Thank you for sunkisses

The sun finally came out again in Seattle this weekend. We’ve been under mud and sogginess for a record amount of days this May and June. I forget it’s supposed to be summertime until I read other people’s blogs about wearing sundresses and making watermelon Mojitos, then smoke starts to come out of my ears a bit.

Thank you, Seattle. For finally bringing me a fantastic first weekend of summer filled with barbecues, patios and friends. A weekend where I could put on my new bathing suit (even if all I did was wear it under my shorts and tank top for a whole day). It still had that awesome, it’s summer and I’m living in my bathing suit feel.

Thank you, for a weekend that started out with an amazing art show for the Greenwood-Phinney Art Walk. A friend was showing his drawings at one of the coolest, funkiest retro spaces I’ve ever been to – The Greenwood Collective. Each room in the building held different artwork and the artist – photography, paintings, sculpture. We listened to a rad DJ, drank [free] beer out of a keg and even sat in on “Art Camp for Big Kids” where we made a light switch cover out of fabulous paper and Mod Podge. If that isn’t the most random start to a Friday, I don’t know what is. Even better – I wrapped it up by dancing to Michael Jackson vs. Prince night with three of my high school girls and a gaggle of other friends. My heels now have that “I’ve danced all night in a bar” grime all over them, but the amount of fun I had makes up for it.

Thank you, Seattle, for gracing me with warmth for a good friend’s graduation barbecue on Saturday. It was my first grilled hamburger of the summer and worth the ketchup and mustard stain on my shorts (and every calorie). I caught up with some friends I don’t see very often and later sat on a sun-soaked patio for pitchers of cold beer. It was an exhausting, fun summery day that left me with sunkisses on my shoulder, full to the brim and in bed by 9 p.m.

And finally, thank you Seattle, for not only another amazing day on Sunday, but for giving me two of the best friends a girl could want. Sunday Funday for the gals… raspberry vodka with lemonade slush on a patio overlooking a lake and boats, and a pitcher of sangria followed by individual nachos “Ponchos” at one of our favorite neighborhood bars, Laredos. I mean, whoever thought of creating a nacho dish where every single chip is covered with just the right amount of beans, cheese, guac, and sour cream (topped with an individual jalapeno) is GENIUS. Pure genius, I tell yah. Are you single?

Currently Feeling: Bummed to miss out on Ignite Seattle tonight, (are you going?), but totally needing a night in. After yoga, of course!
Currently Anticipating: Doing the grocery shopping and catch up for my week that I never got to yesterday.
Currently Reading: “The Tender Bar” by J.R. Moehringer. After 10 pages, I could already tell I was going to love it.

Finger Mustaches

I went to work this morning with a little remnant of half a mustache on my finger.

Totally worth it.

Cinco de Mayo was silly and fun, per usual.

Sometimes, I think about things I want to be reincarnated as in my next life. Mexican is definitely on my list. Such amazing food, people and culture.

Ole!

Currently Feeling: A little underwhelmed by Top Chef Masters – bring on the original Top Chef, it’s so much better!
Currently Anticipating: Sharing this totally awesome class I took tonight with all of you. (Stay tuned!)
Currently Loving: The Chinese Chicken Salad from Nordstrom’s Cafe. One of the best salad’s I’ve had! (And I’m not a salad person).

Polish Sausage & Wen’s Birthday

Here are the pics I promised of my weekend for your viewing pleasure on Hump Day. Cheers!

Currently Feeling: A little buyer’s remorse. Meh.
Currently Anticipating: Receiving bathing suit #1 in the mail today (the pink one).
Currently Loving: The BCBG black peep-toe wedges with a buckle across the toe that I bought at Ross last night for $35!

Okay, it’s about time I created a ‘Dirty Hippies’ label

I’ve been patiently waiting to update everyone with a few pictures from my weekend, but they’re trapped on my best friend’s camera, so you’ll just have to read the text version for now. I’ll spare you long-winded details, but I had some fun events this past weekend, and some even greater photographs. Friday night I went to The Polish House for Polish dinner, Polish beer and hanging out with some Poles. Not, I’m not Polish, in case you were wondering. But you can become Polish and hang out in their private club for $1! Now that is a steal during these hard times of THE.RECESSION.

Saturday I went to crazy friend Wen’s birthday party (he who loves to have me as a back-up dancer in his videos)… as a hippie. What is it with hippies? I feel like I’m always talking about them. Maybe I’m a little bit more hippie than I like to admit. I was certainly a dirty hippie on Saturday. Why, oh why, you ask?

Saturday night I was SUPER rushed to get ready for the birthday party because my friend was picking me up at 7:30pm on the button. I arrived home, unshowered, with seven bags of groceries at 7pm. And, I didn’t know what to wear. A really awesome trifecta, if you ask me. After throwing on approximately five different outfits, I settled on a grey tie-died sweater, skinny jeans and tall, brown-suede boots. I gave myself a once-over in the mirror and realized that the sweater was a bit off-the-shoulder, so you could see my bra straps. Eww. That is one Carrie Bradshaw fashion statement I do not agree with (right next to the duck feathers on the butt) – bra straps are tacky. So I did the trick us girls learn in junior high while changing in the girls’ locker room for P.E. – a little slip and duck of the arms, and I threw my bra on top of storage drawers in my bathroom. “I’ll just throw a strapless on while I’m finishing my make-up” I thought to myself. I continued to run around like a chicken with my head cut-off, and barely threw my groceries in the fridge with enough time to slip out the door and into my friend’s car.

It wasn’t until I had arrived at the party, hung my jacket, said my hellos and took my place in line at the bar that I realized I.HAD.NO.BRA.ON. OMG. I panicked and quickly tried to call my friend who was arriving at the party later, but she didn’t have a bra in her car. Looks like the girls were standing alone on this one. Yep, I officially hung out at the bar all night, braless. And Bestie Amanda had a great time gently poking my braless boobs and snickering at me. Hussie.

Who has two thumbs and is officially a dirty hippie? Yep, this girl.

Stay tuned for my adventures in not shaving my armpits or legs!

Currently Feeling: In love with my recent lunchtime Maximum Sculpt classes. It feels so great to have my workout done so early in the day!
Currently Anticipating: Date night tonight with salmon teriyaki dinner.
Currently Wanting: Another slice of lemon cake that’s sitting in the break room.

A rare weekend devoid of hangovers

I had quite a lovely couple of days this past weekend. Although I could have done with about 24 more hours per usual, the 48 hours I did have turned out just perfect – with just the right balance of partying, relaxing, friends, boyfriend and staying healthy and active.

Friday I met up with a good college friend at one of my (latest) favorite happy hours – Ascada Bistro. If you’re from Seattle, you should check it out. I think the little place gets lost in the shadow of Peso’s since they always seem to be dead, but they have really great food starting out at $2.99 (including stuffed mushrooms that are to.die.for!), $5 martinis and other drink specials. Plus the atmosphere is there is pretty darn good and allows for easy conversation flow without shouting over music or others. In fact, I like it so much that I’ve been there three times in the last two weeks. Whoops.

Afterward, I headed to TheatreSports in Post Alley for a double date with Bestie Amanda and her new boytoy (I’m unsure if it’s safe to call him a boyfriend yet). The last time I went to TheatreSports was high school, and I’ve been wanting to go back ever since. It’s a live comedy improve competition between two teams – sort of like “Who’s Line is It Anways?” We weren’t allowed to drink in the theater during the show, so my buzz was kinda killed, which effectively made me super tired. BUT, the show was hilarious, and to me there’s nothing quite like a good laugh.

There’s also nothing quite like waking up on Saturday morning without a hang over. I don’t do it often… This past Saturday I bounded out of bed to sunshine filling my entire apartment. My energy is through the roof when it’s sunny (hence why I want to move to Cali). I opened the windows and cooked breakfast while my mind reeled over all the sunny Saturday possibilities. After RUNNING outside in the sunshine (I know. Big shocker. This is the first jog I’ve taken outside in more than a year), I planned a day trip to Vashon Island with my BF and his mini.

The Mini is in love with everything that has to do with boats, sharks, fish, etc, so I figured a ferry boat to an island with beaches and a lighthouse would tickle his fancy. I was right, which felt SO good since I still feel pretty new to this “wooing a 5-year-old” stuff. After the short ride to the island, we stopped at The Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie – an awesome little general store type organic coffee shop that had no less than 100 loose teas to choose from in gigantic jars. (Heaven for me since I’ve been on an anti-coffee, pro-tea kick for the last couple months). We then drove to Point Robinson Park where we combed the beach for seashells. The Mini wanted to take home every seashell he found – “LOOK! OH! MY! GOSH!” he’d shout, and show us a half broken clam shell with seaweed attached. Thing are always 100x more exciting through the eyes of a child…it’s a little humbling. After the park, we stopped at a salmon stand and bought fresh salmon for $9 a pound. I’m super excited to make it this week for dinner, so if any of you have a salmon recipe to share, please do so in the comments or email me. We wrapped up our day trip with pizza and pasta at a little restaurant, which was sorta tacky but had a fireplace to warm up with, so I was content. The whole car ride back, the Mini kept saying, “Can we do this again? When do we get to do this again?” so I felt my island Saturday plan deserved an A+.

And then I wrapped up my entire weekend of being active and healthy with eating about 500 pounds of my homemade caramel corn during the Super Bowl party I attended. Diet FAIL. But oh well, the weekend was over all a SUCCEED, so I’ll just let that one slip this time.

Currently Feeling: Like avoiding a situation that should probably be dealt with.
Currently Anticipating: Getting my workout over with so I can tan and make salmon!
Currently Loving: My new, blonder hair from Bestie Amanda’s awesome balayage.

I’m gonna get rich quick, or die glue gunning

For the last two weekends, I’ve gone on FAILED Ugly Christmas Sweater Missions. (I’m into a lot of missions these days. Watch out.) What is it with these things?! It’s all people are talking about – “Do you have an ugly sweater yet for ____’s party?” “Dude, you HAVE TO see this sweater I bought for ___’s party.” Frankly, I’m quite over Ugly Christmas Sweater parties. They were a brilliant idea for whoever started them five or so years ago. But now the idea’s a little stale, and even worse–there’s a serious shortage of ugly Christmas sweaters out there. And did I mention that they’re ugly? There’s nothing flattering about them at all. Call me prissy, but it’s hard for me to get excited about putting on something that smells like my Grandma’s lingerie drawer, and was worn by someone from the Midwest with two chins, a kitchen decorated with ducks and a knackering for scrapbooking. Neva gonna be pretty. Know what I mean?

So, I was talking on the phone last night to Bestie Amanda about what else – ugly Christmas sweaters for a party we have coming up in two weeks, and we were commiserating on how much they suck and how INSANE the ugly Christmas sweater market has become. They’re not available anymore for $5 at The Goodwill. Oh no. I’ve scowered thrift stores the last couple weekends, only to find one lame male Christmas sweater – handmade Norwegian wool with reindeer – for my poor BF who’s probably going to break out in hives from the material. Amanda claims they’re selling for $30 at good ole’ J.C. Penney’s (marked down from $50) and some people are trying to make a killing off eBay, listing them at $50 each. Seriously?!

So, I mentioned something to her about how I’m going to start making my own ugly Christmas sweaters – buy a couple solid colored $2 sweaters from a thrift store, iron on some Christmas patches, add some yarn, sequins and bells – and voila! And she said she’s going to hit up J.C. Penney’s after-Christmas sale and scoop up all their good when they’re super clearanced, which led us to deciding that we’re going into the ugly Christmas sweater business together. We’re gonna call it Sweataz.com with a Z.

*Tony Danza accent* Hey, come get your Sweataz here, kids. We got da best in da city.

Anyway, it’s pretty much genius. Now I don’t have to focus on that 10-year plan anymore. Whew.

Currently Feeling: Super weirded out by my graphic, random dream last night.
Currently Anticipating: Bingo at Jabu’s tomorrow to welcome Adam to the neighborhood?
Currently Loving: The banana chocolate chip bread someone in my office brought in this morning.

Gimme, gimme, gimme – Gimme some WINE and CHEESE

I had a ridiculously fun night last night.

An extravagant, Balinese Seattle socialite friend of mine, whom I’ll call W, hosted a wine and dinner party at his house in Maple Leaf, and I dragged my Hussy Bestie Amanda there with me. W knows nearly everyone in Seattle, I believe, and he’s always trying to fix his single, straight friends up, so I thought I’d help a sistah out.

When we pulled up to the street W lives on, two bottles of red wine and MapQuest directions in hand, I didn’t even have to check the address. With an extravagant, Balinese friend comes an extravagant, Balinese house. In a line of houses, it was the only one with Christmas lights in every tree, intricate fountains, Balinese statues in the yard, and huge plastic red hearts stuck in the surrounding flower beds. It was awesome. Amanda and I looked at each other and laughed, “That is SO W’s house.”

Waiting for us inside was a table of wine and cheese, two pots of spaghetti, a camera-happy and YouTube-obsessed host, and fantastic 20-somethings to mingle with. I don’t need to tell you how much wine I drank (not really sure if I even know how much wine I drank), but we eventually moved the party to The Little Red Hen for karaoke night. I vaguely remember jumping up and down, singing at the top of my lungs to an afro-wearing singer on the stage—who turned out to be an old high school friend when he took the wig off—and something red in a little shot glass. It was a little too crazy for a Wednesday night, but I kept telling myself, “Meh, you only live once.”

And in this one life I have, I plan to laugh and dance my little buns off, and drink wine until I turn violet, Violet.

Amanda and I are featured as back-up dancers in this video from last night:

Click here to view pictures from the party.

Currently Feeling: Still giddy and high from all the laughter last night.
Currently Anticipating: Catching up on the shows I missed last night. Love DVR!
Currently Needing: A weekend in.

20-Something gets her haircut: Dubliner Man Crush returns

Life is weird. It’s just plain weird.

Friday night I met up with my bestie, Amanda, and a mutual girl friend we had when we lived together in Fremont. The two of us haven’t seen her since that time approximately four years ago, so it was a bit of an exciting girl reunion.

After getting my haircut, I bused my way to Ballard to meet up with them at The Matador, which was insanely crowded—standing room only. We squeezed in at the bar, drank a couple glasses of wine, and then decided to move on down to a *hopefully* less-crowded bar—The Ballard Loft. Another couple glasses of wine there, and we were sufficiently buzzed. Our old girlfriend decided she had to venture home before things got too out of control (a good reason why I don’t live somewhere as far away as Lynnwood. Who wants to miss out on the chance to get recklessly out of control?!), and soon it was just the two of us in the bar.

Amanda decided it was time to mingle since she’s single and “just wants to feel the weight of a maaannn” on her. I sat awkwardly at the bar while she eyed and made a flirty comment to a tall, dark and handsome standing behind us. I glanced behind me to check her target out, and noticed that the short, dark and handsome standing next to her tall was non other than Dubliner Man Crush. And we caught eyes.

Fcuk. Fcuk. Fcuk.

That was an embarrassing and totally awkward little attempt at dating—and it’s never fun to be reminded about how you were completely rejected after shamelessly throwing yourself at someone. *Cringe.* Even if he did try to make up for the rejection later.

I tried to hiss the details to Amanda to explain how uncomfortable and mortified I was, but she was unfortunately unaware of the story since she was living in Canada at the time and only interested in flirty with the target. So, I did the only thing that seemed logical in my mind—I downed the last of my white wine, straightened my clothing, took a deep breath and repeated, “It’s not that bad, it’s not that bad,” and turned around to approach the group.

The whole interaction was pretty uneventful, albeit awkward—especially when his friend asked how we knew each other, and we kinda both nodded to “through a friend” and he said, “Uh, we sorta met cause we both used to get our haircut at the same place.”

And here’s the weird part—if you’re not familiar with the story, I kept running into this guy at my hair salon. I mean like totally weird run-ins. He was always there, getting his hair cut when I was. And then I wouldn’t make an appointment for three to six months, and the one day I decide to go in—there he is. At the time, I was convinced it was fate.

So why do I think life is so weird?

Because the last interaction I had with him was sometime last February, he moved to Texas for a couple months, and then the night I ran into him again, is the ONE night I got my haircut in nearly SIX months by the same stylist. It’s like all our life cords are attached or something.

Now if that isn’t totally bizarre, I don’t know what it.

Currently Feeling: Disappointed in The Glitter Sale.
Currently Anticipating: Date night at the 20-Something “The New Vintage” wine event tonight!
Currently Reading: “Fieldwork” by Mischa Berlinski.

Another year of those sneaky 4-ouncers

This past weekend was dedicated to Oktoberfest and recovering from Oktoberfest. (Are you guys getting sick of my same stories yet, year after year?)

I’ve gone to Fremont Oktoberfest for at least three years in a row now, and can attribute some sort of event or shenanigans with each year. Two years ago was the night I reconnected with The Bearded Lover (oh, what a mistake that was), and last year I had to put myself home in a cab at like 11 p.m. because those little 4-ounce shots snuck up on me reeeaal fast.

Now, I’m an Oktoberfest veteran. I know that even if those little 4-ounce beers look like nothing, and only 10 tokens doesn’t seem nearly enough, it always is. I’ve learned to pace myself and enjoy a FULL evening of drunken debauchery…

Friday night Amanda and I headed to Oktoberfest by ourselves–or so we thought. We ended up spending the evening with two of Amanda’s former Match.com dates, splitting our time up between the two different boys and their friends. Entirely entertaining. We were POP-u-LAR. (Didn’t have to pay for a single drink at the bars. Boo yah.) We also hit the jackpot of good beers. My favorites–Giddy Up! from New Belgium brewery (beer with espresso), Purple Haze from Elysian (beer made of marrionberries and lavendar), and the Cherry Stout from Lang Greek Ale. (Clearly I like the fruity beers.) We finished of our evening at the old stomping grounds, The Dubliner, The Red Door and Dick’s Burgers.

I was hurtin‘ with a capital H on Saturday, but did it all again on Sunday for a friend’s birthday. Luckily, I was able to make it for the two nicest days during the weekend, and totally skipped the grey and drizzle at Oktoberfest on Saturday. The highlight of my drinking fest on Sunday had to be when we were waiting to go to the bathroom and a girl walked out with her skirt tucked into her tights. Since she didn’t have any underwear on–or at least had an invisible thong–you could see her bare butt as she walked down the middle of the path of people. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t see straight and had to run up to the poor girl, half laughing, half hissing, “Your BUNS are SHOWING!”

Oktoberfest–it’s no BUM-mer!

(Terrible, terrible.)

Currently Feeling: Like I might be getting sick. Dammit!
Currently Anticipating: Getting my apartment put back together.
Currently Loving: Redecorating!

Catching Up on this busy life of mine

I’ve slacked on blogging…so sorry readers. It’s proven to be more than a challenge to keep up on the three blogs I’m maintaining now, and I’ve let my poor little Memoirs fall to the wayside. But, I’ve been doing so many fun things still! Here’s an update for the last weekend/week. And I promise I’ll try to write more frequently, starting next week.

Last weekend: I pretty much lived in my bathing suit. How fabulous was last weekend’s weather, and where the hec did it go? Saturday I attended Vanessa’s Hawaiian Barbeque Bunko party. She was as Suzie Q Homemaker as ever and decorated her whole house with Luau decorations…we even had coconuts to drink out of, Hawaiian t-shirt beer cuzies, leis and straws with Hawaiian flowers. Vanessa sure does know how to throw a themed party. Ever played Bunko? It’s the game that’s sweeping the nation, you know. I had never played until Vaness threw a Bunko party last year, [memoirs] and now I’m totally hooked. I can’t wait to be 85 and just play Bunko every week. I didn’t win, however, it was worth hearing Amanda brag about how she pretty much shouldn’t leave the top table cause she’s so good at every game she plays and always wins, then she was the loser. Her present was an embroidered Bunko t-shirt that Vaness’ mom had given her. How fantastic. Amanda wore it the next morning—after sleeping in it all night—full of Stella’s kitty fur to Noah’s Bagels and Jamba Juice, and I pretty much wanted to disown her, but whatever.

Sunday I spent ALL DAY lying by Josh’s fantastic pool at his new apartment in Madison Park. I’m pretty much going to be spending my whole summer there, if you guys wonder where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing. It’s a heated, outdoor pool on Lake Washington with tons of tables and lounge chairs. And it was fantastic.

Monday: Sarah and I checked out the new restaurant on top the hill, Betty. You can read my review of the new Queen Anne joint on Metroblogging Seattle. [site]

Tuesday: My little sister graduated from high school and it was pretty much a waste of three hours of my life. Hell, I want to support her. But, I just can’t stand sitting and listening to lame speeches and 500+ names being called. Thank little baby Jesus that I have cell phone games. I never play them, but they came in handy during the three-hour ceremony. My parentals are throwing a big graduation party this weekend for her, complete with a catered menu and live music. Should be a good time, let’s cross our fingers for good weather. My sister will now be a WSU Cougar. Congratulations Ashy!

She’s the beautiful brunette: back off boys!

Wednesday: Sarah and I went on a blind double date. It was beyond entertaining. While we keep most of our Internet dating blogs to a private blog, I’ve posted this date below since it was too entertaining to pass up.

Thursday: I went on my second date with Jesse from Colorado. We caught dinner at Wasabi Bistro and then walked to SAM for first Thursday. The new museum is BEAUTIFUL. Seriously. I love it. And it’s now included in the free first Thursday art walk, which is quite a steal since I think admission prices are around $35. The museum has an awesome collection of modern art—my favorite. A few Lichtensteins are on the walls, which was pretty cool to see. I also enjoyed the exhibit that displayed art focusing on hardships of the modern world—that was some beautiful stuff. Anyway, Jesse from Colorado seems to be a keeper. I’ll keep you posted…

Friday: Boo yah! See yah! I’m going home to nap, read and party this weekend. Love ya!