Four Facts Survey

Well it’s the day before Thanksgiving which means my productivity/motivation is pretty low, so I figured I’d pepper my work this morning with this fun little blawg survey I found on the interwebs. It’s all about 4s, and I always enjoy reading these things on other people’s sites, and also on my own blog years later, so here we go…

Names people call me other than my real name:

1. Bekie
2. Beka
3. Rebe
4. Rachel (whenever anyone gets my name wrong they usually call me Rachel)

Jobs I’ve had:

1. Barrista
2. Nanny
3. UW Athlete Tutor
4. Contract Specialist 

^^me and some of my Latte Art at Ground in Hood River, OR^^

Movies I’ve watched more than once:

1. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
2. I Love You Man
3. Step Brothers
4. Mean Girls

Books I’d recommend:

1. Where’d You Go Bernadette
2. The Catcher in the Rye
3. The Sun Also Rises
4.  The Rosie Project

Places I’ve lived:

1. White Salmon, WA
2. Zeta Tau Alpha, Seattle, WA
3. 1000 8th Avenue, Seattle WA
4. A trailer in a trailer park on the Umatilla Indian Reservation

Places I’ve visited:

1. England (London and Bath and some other places but I’m counting it all as 1)
2. Chicago, IL for St. Patrick’s Day
3. Sayulita, Mexico
4. San Francisco, CA

 
^^Me, Leslie and Rita in Sayulita, Mexico, at the best burrito bar everrrrr^^

Places I’d rather be right meow:

1. Hood River, OR
2. Snuggling with Fluffy Cat
3. On a beach in Mexico… or Hawaii
4. NYC

Things I’d prefer not to eat:

1. Cucumbers
2. Hamburgers (or hamburger in general)
3. Cold cereal (esp if it’s sweet)
4. Okra

Favorite foods:

1. Nachos (bonus points if there’s guacamole involved)
2. Breakfast Sandwiches
3. Cherries
4. Sushi

^^Best breakfast sandwich from River Daze Cafe in Hood River, OR^^

Things I’m looking forward to this year:

1. My trip to Ecuador over Christmas
2. Planning and going to my 10 year high school reunion
3. the 4th of July (always)
4. Planning and going to Paris with Dustin

TV shows I watch:

1. The Big Bang Theory
2. GIRLS
3. Orange is the New Black
4. The Mindy Project

Schools I’ve attended:

1. Henkel Middle School
2. Columbia High School
3. University of Washington
4. Seattle University School of Law

^^Erin and I before a UW football game in Provo, UT^^

Things I’m always saying:

1. That’s Fair
2. Yay!
3. No judgment
4. EWWW

Andddd that’s a wrap. Please let me know if you decide to complete this survey as well! It was actually kind of fun.

I hope all of my US friends have a happy Thanksgiving!!

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…

Halloween Weekend 2014

Halloween at work is always fun. My group decorates our hall a few days before Halloween and on the day of, Employees bring their kids in to trick-or-treat at each of the offices. This year, though, it was pouring rain outside on Halloween, which fell on a Friday. I don’t know if those were contributing factors, but there weren’t that many kids trick-or-treating through our halls. It actually worked out fairly well for me because I was able to sneak out of the office a little early on Friday to head across the mountains to a cabin (go to :43 – the Marianne Lodge) 8 other friends and I rented near Leavenworth.

When I arrived I claimed one of the eight bedrooms(!!!) and helped Ambur put up decorations for the Halloween party she planned that night. Everyone else arrived shortly after and we got to work making a taco dinner in the huge kitchen. Friday night we ate dinner, put on our costumes, danced around in the fog (there was a fog machine), hot tubbed and ate candy and then late night mac and cheese.

^^Meli as a hamster, Brittan as a cat, Natalie the Unicorn and me as an owl^^ 
^^Rob as the 90s, Pat as Inspector Gadget, Me as an Owl, Natalie the Unicorn, Adam as a Russian Wrestler, Ambur as Hulk Hogan(!!!), Brittan the Cat, Meli the Hamster, Abbey the dog with an elf hat and Paul as the Cheshire Cat^^

^^Adam and Ambur mid wrestle-mania^^

Saturday I woke up and made everyone biscuits and gravy and eggs and coffee for breakfast. Some people were a little worse off than others but after lounging around for a while, a few of us decided it would be fun to go into Leavenworth proper to explore a bit. Neither Brittan or I had ever been so we were especially excited. Paul drove 5 of us into town and the 20 mile ride there was so brutal, we were all SO car sick by the time we got into town, especially Natalie, Brittan and I in the back seat. We parked and walked to the first brewery we saw to get a round of beers to cure us.

^^Brittan, Myself and Natalie at Icicle Brewing Company^^

After our beers we walked around and decided that we would all buy ONE “jewel”. Our jewels didn’t have to be an actual jewel but could be anything we wanted. We actually kind of failed at this task in the end but it was fun to look around at the shops for potential jewels. I wanted a soft pretzel (not hard in a Bavarian town, right?). Natalie and I stopped into a bakery advertising soft pretzels and got the shittiest soft pretzel of our life. So disappointing.

^^Rob, Brittan, Natalie (+ shitty pretzel) and Paul in downtown Leavenworth^^

After walking a bit further Natalie announced she needed a sausage, everyone else was game for another beer so we stopped into the Sausage Garten with more outdoor seating, heat lamps, beer, soft pretzels, a million types of mustard and sausages. It ended up being an excellent idea because everything we had was delicious and the delicious soft pretzel at the Sausage Garten totally rectified the first.

^^Brittan and Natalie with their delicious food + beers^^

After lunch we walked around until Rob found a beer mug that would be his “jewel” and then we headed to Safeway to pick up some more beer and firewood before heading back to the cabin to nap and watch friends in our cabin’s movie theater. We eventually went downstairs to make more tacos for dinner. Afterward we were all still in a lazy mood so someone turned on the TV and found a magical show on TLC called “Sex Sent Me tot he Emergency Room”. It was hilarious watching the show all together commenting because it was SO ridiculous. Additionally, we saw about 50 ads for a dating site called FarmersOnly.com with the tag line: City folks just don’t get it! HAHA! We then immediately tried to get each other to sign up for the site because we are very mature like that. Fun times!

Brittan finally convinced a few of us to get into the hot tub and upon getting into a cold hot tub remembered that Natalie got too hot in the hot tub the night before and decided it would be a great idea to turn it down to 92 degrees then forget she turned it down. Fail. We still lasted in the lukewarm water for longer than I expected before getting out to go to bed.

Sunday morning we were able to enjoy some extra time in the cabin thanks to daylight savings time ending. Ambur made us all waffles and we drank coffee and cleaned. A few of us girls took a break to take a walk around the property too, which was gorgeous:

^^The Wenatchee River^^

Afterward we drove back home. Brittan drove with me and Natalie and Meli caravanned behind us. We stopped at a random brewery along the way that ended up being very weird and small and disappointing. We then decided we needed dumplings when we got back to Seattle and stopped at U Vil to satisfy our need before splitting ways.

It was a great weekend, and the low-key-Halloween will go into the books as one of my favorites (up there right behind the Halloweens Dustin and I have spent together because those ones are always so fun). Cheers!

Seattle Sunday-Funday

I spent last weekend in Seattle for the first time in like, a MILLION YEARS (over exaggeration much? only a little? ok). It was really great to finally spend a weekend here. Friday night I Zumba-ed then hung out with Dustin. Saturday I woke up early to make him breakfast and see him off to Eugene, OR. I went for a walk around Green Lake with Natalie, scrubbed my apartment for many hours, made cookies, and went to see a movie (This is where I Leave You which was actually hilarious and down to earth) + drinks + dinner at Skillet Diner with Josh and Katie before passing out at 10pm.

Sunday was deemed Sunday Funday and I spent the day drinking beer in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood and girl talking and eating two dinners with Brittan, Natalie and Meli. Our first stop was at Reuben’s Brews which was a total mix up because Meli is gluten free and can’t drink beer and Reuben’s Brews didn’t have any beer or wine so I ended up having most of my delicious pumpkin beer alone (because I showed up first and ordered w/o checking my phone) and then Natalie met me and we went to the next place together. But it was really nice outside and I had a beer in my hand so it worked out fine.

^^ Pumpkin beer at Reuben’s Brews^^

Our next stop was Hilliard’s Brewery. After going inside and asking the bartender if they had anything other than beer on the menu, we were informed that it is actually illegal (??) in Washington to sell any alcoholic drink other than beer at a brewery. Even cider is a no-go! So we ordered a round of beers because they had a nice outdoor seating area and it was actually nice in Seattle in October (WHAT?!) and we got Meli a coffee which she spiked with her purse flask (haha we lose at being adults). We sat outside and chatted about all the girl things before making our next move. P.S. if you don’t have friends who online date and tell you about their dating stories, get some ASAP, it’s magical! 

^^Meli, Brittan and Natalie at Hilliard’s^^

We headed to King’s Hardware after that for some food which was actually really delicious. Or maybe we were just that hungry? 

Our next stop was Percy’s where they have $13 bottles of happy hour champagne on Sundays which fueled SO MUCH GIRL TALK. I seriously got my fill on Sunday and it was the best.

^^Brittan and Natalie^^

We eventually decided that we were getting hungry again so we headed to The Gerald for dinner round 2. Lucky for us it was Seattle Restaurant Week, so we were able to split 2 delicious, 3-course tasting menus between the 4 of us, which meant two deserts to share which was really the best way to end the night.

From there we headed home, happy and full. On my way I stopped to get things for Dustin’s birthday cake (his birthday was Monday) and it wasn’t until after I got home, exhausted from my day of fun, that I realized I was missing one of my round cake pans and couldn’t make his cake. I decided to call it a wash and went to bed instead of baking a cake. I ended up grabbing some cupcakes from Trophy Cupcakes on my way home from work Monday and it all worked out fine!

Hooray for weekends spent in Seattle. Speaking of, is it Friday yet? ;)

Summer 2014 Disposable Camera Dump

Right before I headed back to White Salmon for the 4th of July weekend I thought it would be a great idea to pick up a disposable camera to capture the fun of my favorite holiday. It turns out a disposable camera actually has a lot of pictures on it, and it ended up taking me the entire summer to finish (4th of July – the weekend after Memorial Day). I packed that thing around with me everywhere and got made fun of a little, but you know what, I’m really digging the whole disposable camera thing. You get actual, hard copies of photos and I always opt for the CD too so I can have soft copies as well. I also learned that almost no one knows how to take a picture with one of those (so many fingers in the photos), and also people really like to bunny ear hard copy pics. Fun times!

Anyway, here is a summer recap by way of soft copy disposable camera photos:

The night before the 4th of July I decided to meet Beth for a post-work-beer at Chip’s (this really divey bar in Bingen, WA with a sign that says Liquor in the Front, Poker in the Back out front), we ended up running into a bunch of people I went to high school with and we convinced my brother and his BFF Jered to come join us. We definitely closed down the bar that night and it was actually a blast: ^^Jered, Josh, Beth and Brother Jim at Chip’s^^

On the 4th I went to the annual 4th of July party at the TREW house. I always dress up in my best America outfit for the 4th since it’s my favorite holiday everrrrr. This year did not disappoint:

^^Sarah and I with our matching America glasses^^

^^Captain America letting everyone it was shot time!^^

^^Beth and Capitan America + his mullet^^
    ^^Beth and I in our patriotic 4th of July gear^^

That same weekend Gaby and my friend Dan came through town (on an epic road trip) with his daughter Allison. I met them at The Gorge White House for lunch and a walk through the grounds:

 
I also went to a Mariner’s game with a huge group of friends and coworkers this summer. We ended up running into even more friends and had a total blast. We ended the night in Ballard where one of my flip flops broke so I decided to just go into a bar, Kings Hardware, with only one shoe on, HA:

^^A cute picture of Dustin and I “ruined” by a stranger giving him bunny ears and my coworker Dave photo bombing LOLZ^^

^^Dustin, Meli, Me, Brittan, Danielle, Natalie and Jeff^^ 

  ^^I also found some sorority sisters at the game: Allison, me, A Jo, Kate and Erin^^

In August, I went to Millstock, which is the best thing ever. The next day I took Brittan, Justin, Natalie and Millie to Hood River on our way out of the Dalles and back to Seattle. It was the middle of August and it was SO hot, so we decided to walk down the train tracks to the tressle. On the way we grabbed a bottle of wine from the Springhouse Cellars and bribed the bartender to discreetly open it for us so we could drink it straight from the bottle while swimming like the classy people we are:

There were also Sunday morning brunches and farmers market trips in Ballard with Brittan and Natalie, which is one of my very favorite things:

 
Memorial Day weekend, Brittan’s brother got married in the Dalles. I ended up meeting up with Brittan and Justin in Hood River the night before the wedding. We went to ALL  the bars and drank too much. I took them to Jack’s for the first time and got them their obligatory scorpion bowl which did not help the situation. Whatever, it was so fun!

I went to see Foster the People at Edgefield at some point in August with Gaby and Sarah. It was fun. After I met Beth and Tonya and Christa and we had girls night where we ran around taking shots and dancing our faces off. It was really sweaty that night too.

^^Beth, Christa, Moriva, me and Tonya. Moriva bartended us our first shot of the night – so let’s blame her for our shenanigans ;)^^

And finally, the weekend after Memorial Day I stayed in Seattle (literally the last weekend I spent in Seattle – omg really looking forward to NOT driving this weekend). I went to Friday night Zumba, I got drinks and dinner with Brittan and Natalie, and on Sunday I met up with Katie and Josh and Katie’s dad who was in town from Ecuador and we went wine tasting in Woodinville. It was awesome:

^^Josh, Katie and I^^

^^Katie’s dad with his “marshmallows”^^

Anddddddddd that was my summer! Hooray!