this girl

happy birthday to my lady friend, my best friend. she makes a mean beef stew and a lot of baked goods, and these are some of the main reasons my boyfriend loves her just as much as i do. he also really likes her cat. i prefer her more for her ingenious ability to make me giggle, make me mixed cd's, make me jealous of her creativity, and make me wish my african dance moves (and all interpretive dance moves) were even somewhat good enough to compete with hers. i also love her for playing along with my really inappropriate concert-going games. and i love her for already getting annoyed with me for using this picture of her. and i love her for letting us squish her head into this childs helmut. she only cried once.

dear c.i.e. have the happiest birthday. and the happiest year yet. i am happiest that i get to be your friend and happiest that you were born. nicely done. i know it's your birthday and everything, but, if you could work on re-stocking the cupboards with chocolate and candies, that'd be super. love you. love your style.

tidbits

people from seattle really like to drink their coffee with straws. hot or cold - they'll use a straw and suck it down.
- this confuses me.

people from seattle are overly kind to drug addicts and homeless hecklers. maybe i notice this more because both of my jobs are oddly close to drug hot spots. and maybe i'm more sensitive to this because my time "on the clock" is spent on the phone with 911/non-emergency/detox van/etc. (please keep in mind that these duties were not - and are not - included in either job description.)
- my friend/co-worker adam put it quite nicely: "try to order a lot of complicated cocktails tonight. you don't know what it's like to be a bored bartender in this place. i just sit up here and think of different ways to kill bums."

people from seattle like to tell me how to correctly pronounce wisconsin. apparently, it should sound something like: "whi-scayn-syn".
- shut/up/please

can i take your order?

today, for (approximately) the third time in my life, my mind became very preoccupied with the fact that i might, just might, be a service-industry lifer. this thought process followed a quite positive, yet very ambiguous, conversation i had with the gm of zoe. i don't think it's necessary to go into the many emotions running behind this prospect beyond the fact that a) it frustrates me to no end that i've yet to come up with any idea that puts my 30+ year-loan-repayment-college-education to any significant use and b) going through life with absolutely no inclination towards any specific dream or goal makes me feel a little worthless at times. ok, ok....i've started the endlessly circular conversation...simply put, i have felt - for a long time - that the money and time i put into college was completely not worth it. and don't give me the bullshit "life experience" conversation: the $8,000 spent on three crappy weeks in london would have been better enjoyed and more educational if i'd targeted that money towards a self-directed summer in italy where i would actually learn and remember the damn language. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!

paying off student loans until 2025 a talented waitress it does not make. nor does it make an editor. a book agent. a zookeeper. a psychologist.

nor a good speller.

*this is horse shit*

bear with me on this one.

take your vitamins

to start. apparently there was an earthquake this morning. they're telling us it occured at 5:25ish - right as i was laying in bed waiting for my starbucks alarm to go off. so - i was awake and i still missed the bastard. it's been the one thing i've been majorly looking forward to since we moved here. you don't need to tell me...it's not something i should be wishing upon...like when i was younger and i thought it'd be pretty cool to get mugged and my aunt repeatedly, and sometimes angrily (word?), tried to convince me just how stupid this was and why would anyone ever want to get their stuff stolen and the shit scared out of them?!?! i now acknowledge the error in that thought process but still hold on to the dream of an earthquake. some day.

now, my recent trip to the lady doctor resulted in the Mrs. giving me a very stern lecture on how i needed to immediately start taking a vitamin D supplement. i feel like i'm pretty up on my mineral/vitamin knowledge and was slightly offended that she would assume i'd be so dumb that i would be blatently ignoring the health of my bones, and so on. i shrugged it off until she sent my results, along with a very informative tidbit on vitamin D:

"Most of the body's vitamin D is generated when ultraviolet B radiation from the sun penetrates the skin and triggers production of active vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency is very common in the US, particularly in regions above 35 degrees latitude. Seattle lies at 47 degrees latitude. Therefore, even when the sun is shining, residents here receive very little of UVB radiaton needed to generate vitamin D in the skin." - New England Journal of Medicine

point well made. and point well taken. hopefully the next time an earthquake hits the area my amped up bones will be better suited to withstand any blows and falls that come my way. and, dear NEJoM, you might consider adding something about earthquake protection into your vitamin D Q&A. just a thought.

rip city

jake and i went to portland for a day in a half - it's just under three hours away from seattle. i was skeptical at first; hadn't heard very many good things about it...plus, jake had already been and had decidedly told me that i wasn't going to like it at all.

my boy was mistaken. i *fracking* love that city. very much reminded me of madison: the good parts of madison. everyone was immensly friendly, and not in the fake seattle way of friendly. i realized that i really miss being able to walk from bar to cafe to shopping to dinner to basketball to more bars, and so on, within minutes from each location. yes. i love portland. i can't wait to go back and do more exploring. but, yes, it felt good to drive back up the 5 and watch the seattle skyline come into view. it makes me feel like home - a solid "i.live.here." sort of home. that's pretty great too.

part of the reason i loved portland so much (and why i will be returning regularly). and why can't i work there?

meanwhile: the bunnies are trying to make friends with joss and she just hit beater on the nose. i have some parenting to do.....

january in seattle

This both re-affirms my decision to move to Seattle and helps me forgive Seattle's poor response to the terrible week of snow. I took this yesterday - Jan. 19th - while walking along Elliot Bay. For the record, the only difference between his outfit and mine was that my legs were fully covered and I had a shirt on (short sleeve, mind you). This is saying quite a bit as I think I'm a little notorious for always, always, always being cold.

I only feel slightly bad for everyone still in the mid-west. But...I only feel bad because if I didn't have any pity, and instead chose to mock all of you, I'd be completely friendless. Once I convince all of you to move this way, I'll really start rubbin' it in.

from this day forward, i travel only by train

chicago o'hare international airport.

at 4 a.m. they turn the lights up and wake you up so they can clean.

just like a homeless shelter.