Spam (the edible kind), charity and mini celebrations

It’s been a little quiet here for the last week – September has been a busy, busy month. So much for slowing down after summer… I have a fall that’s looking like it might be just, if not twice, as busy as summer. I can only imagine how exhausting it is for the BF to date me. Poor guy thought he was going to catch his breath after our summer of a million camp trips and plans.

But, I digress.

After tomorrow, I will have attended four networking/industry related events in five days. I’m signing up for everything to network my little butt off. If you don’t network professionally (in person), I’m telling you – GO. Do it now. You’ll reap huge benefits from it. In fact, every time you go to a networking event, an angel gets it’s wings, clouds turn into marshmallows, and rainbows, kitties and unicorns rain down on you from the sky. True story.

Thursday I went to a fun scavenger hunt/networking event around Seattle, put on by a local, fancy hotel, a theatre and a mobile food truck where I tried SPAM for the first time. That’s right, I said SPAM. I’m slightly embarrassed that it was actually super good, and I went back for seconds on my Spam slider. I guess I won’t be able to tease the Bestie anymore when she goes to pick up Spam for her dad’s Christmas stocking. Who would have known ham in a can would be so tasty? I guess that’s just a testament to my love for all things pig. I know what I’m getting my dad for Christmas!

Friday I went to a charity meet-up put on by Q-13 Fox for the Washington Burn Foundation, and why yes, the firefighter calendar models were there. I try to rarely miss events where male calendar models are in attendance charity is involved.

And finally, Saturday night was the accumulation of an event I helped plan for the last couple months – Twestival Seattle – a “social media for the social good” event put on through Twitter to raise money for a local charity. We chose YouthCare, a Seattle nonprofit that supports homeless youth, and we raised more than $6,000 for them. How exciting is that! Twestivals are happening in cities all across the globe this month, so if you can, find out when and where one is in your city and go support your local cause!

I’m also in full swing with my digital photography class that started two weeks ago. It is SO awesome. Words cannot describe how excited I am to get to know my Nikon P90 (on loan from the Nikon COOLPIX Circle) a little bit better and learn about all sorts of things like lighting and composition. AND I’m doing an awesome job slacking on my training for the first 5K I have schedule to run NEXT WEEKEND. Yikes!

Anyway, it feels pretty great to be creative, focused on knocking off some of my goals for 2009 and involved in such awesome events around my community. Lately I’ve CHOSEN my time, my path and where to spend my energy, and I’ve become happier than I’ve been in a long time.

In other news – remember that bottle of wine I was saving since last Memorial Day when the BF and I picked it up on our first camping trip of the summer? We were able to pop that open in celebration this past week. After six months of LOTS of hard work, the BF finished the guest bathroom that he had gutted, re-tiled, painted, installed fixtures in, etc. It was something he had to finish before he could get a roommate, and it was hard for him to find time between working, The Mini and the million plans I always had for us on the calendar. It strained our relationship at times – the lack of time spent together, the stress, the length of time it took to finish. And now he has a roommate in, so the first thing we did was crack the bottle and salute to all the hard work being over!

I don’t know if it was because we’d been saving it for four plus months, or because it was actually an expensive, quality bottle of wine over $10 – but it was the tastiest wine I’ve had in a long time, and turned out to be the best way for us to celebrate.

Huh, maybe there’s something to this whole “late 20-something” stuff, after all.

Currently Feeling: Happy to have a family dinner with my sister tonight while she’s home from college. Barbecue ribs… mmm.
Currently Anticipating: This week! More super exciting stuff going on in Je-ville!
Currently Loving: All the great fall TV that has started – Project Runway, Top Chef, America’s Next Top Model – I’m in TV heaven!

Excuse me while I kiss the sky

A couple weekends ago, I went on a trip to Orcas Island in the San Juans Islands. I went there last year with Baby Daddy, and we just loved the place so much, we went again this year. For those of you who are local and pay attention to my Washington-focused food, wine and camping blog, you’ve probably seen my post about Orcas Island already. But, I just wanted to share a few of the sunset pics that I took while there for the readers here.

I have always been a lover of the sun. Always. Sometimes I wonder why the hec I can’t be like all the other Seattlelites who rave about the grey and clouds – some people here live for that weather. Me, I live for the three, sometimes four, months a year we get sunshine. But my trip to Orcas made me realize that as much as I love the sun, I love watching it set just as much.

When I was little, my mom used to tell me that a sunset happened when the Angels were baking cookies. While it’s not my MO to be all religious, I still like to think of Angels baking cookies each night the sun sinks down behind the clouds and glowing oranges spread out over the sky. For some reason, it still comforts me just as it did when I was a little girl.

Shadows just look so much better in the glow of a sunset – holding hands is that much more romantic – night is less depressing and scary – and the thought that you get to wake up again tomorrow and watch the sunset all over again just makes it great to be alive.

[all photos taken on my Nikon COOLPIX P90, on loan for the Nikon Coolpix Circle]

Where’s the best sunset you’ve ever seen?

Currently Feeling: Sleepy after a night out on the town with my twin besties from high school (one lives in San Diego and is in town for the week)!
Currently Anticipating: The Flaming Lips concert tomorrow and one of my bestie’s wedding barbecue wedding reception on Saturday. (The one who got married in Mexico in April).
Currently Loving: That I’ve had a former college acquaintance AND a former coworker move into my building! How fun! I’ve never had girls I’ve known in my building before… lots of girly wine nights on patios and realty TV parties in my future.

Picture me takin’ pictures

I have some exciting news – I was contacted a couple weeks ago by someone working for Nikon, who said they noticed I took pictures on my blog here and there and invited me to become part of the Nikon Coolpix Circle – a new program for bloggers. Now, I didn’t know, exactly, what this meant, but I had a feeling it had something to do with a free camera, so of course I was like, “Um, yes. Sign me up immediately.” Because really, all pseudo promo blogs posts aside, my first digital camera was a Nikon Coolpix that lasted me FOREVER, and I have never liked another digi cam I’ve owned since then as much as the Coolpix. (That is the honest truth. Sony Cybershot = SUCK. I bought a Canon a couple months ago, and it’s just okay. I should have splurged for a more expensive model).

Anywhoo, long, convoluted background story aside, I received my information packet with the details of the Coolpix Circle program last week. It didn’t offer up a free camera, per se. But I do get to become part of a cool network of other bloggers in the program, nominate bloggers who I think will benefit from the program, take pictures with my borrowed camera and post them to a Tumblr and Flickr group. The program just started, so there’s not much up yet. But I’m assuming it’s going to have some pretty neat stuff. I know that partially because I’m involved, and I’m AWE-some.

Speaking of AWE-some, back to the aforementioned borrowed camera detail. Here’s the deets. I got to choose one of four Nikon Coolpix cameras. Nikon sends me the camera for three months, on loan. At the end of three months, I can purchase the camera at an “editorial discount,” which I have no idea what this’ll be. I can also choose to return the camera, or continue to borrow it for up to six months. At the end of the six months, whether I purchase or return the camera, all money or returned cameras will go to charity, so Nikon actually doesn’t make profit from the program.

(What was that about long and convoluted?!)

How cool is that? Anyway, I chose the most fancy camera of the four – a Nikon Coolpix P90. The camera is a bit of a bridge between a compact, point-and-shoot digi cam and a D-SLR. (My ultimate goal. I just don’t currently have the extra cash for it). I received the camera in the mail on Saturday, and Nikon was even nice enough to send me a 1GB memory card, so I was ready to start using the gem on my camping trip this weekend to the Olympic National Forest.

Being the huge geek that I am, I read the manual during our drive to the campground. Boy was that slightly tedious. But, I’m excited to switch from being a constant automatic-camera-setting-photographer to trying to learn a little bit more about shutter speed, aperture, composition, etc. Now, I’m by NO means an expert, so don’t judge me. It’s just meant to be something fun…

And of course, I’ll continue to share my pics here with you and perhaps an update or two on what I think about the camera, for those of you who care about photography or might be in the market for a camera soon. Here are a few of my favorite shots I took this weekend while exploring high, high up in the woods and driving down the Washington coast:

You can find my complete set of photos from the trip at my new Flickr account, which is now linked up top in the newly added social media heart icons. (Don’t you love ‘em!) Cheers, lovelies!

Currently Feeling: So comfy on my couch, with a breeze (finally), while catching up on my DVR from the last week!
Currently Anticipating: Getting some stuff done this week since last week went in the shitter due to the 100+ degree weather.
Currently Reading: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. Um, GOOD. Yes, super, super good. I’m hooked!