Category Archives: Hanging with the Peeps

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Something Funny…Something Sick

Okay okay. Quick blog. I promise I’ll do better, but my hours are long at work and my commute is sucking up my energy. Therefore, I come home, I sleep.

Something Funny.
I’m working in the Behavioral Health department right now, assisting Psychiatrists with the computer. One of the things we help them do is create a quick link to common notes they may make on patients. Sometimes other docs will write up some great notes that can be used as a template for other docs and I like to search through them occasionally looking for gems I can pass around.

My favorite discovery so far? “Mother is encouraged to watch SuperNanny to learn good parenting techniques.” That’s pretty cute.

Something Scary.
Tonight I went out with some good friends (Tonja, Joey Joe Joe, Chris, Johnny, Kat) and while sitting in The Honey Hole I saw a strange looking truck drive by. It was a big truck, but with a very tall skinny trailer part to it. I pointed it out and discovered it is simply a mobile billboard. I am APPALLED. Billboards are not enough visual pollution, now we have to add some air pollution as well by driving them around on a big gas-guzzling semi? Sick.

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Lay your women at my feet…

I wanted to make sure I didn’t go an entire month without blogging again. A few things that have worked out in my favor and a few cosmically balancing things that have worked against me:

1) I took my personal laptop to Olympia and realized that even though the hotel has a high speed ethernet connection, my laptop is old enough that my ethernet port was a card I removed when I went wireless. Argh.
2) By the end of the week I decided to turn on my laptop anyway and see if I had any music in my ITunes to listen to. Ding ding ding: “Wireless Network Detected.” The hotel turned out to ALSO have unadvertised wireless and I was surfing within seconds. If only I’d tried earlier in the week.
3) I came home Thursday night for XGym and Book Club only to discover my desktop computer won’t work. HELP! Last thing I remember my windows update was telling me I needed to install something that they encouraged I back up my hard drive for and I said, “No, thank you. I’ll consider installing you later, but I do not have time for silly back ups.” Now my computer comes to a screen that tells me I am missing a file in my system folder is missing or something and that I need the XP install disk (which is in the boat barn in Oak Harbor). Man, I sound computer illiterate, but I swear everything I’ve researched online does not make this sound like an easy process. Anyone else getting crap out there? Did anyone else get that Windows XP update that said to backup your files? Did you do the install? Now I’m nervous to install it or not install it on my laptop. Argh.

I guess there is not much else working for or against me. EXCEPT…

As a follow-up to my previous entry, I had another opportunity to listen to music out and about in Olympia. Do you remember my new love for Mirah, an adorable musician who was crouched at my feet picking through the vegan treats outside the Homo-a-GoGo concert she was playing? Jay noticed she was playing another show in the basement of the ABC house, which is essentially a big house that some musicians live in and use the basement to host shows.

We ventured out on Monday in search of the house and ran into some familiar faces from the last show there. One face belonging to Alex, who plays the accordion with Mirah. He was with a friend of his and it felt nice to already recognize people and be recognized (KB, you know our normal plight where people don’t remember us but we remember them). The four of us squatted in the back yard of the house while we waited for the show to start at the standard show starting time, two hours after the posted start time.

The back yard was so impressive it could have held two more houses on it. I sat mesmerized by the tree that reached over to cover the entire area, which in turn sparked a conversation about roots and such. I learned from Alex’s friend that if you need to cut the root of a tree or move a tree, there is a specific ratio or percentage of root that needs to be preserved in order for the tree to survive. I don’t know if what he said was true and I don’t remember what the percentage was, but it did cause me to ponder if this were similar to the quality of life a person could maintain based on the number of toes/fingers/limbs one loses.

The same guy said he had planned on donning a dog suit and diving into the Indigo Girls concert we had attended, but he had chickened out. We said he would only have to fear the wrath of the crowd if he dressed as a Frat boy and did a stage dive. Both Jay and I were extremely disappointed that he hadn’t followed through on the dog costume idea and encouraged him to follow through next time.

As the show finally started and we headed into the basement, I noticed a pair of sandals at the edge of the grass. Now, I’m not a shoe or clothes horse by any means and don’t usually notice things like this, so I giggled to myself when I gazed a bit too long at them thinking, “Wow, I really like these shoes.” It was everything in my power not to slip my toes inside. I was seriously surprised at my desire to wear these sandals.

Bored yet? Jay and I leaned up against a wall close to the front and proceeded to listen to the following:
-one less than adequate band named “Touchdown Eagle”
-a cute duo with potential named “Chubby Bunny”
-an old bandmate/friend of Jay’s with the wonderful name of Katy who was later accompanied by Cynthia Nelson
-Cynthia then followed Katy solo style

Katy was entertaining because she can’t help but be funny to listen to, not to mention she is a talented guitarist. Cynthia was obviously more polished than some of the others that came before, so I’m still not sure why I didn’t buy her cd.

During “Touchdown Eagle” though, I saw a hand reach out and set a pair of shoes down and then the girl attached to the hand crouched down at my feet. The shoes were the very same sandals I had admired before. And the girl? Mirah. I froze. Jay poked my back. I titled my head up and grinned giddily. For the rest of the show, until she came on, I couldn’t stop staring at the side of her tilted head resting in her hand as she held one finger in her ear to soften the sound.

She eventually got up, I presume to gather herself before she performed. Before she went on, Jay and I went outside to get fresh air only to be greeted by the biggest Dog costume I’ve ever seen outside of Disneyland. Alex’s friend had apparently brought it with him and after hearing our disappointment over the lack of dog diving at the Indigo Girls show, he decided to put it on. I couldn’t stop playing with his ears and hugging him. Made me think of Furries, those people that like to have sex while wearing animal costumes, so I tried to tone down my affection. Then I grabbed the cat that had been hanging with us and handed it to the giant Fido. The cat didn’t even seem to mind and I wish I could have taken a picture.

We could hear the next act setting up, so we headed back down and settled into a couch close to the front. When Mirah finally went on, all I could think was how fortunate I felt to have what felt like a private Mirah show in the coziness of the basement.

Saturday night Jay and I are going to see Mirah play at Yeah! Fest! and I am sure now that she is drawn to me, unbeknownst to her. Perhaps next week I’ll tell one more story of how she crouched at my feet, only this time she’ll look up and see me and the rest will be told in my autobiography. You just wait and see.

Unless my true destiny is to fall for the guy in the dog costume, in which case instead of buying my book you’ll just see me on HBO.

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And this isn’t even all of it

Olympia, WA

Turns out Olympia is not too shabby. The downtown is reminiscent of San Luis Obispo or parts of Portland. There is a lot going on and great food (which is always key to me liking a town) and I’ve already done more in the last two weeks here than I sometimes do at home in Seattle.

The first week I was here I immediately nestled into my hotel room like an old familiar bathrobe. The only difference is that this time I took advantage of the pool and hot tub. When I was on the road before, there were always too many kids or I was alone and didn’t like hanging out with a bunch of strange businessmen by myself. After some “martinis” (in quotes since it was really just expensive vodka shaken over ice and given a twist of lemon) a few of my co-workers and I enjoyed a dip in the hot tub, followed by an improv game of pool baseball.

Later in the week Jay took me out on the town to listen to some bands. When walking around Oly at night waiting for his friend’s band to play, I was amazed at how many people were out and about and how welcoming everyone was. We wandered into the basement of a house and listened to an off-the-wall group (possibly former drama kids) play a few songs and no one looked at us like, “who the hell are you and what are you doing here.” Especially since I’m starting to feel more and more like an old yuppy. I hate that.

If that wasn’t enough after work activity, the next night we went to Homo A GoGo. We had tickets to see the Indigo Girls (who were amazing as always) but the highlight of the night for me was hearing Mirah play. Jay and Matina introduced me to her music and I can’t get enough of her. I have quite the crush. She is the cutest little thing with a voice that sounds almost like the lead singer of Frente! and she writes and plays with a unique and mesmerizing style. I was hooked instantly and tickled later when I caught sight of her up on the side of the stage during the Indigo Girls just in time to watch her throw her bra at them. She was so discreet about taking it off, you could hardly think of it as scandalous. It was more adorable, if anything.

Later when we wandered out of the concert over to Jay’s friend Josh who was selling Vegan treats to post-concert appetites, I noticed Mirah crouched down in front of the bin of Zucchini wraps and Marionberry Tarts. While Jay talked to Josh about his new vegan cookbook called, “Something Delicious This Way Comes,” I fidgeted excitedly trying to get Jay’s attention so I could point out that the most amazing woman in the world was practically sitting on his feet. But being that he’s 6’6″ with shoes on, he never noticed her. As she grabbed her food and stood up to walk away, I mustered up a wimpy “Great show” and she replied in the sweetest voice, with a dimpled smile, “Thank you.” It was heaven. I’ll have to tell Matina all about it.

The Indigo Girls had a raffle for someone to sing on stage with them. I bought five tickets and didn’t win, but the entire build up to it had me wavering back and forth between hope and fear that I might win. The girl who won did a great job singing “Closer to Fine” with them because you could tell she was just happy to be up there. I have to say though, I was wearing an almost identical outfit to both Amy and Emily, so I think I would have looked great up there with my jeans and T-shirt that had Elmo on the front and “Tickles Wanted” on the back. I even imagined that if I won, they would read my t-shirt and tickle me and I could say I was tickled by Amy and Emily, so bow before me, if you must.

Homo A GoGo is sponsored by the Gender Variant Health Project (GVHP). Check out the site for more info. It was an amazing event and I wish I could have participated in more activities. So that was just my first week in Oly. This is the start of week three of eight. But don’t think I’m done yet. On to a recap of Week Two.

Last week I headed home on Tuesday night in order to go to my XGym on Wednesday. I got to see RAR and Jenna over dinner at Bizarro which is a great Italian restaurant near Greenlake. I highly recommend it. RAR and I looked through our Europe journal and reminisced then I wandered off around midnight to wake up Aaron, who had rolled into Seattle earlier that day. We stayed up talking until 2am, so needless to say, XGym hurt at 6:45am and driving to Oly after that was near dangerous. Still worth it though.

Back in Oly, we went bowling after work and then Jay and I went on a search for some quick Vegan food, which is terribly hard to do when you’re tired and you want something fast. We ended up at Japanese, which was delicious. Thank god this isn’t Iowa.

Can you believe I didn’t blog all this time? I’m only halfway through what I’ve been up to! I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics with another co-worker, Burnsey, and proceeded to be made fun of for being a fabric buying virgin. When Burnsey realized I’d never purchased fabric before, she immediately called Jay (who single-handedly supports most fabric stores) and they laughed together when I walked up sheepishly holding a ream of cloth asking if I was allowed to touch it or if I was supposed to leave it on the shelf and get help. We made a box for Maria’s wedding so people could put donations to Act of Giving in it, but my only real role in the process was to refill Burnsey and Jay’s cups with Whiskey while they glued and ironed the fabric on. Okay, maybe I painted the box, but you hardly see that part anyway.

In the end, I felt more useful with the glue and ribbon once I realized Jay was no longer able to keep a straight line of glue going. I’m quite the bartender.

On Friday, the night before the wedding, I went to dinner with Aaron and Chris, then met up with Leah. I was hyper and talkative in the beginning, but quickly crashed after a long week. Went home around 11:30 and slept hard.

Maria’s wedding was beautiful. The drive up to Vancouver on Saturday was hot and muggy and the day continued that way. The wait at the border was insane and neither Jay nor I had really planned for that. But we showed up in time for some Tofu dogs and then the baby dedication started. Baby Brennan is a doll and the wedding ceremony that followed was equally touching. With Maria and Sharon dancing into the room and sharing their love with everyone, there was hardly a dry eye. At least, mine weren’t dry. I felt fortunate to be a part of it and as Michelle said at the wedding, we look with love and awe at Maria and Sharon and the family they have created wondering how can anyone say that could be wrong. That is a family I want to be a part of and you could tell everyone in the room felt the same way.

After the wedding, Jay and I stayed with some friends of his, Jen and Andy, who had the most adorable 3-year-old named Sam (Second of course to Maria and Sharon’s son Aidan). It was so relaxing to sit with them and listen to their new CD they are about to release and watch Jen paint. Just the way I would want to spend all my weekends. I learned that 3-year-olds say the darndest things and now that Sam has learned about his privates he loves to giggle and say, “I’m going to throw my balls to Makela!” Makela is his best friend, and one day I imagine she will set Sam straight about what he should do with his balls. Until then, he might just be the brightest 3-year-old I know.

As his dad was leaving for work, he ran over to him, gave him a hug and whispered, “I love you Dad. You’re the best Dad ever.” Now how freaking precious is that. Almost makes my clock start ticking.

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I forgot how to lie

Well, the cat’s out of the bag. For those of you who came by my place this weekend, I cleaned up the mess (with the amazing early morning help from my surprise guest, Dave. THANKS DAVE!) and I had everything perfect and even better than when my sister left town. Unfortunately, I somehow kept forgetting to empty out the beer tub that was on the back porch. When she walked up the first thing she said was “you had a party?” Now party may be an exaggeration, BUT…

After that I was completely honest. I figured I’m a grown up and I had a few friends over and the place looks great so no harm no foul. She was pretty cool about it. She did find a watermelon rind and a cigarette in the dirt, but that’s not too shabby.

Thanks to everyone for such a nice time. I never imagined the Kentucky Derby would be such a good excuse for a get-together and I had so much fun watching it! My horse even won! But the highlight would have to be the Bocce Ball. It is my new favorite game. Thanks Jay! Not to mention great Mint Juleps and a Kentucky Derby pie. Thanks Matina!

To those who I didn’t get a chance to invite, sorry about the last minute nervous throw together shindig, but next time I’ll have a real party with permission and invite everyone!

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The Land of Port

KB was kind enough to take me in this weekend, seeing as I was in desperate need to get out of town. In amongst the beer and Charles Shaw, the fire escape cigars, the computer zombie moments, and noon vodka tonics, we managed to make bread.

Or should I say, Kris made bread….

…while I watched like a peeping tom from the dark living room.

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Baby Jesus…

Seattle, WA

I had the fine pleasure of witnessing the Vancouver Madrigals with special holiday guest performer, our very own KB. And let me tell you, it was touching. I even got a little teary eyed during Silent Night. Although I have to say it was strange hearing Kris sing about Baby Jesus. Apparently they don’t believe any of the nursing homes have Jewish people. 🙂

As I promised, here is our guy in all his costumed splendor.

And a movie for those with time and a need of a smile.

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“It’s the Home Stretch, and St. Paul takes the lead!”

On Friday I decided to make my drive north by driving along the Mississippi River until I could cut over into St. Paul. It was raining, but still one of the most beautiful drives I’ve had in a long time.

I decided that a goal of mine one day is to definitely kayak down the Mississippi, from start to finish. Anyone with me?

But more importantly I discovered this weekend that I truly do love St. Paul and Minneapolis. I could live here easily. Yesterday Michelle gave me a tour of her favorite haunts. I cannot express how amazing this state is. We drove along the St. Croix through the cutest little town called Stillwater. We didn’t stop because we were on a goal to…oh wait, we didn’t have any goals. That was the beauty of the day. We just drove and saw so much. We ended up hitting Taylors Falls which is the most amazing place where you can see these huge natural potholes in the rocks that surround this peaceful cove, reminiscent of the gorge at Big Sur where we used to jump off the cliffs into the water when I was in high school.

On the way back we noticed this giant sculpture garden in the middle of nowhere so we stopped and discovered it was actually the Franconia Sculpture Garden and we were glad we stopped.

But the best part of the weekend was when we headed out last night to grab some food and take in some music. First we ate at what I have to say is the best sushi place I’ve ever been to. I’m not exaggerating, people. I’m including Seattle in this, and Fujiya in Minneapolis beats any sushi place I have been to in my life. We sat outside and I ordered some of my standards (maguro, tamago, edamame, miso) but then I tried a roll of theirs called the crunchy wasabi roll. It was amazing, as was the cucumber seaweed salad. I’m going to dream about this place. Maddy, I wish I could fly you out here to go with me. You would love it.

Then we headed over to the Speakeasy to hear Michelle’s friend Karl play with his band. Despite a rude bartender, I really enjoyed the atmosphere of this cozy place, appropriately located in the alley, illuminated by a red light outside the door. Of course the highlight was Latchhook which was a three piece band with a cello, light drums, and Karl on guitar and vocals. Even a little piano was thrown in and I have to say, I loved them. There was a certain comfort in the low mumbling song coming from Karl accompanied by a crisp unique sound from the cello or piano. I guess the people in Latchhook must rotate because on the site it says they are a husband wife team with Karl added on guitar. If you go to the website, follow the latchhook link on the bottom of the page and click on the “to mp3s” link to hear three of their songs. My favorite right now is “Hue-Saturation.” I would love to know what some of you think, although it’s not the same if you’re not sitting in the Speakeasy with great company after a great day. Or maybe it is. 🙂

So, who wants to move here with me. Anyone?

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Rain, Rain, Go Away…Come again some other day

…Like when I’m gone. At first I told people I didn’t mind the drizzle and that I actually enjoy days where you have an excuse to curl up with a book and hot tea. Fast forward to three days later: the drizzle quickly turned to downpours and I didn’t want to curl up as much as I wanted to wander around cool little towns or help Jennie paint her house. (Yes, I really wanted to do this. Painting is like meditating.)

I’m in Worcerster, Massachusetts and I spent the first part of my weekend visiting my high school friend, Jennie. She lives in Swampscott, which is an old Native American word meaning red rock. She has a beautiful view of this little cove.


You can tell the town wants to separate itself from the neighboring town, Lynn, which in Swampscott terms is probably the projects. 🙂 Well, maybe not looked upon quite as bad, but as Jennie pointed out, even the beach seems to have a distinct dividing line. As soon as you cross over into Lynn’s side of the beach the seaweed stench is terrible, as if it knows it’s unappreciated. Or maybe it’s a chicken or the egg situation. Who knows.

I wandered up to Portsmouth to visit Aaron on Saturday night. Man, I love that town. Last night in the thick of the fog, Aaron took pictures of the streetlamps and the old buildings. The fog made the town feel like an old Jack the Ripper movie scene. This probably sounds dreary, but I loved it.

Check back tonight, I’m going to post a couple pics from this week. Jennie did end up painting a bit, but she wouldn’t let me help. Alas, I just talked her ear off instead.

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Moving On Up?

As most of you know, Scott and I decided to opt out of renewing our lease for another year on our amazing apartment. With my job ending soon, I just can’t predict where I’ll be or whether I can even afford anything. Scott was sad, as was I, but we both agreed it was for the best. I flew Dave up here to help out with the move, and boy am I glad I did. All my stuff is now in storage and I’m in the process of cleaning. Or should I say, I’m in the process of procrastinating my cleaning. My computer is the last thing I am breaking down. It will join me at my sister’s where we will undoubtedly get in the way and cause much stress on the wonderful sister bond. Which means my nights on her couch will be dispersed amongst nights on other people’s couches as well as my other sister’s place. So if you every hear me say, “Hey, why don’t you have a party. I’ll come. Can I crash there if I drink too much?” It really means, “hey I’m looking for a place to crash, let’s drink as an excuse.”

On a side note, people have been hounding me to show my hair. These pics don’t really show how much darker it seemed. But the comparison of before after should show you that in two months, it’s been a drastic change…and I like it.

First the Hair Pics (note my long hair was actually a couple inches longer than this when it was first cut off, but this is the most recent picture I could find):

And now for the move pics: I love the one of Dave with the dog because we were getting so sick and tired of people coming by wanting to see the aparment when we were in the middle of utter chaos and, of course, I can’t say no to people so when this girl stopped by with her dog, I said she could come on in and look. She promptly handed her dog off to Dave who suddenly went from moving helper to dog watcher. And that is precisely what his face is expressing. The other pics are us being silly (not sure what was on my butt) and the last picture of me and Scott on our porch before the final “separation.” 🙂


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Dinner with the BBQ King

Kris and I are over at Michael’s right now awaiting some scrumptious food prepared for us by the BBQ King himself. Michael has always blown me away with his cooking and his way with meat (I mean that in a clean, wholesome way). But tonight he has put aside the grill to cook up some pasta and brussel sprouts. Care of Tracey’s recipe.

Jody and I are chugging down the wine he brought back from his travels and Kris is pretending to enjoy it, but really envisioning a Guiness or something.

Ah, here come the brussels. I shall pause a moment to partake….
Yummmm….and hot! Ow! Burnt my fingers a bit.

I best go and help because I am known to squat my ass down on the couch and drink myself silly until the food is ready. Oh the lazy woman’s life.