San Diego Trip 2016

This past week I took Fri-yay! off work and hopped on a plane to San Diego for the weekend. I've been desperately needing some sunshine and Gaby was down there for a work conference and wanted to stay a few extra days, so win-win! I was even able to get on an earlier flight (thanks Alaska! and was able to enjoy 5 extra hours of sunshine on Friday!). Upon arriving I dropped my bags in our room and then headed straight down to the pool to drink a margarita in a lounge chair (while waiting for Gaby to be done with work). It was the most magical.

^^Just off the plane, SO EXCITED IT'S SUNNY OUT (and borderline too warm for the flannel I'm sporting)!^^

^^First stop: margarita by the pool (still in flannel, no time to change, must get into sunshine)^^

^^Drink with Gaby before dinner^^

When Gaby was done with the trade show we headed out for a drink with a few of her coworkers, and then followed that up with some Mexican food at Don Chido (at my insistence -- you can't go to Southern California and not eat Mexican food, am I right?). We ended dinner with a round of Patron shots (you're welcome 50something year old male coworkers!) and then most of her coworkers headed to the airport. Three of us who were left met another coworker at Bang Bang for a bowl of alcohol and two trips to the Ryan Gosling themed bathroom for Gaby and I (which was very silly and ridiculous but also maybe one of my favorite parts of the trip)!!!

^^THE bathroom, in all of its glory^^

^^We took ALL the pictures^^

 

^^No shame^^ 

^^IDK why my face is so serious, but this made me LOL^^

After Bang Bang we bar hopped around the Gaslamp Quarter. We went to the Altitude Bar (on a misunderstood tip from a friend, but the view was awesome anyway) and at one point asked an Uber Driver to take us to his favorite bar in the area. We slept until like 10:30am the next day. Killing it.

Saturday, after transferring hotels and grabbing some iced coffee, we headed to the beach! It was so warm and sunny and generally magical outside. We grabbed a beer (for me) and a Bloody Mary (for Gaby) and shared some nachos for lunch. We purchased ridiculous Spring Break tank tops which were on sale, Gaby stepped on and got stung by a bee on the beach, and we found her some new flip flops since hers were killing her (not a good day for her feet, but a good day overall because it was SO NICE OUT, IN FEBRUARY!). We walked along the boardwalk for a long time and ultimately grabbed one more beer at a beachfront bar before heading back to the hotel to switch to a clean room (switch = get upgraded to a suite complete with a complementary bottle of delicious wine b/c of some pube looking hairs and general dirt (ew), score! Seriously though, the service at and the location of the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter Hotel was amazing, we would totally stay there again.

^^Mission Beach boardwalk area^^

 ^^The beach, SO GOOD^^

^^Gaby on the beach, pre bee sting^^

^^Beach bar beer. When in Rome!^^

After relaxing in our room for a few minutes and discovering there was no hot tub at our hotel (only a pool) we started to get hungry and so we ventured across the street to Fleming's for some Sweet Chili Calamari, which as Gaby explained beforehand, was amazing. We then made our way to a nearby Sushi place for a light dinner. Later that night we went to the Whiskey House and then got some hummus at a Greek place, then we somehow were persuaded via text message to go to this V TERRIBLE club by Gaby's coworker. Guys, it was the worst. We walk up and there is this crazy long line, we go to the VIP guy and tell him our friend has a table and he's like I can't find his name, who is he with? And we're like, we don't know. He lives here, we don't, also it's really NBD b/c this place sounds REALLY loud and terrible and we're wearing jeans and flip flops so like, we'll definitely go elsewhere b/c not our scene and we don't want to try and persuade you to let us in, like, at all. And the bouncer was like, ummm well you can just go in through this VIP door, it's whatever. So we walk into this packed, terrible, dark, crowded night club playing house music and the DJ kept shouting "I'M A GRAMMY AWARD WINNING ARTIST" #no. We found Gaby's coworker, had part of one drink, and got the fuck out of that disaster in favor of bed.

^^Gaby blissing out in our suite's bedroom^^

^^READY TO GOOOOO^^

Sunday we rented a car and drove to LA to eat Thai Food at Gaby's most favorite Thai place in Hollywood and fly out of LAX. First though, we ate In-N-Out Burger for late breakfast in San Diego (Cheeseburger, Animal Fries & Iced Tea for me!) and we got Coffee Bean (I loveeee Coffee Beannnnn) along the way. We also listened to a lot of Tove Lo on our very sunny drive, so I was pretty content, albeit tired on Sunday. We also stopped by The Grove after Thai Food, which was so fancy, before returning our rental car and barely making it out of town that evening.

 ^^The only burger I'll eat. Period. It was OMGSOGOODICANTEVEN^^

^^Thai Food FTW^^

^^All up in LA^^

I'm convinced after Disneyland last February and San Diego this February, I need to go to SoCal every February in order to survive rainy Seattle winters. I'm already plotting my trip back to San Diego next year! I feel like I have so much left to explore still!

Alsooooooo here are some things about San Diego I did/liked/still want to do/want to tell you about/whatever: (1) all the people there are SO beautiful; (2) they're also all the nicest ever (what do you have to be mad about when it's sunny and beautiful all the time, right? Right. They get it.); (3) I still need to eat Carne Asada Fries(!!); (4) the manager of the Hilton gave us his card and told us if we ever want to come back he'll hook it up; (5) Ryan Gosling Bathroom!!!; (6) palm trees; (7) WARM SUNSHINE IN FEBRUARY?!?! You guys, c'mon. The best!; (8) if you have nasty back hair take care of it or you'll never have a shot w/ Gaby and we'll definitely make fun of you ALL WEEKEND AND FOREVER; and (9) I loveeeee Girls' Trips with Gaby so much. #takemeback

I’M BACKKKKK

I’m so excited to be back, you guys! Holy cow! Okay, where to start? So many fun things happened while I was MIA. A lot of those fun things were documented over on my Instagram if you’re interested. I ultimately want to go back to some of the aforementioned fun things and try my hardest to remember details/find pictures and write a post about them soon (like my Philly trip this summer!

You guys need to know about the sandwich that changed my life, right? I know, you missed me too).
It feels like mostly everything is the same since the last time we talked. Same job, same apartment, same boyfriend. Some things are new; I got a bike! I named her Purple Thunder (someone stole her seat the other day, WTF? and after that terrible incident I moved her permanently inside my tiny apartment). I taught myself to knit over Christmas time and that was really fun. I’ve been making all kinds of things out of yarn lately. Send me your favorite patterns!! What else, what else? Ooh! I went Skiing for the first time in my entire life last month. I fell A LOT. It was embarrassing. I would like to go again someday soon and maybe take a lesson? IDK I feel like that seems like a good idea. Dustin and I were Pizza Rat for Halloween. I went to a live The Price is Right show. Natalie and I saw Tove Lo in concert and it was the best. I turned 29 while I was away. I’m already plotting my epic 30th birthday (which is 9 months away). I’m thinking Jamaica. OH and speaking of trips! I’m going to San Diego to bask in the sunshine for 48 hours next weekend and last night I booked a dream BFF trip to Mexico. I need a vacation like nobody’s business.

So yeah, those are the things I’ve been doing in between working a ton and trying adult (ex: exercise and sleep enough and drink lots of water). I’ll try and keep this post reasonable, but before I go here are some pictures:

 ^^I cut my hairs, it was obvious v exciting^^

 ^^Purple Thunder and I^^

^^Beth and I day drank our way through Hood River one afternoon, this was taken at Double Mountain, before shit got weird^^ 

^^Danielle came to visit Kate and I. We drank a lot of wine on Bainbridge island and made a mocking dance video^^

^^Beth, Brother Jim, Jered and I after the prefunk, before the Price is Right, and before Jered asked Jim to be the best man at his wedding them I almost left them outside to fend for themselves all night because sometimes boys are the worst^^

^^obligatory selfie with Fluffy^^ 

^^Pizza Rat costume at our really fun halloween weekend pool party cabin^^ 

^^Dustin and I on our FIVE YEAR dating anniversary (holy cow)^^ 

^^Before our friends Art and Amy moved to Europe we went to Kalaloch on the WA Coast with them and Katie and Josh and we had the NICEST weather. It was amazing.^^

And because I left you all for a million years, I’ll give you this little gem as a peace offering:

SO GLAD TO BE BACK (even if Windows Live Writer is no longer letting me publish to my blog and I have to post a wonky first post back straight from the Blogger website, boo)!

CHS Class of 2005 10 Year Reunion Weekend

This past Saturday, July 18th, 2105, was my 10 year high school reunion. As most of you know, I planned it after I discovered our class president wasn’t going to do it, and it was a lot more work than I expected. To my delight though, it was totally worth it.

I took a 1/2 day on Friday and at noon I left work and headed to Katie’s house to pick her up before heading down to Hood River. Katie helped me SO much with reunion planning stuff and I literally could not have done it without her. She is the best.

^^Katie and I at a gas station/rest stop about 1/2 way to Hood River^^

When we got to town we stopped by Katie’s hotel so she could check in and then we headed to the British Pub for a Radler in the blazing hot sun (hah). After we chatted with our favorite bartender, confirming our time and drink special with them for our bar crawl the following night, we headed down to Sushi Okalani to put our name in for a table. While we waited we had a drink & some fries upstairs at Celilo.  Sarah, Launa and Josh joined us for a drink too!

 
^^Cracking up at being “gifted” the ugliest butterfly dress by Sarah at Celilo^^

At sushi we entrusted Josh with the ordering and we ended up having a really huge, delicious sushi feast complete with the most amazing Uni Shooters that included Uni, a raw quail egg, Ponzu sauce and a drop of Tabasco. Mmm! I will entrust Josh with my sushi ordering 4eva.

After dinner we all headed back to the British Pub for a nightcap and to wait for Katie’s husband, Josh, to get to town.

^^My fav couple to third wheel with: Josh & Sarah^^

^^Katie and I after our Sushi feast!^^

The next morning I hung out with Josh and Sara, drank coffee, got a bagel with lox + smoothie, and headed up to my parents’ house to hang with my dad and fluffy before I had to go to the reunion. I sat with my dad and painted my nails and chatted and he got me some burger toppings from the garden while I showered and put on makeup. I also aksed Brother Jim if he would be my date to the reunion (Dustin was in Chicago for a bachelor party of sorts) and he LOLd at me and said no and called me weird. Whatever, brother. A few hours later I headed down to the Hood River Waterfront Park to meet Katie and Josh and get the park shelter ready for the reunion.

Here is what the park shelter looked like before:

^^Hood River is the prettiest, right?^^

And a few pictures with decorations/mid decorating before everyone arrived: ^^Yearbook, hashtag, gift bags for a game, name tags complete with our senior yearbook photo, and can koozies (designed with help of Sarah – thanks Sarah)!!^^ 

^^Extra pictures hung on poles, big poster boards with pictures and a bar for the food (buns, condiments, and a strawberry shortcake bar)^^ 

After everyone arrived we hung out, caught up, looked at pictures, listened to a sweet 2005-throwback Spotify mix complete with songs I asked people to suggest on FB, took pictures with a disposable camera (2005 throwback, amiright? can’t wait for those babies to come back) and played some lawn games (corn hole, giant bananagrams, and Katie made giant yhatzee). We had probably a few over 30 show up which was a few less than we were expecting (based on tickets purchased), but out of 67 in our graduating class I feel like that was a pretty great turn-out!

Kevin from our class brought 2 gas grills to the park shelter and he grilled for us which was so amazing (after some panic over what we were going to eat! Thanks for saving the day with that one, Kevin). We ate hamburgers, black bean burgers, hotdogs, chips, and strawberry shortcake. And because we only charged $15 for tickets, we told people that we wouldn’t be providing alcohol at the BBQ, but that they could bring their own because there is no open container law in Hood River and you can drink in the streets, Vegas style! It’s the best! So most people brought beer and we all drank a few of those which faciliated some extra #sociallubrication. Katie also organized a fun “game” with prizes we played toward the end of the BBQ. She asked questions like “who has the most kids? if you have 1 kid, raise your hand. Keep it up if you have 2…” etc. She did prizes for each category, like a lacy thong for “married the longest,” ear plugs and an eye mask for “traveled the furthest to get to the reunion” and a map for “lives closest to the high school” hahaha. I won “highest degree earned” and I won a notepad with funny sayings on each page (“shit I don’t want to do” for example), and everyone’s bag came with a mini-bottle of alcohol in addition to their prize. It went over really well.

 ^^Me, Jegar photo bombing, Alicia and Becky at the BBQ part of the reunion. Becky, Alicia and I use to be great friends growing up, it was so fun to see them again^^

^^A pretty early on pictures of most of the classmates at the reunion + 1 spouse and some kids^^ 

^^A blurry pic of me thanks to Alicia’s daughter^^

We were at the Waterfront Park from 4-8:30pm hanging out. Around 8 everyone chipped in and helped us pack up things and we all headed to the River City Saloon (including 2 of the 3 teachers we invited), which was the first stop on our post-BBQ bar crawl.

^^Me, Jegar and Mr. Miller taking a shot of Jagermeister at the River City Saloon^^

Before the reunion I contacted all the bars and asked if they would be willing to do a drink special for our group. The River City gave us $2 Rainers and Miller Highlifes. At 9:30pm we headed to the British Pub for $5 Rum Punch Special! Mmmm!

^^Alex sitting on the ground at the Pub along with Matt, Keith, Cayenne and Will in the background^^
 ^^Melissa and her husband, Will and Katie at the Pub^^

I spent most of the time at the Pub bullshitting with Mr. Kasenga which was so fun. I also got a little drunk and un-friended and blocked this girl on FB from our class (who didn’t even graduate with us!!!!!) who had given me a bunch of shit leading up to the reunion “it’s so expensive, are you going to be feeding us on diamond plates?” “Girl, I’m married, of course I’m bringing a date!” “Can I pay you there?” and who posts borderline offensive things like a million times a day. Reminds me of this. It was so satisfying to unfriend and block her IMMEDIATELY after the reunion was over and I had no obligation to ever talk to her again.

Our next stop was supposed to be at a Taco Truck down the street but as we were leaving the Pub I got wind that the taco truck wasn’t open. WHAT?! So, as the group leader, I shouted at everyone that there was a change of plans (good thing I’m loud, right?!) and we headed to the next scheduled bar which was the Trillium. Katie ordered a bunch of fried food for everyone because she is the best and I ordered a round of Jello-shots for the group. #partytimeUSA

^^Will and I at the Trillium. Will just finished his first year of law school at Northwestern and he’s living in Seattle for the summer doing an internship. It was so fun to see him and bond over how terrible 1L is haha!^^

^^Melissa, Jegar photo bombing again, Will, Me and Katie at the Trillium^^

At one point at the Trillium one of our classmates fell asleep on the bar. To give him credit, he works the graveyard shift, had been up for like a million hours and has 3 kids. Wow! The bartender told me I had to get him out so we took him outside thinking he’d already called his wife to come get him. A little while later, he was in rough shape and we asked him to unlock his phone so that we could call his wife and see where she was. He couldn’t get it unlocked but a spouse of another classmate saw the shape he was trying to use to unlock the phone, took the phone, figured out the pass code after a few tries, looked at the call log, saw his wife hadn’t been called, called her from his phone and she came to get him. Not before he threw up on the sidewalk though. And then we got him to the street where he continued to throw up. Everyone in our class was so great, they helped hold him up and keep him awake, helped the bartenders clean up the mess and when our classmate’s wife got there we hugged him, got him in the car, gave him a plastic bag just in case and everyone was standing in the street waving bye to them when they drove off. Immediately after they pulled away I shouted, “Jack’s?!” and everyone was like “YES!” (lolz) and we all headed to the next bar. It was actually really nice how supportive and awesome everyone was. Warm fuzzies.

Our next stop was Jack’s which is a sweet Chinese restaurant bar turned dance club after midnight on the weekend. We got Scorpion Bowls for everyone to split and drank those before grabbing one more and heading to the dance floor. We danced HARD for about an hour which was such a blast. Katie also requested Nelly and Ja Rule which everyone in the bar loved.

^^This picture Cracks. Me. Up. I’m taking that Scorpion Bowl SO seriously with my devil eyes!^^
  ^^one more Scorpion Bowl shot^^

^^Ordering our last Scorpion Bowl and touching Will’s fancy moustache before heading to the dance floor^^

^^Me and the guys watching the dance floor action^^ 

^^Katie and I getting down on the stage haha^^ 

Right as the lights were about to turn on at Jack’s we ran out and headed back up to the Trillium where they basically told us before we left that they would serve us after hours. 2 classmates got in an argument, I tried to mitigate, we got some beers and hung out before they called last call and we decided that we NEEDED FOOD NOW. A few of us wanted to see if the taco truck was open so we headed down to the food truck pod. The taco truck was still closed (WTF) but a noodle truck was open. Me, Matt, Nick, Kevin, Alex and Katie ate noodles at 3am on the sidewalk. After our noodles we called our rides and were home by 4am. ASK ME HOW I STAYED OUT PARTYING HARD SO LATE?! I HAVE NO IDEA! Ha. It was seriously the most fun night I’ve had in a million years, though.

Katie and I split a cab, I dropped her off at her hotel and headed up to Josh and Sarah’s where I only slept for a few hours (#exhausteddddddd) before getting woken up by cries from the brand new puppy, Kobuk, who they picked up while I was at the reunion on Saturday. 

^^Kobuk the Malamute puppy^^

Kiva was NOT happy about her new puppy brother. They’re so cute next to each other though. Big Malamute, tiny Malamute! ^^Pissed Kiva means she came to snuggle with me on “my” bed^^

After spending a few hours in the yard with Josh, Sarah, Kiva and the new puppy, Brother Jim came to get me on his motorcycle which was the most terrifying thing ever, even though he promised me we didn’t go over 24MPH and we rode downtown to Bette’s Place for breakfast and so I could meet his new girlfriend who works there. We split a GIANT cinnamon roll (mistake, too much sugar too early), ate eggs and had a great time breakfasting.

Shortly after breakfast I embarked on the longest, sleepiest, traffickest drive back to Seattle. I then met Caroline for a little bit to drop off stuff Alex left in my car and ended up chatting with them both after he showed up at her apartment too. I had to pick up Dustin at the airport at 11 that night so I went home and unpacked for a bit before heading to get him. I was the sleepiest monkey on Monday. UGH!

It was so worth it, though. My reunion was the most fun 12 hours I’ve had in a really long time. I love CHS’s class of 2005! (except the people who live in town and decided not to go, they are dead to me) HA! All the stress of planning for 9 months was totally worth it! CHEERS TO 10 YEARS!

Pizza and Reunion Prep and Too Much Beer in Seattle

This past weekend was Seattle-y.

Friday night there was pizza and rosé and updates on either everyone’s babies or their careers at this new Ethan Stowell pizza joint, Frelard Pizza Co. with my sorority sisters, because Ally was visiting from NYC:

^^Julia, Erin, Ally, Elizabeth, Kate, Kylee, me and AJo^^

After dinner + a drink I headed home because I had to be up early to do reunion prep with Katie on Saturday. We got coffee and picked up pictures and got things from Dustin and ran my car through the car wash (necessary reunion activity, obvs), and went to the craft store and to Costco. Then we went back to my apartment and ordered Indian food for lunch (butter chicken and nann 4ever!) and got spray glue all over everything I own, including my feet, while gluing pictures to poster boards. But after it was done I felt a million times better about the reunion. Having someone to help me with all of that and to gossip with me while we were doing all of the prep made it sooooooooo much less terrible. Thank you, Katie!! 

When we were done reunion prepping, Katie’s husband Josh met us and we went to Seafood Fest in Ballard (for the second year in a row) where we met my coworker Dave, his GF Tia and Dustin’s coworker (B)Art. Some ate Seafood, all drank beer and then eventually we got in an Uber XL and headed to a brewery to meet Rob and Matt who were 1/2 way through an all-day 12-brewery tour. We finished it with them. Can you say shit-show?

^^Josh, Katie, Me, Rob and Dave in the back^^

Oh and at one point I was too tired to walk so Rob gave me a piggy pack ride. Friends since middle school (fun fact: Rob’s mom was my preschool teacher and my cheer coach):

^^Piggy backkkk^^

^^Me, Rob, Matt, Katie, Josh, (B)Art & Tia being sad that Art’s wife, Amy wasn’t there, obviously^^

On Sunday I watched Netflix and snacked on leftover Indian food for a significant portion of the morning. When I finally got up, Dustin and I did a Goodwill drop off, had a v fancy date at Bahama Breeze in the Southcenter Mall Parking Lot (complete with terrible live music and a beverage in a young coconut), shopped a little, went to Ikea and then watched a Redbox while sipping on Mojitos complete with mint from his urban, deck garden.

Successful Seattle weekend, right there!

This coming Saturday is my 10 year high school reunion (which I’ve been planning for what feels like a million years). I’m super excited for it and I think it’s going to be really fun. I’m also kind of excited for it to be over because it has been a lot more work than I initially anticipated. Let that be a lesson to you, boys and girls, when your former class president comes to you and says he’s not going to plan anything and asks you to do it, remember it’s a LOT more work and stress than you think it’s going to be! Move forward informed. Ok that’s all. BYE4NOW.