Take a bottle out, pass it around

I found these genius Reduce® WaterWeek water bottles at Metropolitan Market a year or so ago and bought them for a coworker’s birthday (they’re only $20 for the set). I finally purchased a set for myself last week, and I love, love, LOVE them! They are cute little reusable bottles that have their own tray for the fridge. It’s awesome because I now always have a water bottle on hand (with SAFE plastic) that I can throw in my beach bag, on my bike, on my nightstand, etc. Instant cold water that saves you money and is green friendly… just thought I’d share them with you!

You can buy them on Amazon.com here.

*Sent from my T-Mobile Sidekick®

Shots, sake, frozen yogurt, peeing in lakes and boobs

So, the weekend was totally fab and low-key. I’ll spare a big long, boring update with name dropping of people you don’t know (don’t you hate it when bloggers do that) and just give you the highlights, in non bullet format.

First off, the weather is Seattle is so fantastically f*cking fantastic; it’s ridiculous. Usually it rains the better part of June, but it’s been in the 70s minimum for 10 days, 80-degree this past weekend, and reaching into 85-degrees for this week. I’m holding my breath; it’s too awesome to comprehend.

Friday I bought a new pair of CORAL shorts from H&M to wear out for a girl’s night downtown. They are super duper fantastic. Unfortunately, I can’t provide a picture or a link cause H&M is living in the 90s, and you can’t shop online. All I can say is that bike riding is sculpting my legs, and I felt HOT. Not to mention, I want to wear coral every day. It’s so chic, paired with a white top and gold jewelry. I’m going to make it my staple color of the summer. Here’s an example I created on Polyvore to illustrate:

Before heading out, some of my girl friends stopped by to try out the new Burst Bar Shots that were just shipped to me from a lovely person who contacted me through the blog and said, “You look like you like to go out and party with your friends, would you like some free booze?” And I was like, UM YES. (No moral or ethical obligation here). So they arrived Friday. Basically what they are is a shot in one bottle, made by DeKuyper. So instead of buying four bottle of liquor to pour shots for a party, you just buy this one bottle and VOILA. I was sent three flavors – Lemon Drop, Alabama Slammer and Sex on the Beach. The shots taste pretty sweet/syrupy. DeKuyper makes Peach Schnapps, if that gives you an idea. But they do have a kick to them, and are only $11 a bottle, so way cheaper than buying ingredients for shots. I kinda want to check out the Buttershots flavor cause that’s one of the only shots I like to take. Other than that though, I probably won’t make them a regular purchase unless it’s my last dying wish to wake up with a raging hang over from all the sugar.

For dinner, we hit-up Wasabi Bistro – my favorite sushi restaurant in all of Seattle – before heading out to dance. I’m now brave after the sushi 101 and sake tasting class I took, so I ordered sake for the first time, well, ever in my life. It was a pear sake, and opened up my world to a new alcohol I can throw into the mix. Uh oh.

Friday’s Conclusion: I spent uber amounts of money and got super drunk. Sweet!

Saturday my little sis and I floated for a couple hours on Lake Sammamish in the new float the BF and I bought last weekend. For those of you who didn’t click through to my new blog and read the post about Osoyoos Lake – we bought a stellar float that is two inner tubes stuck together with a cooler in the middle. Each inner tube has a mesh bottom, so your butt sits in the water and you can drink brewskies out of the cooler and PEE through the mesh! (No shame here). It’s genius! You don’t even have to get out to go to the bathroom! Needless to say, I’ll be spending the majority of my summer on it.

After floating, she took me to a frozen yogurt place, and I’m kinda gonna go back once a week now. I am SUPER late on this whole frozen yogurt faze like PinkBerry and CrazyBerry – I think it’s been mostly an L.A. thing. But this place, Shnoo Yogurt, is fracking amazing. It’s been voted Seattle’s best yogurt place. They have three flavors – green tea, plain and pomegranate – and a number of cereal and fruit toppings. I opted for a pomegranate yogurt with pieces of moshi, and fresh watermelon and strawberries. The greatest thing about it – it’s fat free and only ~150 calories. Um, YES THANK YOU.

Saturday’s Conclusion: I laid around and ate. AWESOME!

Sunday I went with a girl friend to a bra fashion show to benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The fashion show included bras created by local Seattle stores, restaurants, etc, PINK martinis and the opportunity to wear PINK from head to toe. I opted for a hot pink top with a short black skirt and hot pink high heels… we ate dinner, drank some libations and snagged a couple pink cupcakes while checking out other girls’ racks.

Sunday’s Conclusion: Booze for boobs! Fabulous!

Currently Feeling: A little guilty with all the stuffing my face I did. I feel great in my skin right now, but I need to get back on a strict diet/exercise plan to shed a few more by the dead of summer.
Currently Anticipating: Rollerblading on Alki tonight and checking out a new sushi restaurant – Mashiko. Review hopefully up on Caviar & Campfires tomorrow.
Currently Loving: Not feeling so super stressed and stretched thin at work. Perhaps I’m finally settled in after a year?

A little pat on my back

This week I’ve been nothing short of extremely frazzled.

See, I had a huge presentation yesterday that I’ve been up late every night and up early every morning, working on it, practicing it, losing sleep over anxiety and adrenaline, counting down the moments until 1 p.m. on Wednesday.

I have this HUGE fear of public speaking. It freakin’ sucks. And it’s super bizarre cause I am.not.shy – most would call me outgoing. But you put me in front of a group of people, and my mind reels; my hands sweat. I feel like I’m almost having an out-of-body experience, like my mouth keeps talking, but my mind is going, “OMG. OMG. OMG.”

I played the piano for 13 years. Each year, we’d have a big end-of-the-year concert with every student, and all their parents, grandparents, cousins and dogs. The worse thing about it is that the entire hall was silent, and when it was your turn, you had to walk up to the front, sit at the piano in silence while everyone was watching you, and try to squeeze out the damn song while your hands were so sweaty they were slipping off the keys. Even the SMALLEST sound and mistake would ring across the room.

I hated it. I think it’s probably 75% of why I quit taking classes. I don’t know if it’s my inSANE perfectionism, but the thought of screwing up in front of a crowd gives me the heebee jeebees. (How in the hell do you spell that anyway?) I think it started during my little jaunt with piano, and it’s continued throughout my entire life. I’ve been seriously thinking about taking a public speaking class lately – sort of a “face your fears” thing.

Long story short, I haven’t been able to think of anything but my presentation this week. Thankfully, it went amazing, and I rocked it. I don’t know what I was so worried about, but afterward I felt like a 50-pound bolder had been lifted from my mind. The clouds parted, the sea calmed, the birds sang…

…and I bought shoes.

Three pairs of them to be exact.

I guess I could call it my little celebration and gift to myself for a job well done.

(BTW, these shoes are only $20 after S&H on this site.)

Currently Feeling: A little woozy and exhausted. I’m really regretting those rather LARGE glasses of wine from last night. Oh well. A girl has to celebrate sometimes.
Currently Anticipating: The sushi-making and sake-tasting class tonight with Mike! I’m finally going to learn how to make sushi! (And check something off my Bucket List!)
Currently Needing: Yet another new book. The last one was so.good that I finished it in less than a week!

Subliminal Sunshine

For me, one of the hardest things about Seattle spring is that she’s a great big tease. One day it’ll be beautiful and warm, allowing for a T-shirt, outdoor car wash and a bike ride (Sunday), and the next day it’ll be torrential downpours and 20+ MPH winds (yesterday and today).

We’re supposed to have sunshine again this weekend, but in the meantime I’m having to suffer through some pretty ugly days. This might explain why I’m attracted to everything sunny, bright and yellow right now…my subconscious is ready for the brighter, lighter side of life – spring and summer, which I’m hoping are just around the corner.

So, last night I got a pedicure with one of my girl friends from college before wine and homemade Phad Thai at my house. Instead of opting for my usual hot pink, I went with bright yellow toes for the first time. [Update: The nailpolish is O.P.I's Cabana Banana. It's a discontinued color, but you can find it on eBay.]

Outside the pedicure salon in my neighborhood is a cute little clothing boutique that is my favorite in ALL of Seattle – Peridot. They always have a rockin’ sales rack, and I’ve found some stellar, unique tops for like $19.99. Last night I picked up one of those feather headbands that have been showing up in recent fashion. I thought I didn’t really dig them, but then I tried one on last night and fell in love.

Now all I need is the bright yellow sunshine to accesorize my finds!

Currently Feeling: A lot happier and content than I’ve felt in a long time.
Currently Anticipating: A Cinco de Mayo potluck tonight with carne asada, bean dip, margaritas and beer. Even without the sunshine, the celebration must go on!
Currently Loving: The glittery garland of hanging butterflies I bought for my room last week from Fireworks.

What I want…

…I buy.

Personal mantra. And one I wouldn’t recommend. It’s expensive.

Anywhoo, enough about that. Let’s move right along and continue to talk about SPENDING MONEY. Today I bought myself two pretty cute items that I thought I’d share.

This beautiful little jewelry box I purchased on Etsy from a seller called Sister Butterfly. My first Etsy purchase! I tried super hard to ignore the Etsy hype. I need to shop online more like I need a hole in the head. (My parents use that saying. Is this where I say I’m turning into them?) But I was searching for a present to purchase for my BF’s 30th birthday (rapidly approaching), and I found this little gem. It was too pretty, and too Je, to not purchase. Plus, I’m going to try to do some reorganizing for the impending move, so this’ll be perfect. (More on the move later).

And these cute white capri James Jeans for spring! If you’re not a member of Rue La La, you must sign-up immediately. It’s the best site ever for designer duds. They feature one day “boutiques” of designers such as Betsy Johnson, Coach, 7 For All Mankind, French Connection, Tracy Reese, etc., etc., etc. for like 50% off or more! My lovely friend Jana got me hooked. BUT, it’s invite only. So, if you want me to send you an “invite” through my account, send me a message and I’ll hook a sistah up!

[Also, don't forget to enter the contest a couple posts below for one of five copies of Thanks for Coming: One Young Woman's Quest for an Orgasm, if you haven't already!]

Currently Feeling: Grumbly. I can barely walk or sit – but I’ve been to the witch doctor chiropractor, so all should be healed with the back soon? *Fingers crossed*
Currently Anticipating: Catching up tonight over dinner with Bestie Amanda.
Currently Loving: Change. Even something minor, I love change.

I dress for the ladiezzzz

Today I’m meeting my new roommate for the first time. Sound weird? Not as weird as it was to live with someone I found on Craigslist after the friend from college I was living with bought a condo with her boyfriend and had to move out. I could go on for days and months about how annoying this chick from Craigslist was. But I’ll save you the details.

I recently asked Craigslist Chick to move out, and then I went on a search for a new roommate, sending out feelers to friends, family, acquaintances, long lost pals, etc. All I wanted was some sort of referral from a mutual friend, so I could ensure the next person would have something in common with me. Yah know, all I’m asking is that you don’t blast the Christian music station while you clean; have a cat that scoots its butt across my white carpet, leaving streaks; don’t creep all my friends out; have 200+ houseplants; or leave The Cosby Kids, floating in the pool all the time, making me do your dirty work. Pun intended.

(Okay, maybe I shared just a few details.)

The point of this post before that last little tangent was to tell you that I’m meeting my new roommate tonight for drinks, who is actually BFFs with a girl I hung out with all the time when I was single. The potential new roommate and I exchanged a bunch of emails back and forth, friended each other on Facebook and have had many a discussion about what works and doesn’t work with a roommate. (MAN, have I learned my lesson about what you need to establish BEFORE you move in). There’s a whole separate topic.

Anyway, I think she sounds great and seems super fun, and I feel like we’d have a lot of fun together, in addition to being great roommates, so I want her to like me. So, I painstakingly went through my closet this morning to pick out just the right outfit – cute, trendy, sassy, hip and with it – something that says, “I’m fun! You want to live with me!” I made sure I accessorized, just enough, and I didn’t roll into work with three-day-old bed head. As I rode the bus to work this morning in my sassy black-and-white, leopard-print bubble dress, black leggings, and cute new BCBG patent-leather, open-toed wedges that I recently bought at Ross for $35 (!!!), I thought to myself, “This is far more work that I’ve put into myself in a long time – I don’t analyze my outfits this much for my boyfriend!”

Which got me thinking, us girls, we don’t really dress for the guys. No sirree. We dress for other girls more than we dress for guys. The belt around the waist trend? Guys think it’s dumb. I’ve heard more than one say so. Uggs with short skirts? Heard more than one guy scoff at how idiotic that trend was. But we all still belt, and some of us once Ugged. (Although, I was never one of the Uggers). I’ve also been asked on more than one occasion, “Why do you care about your shoes, guys don’t pay attention to them?” You’re right, they don’t. And when you wear cute shoes, it’s never the guys that compliment you, it’s the girl who exclaims, “Ooooh! Cuuuute shoes!” that makes you feel good.

I care about looking good mostly for myself because I love fashion, and also because we all care a little bit about what we look like when we step into a room full of girls. What’s the first thing you do when you walk into a party or a bar? You scan the competition.

So yeah, gentlemen, we’re not always doing everything to impress you. Some of it actually is for the benefit of our own gender, or yah know, ourselves.

Currently Feeling: Like I have a bit of a nervous belly.
Currently Anticipating: Going to Solo tonight – it’s my current fav bar!
Currently Needing: Groceries. So bad. But I don’t want to buy anything before my vacation. I’m not even going to share what I scrapped together for lunch yesterday. It’s like being in college all over again.

Ghetto fabulous chic

Can someone please tell me what’s so special about lululemon athletica?

I have heard nothing but great raves about it – and my super sporty best friend owns a ton of their stuff and practically wets herself every time her boyfriend buys her something from there. But, I’ve never stepped foot in their store because I was always like, “Well, I’m not really into yoga, so I’ll spare myself that expensive obsession.”

Redacted.

Now I AM hanging out with the cool kids – I do yoga! I do yoga! I can shop at lululemon! I mean, really, life isn’t complete until you have expensive items in your closet from Coach and lululemon! *Sarcasm* for those of you who can’t detect it via the Interwebs.

I still like to check out bandwagons, however, before I decide to jump or not to jump. So, imagine the level of my giddiness when I drove past the outlet malls on my way north last weekend and discovered a lululemon outlet store! At last! Now I can feel comfortable checking out their goods and not spending my last $100, meant for gas and groceries, on clothing. (I’ve been known to do that on more than one occasion). So I excitedly pulled over, expecting to find some super suhWEET deals (like $30 super cute and comfy yoga pants), but apparently I’m delusional. The yoga pants on the CLEARANCE rack at the OUTLET store were $66. Does that make the original price, um, $200 a piece?? Cause really, we’re talking yoga pants here. Some stretchy cotton. With maybe a tie at the waste. In a different color. That’s as fancy as they get. What about lululemon’s yoga gear is so effing special that they are charging so much?

Which brings me to the whole point of this rant – I am, and always will be, a sucker for a sale and a great price. I love to shop, but I also would much rather be proud of my super killer shoes or bag I found at Ross for $25, than wear a designer top I picked up at Nordstrom’s for $200 – and have 45 other girls own it. I take pride in the fact that I’m thrifty chic. Any girl can buy an ugly Louis Vuitton bag. (And man, are those bags are ugly. Like super ugly. Like they got beat with an ugly stick and their momma don’t even love them, ugly.) But not every girl can find a fabulous bag that’s inexpensive, everything you need and original. That takes some scowering!

So thank you, lululemon, but no thanks. I’ll stick to my favorite yoga pants from Target that I kinda want to live in every day. And I’ll roll into yoga class with my black pants straight out of the ghe-TTO, and bust the shit out of some tree poses.

Okthanxbai.

Currently Feeling: Tired. I’m at work super duper early so I can leave early for the last fitting of my Dolphin Sister’s wedding dress before the wedding next week in Mexico!
Currently Anticipating: Checking out this super amazing apartment tonight, with everything we need and the best location EVER.
Currently Needing: Guest bloggers for the week I’m gone. I’ve lined a few good ones up – let me know if you’d be interested too!

Don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me

Quick Thirsty Thursday update for you…

The Mexico bathing suit debacle has been solved – thanks to all of you, my lovely readers. The vote was split 50/50 between bathing suit #2 (striped) and bathing suit #3 (hot pink dots). So I ordered both to decide on fit. The pink dot bathing suit’s bottoms were made for 3rd graders or anorexic honeys (read: no junk in trunk like me), so those puppies went back. I kept the striped suit, and here I am in all it’s glory. (I’ve been up in the gym, working on my fitness):

Thanks again for all your input! Cheers!

And the bathing suit verdict is…

Number 2 AND Number 3!

Thanks to all of you for putting your two cents in! (Especially to the person who clicked “Blech! None of these! That was very helpful. Lol.) It was pretty much neck and neck between suit two and suit three (although suit three received one redacted vote from my good friend J. Lawson because he voted solely on the suite because of Marissa Miller. Sorry Big J!), so a girl friend helped me decide – Just get both, and return the one you don’t like!

Doi! Why would I buy one suit when I could buy TWO?! Plus, I just really couldn’t decide, so I’m going to make the final decision based on fit.

And, keeping in the spirit of updates, I thought you’d all like to receive an update on my conflict with the size of bushes at my gym. I know, I know, you’re all just DYING to know what I’ve seen now in the ladies’ locker room… wait for it… wait for it…

A mature-lady BRAZILIAN. That’s right ladies, Gs and gents – I saw a woman in her 30s/40s walking around the locker room with a Brazilian. Thank my lucky stars! I tipped my hat off to her. (Actually I really just turned around quickly. If you think seeing someone walking around with a full bush is too much information, well then you have NO IDEA how much information you’re seeing with a Brazilian standing in front of you).

Toodaloo! Happy Friday!

Currently Feeling: Manic. I drank a grande latte this morning – the first coffee I’ve had in three months since giving it up for tea. I feel like my fingers are going to type themselves right off the keyboard!
Currently Anticipating: Oh man. Seeing my boytoy tonight. It’s been a week, and I’m anxiously waiting some lovin.
Currently Loving: That I put a pair of tier two skinny jeans on this morning (tier one would be SUPER skinny jeans) and they don’t feel, or look hopefully, too bad!

Help me choose a suit for Mexico! Cast your vote!

Yesterday I finalized tickets and plans to Puerto Vallarta for one of my very best friend’s wedding, April 4th. Woo hoo! Baby Daddy and I will be staying in Playa del Sol Costa Sur. I cannot.wait. for sipping cocktails next to the pool, eating Mexican food (my absolute favorite next to sushi), partying our way through downtown, finding Taco Burrito King again and fornicating on Mexico land with my sexy boyfriend. (Is it less crass if you use the word *fornicating*?) This will be the third time I’ve been to Puerto Vallarta. The first time with seven of my best friends, the second with my family last May, and now to be a bridesmaid. Puerto Vallarta holds some great memories for me, and I can’t wait to make more.

But there’s one small little problem – I’ll need a new bathing suit, of course! Although I haven’t had much use out of the one I bought last year, I want to feel shiny and new! (In hopefully my shiny new body since I’ve been kicking my own ass nearly every day for a month – one more month to go). So, Victoria’s Secret is having a sale on bathing suits – and even some of their full-priced suits are really reasonable. I’ve narrowed it down to three options, and I want all of you to help me decide. Please cast your vote in the below poll as to which bathing suit you think is the cutest!

Currently Feeling: Speaking of kicking my own ass, I’m feeling apprehensive for the personal training session I have this evening. I usually feel like I’m going to die. Not fun.
Currently Anticipating: The season finale of Top Chef tonight! I can’t wait!!
Currently Loving: The Mobe, Air and other spacy music I’ve added to my beloved, growing Pandora station.