All the single ladiezzz!

You need to become my friend. This was me at dinner last night at a friend’s house:

I’m the one in the middle. Obvs. Count em. Eight single guys. EIGHT. And I’m not single. Such a wasted mingle opportunity. But a great barbecue – nothing like eight guys grilling up their manly concoctions. We had Indonesian corn on the cob, shrimp skewers marinated in a chili and lime Thai-inspired marinade, grilled pineapple, peppers and mushrooms, barbecue chicken and steak! It was the tasiest sausage fest I’d been to in a long time. (Tasty treats to eat and look at!) Every time a new boy walked in the door, I’d clap and yell, “Yay! More boys!”

Currently Feeling: The effects of those bottles of wine sitting on the table up there.
Currently Anticipating: Bricco wine bar with my sexy BF, tomorrow the International Beerfest, and tons of Fourth of July plans for the weekend!
Currently Loving: Summertime freedom. I’m having SO much fun!

We all need someone we can leeeaan on, and if you want, you can lean on me

Last week, I spent a considerable amount of time with one of my guy friends, partying away his recent sorrows over the break-up with his live-in girlfriend of three years. I needed someone to entertain me; he needed a shoulder to cry on. We were a perfect match.

Sometimes, it seems really hard to be a guy. They bottle everything up, and rarely have the outlet that girls have – a constant shoulder to cry on, the invite to always talk about relationships, love, sex, fights, break-ups and make-ups. When I have relationship problems, I usually just bounce from friend to friend, talking about what bothers me. Each girl friend makes me feel better in a different way and tells me the things I need to hear, until I can feel whole again. Guys don’t always have that support system.

So I nodded, asked questions when I needed to and mostly just let him talk. Some of the things he was saying hit home in a huge way. Break-ups are so painful. No matter if you’re male, female, tall, vertically challenged, pretty or beat with an ugly stick. It’s almost overwhelming when you’re in the midst of a relationship – even if it feels so far away from the breaking point – it’s scary to think about being there again. I guess it’s a leap we all take by giving our heart to someone.

“It’s like we’re total strangers,” he said.

I groaned. “That is the.worst,” I responded. And boy did I mean it. Is there anything crappier than feeling like the person you’ve spent 900 plus days with feels like a stranger on the street? The person who has listened to you vent over coworkers, made you waffles in the morning before you’re even half awake, given you butterfly kisses and shared inside jokes with you that no one would ever understand. The person who is half of your happiest memories, your biggest laughter, the photos that make you smile, the vacations that make you reminisce. Someone you’ve shared your ups and downs with – death of family members and family pets or graduations and promotions at work. And then POOF. Something happens when you break up, and you’re left mumbling responses that don’t mean anything, avoiding each other, keeping secrets, averting eyes and treating each other like you’re not two people in the world who know each other best.

It’s just so sad. And as hard as it is to listen to, and as much as it dredges up a million painful feelings in my past, I’d do it 100 times over for anyone of my friends. Sometimes, we all need someone who we can relate to or a shoulder to cry on.

“Thank you. I just wanted to let you know that our friendship means a lot to me,” he sent the next day in an e-mail.

Tell me that doesn’t make it all worth it.

Currently Feeling: Short on time even though I’m not working?! I need to prioritize my days better.
Currently Anticipating: Attempt number two at date night for The Hangover tomorrow.
Currently Loving: Scrambles in the A.M. with chives, cheese, ham and mushrooms, and a side of cottage cheese and peaches. So healthy and yummy!

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!

Keeping up with lovin’ in the late 21st Century

They say us Americans are crazy busy people who don’t know how to slow down and “enjoy the good life.” We all work too much, eat too much and watch too much TV – too much, too much, too much.

I try to curb the overeating, I occasionally overwork and my TV-watching is limited to what I deem worthy of not catching later on DVR when I have the time. But, one of the big overflowing, excessive cups in my life is my calendar. I love, love, love being a social butterfly. I love planning dinners to catch up with old roommates, old coworkers, friends and family. I love happy hours to gossip. I love TV and wine nights with my girls. I love walking Greenlake and rollerblading in the spring and summer with whomever will join me. I love events – like Seattle’s 20-Something Wine event or all Seattle festivals (Folk Life, Bite of Seattle, and of course, Summer Solstice Festival – my FAVORITE). I love day trips, ferry boats, camping. I love to throw parties at my house – Wine tasting, Sex toys and Pumpkin carving. I’m sure you get the point – I love, love, love, love to DO.

When I was little, I would visit my dad during school vacations. Just sitting around at his house and doing nothing would drive.me.crazy. “Can we go see a movie, Dad? Can we go fishing, Dad? Can I go to Aunt Carol’s, Dad?” I’d beg and plead. “Can’t you ever just relax and SIT STILL?” I remember he said to me once.

No, I can’t. I can’t sit still. I don’t have adult ADHD, but I just feel that you get more out of life when you’re living it to the fullest. And my idea of living to the fullest is doing everything I can to have fun, and making the most out of my personal relationships.

I exhausted my dad. And I know I exhaust my boyfriend too.

With all the hustle and bustle of life in general – working, exercising, traveling and keeping up with extensive social calendars, how do you balance a relationship in there too without giving up any of the stuff you liked to do while single? Let me tell you, if there was one thing I wasn’t going to do when I first met my boyfriend was let my personal relationships suffer just because I was in a new relationship. But keeping my boyfriend happy, and making myself and my friends happy, sometimes proves challenging.

So recently, Baby Daddy and I enlisted the help of Google. We started updating our Google calendars, “shared” it with each other, and it works like a charm. We can both update via our phones or computers and it shows up in the side panel in our Gmail accounts. I don’t forget to tell him things; he doesn’t feel like he has no idea how to plan things with me. We keep track of each other, and we’re both happy peas.

And now, thanks to Google, we can still “see” each other even when we’re not spending the night together with the little help of Google’s recently added video chat feature, which we discovered last night. (No, this isn’t an infoblog for Google, I just enjoy any product that makes my life a bit easier).

I got home from work late last night and opened my email to see if I had anything from my “Currently In: Montana” boyfriend. Sure enough; there sat an email. I opened it and read: “You should download the Gmail chat web cam thing so we can get naked over the Internet.”

Naked we did not get, but we did chat with each other via our nerdy Web cams. (I’m not sure that I’m ready for naked webcamming just yet). Perhaps I’m a little behind the times on this one – but video chatting was totally strange yet totally awesome. At first, all I could do was laugh. It was WEIRD. I could physically see him sitting in his hotel room and hear him talking. And even weirder because I could also see what I looked like. It was like staring in the mirror at yourself while talking to someone face-to-face. Super bizarre. I feel like it might have been the most awkward conversation we’d ever had with each other. But after I got the hang of things, it was totally awesome. Beats telephone conversations any day – and now I can’t wait to go home tonight and “see” my boyfriend tonight after happy hour with a friend.

It’s nice to feel like we can continue to maintain a balanced relationship between friends, work and each other with a little planning and a little webcamming – I’ll just have to figure out how to defer his suggestions to do naked webcamming. If I know anything about the male mind, this will be a hard one to avoid too long…

Currently Feeling: Like I’ll probably get coerced into happy hour tonight instead of heading to the gym – oh wait. I already did.
Currently Anticipating: Next Friday’s triple whammy – payday, my tax return check and my 2008 bonus! Cha ching!
Currently Thinking: I’ll start a fun reoccurring series here. Stay tuned for Bacon Saturdays! (I’m not joking)

Toes tappin’, fingers snappin’ – it’s party time!

I’ve been in a serious mood to entertain lately, thinking about all the parties I can plan, co-host with my friends or peer-pressure others into throwing. After all, the only way I get through dark and drab winters is by having events to look forward to, to separate monthly chunks of time till Spring (which in Seattle, hasn’t come lately till June or July).

I’m thinking I want to throw a “snazzy” holiday party. Pretty low-key, but with cocktail attire (dressing up is so much fun), h’ors douvres, (spelling that word is always bizarre) and WINE (drunk bus, drunk bus, here I come)!

A Seattle socialite friend of mine throws a wine party a couple times a year where everyone brings a bottle of wine. The host or hostess (Read: me), wraps the bottle in duck tape, marks it with a number and keeps track of each guest’s wine number. Then each guest gets two stickers, “Winner” and “Loser.” After tasting all the wines you can, you ask everyone to mark their wines at some point in the night, and then the Loser and Winner receive a prize accordingly. I think it sounds fantastic, since most of my friends are wine lovers…I just can’t decide if it’d be too much work, or what the winning and losing prizes should be. (Suggestions welcome).

And then, I think I’ll throw a “Bush is Out of Office” party – or at least host one at a bar somewhere, in addition to a Valloween party I’m planning with the Bestie, Amanda. My coworker taught me this one–a friend of hers threw a costume party on Valentines Day, to combine his least and most favorite holidays. Um, genius! I’m totally copying and stealing the idea. So, Amanda and I are planning to co-host a Valloween Party. Start telling your significant others now about the projected lovers day plans, or lack there of.

What’s the best theme party you’ve ever been to? (Paolo, I love the game show idea).

Currently Feeling: Bound and determined to feel caught up today.
Currently Anticipating: FINDING my effing CAR key.
Currently Wanting: To join another book club again. I think Winter makes me even increasingly snugly and warm toward books.

Picturesque glimmers of my weekend

At work on Friday, we had a celebration lunch scheduled after our four-hour marketing meeting. We arrived at Purple Wine Bar & Café on 4th Avenue (one of my all-time favorite places) at 1:30 and our Global VP of Marketing announced, “Cancel all your meetings – we’re not going back to work.” We then proceeded to order appetizers, lunch, dessert, wine, wine and more wine until the boyfriend finally picked me up at 5:30. Boy was I BUZ-ZED. Purple Café has “wine flights,” which is four glasses of wine pairings that are brought to you in a cool little wine rack with a card that explains each wine. I feel in love with Gunn Estate Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand and drank about 14 glasses—a perfect start to the weekend.

After sobering up from my all-day lunch, the two of us met up with Adam and Kate to attend a Halloween party at The Baltic Room—all you can drink for the small fee of $25. I have never attended a Halloween party at a bar before, and the array of costumes was completely awesome. My favorite was a female Waldo—jean skirt, red and white striped tank, red scarf and beanie and thick black-rimmed, round glasses. I’m totally stealing it. An hour or so into the festivities, the boyfriend looked at me and asked, “Do you feel weird around all these Asians?” (There were a lot of Asian people at the bar). “What the hec are you talking about? Why would I feel weird around Asian people?” “Because you’re dressed as a Geisha?” Hmmm. Never thought of it that way. Is being a Geisha totally un-P.C.?! I had no idea.

Saturday, we went to Discovery Park with a picnic lunch, and afterward grabbed ice cream at Cold Stone. (Is there anything better than their Sinless Sweet Cream!?) The boyfriend went his direction (boy’s night out), and I decided to have my own sexy and exciting Saturday night—I stayed in, rearranging my closet. I bought these fantastic closet saving hangers, since my closet is the size of Anne Frank’s hideaway with enough clothing to dress the entire Third Reich. Looks like I’ll need about 80 more of the hangers to complete the transformation, but at least it’s a start.

Sunday I went over to my parent’s house, so my mom could finish my Halloween costume. My little sister was in town from WSU, so we took a sisterly shopping trip to Alderwood where I bought the most perfect scarf in black, brown, cream and green—it should literally go with everything. Next to skinny jeans with boots, printed scarves are my new favorite fad. I think I’ll buy one in every color.

I also encountered some sort of insane new fad—the Butt Booster! I couldn’t believe it; stores are actually selling underwear shorts with butt padding in them. I certainly don’t need them, here’s an image if you don’t know why, but for all you butt-deprived girls out there, you can find the Butt Booster at Love Culture. Hurry before they sell out. (Weird).

I wrapped up my weekend with some girl time at Amanda’s and Vanessa’s where we discussed next weekend’s Halloween plans, watched Amazing Race and Desperate Housewives (my favorite TV night!), and ate popcorn and Vanessa’s homemade chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

MMMMM.

All in all, a successful weekend!

Currently Feeling: Violated and annoyed. People should mind their own business.
Currently Anticipating: Haunted tours and houses! New scary movies! Halloween parties! Pumpkin carving! This week is my favorite week of the ENTIRE year!
Currently Loving: My new Volcom fuzzy, insulated turquoise gloves!

It’s that time of year…yet again

I gathered with some of my best girl friends last night to celebrate Amanda’s birthday–just a low-key night with wine, snacks, games and “Chic chat.” (Sarah taught me a new word.) There was even a cheese ball present; the equivalent to Cheese Whiz frozen and rolled in almonds…don’t see one of those every day.

Last night the weather and gathering with friends reminded of the transition phase that happens each year from summer to autumn–the sun is out, but the air is crisp. Dinner, movies, drinks at bars and “Girls’ Nights” with wine and reality TV start to replace frantically trying to catch the summer heat after work and heading away every weekend for camping, cabins and trips to Eastern Washington. And then, there’s always my favorite topics that crop up around the beginning of September–Halloween costumes and Oktoberfest in Fremont and Leavenworth–a sure sign that fall is in the air, my friends. Time to tuck away those short shorts, mini skirts and tank tops for another eight months and stock away money for new fall boots.

Summer is my very favorite season, so I’m always very reluctant to see it go. But, the transition is a little easier with the onset of my second favorite season. I get a little tingly thinking about pumpkin patches and carving, pumpkin lattes and beer, TV show premieres, cozy apartments and snuggly blankets with Stella, and being perfectly content with soup for dinner and a book after work.

How am I going to spend my fall this year? That’s still in the works… I’ll be living with a new roommate, which will be a change. I’ll therefore be reinstating some sort of weekly dinner ritual (similar to belly dancing and South Beach dinner nights I did last fall) with Sarah since we’ll no longer be roommates. Perhaps I’ll finally go to the yoga class at my gym that I’ve been putting in my calendar every week. More than likely I’ll be reading some great books and planning for the holidays. And as the leaves change every year around this time, I always start to think about the changes I need to make…so I’ll probably be working a little on those too.

All in all, I think I’m okay with the season change this year.

Currently Feeling: A little groggy and crampy.
Currently Anticipating: Mariners vs. Yankees tomorrow with my high school girl friends.
Currently Loving: The brand-new top my coworker passed down to me!

Luke & Jana Lamon – August 15, 2008

Friday evening I attended the wedding of two of my favorite friends–Luke and Jana Lamon.

I met Luke the summer after my senior year of college when I moved to Fremont to live with Amanda. Amanda flirted with a guy one night at Ozzie’s, who asked for her number. Later that week, we agreed to meet this guy and his friends at The Dubliner, which was down the street from our apartment. One fun night with beers, dancing and conversation led to partying together nearly every night that summer, led to what is now a four-year friendship with this group of guys (Luke being one of them). And now–friendships with each one of their significant others.

So, I’ve been really lucky to have grown as friends with both Luke and Jana. I can’t express what an amazing and perfect couple they are–if you know them personally, you just know. I hope someday to marry my best friend…we should all be so lucky to have a perfect evening with close friends and the one we couldn’t imagine living our lives without…

Things I’ve Learned This Past Week

• I can be really good at sticking to goals I set, if I really want to be. And crossing things off a list of goals feels really, really amazing. This past week, I focused on my list of goals for the next two months. I have feng shuied my bedroom into a clean and organized living space that I surprisingly want to hang out in. I get a little smile on my face every time I open my makeup drawers and see everything arranged in neat little organized rows.

• A made bed with crisp and cold sheets is so much nicer to crawl into than a wrinkled, unmade mess.
• In life, there are some people that you love so much, you just want to fold them in a protective layer of love and hope nothing ever happens to them. But, there are some things that can’t be helped and can’t be changed. When these things happen to someone you love, it’s really painful and opens a floodgate of hurt and anger. All you can do it hope that in the end everyone will be okay.
• I am, and always will be, a lover of books. When I’m not engrossed in a really good book, I feel like a little part of me is not quite right. I rediscovered my reading bliss this weekend and finished “My Sister’s Keeper,” which made me ball like a little baby at the end. And oh, it felt so damn good.
• Even if pounds are not immediately shedding, I feel 100 times better when I’m eating healthy, wholesome foods. I started phase one of South Beach again last Wednesday, and avoided carbs, sugars and drinking for the majority of the last five days. I did fall off the no drinking wagon last night, however. Big time.
• When you don’t eat carbs and you drink vodka in large amounts with a belly full of cheese fondue, it’s a bad combination. This combination, in fact, might lead one to tell everyone she’s with how bad she wants to have phone sex with her boyfriend. Phone sex? Since when have I ever been into phone sex?! It also might lead to disclosing other embarrassing tidbits of information that no one needs to know, a phone call to the boyfriend that one might not remember, and a 3:30 a.m. puking mess on the bathroom floor. Please take my advice and don’t ever ingest the following recipe: One Sparks at the movie theatre, one chocolate martini, glass of white wine, two pots of cheese with cauliflower and a Brie platter at happy hour, one single tall vodka diet that was too weak with three double tall vodka diets, some hot cashews and a few bites of fries at the bowling alley, finished off with beef bites, another glass of white wine and another double tall vodka diet at Peso’s. BAD combo.
• Sundays with really good girlfriends, a cheesy romantic comedy at the theatre and girl talk at happy hour are THE BEST. I would not survive without days like these. Oh, and “27 Dresses” is a really, really great chick flick.
• My Dolphin Sisters are absofuckinglutely fabulous. I already knew that. But, when your friends do things for a guy you like just because you like him, it reminds me how important my happiness is to them, which takes my breath away. To have Larisa have her 5th grade class write letters to Baby Daddy and Vanessa make Valentine’s cookies to put in the box of stuff I’m sending him, well, just because he’s my boyfriend. Now, that’s friendship.
• Sometimes, even when you’re as popular as me (!LOL!LOL!), it feels really amazing to be a nerd. I did absolutely nothing more than sitting home, reading and watching “My So Called Life” this weekend. By choice. And I was absolutely okay being home alone on Friday and Saturday night. I don’t know if I’ve ever been able to say that.
• Finally, I want to know who the hell Tino is in “My So Called Life.” You never see him, but everyone talks about him, and he pretty much solves everyone’s problems. He knows all the great parties and has all the answers. I want my own personal Tino.

Currently Feeling: A little sheepish.
Currently Anticipating: Talking to Mike tonight.
Currently Reading: “What is the What” by Dave Eggers.

Another year, another dolla, holla!

As most of you know, I turned 26 on Sunday and celebrated Saturday night in the best fashion I know how—food, laughter and booze with all my best friends. My birthday party this year really quite literally topped all the years gone past, in my opinion. I had the most fabulous night and want to sincerely thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for making my evening so special and starting my year off right. I woke up the next morning, glowing.

My birthday is my absolute favorite day of the year. It is the one day that I have the opportunity to see all my best friends, from many different groups, in one room. And, it is a celebration of my life! How can it get any better than that? Each year I try to host a party that is both enjoyable for me and the awesome friends who grace my life. This year, the destination was Solo Bar for a red-themed cocktail party. And yes. For those of you who know me well, you know that my outfit matched the bar, the table centerpieces, and most the drinks I was consuming that night. Does it get anymore Jeanna than a matchy-match party? (Yes. I am capable of admitting how ridiculous I can sometimes be.)

Solo is a fairly new bar on lower Queen Anne with an intimate atmosphere and a relatively inventive and inexpensive cocktail menu (everything ranges in prices from $6 to $7). Red curtains drape the windows, the room is filled with tall, modern tables, a couple couches and chairs, a large video screen in the back that plays old movies, drop lighting, local art on the walls and low-key Indie music from their Rhapsody music player. The bar owner roped off three-fourths of the bar for me, and I placed on each reserved table a stemless wine glasses from the dollar store, filled them with glass red rocks, one red Gerber daisy and a little sign, displaying the theme of my party: 26 and I Still Got It! (Courtesy of a joke phrase Larisa and I say all the time, for each year we get older.) The tables were adorned with my homemade, cheap centerpieces and strips of shiny red confetti. I paid for Solo to cater the party with a few cocktail trays—imported meats and cheeses, a Caprese salad tray with marinated beats and garlic spread, and open-faced quesadillas with marinated pork skewers. Finally, I decked myself out in a sparkly red cocktail dress and invited all the people in my life who are most important to me, including my parents who were the hit of the party. (And who met Baby Daddy for the first time that night. He totally passed the parent test AND the large social party test. Yes!)

Everyone showed up in their best-dressed outfits and the glasses of wine and Cosmos were free flowing. I have the most amazing friends, really. My parents were far impressed, as were the bar owners who said they were surprised with how nice all my friends were. I feel so lucky to start my 26th year as happy as I am. Thanks to all of you, again. I couldn’t be who I am without you.

P.S. Forty plus people at the party, and I seem to have the same eight people in all my pictures…figures. Send me your pics please, if you have some!

Currently Feeling: Like these 60 days seem to stretch forever ahead right now.
Currently Anticipating: Catching up on some home cleaning and organizing tonight.
Currently Reading: “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult.