Starvation Heights

In my post about Seattle’s gum wall, I mentioned I went on the Market Ghost Tour. It was a low-key, spooky way to spend Halloween night since it was on a Sunday this year. I’d heard most of the stories on the tour before since I’m morbidly interested in the supernatural, especially Seattle’s ghostly history since we’re supposedly one of the most haunted cities in the nation. But there was one story I’d actually never heard anyone mention before…

The tour guide told us the tale of “Seattle’s First Serial Killer,” who was actually not The Green River Killer nor Ted Bundy – it was Dr. Linda Hazzard, a female doctor who used “natural healing methods” in the early 1900s to starve her patients to death. She’d then take possession of their expensive jewelry, estates, clothing and other worldly purchases.

She started her practice in the old hotel, located in the middle of Pike Place Market, the La Salle Hotel (photographed in the top left corner to the left of the Public Market sign):

Dr. Hazzard eventually opened a sanitarium in Ollala, Washington and supposedly killed more than 40 people in her time. A Washington-based author wrote a book about the history of Ollala and Dr. Hazzard called, Starvation Heights, and apparently they’re making it into a movie (so they told us on the tour). I can’t wait to watch the ghostly tale of Seattle’s oldest serial killer!

Currently Feeling: Over America’s Next Top Model. It used to be one of my favorite shows, but it’s kinda tired and sad now. I feel like I can name five friends who are more talented and pretty than the girls they choose.
Currently Anticipating: A girls Thanksgiving dinner I’m hosting tomorrow at my house!
Currently Needing: To clear my social calendar to make time for yoga and working out. I’ve been too busy for my own good lately!

When I was a kid

So, pumpkin time is here. So says Starbucks. And every blog, Twitter and Facebook account that have been talking about pumpkin lattes since they launched on September 1st.

You know what pumpkins make me think of – HALLOWEEN!

I’m not going to lie – the first, “What are you going to be for Halloween?” question came from my little sister during our road trip back from a cabin on Memorial Day weekend, four months ago. The two of us share a love for Halloween that far surpasses any love that creepy fat guy feels for double rainbows. Perhaps it’s genetic – the Halloween love, not the fat. Well, the fat might be genetic too. But then we’d call it “big boned.”

Anywhoosit – TANgent.

What my sister and I don’t share, however, that sometimes becomes painfully apparent to me, is a generation. There’s a gap. Sometimes that seven year gap makes no difference in the world, and then sometimes it slaps me right in the face and just makes me feel G.D. OLD. Take our conversation via the ole el telephono tonight:

Me: Have you decided what you’re going to be for Halloween yet?

My sister: Yeah – I think I’m going to be a green M&M…with a green leotard, paint a white M on the front, wear red lipstick and white gloves. I think it’ll be really cute.

Me: Are you just looking for an excuse to wear a leotard? I don’t get it – I thought M&M costumes were usually round.

My sister: Yeah – but I don’t want to be round.

Me: Oh, okay. Yeah, I guess you’re right. Round’s no good. That’ll be cute!

My sister: What are you thinking?

Me: Kristen, Adam and I have been talking about being Three’s Company for a couple years now, so I kinda want to do it this year.

My sister: Huh?

Me: Three’s Company!

My sister: …

…

Me: You know – “Come and knock on my door… we’ll be waiting for you…”

My sister: …

…

what?

Me: It’s this really popular 80s sitcom with three people who live in an apartment together, and er, one of them wears cute socks to her knees and pigtails and one girl wears a red sweater with hearts, and the guy is, er, Jack and he’s the only guy, and they’re um all friends, and well, it’s super funny and well known.

My sister: Oh. Well seven years and I’m totally socially out of it.

Or I’m totally socially OLD.

Gawd, save me from myself. I’m just years away from mom jeans and referencing, “When I was a kid…”

“…we had Blockbuster stores! Like ones you walked INto to rent movies. And I remember when we rented VHS!!”

Currently Feeling: Great that I ran around Greenlake tonight on a whim – back to boot camp tomorrow. This week is going to be a great fitness week.
Currently Anticipating: Knocking through my to-do list the next three days, so I can relax during my staycation next week. Going to visit some family down state!
Currently Recommending: “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” movie – it’s so dang good! Listening to Swedish and reading subtitles for two hours kinda makes you go bonkers, but totally worth it!

Get me out of this damn castle now, Mario

I was talking last night to one of my girl friends about how sometimes Halloweens are more trouble than they’re worth – it takes you forever to pick out a costume, and there doesn’t seem to be a single Halloween party worth going to (or one that you’re invited to at least).

But not this year – this year I had my costume picked out well in advance, and the Halloween parties were lined up left and right. It seems everyone was in the Halloween spirit this year, and my weekend was a tiring, awesomely fun two days filled with keg cups, beer-filled Mario mustaches, pizza, bathroom lines, an itchy wig, wine, dancing, lots and lots of laughter, great costumes and most importantly, great company in my old friends, new friends and lover.

Once again, my dear madre came to my costume rescue, with only a week’s notice this time. The Thursday before Halloween, I spent six hours in my mom’s company, getting fitted and sewn up into the wee hours of the night. (She even cooked me my absolute favorite homemade dish of all time, Hamburger Gravy). Now if that isn’t true motherly love, I don’t know what is… so here I am, Princess Peach with my Mario, finally rescued from the castle.

You can catch full photos and details on my Halloween in my Whrrl story here.

Currently Feeling: A little back ache coming on – what is with desk chairs? I’m switching to a ball.
Currently Anticipating: A week with virtually ZERO events! I need to catch up.
Currently Loving: Catching up with a high school girl friend last night. It was a three hour chat that we desperately needed!

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!

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.

Ta da!

What $30 of red fringe, a completely awesome mother who is willing to sew your Halloween costume, and a boyfriend who doesn’t mind matching gets you:

Hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween this year. I’m retiring yet another costume after three nights, four parties and enough beer to probably cancel out eating for the next week.

Currently Feeling: Pukey and congested. Blech.
Currently Anticipating: Watching my two favorite shows.
Currently Loving: Gingersnap cookies and milk.

Scared startled

Last night I went to my first haunted house production since my third-grade self was blindfolded and forced to stick my hand in a bowl of peeled grapes and spaghetti at the low-budget Halloween spook fests held in elementary.

“Oooh. Are you going to be SKAA-red?” Baby Daddy said to me before we left.

Uh, no, not likely. I mean, are we talking scared or startled? I don’t know if a haunted house with costumed zombies and fake blood really has the ability to genuinely SCARE me. Like hair-on-the-back-of-your-neck-standing-up, goosebumps, heart-beating, can’t-open-your-eyes scared. Now maybe a real haunted house with some ghostly activity—that would freakin’ scare the living daylights out of me. (*scare the living daylights* so a phrase my mom uses).

I was wrong, just a bit. I was frightened – but more from all the B.A.R.K.L.E.’s * in attendance than anything else.

We arrived at the KUBE 93.3 Haunted House around 8:30 last night and were greeted with a long line of people waiting. Who knew this thing was so popular? Luckily the wait was made even sweeter with a $1 cup of SwissMiss hot cocoa, and it wasn’t long before we found ourselves at the entrance.

This year, the radio station is holding their yearly Halloween production at the Georgetown Morgue—a former funeral service, crematorium and meat-packing facility before becoming KUBE’s haunted house. Apparently, the building has a shady past with stories about a body disappearing from the embalming table and showing up in someone’s front yard, dismembered. And supposedly, a guy also was buried alive there when an earthquake in 1965 caused a tower of the mortuary to cave in, and nine employees were massacred, forced into the crematory and all burned alive, in 1968. Spooooky!

The haunted house plays off this theme, with autopsy tables and the grossest of all—hanging slaughtered animals and bags of what seem to be dead bodies that you have to weave through. Eww yuck. I wasn’t necessarily super scared, but I was super startled. I didn’t loosen the grip I had on Baby Daddy’s waist until we were safely through the dark hallways with “machine guns” that shot at the back of my head, the moving, crooked room with strobe lights and creepy clowns, and all the dark corners that seemed to have actors jumping out of them.

While it was a little cheesy, I love anything and everything that has to do with Halloween—so I’d recommend it to any of you Halloween lovers out there. And, it’s totally worth a $15 date night. ($15 = Entrance fee + hot chocolate).

* B.A.R.K.L.E. stands for people from Burien, Auburn, Renton, Kent, Lynwood, Everett. My friend Jana taught me that phrase, and it cracks my shit up!

Currently Feeling: Ill from all the Halloween candy I’ve consumed today.
Currently Anticipating: This new Nia fitness class I’m taking at the gym tonight.
Currently Hating: That flowers die so quickly!

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!

Overheard on the bus this morning: Halloween costumes

“One year, I was a milkshake.”

“Oh yeah, how’d that work…”

“I wore red tights and a red sweater, and my mom made this big felt cup with brown felt on the top. I glued Sweetheart boxes around the edge and cut holes out the sides for my arms.”

*Laughs*

“And one year, I was nuclear waste. I wore a Hazmat suit and had slime everywhere.”

“Huh, that’s creative.”

“Oh, and then one year, I was a picnic.”

“A picnic?”

“Yeah, I had a red and white checkered tablecloth skirt, and I glued ants all over my body. I wore an AstroTurf hat and carried around a picnic basket with candy in it.”

Okay, even though I was totally eavesdropping, I had to laugh outloud at that one. I wish I only had that type of Halloween creativity history. Gold star for her!

Currently Feeling: Like I’ve never hated someone so much in my life. So unhealthy.
Currently Anticipating: All the fun Halloween plans I have this weekend! I think I’m going to resurrect the Geisha costume this weekend, and boyfriend can be my Geisha pimp, since they really were call girls.
Currently Watching: The new Indiana Jones.

What can I say, I’m a bit of a girly girl

Lots and lots of fall-time events this past weekend.

I went to a pumpkin patch with the boyfriend, the new roomie and friends on Sunday.

My friend’s older sister expressed her concern to my friend before I showed up, “Does 20-Something know how to, you know, dress for the pumpkin patch? Will she know to wear tennis shoes?” Apparently because I’m almost always dressed up and in heels when my friend’s sister sees me, she thinks I’m one of those dumb girls who would wear heels to a pumpkin patch. Well, I never.

Friend and I had a good laugh about this.

The funny part is, I was without a car and stayed at the boyfriend’s house on the Eastside all weekend. I left my house Saturday morning, without any clothes, change of underwear, make-up and hair product—a dumb move I cursed all weekend. So, I actually did go to the pumpkin patch on Sunday—not by choice or plan—in wedge heels.

I guess I am one of those girls who shows up at a pumpkin patch in heels. How embarrassing.

After the pumpkin patch, I spent hours with my mom at the fabric store, selecting a pattern and fabric for my Halloween costume. (Aren’t you just dying to know what it is – don’t get too excited, it’s not that great. I fear that I out-did myself forever with my costume last year.) We waited in line with about 30 other mothers and their broods of loud, crying children. Half of them were talking to a mystery person on their Blue-Tooth-enabled headset. Perhaps the sixth child, waiting behind a Swinger sewing machine for bolts of fabric to be brought back home, their fingers bandaged and bleeding? Who knows. I overheard a comment from someone working at the store that more people seem to be making their Halloween costume this year. I could chalk it up to the economic crisis, since everything seems to be linked to that these days. But, that theory was blown right out of the water when I rang up the list of items I needed to make my costume–$30 worth of red fringe later (plus all the fabric, zippers, etc.), and I spent just as much as a store-bought costume. No wonder they don’t give those things away.

At least with my red-fringed mystery costume, I won’t be ridiculed for wearing heels in public.

Pickin’ my way through the pumpkin fields in heels

Currently Feeling: Really sick of pulling myself out of bed in the dark.
Currently Anticipating: Picking up the last costume needs tonight at Redlight on Broadway.
Currently Loving: How fantastic our fall weather has been thus far.