Here we go again *fingers crossed*

Wow, hey, hello… I officially took a little six month blogcation. How did that happen?

If you haven’t noticed already, I’ve totally revamped the blog. During my little blogcation, I thought a lot about what this blog meant to me. What it was. What it’s become since I started it at age 24. I’m not going to spend all this time getting introspective and emo like here and here, but I will say my blog started to feel like it didn’t “fit” anymore, which has been one of the couple reasons you haven’t heard much from me. So I crossed it over to WordPress (the cool kids platform). I’m opening it up to be more of a “Google me and find it” or “Link it from important things like email signatures,” which I’ve never really had the balls to do until now. (Pardon my French.) And even still, it scares me. (The Google and out of the closet blog thing, not the balls.)

It took me a month to transfer everything over and scan 660 posts (!!!) for the details I’d rather actually keep private from all the Interwebs, which is apparently 191. You know, part of starting a blog at 24, right after getting your first job out of college (read: expendable income) and moving to your first apartment in the city (read: expendable income + 30 bars in walking distance), is that a number of things were a tit bit inappropriate for what I care to share now. For all you early adopters of my blog, you’ve read details and stories that no one visiting here will ever see again. Lucky you! (If there’s even any of you left since I totally botched transferring my feed and lost 3/4 of my readers! ACK!) Now I really am starting over.

Never fear – I’m not planning a total snooze fest. But, my life have transitioned to be a little less about writing about drinking and dating (although I’m single again), to a bit more about hobbies (cooking, reading, working out, city events) and my profession (tech and social media).

The short of it – expect a bit more geekery.

So here I go again… trying really hard to get back into the swing of my blog. I’ve bought a fun little book to get me sharing my life and thoughts again in the easy manner I was once akin to. I’m feeling a bit rusty since I’ve been gone so long.

AND, I also bought myself a little gift to supplement the time I have to spend blogging – a pink Asus Eee PC netbook! (No, not an iPad). The thought is I’ll have some bus time to blog, but I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been feeling a bit awkward busting it out on the bus, (Like – oh hey, look at me and my PINK, tiny computer) so hopefully that’ll get a little easier.

I can’t promise fireworks and unicorns, but I can honestly say that I miss writing and desperately want to get back to the place I was at. If there’s one thing that reading through 660 posts will teach you – it’s that cataloging my life has been an amazing, eye-opening journey. I read things I don’t remember thinking and laughed about memories I haven’t thought about in awhile. I have spent a lot of time and energy creating a digital record of my life, which is really, really cool when you think about it.

Maybe I’ll have a tiny six-month hole when I look back in the years moving forward, but six months is better than forever, I suppose.

Currently Feeling: Ready to embrace a week of Sassy Fit, and healthy eating – I’m going to Miami in two weeks biatches!
Currently Loving: Spring being just around the corner – already thinking of skirts, sandals, Pike Place market in the sun during lunch, camping and trips. It’s going to be a fun, single spring and summer!
Currently Reading: “Stolen Lives” by Malika Oufkir.

OMG, Becky. She must be one of those rap guy’s girlfriends.

I’m alive! I know I’ve been gone for like 456,742 days, and each one of them have been agonizing.

I’d like to give a world of excuses, but one of my all-time favorite bloggers, Karyn from Pretty in the City, recently said it best:

“When you’ve been blogging for seven years sometimes you need a bit of a break…”

Just substitute a four in for that seven. But seriousry (in the words of Kim Jong-il), sometimes you do just need a break. I’ve been climbing the uphill first-three-month battle at my new job, juggled with volunteering for Girl Power Hour, friends, family, boyfriend and trying to keep my sanity. I’ve been oh so busy, but looking forward to getting back at it in 2010. I’ve recognized that I’m doing too many things at only about 75%, and not enough of a small list at 100%. Adjustments are on the horizon.

In the world of updates – I was gifted that fabulous laptop tray that’s been posted below for the last two months. Yippee! It should now be a lot easier for me to squeeze in some relaxation and blogging now since I can do both from bed or the couch. (!!!) The one downfall of having a social media job is that when you get home from a looong day of social media-ing (what I do best, if I do say so myself), you oftentimes want to unplug and not sit on your laptop all night.

But, I digress. I also have some other big life updates that perhaps I’ll share soon. (No, I’m not preggo or engaged). And I’m looking forward to doing my 2009 recap and plans for 2010.

In other words, I’ll be back. I’ve just taken a short commercial break.

Currently Feeling: Finally a bit better after a week of being bed-ridden. Of course after being healthy for two years, I get sick over Christmas.
Currently Anticipating: Hanging with the trivia team tomorrow – hope we’ll do better than second to last place this week!
Currently Reading: “The Girl Who Played With Fire” by Stieg Larsson. It’s the sequel to “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” which is a fab book.

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.

She’s ALLIIIIVVEE.

I have a SUPER exciting blog post update that I haven’t been able to get out… it’s been in draft form for two weeks! Yowza.

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!

Update: 100 Salads of Summer

Last week, I started picking my way through the list of 101 Salads for Summer that I previously posted about. I decided that I’d just randomly move through the list as my taste buds see fit. The first two I picked out were:

# 2. Mix wedges of tomatoes and peaches, add slivers of red onion, a few red-pepper flakes and cilantro. Dress with olive oil and lime or lemon juice. Astonishing.

My notes: I love that these “salads” can be served alone, or work great as a side dish too. I think I’ll have a better understanding of how to pair veggies, fruits, oils and ingredients after this. It’s hard, however, to figure out the proportions of these salads since each “recipe’ is just an ingredients list. I thought the red onion WAY overpowered this salad; next time I’ll use way less. The cilantro is also powerful, and the red pepper didn’t stand out enough. The colors in this salad are simply amazing though! Red, green, orange, yellow, purple! I threw mine over some quineau and served it with chile lime verde crusted salmon.

# 3. A nice cucumber salad: Slice cucumbers thin (if they’re fat and old, peel and seed them first), toss with red onions and salt, then let sit for 20 to 60 minutes. Rinse, dry, dress with cider vinegar mixed with Dijon mustard; no oil necessary.

My Notes: Who doesn’t love cucumber! I once again guessed on the ingredients – and didn’t put enough Dijon mustard in the cider vinegar. But this was super easy breezy. I served it with a portebello mushroom Garden Burger over a lettuce leaf, sprinkled with pepper jack cheese. Kinda random, but I’m cutting out carbs this week to make up for all the wine I drank last week! (I had two wine tasting events I attended. Uber fun; but that much wine is terrible for the waistline).

The next two I’m going to try:

6. Sichuan slaw: Toss bean sprouts, shredded carrots and celery, minced fresh chili, soy sauce, sesame oil and a bit of sugar. Top with chopped peanuts and chopped basil, mint and/or cilantro. (The full trio is best.)

14. A classic Moroccan thing: Thinly slice carrots, or grate or shred them (the food processor makes quick work of this). Toss with toasted cumin seeds, olive oil, lemon juice and cilantro. Raisins are good in here, too. There is no better use of raw carrots.

(I have a box of fresh cilantro now that I’m trying to use up!)

Currently Feeling: Over packed with all this volunteering I’m doing – but at least I’m staying busy!
Currently Anticipating: The season opener of Top Chef 6 tonight! There are two Seattle chefs on it this season, and I’ve met one of them!
Currently Needing: To stick to my 5K training program. (Don’t laugh). I finally registered for one in September, so I can cross it off my to-do list for 2009!

Trimming down my lady bits

I posted a couple weeks ago that I was trying a Summer Slimdown diet I found on Pretty in the City. I spent tons of money on fresh ingredients and special Tupperware for my salads, breakfasts and snacks (Um, if you haven’t seen the Fit N Fresh Tupperware, you must seek them out immediately. They come equipped with containers for dressing, silverware, frozen ice pack, etc. AND I found mine at Ross). Anywhoo. I did the diet for only a week, but I didn’t have as hard of a time with it as Karyn from Pretty in the City. I didn’t find myself headachy or starving. But then again, I try to keep a low sugar, healthy diet anyway. I liked the food, and I lost two pounds in the first week. (Water weight, but at least the scale was moving down!) Then it just became a little too hard to maintain with all the summer fun, barbecues and, ahem, wine. The lack of variety got to me (you can only have olive oil or guacamole for dressings or dips), so I eventually lost track of it as my healthy ingredients started to rot. I will say, if you decide to try it – I added a couple squirts of balsamic vinegar to my salads. Salads with just olive oil? Yuck! AND the Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar’s are Aaaa-mazing. Did anyone try it and succeed? Karyn has lost somewhere around 15 pounds, and I’m totally jealous.

Moving right along… I’m trying something new – but not a detoxish type thingy or pseudo fad diet. I’m going to do something FUN. I was reading Sweats in the City, and she posted an article in the New York Times with 100 quick and easy summer salads. How cool is that!

I’m always wanting to expand my salad options… I’m super uncreative and usually just eating sliced grilled chicken with some veggies and a random dressing. So, I decided that I’m going to try out two salads a week until I get bored with it. I haven’t decided yet if I should jump around, or start at 1 and work through… No diet. Just a little healthy food adventure I’m creating for myself. I’ll share the ones I super duper love here!

Currently Feeling: Surprisingly fresh even though I went to bed at 4am last night cause I was uploaded photos and writing blogs. WTF?
Currently Anticipating: Walking down to Purple Wine Bar & Cafe to meet Paolo, Cari and Al for lunch – and taking some pics of Seattle along the way!
Currently Contemplating: Finding a digi cam class to take.

HOUSEKEEPING! Oh, and Mayo

Forgive me, readers, for it’s been a week since my last confession post. This could possibly be because it’s been between 80 and 90 degrees in Seattle for weeks, and I’m working on the most epic tan. I don’t think I’ll ever see my skin this color again. I mean, if I don’t have to sit inside, in front of a computer all day, I’m not going to.

If I really had to put blame on my brief absence though, it’d be that I’m spending the majority of the time I do spend in front of a computer, trying to do actual work-related stuff such as editing my resume and working on a personal branding project. This includes coming up with a logo, style specifications, fonts, business cards and a Web site. Time consuming stuff, but just a few more tweaks and then I can hit the job ground running.

I have been wanting to ask a few housekeeping questions. Such as: are you having trouble loading my blog or leaving comments? I’ve had a few people reach out and tell me that the black background is all that shows up, so they can’t read the text. Or they can’t comment. I’ve tried to fix both, but please let me know if you continue to have technical problems – obviously I want the reading experience to be as smooth as possible. No one likes a crappy Web site.

Also, I am currently hovering somewhere around the 80 readers mark for my feed, and I want to do a giveaway at 100 readers. I like to celebrate these milestones, and well, giveaways are kinda fun no matter what. So, IF I were to host another giveaway, what would you most like to be gifted (lock your answers in below. Multiple choice is accepted):

In the meantime, I’ll eventually knock out the long list of anticipated blog posts I’ve been collecting. A few of them include getting around to discussing decorating, with pics from my bedroom, and a post about my thoughts on growing up in separate states across this very large nation of ours. I’ve also been dying to share this with you:

Only my biggest obsession since, um, I gave up my drug habit a few years ago. (I kid, I kid). But really – I can’t stop talking about this wasabi mayo from Trader Joe’s. It gives everything a kick. Recently, I’ve thrown it into deviled eggs (wasabi deviled eggs = YUM), tuna for a little spice or onto sandwiches with turkey, roast beef or ham. The stuff is freakin’ addicting. Unfortunately, it’s not that great for you, but fortunately, a little goes a long way. I highly recommend purchasing it. AND, if you don’t have a Trader Joe’s in your area, I’ll put on some black and wear a veil over my eyes to mourn your loss.

Until next time, blog lovers, cheerio!

Currently Feeling: Stoked about my progress this week, and really excited about a few jobs I’ve seen posted that I want to get in the running for!
Currently Anticipating: Barbecues galore tonight, my first Girl Power Hour meeting, catching up with an old college acquaintance tomorrow, and sunbathing with high school girl friends and my sis on Friday!
Currently Eating: A smoked turkey wrap with chilled sweet potato bisque. YUM.

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:

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?

Launched: New little blog project

So, I’ve mentioned earlier this week that I’m launching a new blog project with the BF. It was something that came about this past weekend – a suggestion from him, actually. Surprising since I’m the blogging whore in this relationship, and he’s constantly making fun of my Internet geekiness.

Basically, we’re always camping, going on road trips and trying out new wineries and restaurants. And when we do these types of things, we’re always reviewing and critiquing, comparing, liking, loving or hating the places we go. We thought it’d be fun to start up a review site of the all the places we venture out to. So basically, if you’re one of my readers outside of Washington state, this won’t interest you at all. But if you’re one of my friends, a family member, or someone living in Washington, this might interest you if you’re looking for a place to camp or eat. We’re only going to be updating as we go places, so not that frequently. But in the meantime, I’ve written and backlogged a few of the places we’ve gone over this past year. You can always find what I’ve posted on the site in the sidebar on this blog.

Check it out if you feel so inclined!

Caviar & Campfires

Oh, and happy Friday. It’s 70+ degrees in Seattle, with a forecast of 80 degrees. You bet your butt I’m going to be out partying and sunbathing this weekend – I hope you are too!

Currently Feeling: Happy, happy, happy for a weekend home in the sun. But a little guilty with how much I feel I didn’t get done this week.
Currently Anticipating: Girls night out on the town tonight, and floating and jet skiing tomorrow.
Currently Reading: The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs.