Happy Halloweiner!

My blog lovelies! Hope you have tons of outrageously fun and silly plans for this evening. I appreciate each and every one of you who read my rambles. I look forward to catching up with all of you on Monday, so I can share my costume and hear about yours!

Pretty soon I’ll be calling myself a Fat Kid

Nearly a year ago, I posted a quick post called, “This is Why I call my boyfriend a Fat Kid.” It contained a picture of his freezer:

In case you’re too lazy to click through to the post from last year, that’s 1 Costco-size box of Eggos, 1 bag of “chicken fries,” 1 bag of honey BBQ chicken wings, 1 Tony’s pizza, 1 box of bacon wrapped scallops and 1 box of Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches.

Gross, right! Well I think of this pic every time I step into the kitchen at my new job and see this:

In case you can’t make it out, that’s 1 box of Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies, 2 boxes of trail mix (one with a special yogurt and peanut butter & jelly mix), 1 variety box from Pepperidge Farms, which includes Goldfish AND Milano cookies, 1 variety pack of Tim’s Cascade potato chips, including the always irresistible Hawaii Sweet Onion, 2 boxes of variety packs of chips, 1 box of Grandma’s Cookies, and 2 boxes of single cereal, including my all-time fav, Golden Grahams.

All of that is in our kitchen at work. For us to take when we feel so inclined! And when I say this kind of food is gross, I really mean I want to double fist it into my mouth right meow!

AAKKKK.

Between this and trying to squeeze in a new “working all day” workout routine, I’m fo sho going to turn into a fat kid.

Currently Feeling: Really great after a productive and enjoyable work week. Nothing like starting a weekend off right!
Currently Anticipating: The first Halloween party tonight! Whoop!
Currently Needing: To attend the gym I joined downtown near my new office. Why does it always take me so long to get over the hump of winter workouts at a gym? I hate it so!

Rants & Raves: Naked phone photos

OH yesterday at the AT&T store:

I lost all the photos on my iPhone and I need someone to help me recover them, but I kinda want to choose who needs to help me cause some of the contents of those photos are going to be slightly embarrassing if they’re recovered.

Who does that? If you’re dumb enough to have a ton of X-rated photos on your phone, and you lose all of them, why don’t you just count your losses instead of going into a store to recover said photos and having some random sales clerk see all your lady bits?

Definitely my rant of the week.

Currently Feeling: Like my weeks are FLYING by. Seriously, it’s Wednesday and the end of October already?
Currently Anticipating: Halloween weekend plans! Can’t wait to see all my lovely friends dressed up!
Currently Reading: Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos.

Catching a breath

Well hello there, Fall. You’re everywhere already, and I’ve barely had a chance to catch a breath of your air. October has been a whirlwind – an upward slope on the new job hill that has left my weeks a blur. And then I was out of town for the first three weekends of October. First – to Leavenworth for Oktoberfest, second to Washington State University for my little sister’s 21st birthday (where I partied it up with a house full of 20-year-olds – complete with Brass Monkeys like the old days), then off to Vegas for four days with work.

Now that trip was nearly an out-of-body experience. I love Vegas and all, but the best part about it is when you can rest your weary hungover bones next to the swimming pool in the desert heat until it’s time to go out and start drinking again. I’ve never been to Vegas where you’re expected to “network” all night, then work at a conference all day. Hello exhausted after repeating that pattern for four days! In a blink of an eye, I found myself flying out of the 90-degree weather of Vegas and back into the golds, yellows, reds and brrr of Seattle’s fall. October has left me feeling a little discombobulated, to say the least.

Then after Vegas, it was BAM – only two weeks till Halloween. Luckily I’ve had my Halloween costume idea planned out for a couple months; I just needed to gather the pieces. The BF and I are doing a super fabulous duo this year, but mums the word. I’ve decided to share it with you via pics after Halloween… but I can promise you it’ll be another fabulous homemade costume, courtesy of my mother who also did my flapper costume last year and my Jem costume the year before. I know you’re beside yourselves with anticipation.

Anyhoo, in the last week or so, in the spirit of my favorite holiday, I’ve managed to squeeze in some Halloween-time activities. Everything about this time of year makes me smile. If there is a higher being, I feel like he/she certainly knew what they were doing when they had fall follow summer – the colors of the leaves, pumpkin-flavored everything, heat, blankets and slippers for the first time in months, fabulous fall boots and sweaters in fuzzy materials, Halloween, scary movies in the theaters and all things ghost…it all makes it a little easier to swallow the idea that the sun has left Seattle for at least seven months.

I’ve tried to squeeze it all in the last week – a ghost tour, a scary movie that left me feeling like I was going to have a heart attack, ghostly TV shows…all leading up to Halloween party time on Friday and Saturday in my SUPER cute costume that I can’t wait to put on! Yippee!

Currently Feeling: Bummed I haven’t been able to squeeze in much working out with all this job stuff. I need to get back in a routine!
Currently Anticipating: Some one-on-one time with Bestie Amanda tomorrow. It’s been awhile.
Currently Loving: Safeway’s root-beer float bars – only 110 calories! But if I eat one, I kinda want to eat three, so that might defeat the purpose.

Closet blanket with sleeves wearer without the sleeves

Me: i don’t like the sleeve concept
they make me feel restricted
i use the snuggie without the sleeves. lol
then it’s just a big dumb blanket made out of cheap fleece

Friend: i just had a great idea. i’m going to put my fleece jacket on backwards and market it as a waist high only snuggie. those cost more cause they’re specialized. i’ll make a fortune.

Friend:
then i’ll take a t-shirt, but it open on the front and put it on backwards. I’ll market that as a waist high, short sleeved, summer snuggie made of lighter fabric.

Too bad he didn’t protect his chats! I’m totally stealing his idea, and I’m going to make a FORTUNE from it! Summer Snuggies made from T-Shirts! Waist-high-only Snuggies!!

Luck, preparation & opportunity

I’ve been thinking in my head about how I’d write this post for at least three weeks now. Do you ever do that? Write blog posts in your head while something is happening, after it’s happened, etc? I guess that’s the test of a true blogger at heart. If only I could have managed to get it finished and posted three weeks ago…some of you have already heard the good news via Facebook or IRL.

But, I digress. I’ll cut to the chase.

Things have been a bit quiet here for the last two or three weeks because…

I FOUND MY DREAM JOB. (!!!)

Correction: not only did I find my dream job, but I interviewed my little heart out for it – a three-week, 10-separate-interview process that had me strung out like Amy Winehouse.

And then, I was hired for said dream job, and I had to keep it a secret for an entire week before the formal announcement. Do you know what it’s like to keep a secret in like that? Two words: balls hard. (That sounds awkward).

And oh hey Twitter haters – I did it all through the power of Twitter.

Now… for a quick explanation of what my “dream job” exactly means… Apologies ahead of time, for I think this is a topic that might bore some of you other than my most loyal, loyal readers and best friends. (Heart!) And I promise I’m not turn this blog from lifestyle into an industry-specific blog, but I’m just so dang proud and happy, I need to catalog this moment in time if for nothing else than a record for my future self.

For those of you who don’t know me personally, I don’t really talk much about work here. (Blogging 101, hello! Unless you want to get Dooced). But I think you could probably already pick-up that I’m a huge fan of social media. Of Facebook. Of Twitter. Of blogging and networking online in communities such as 20-Something Bloggers, LinkedIn, Flickr, Yelp and more. Of the Internet in general, technology, computers. Of how it can all make your life so much easier. Make you more knowledgeable. And also make you broke. (Oh Amazon.com, RueLaLa and Etsy, how I love thee). How it breaks down barriers in time and distance and opens opportunities for happenstance, connections and friends.

My interest in the online world started with blogging, stemming from my love for writing and my journalism degree in college. Blogging allows anyone to be a published writer. And Carrie Bradshaw just sexified it for me even more. I took turns blogging for a local Seattle Web site and then became a “dating” blogger for a local newspaper. And of course, there’s this little baby that I’ve had for nearly four years now. But, it wasn’t until my last job that I realize social media – blogging, Twitter, Facebook and more – could actually be a career. And I could do it every day and get paid for it. I wouldn’t have to click out really quickly when someone came walking up behind me at work. Or worry that the IT team could tell how much time I’d been spending on the Internet. Hey – maybe I could just find a job where I was supposed to be on the Internet all day. Supposed to read blogs all day. Wouldn’t that be neat?

I think that some people will look their whole lives for something they’re passionate about that they can turn into a day job. For me, this is social media. I eat and breath this stuff. I started to think long and hard about how I could get up every morning to do what I’m most passionate about.

So over the summer, I decided to take a much-needed mental break off. (Hello best summer Seattle has ever seen. Hello private dock on Lake Washington. Goodbye natural tan lines I’ll never see again). I gathered my wits about me to figure out exactly what I wanted to be doing and where; I made a note to never let myself feel as unhappy in a job as I had been this past year.

PROST!

Another October, another fall, another Oktoberfest, HOLLA! For those of you who’ve been a long-time reader, you know I’m a HUGE fan of Oktoberfest. We’re lucky enough here in Washington to have TWO of the top 10 celebrations in the nation. One of them in Fremont each year, which is where I ran my first 5K race, and the other one in Leavenworth, which I attended last weekend with the BF and some college friends. I’ve written about my past Oktoberfest’s in Leavenworth here and here, but I thought I’d share it in a new way this year – through WHRRL! You know you love it.

Currently Feeling: A little under the weather, but thankfully I’m kicking this cold rather quickly. I have an immune system of steal!
Currently Anticipating: My little sister’s 21st birthday this weekend! Oh my gosh! I seriously can’t believe she’s going to be 21.
Currently Reading: Rattled, a memoir by Christine Coppa. Freaks the shiz out of me, I tell yah.

She’s ALLIIIIVVEE.

I have a SUPER exciting blog post update that I haven’t been able to get out… it’s been in draft form for two weeks! Yowza.