have a minor emotional breakdown when it was time to head back to Seattle. Work has just been so stressful and busy lately and a few other pieces of the puzzle have been less than amazing too. Not to say everything is awful, because it’s not, it was just a hard transition back to reality. There are just so many good people and good things in Hood River and I wish I could move there. It kills me that I can’t, yet.

 The view from Syncline Winery  Dave LOLing at my clumsiness The grounds at COR Winery I missed the memo, or maybe they did?   One of us was more excited than the other to be taking a picture together :) It was so good to spend some quality time with this kid for the first time in too long – don’t let the face fool you, he’s stoked.

I went to a rodeo and also I want to move to Hood River

I spent last weekend in Hood River loving life. Hood River in the summer is my favorite thing in the whole world and I'm pretty sure if my friend Sarah has to hear me say "I love it here" one more time we're not going to be friends anymore, but guys, it really is that gush-worthy good.

Friday when I got into town I met Sarah for a quick dinner at Double Mountain before we headed to The Dalles to watch the most eventful rodeo ever.

First, they couldn't get the lights in the arena to turn on so we sat through about a half an hour of some pretty boring banter broadcast over the loud speakers between events. After the lights turned back on they started the barrel racing. Mid way through the event, one of the girls fell off of her horse. She seemed to be mostly ok but the announcer called her out saying something along the lines of "that's the most embarrassing thing that can happen to a barrel racer...!" Poor girl!

But it gets better, after the barrel racing they started the bull riding which was going pretty poorly, as hardly anyone could stay on their bulls for more than about a second.

 

However, at one point, after one of the riders fell off, his bull continued running around the arena and bucking like crazy. When he bucked his way over to in front of where we were sitting it became apparent that he had broken his leg, which was just flapping around as he kicked. The rodeo staff noticed too and some cowboys came out and wrestled the bull to the ground and held him there while some other staff brought around a truck and trailer. They then attempted to get the bull up and load him into the trailer, but the bull was in so much pain at that point he didn't want to get up and when he finally tried he hit his head incredibly hard on the trailer which made the loudest, saddest echoing sound. They then called out about 30 more cowboys to stand around the bull and help get him in the trailer at which point I'm pretty sure they gave it some sort of shot and then dragged it in. It was horrifying and completely heartbreaking to watch (even as someone who grew up on a farm).

 

 

After they got the bull loaded up there were still three more rides to go. So they started up again, the first one was fine, but after the second person fell off of his bull, the bull ran across the arena and didn't stop. He jumped right over the fence into the spectator area. Everyone just screamed and ran. I wish I had a picture of this giant bull with his giant bull horns jumping into the crowd. Oh man... Luckily no one was hurt and after they got him back in and we watched one more ride, it was time to go home.

 

We all left totally shaken and decided to meet at the Pub in Hood River for a drink. While we were there I completely offended a stranger by saying that I am "kind of into Miley's new heroine phase" (because I mean, the video kind of grows on you). After which he apparently went up to one of my friends (who he didn't know and assumed was a random stranger) and started ranting about how I was what's wrong with America! (I can't help but laugh as I write that because it's just so ridiculous).

 

The rest of the night was low key, but fun, and ended with me dancing to one song (blurred lines, of course) before they turned the lights on at Jack's.

 

The next morning I got to meet Marissa at Juice Bros (the juice and smoothie "food" truck in downtown Hood River) and spend like a minute catching up with her before she went to work. I also went to an awesome antique shop in Bingen with Sarah where we got vases to make terrariums and I scored an old Betty Crocker cookbook.

 

Saturday afternoon I drove to Vancouver for beautiful baby princess Alessandra's first birthday party.

 

I was debating camping at a friend's farm after the birthday party, but decided to drive back to Hood River for one more night, because, OMG "I love it there so much!" :)

^^I mean, isn't this just the prettiest place?!^^

 

After I got back into town I met Josh and Sarah for FroYo and then we went back to their house to relax in the yard, which was so so nice. I miss yards so much when I'm in Seattle (it's the little things). It was so nice to just sit outside and enjoy the fantastic summer night.

 

The next morning Sarah, Kiva and I went to Ground for coffees and granola yogurt bowls before heading to Good News Gardening to pick up the rest of the necessary supplies to make terrariums. We spent the afternoon potting our plants before I headed back to Seattle.

 

It was just one of those weekends that made me question why I'm living in Seattle and not Hood River. I just love it there so much, you guys!!







Hood River for Marissa's Birthday

 

Two weekends ago I drove back to Hood River to celebrate Marissa's birthday. I missed it last year because I was studying for the bar/living at the law library/generally hating my life, and I promised her then that I would be there to celebrate this year.

I drove down on Saturday morning, which, by the way, is far less traffic-y than driving down on a Friday night. I would highly recommend it. When I got into town it was absolutely beautiful outside, so I decided to play third wheel and I tagged along with Josh and Sarah (and Kiva and Lala) on a min-adventure to Mosier to visit Josh's dad.

 Sarah and I in Mosier

 

 LaLa and I (OMG I made friends with a dog!)

 

After Mosier, the three of us headed back into Hood River, blasting some old school Nelly #sogood. We grabbed a quick bite to eat from Colby at Hajukin Cuisine (also #sogood) then headed to Dog River for a little birthday prefunk with the crew.

 

From back left: Tonya, Caroline, Marissa, Rachel, Florian, Phoebe, Josh S, Me, Sarah, Tall Paul and Dave (front and center)



 

Marissa wearing my birthday gift to her: JORTERALLS! I'm sort of obsessed and want some for myself now. #OOTD

 

The rest of the nigh included drinks at the pub, a dance party at Jack's (my favorite) where I successfully requested both "Hot in Here" (because I just couldn't get enough) and "Blurred Lines" and got to share a scorpion bowl with my friends.  

 

Caroline, Abby, Huggie, Beth and Florian sharing some Scorpion bowl at Jack's 

 

Then, to top it all off, after the bars closed, Huggie convinced a cab driver to take a van full of us through the Taco Bell Drive through, after which we devoured $36 worth of cheap tacos around the TREW house coffee table before Beth and I walked back to her place to sleep for a  few hours.

 

The next day a few of us did breakfast then Beth and I decided to go into Portland for a few hours of walking around NW 23rd St, shopping and some really delicious mac and cheese before I drove back to Seattle. 

 

It was a really quick, super fun Hood River trip and I can't wait to go back for the 4th of July!