Big Ass Seattle Post

We went to the Pacific Northwest last month.  I really hate when people call it that.  That's all Al Roker calls it. 

Anyways, here was our trip in ten pictures or less.


1.

This time around, our bed did not have any mysterious pink stains on the sheets.  It was a vast improvement for the start of our yearly January trip, and K is now appointed to all hotel bookings in the future. 

We woke up at 4:30 in Philly for an 7:30 flight, and then sat on the plan for 3 hours, causing us to miss our connecting flight in Denver.  We did not arrive at my parents house until 22 hours after we woke up. 

So, the pink stain wasn't looking so bad after all. 

K and I counted how many times I woke up before 8 on this trip, and it was something like five or six times.  Unacceptable. 

2.

Like the next morning.  It was for a good cause though. 

The bringing together of friends who haven't seen each other in too long.  We travelled into the big city for a late breakfast at Dahlia's with my mom, Tommy, and Nettie.  We witnessed the most genuine bro-mance (you're going to be mad that I said that on my blog, huh K?) over biscuits with pear butter, dill infused hollandaise sauce on poached eggs, and orange maple french toast.

The girls went to the wedding show, and the boys went to party at the Stadium.

Because, I don't know if you knew, but the Seahawks beat the Saints, thus insuring a Super Bowl victory.  Oh, it didn't work out that way? Hmmm, that's surprising.

But anyways, the city was infused with the spirit of football, and I kinda wish it was like that more often.

We dropped mom off a the ferry after the show, joined the boys, and found ourselves back at the Tides in Gig Harbor for a post-game victory dinner.

But, not before Tommy did something that will forever make him known as "That-guy-who-got-out-of-the-car-on-4th-ave-by-the-stadium-and-danced-like-an-ass-to-that-Rihanna-song".

Much love, Tommy.  It gives me hope for a spectacular solo dance at our wedding.

And I would like to apologize to Nettie, for I know she is getting way too many emails from photographers and wedding planners, after we entered her email into everything I did, in hopes of winning something. 
3.

On Monday, K and I went back to Seattle to meet some friends of ours over lunch, and then took the afternoon to ourselves.  We started the day at Lola's though, of course.  And I got some fizzy cucumber lemonade to go with my pancakes.  

4.

We walked around Pike Place, which was pretty empty, and cold, and surprise, they're remodeling most of it, so that was great.

We rallied though.

Do you know what we did?

Oh, my, did you know what we did?

5.



 Okay, I'm going to re neg on my 10 pics or less promise. I forgot that I was going to talk about Seatown Snack Bar. 

K had a crab cake BLT.

6.

I had the pleasure of dining on buckwheat blinis with smoked salmon and chive cream cheese.  I want those at my wedding. 

7.



8. And we finished the meal with some Spicy BBQ ribs with pears.

And that was Monday.  That's a great way to start the week.

Did you know that Pike Place has a great Polish Pottery shop?  I don't have any pictures, but take my word for it.


Here's the thing about Seattle, when it rains it pours.  When it snows, it's complete panic. 

It's kinda like this:

The weatherman is predicting 1-3 inches of snow tonight.

Seattle: OMG, it's going to snow.  Go get bread and fill the bathtub with water in case the power goes out.

Mid-afternoon, no snow yet.

Seattle: I think we should cancel school and send the kids home, because it's going to dump snow.

Snow starts coming down, gradually at 8:00 PM.

Seattle (at 8:01):  Holy Shit, come inside, it's snowing.  Don't drive anywhere because it's snowing.

There is about an inch and a half of snow on the ground.

Seattle: I'm going to try to get home as fast as possible, by leaving about a foot between me and the next driver, and drive 5 over the speed limit.  Why do those people have their 4 ways on?  Stupid jerks.

There is now 2 inches on the road.

Seattle:  F this, I'm pulling over and abandoning my car in the right lane on the highway.

9. 

Look at all that snow.  Shocking.

We prevailed though.  We slept in, watched the snow melt from the trees, and kept throwing logs on the fire. 

10.

Along came Wednesday, which was probably my favorite day of the trip.  We were in charge of the dinner and the Koviak's dessert and the location.  I made steak, mashed potatoes, shrimp, and asparagus, and Nettie supplied a Red Velvet cake.  We cooked together, laughed, drank, played Catchphrase, and started something that I'm sure we'll continue in the future. 

First Annual something something.  I haven't thought of a name for it yet. 

Okay, I take that back, because Friday was pretty awesome too.  We went to the range with Dad in the morning and then made homemade pizza and berry trifle for dinner.  Nettie and Tommy came over (we made up for lost time this trip, eh?) and we all played poker with my parents. 

I lost my 5 bucks, so did Mom.  Dad took his out, and that left Nettie and the boys.

"Let's go all in," Tommy said.

Kevin liked that idea.  Because Tommy said it and they have this bromance thing going on. 

Nettie looked at me, her eyes saying, "What do I do?!?"   I told her to hold onto her 5 bucks and put the rest in.  She did, still uncertain of herself. 

It was a simple 5 card draw.  Whoever had the best hand won everything.

Nettie won with a pair of Jacks, and the boys crumbled before us. 



I couldn't remember what we did Saturday. Now I remember.  We woke up at the crack of dawn to go see the cake guy, tried 4 samples and made our minds up, and left 20 minutes later

.............................................................................................................................

It was a good trip. 

We got a lot done for the wedding.

We caught up with great friends. 

We spent quality time at home with my family. 

And we made it home in under 22 hours.

The clouds at Denver looked so cool.

Anyways,  we won't be back until Summer.  See ya then, Seattle.

Routine

I'm really quite a crabby grump today. 

I don't know why. The sun is glistening off of the powdery snow, birds are dinning on the orange halves that I placed on the wooden fence. The dog is snoring loudly in the patch of sunshine that she's claimed on the carpet.  I have Dave Matthews blaring from our wonderfully finished wedding website.  I don't have to work this weekend, and get to spend it lounging and doing whatever I want.  I showered and put my hair in a braid.  I continue to rock bright red toenails.  I have everything ahead of me, just waiting to be pounced upon.

And yet, I sit here, struggling to finish a thought, failing to accomplish anything today.

I actually do know why I'm a crabby grump.

Somewhere between noon on Thursday, when I was cancelled at work, jumping up and down because I had a free afternoon, to yesterday afternoon when I went back and forth with the agency over whether or not I was going to do another eight hours at the job site that I had already put four hours in, only to be cancelled, and then called back when I was on the road home, SOMEWHERE between those weird, tangled 24 hours, did I realize. 

I have no routine.  I have no idea what to do next. 


And, it's seriously getting to me, yo.

It's easy to understand why some people never want to let go of the college experience.  Or, why people put off finishing something.  Because why not stay with what you already know.  Why take a chance and go forward, because you know you'll be stuck for a little while and will be in the in between.

One of the biggest life lessons that I've learned since starting my career as a LPN 3.5 years ago, is that nothing works out like you think it should.  Good or bad.  Don't come into things thinking, "I'm going to do this, and then I'll get a job by this time, and then I'll be making lots of money and I'll never have to worry about that again."  

Instead, there's a hurry up and wait.  As with most things in life.  Hurry up and graduate, and then wait for all of those job offers that everyone said would come. 

Life doesn't work out like that.  Sometimes, life surprises you, and BAM, you're hit with the dream that you've been dreaming.  But, most of the time, you have to be patient, and suck it up. 

The in between sucks.



I am faced with the facts that right now, I have some more waiting to do, and it's up to me to deal with it. 



So how do you create a new routine, a new life in the middle of winter?  It's six degrees today. 

How do you create a new routine when your whole life is wrapped up into two categories: passing the boards/finding a job and getting married. 

Where's the in between of that? 

Should I make a Winter list, knowing that my Fall list failed miserably?

Should I take up a new hobby?

Should I rearrange my furniture or paint a wall and look for inspiration there? 

Should I train for a 5k or something like that, to take my mind off of everything, while accomplishing "Get your butt into shape for your wedding already" task on my lists?

Or all of the above? 



The holidays are over, and that is great news.

But, Spring is on it's away, and I don't know if you remember me saying something about me possibly changing by then. 

So, the challenge is on.  To overcome the in between. To overcome Winter and all of it's bluesy blues.  To overcome whatever the hell is keeping me from overcoming.  

More Mountain Porn

People from these parts don't understand why we're going to Jackson Hole WY for our honeymoon. 

Today's Bing picture.  Not my doing.

Best and Worst of 2010

Good sigh. 

Arm stretch.

Keyboard dusting.

It's nice to be back. 


I'm pretty darn excited for this little corner of my heart.  Like most things in my life right now, I'm able to give more of my time and attention to writing and recording life.  That's what happens when you don't have to go to school anymore. That's what happens when you only have to work 8 hours a day for a couple days a week.  You get to sleep more and you tend to eat better, and all of a sudden, you have energy and you can cross things off your list. 

Like blogging again.  Like writing in general. 

This was a pretty crazy year.  This was the year that I really started to devote myself to blogging.  While I was taking my Christmas break away from the computer, the number of pageviews hit above 1000.  How nifty is that?  Yeah, I know it's mostly my mom and fiancee, but that's still a lot in my book. 

I'm going to get it out right now and cover the worst of 2010.  Get it over with and don't dwell on it.  I worked half as much as last year and it reflects in my checking account.  There were falling outs with friends and family, which I think it's natural when you start growing up and realizing that everything isn't as glamorous and innocent as it use to be when you were a child.  I came down with the worse stomach flu of my life in February, resulting in a call-off at clinicals and requiring a make-up day.  I also experienced something worse than that flu experience in the form of my nursing school final exam, which I am still dreaming about, even though I graduated.  And this Christmas was the worst of my entire sheltered life, to the point where I didn't even want a re-do, I just wanted to pack up everything the next day and punch Santas. 


But, there was some greatness too. 


We started out the year in the same fashion that we will be (well hopefully not, that trip was miserable) in a couple of days:  in the Pacific Northwest. It rained the whole time. And, for some reason, I didn't post the pink stain that I so wonderfully described in the post. 

January 2010; good start

Still, we rang New Years in together with Tom Douglas in our bellies, so it wasn't that bad. 

In February, I distinctly remember saying, "Well, this wasn't a very bad winter this year." 

February 2010; Nor'easter #1

Nor'easter #2

Spending that much time indoors prompted me to start planning for the rest of my life. I started dreaming.  I started making goals.  I started reading Kelle Hampton.  I didn't want to stay inside, I wanted to live.  I wanted to do stuff.  So, I started to do stuff.  I was like, "I'm going to own you PA." 

To the point where I didn't even care if there was snow on the ground anymore. 

But eventually, I got tired of the snow and started dreaming of seedlings.  Enter: my first garden.

And let me tell you, I'm going through withdrawals.  Dirt withdrawals.  

My postings took off.  Which I find very peculiar right now.  I had the most post in February and March, which was the same time that I was in my first semester of RN school.  That isn't right.  Or, maybe it was a coping mechanism. 

Then, something spectacular happened. 

                    March 2010

Life became beautiful. 

He proposed in the best way I ever could have thought of.  We were happy and giddy and I should just end this post right here because that was the highest part of my year. 

I found out that wedding planning ain't so bad.  In fact, it's pretty awesome to take one day out of your life and make it everything that you want to be. 

It doesn't help either to have a big honkin ring too. 

Then I broke my camera and went crazy.  Because I couldn't show you my engagement and because life was so wonderful in March and April and I wanted to shout it to the world in the form of digital photography.  But I couldn't because I was also in nursing school and flat broke, so I just showed old photos to compensate. 

April 2009 actually

I also turned 25. Which seemed old a long time ago, but really, we're just gettin started baby.

The next few months, I pretty much talked about my dog and my garden.  And my dog in my garden.   I finally bought a camera, just in time for Memorial Day. 

May 2010

Summer arrived and so did the Summer List. 

June 2010



 We spent a good chunk of time in Seattle, crossing things off of our wedding list.  I never talked about it because I'm a very lazy blogger sometimes. Well, that's a lie.  I talked about the food, and that was pretty much it.   The church is beautiful. The reception site is so cool.  We rode the ferry, gazed at mountains, discovered Dahlia's bakery croutons, visited the Space Needle spontaneously, and had a solid trip. 

I very much planned on talking about it when we got back to PA, but life was so busy all of a sudden.  I had the least amount of post in June, when I was out of school.  Again, that worries me. 

But July, oh July.  I made up for lost time.  In the blogging world and in real life.  We did some good living in July. 

July 2010

Our engagement party rocked. 

The garden took off.

My blog turned a year old.  And I wrote the most important thing I've ever written.

The Summer went by much too quickly and the semester started up faster than I'd ever imagined.  Still, we held onto Summer for as long as we could.   We were able to afterall, because K quit his job to finish up school.  It's nice having him around ya know. 

We continued to walk barefoot (hell, I still do that outside and it's January).

We ate tomatoes off of the vine.

We waited for baby deer to appear in the field.

We started running and sure stopped a couple of times, but caught the running bug for life.    

I attempted to write about Seattle every week.  And failed.

And we hiked.  That was the most important thing we did this summer.  I don't get out much. 

August 2010

As I said before, new school year, new me.  I didn't even make any New Year's resolutions this year, except to write more.  My post in September are all about making something of my self.  That's because life was really starting to open up.  When you're in your last semester of nursing school you're either thinking 1) there's no way I'm going to make it because this is too good to be true, I'm going to be a failure and have to figure out a new career path; or 2) Woooohoooo!! 

I was #2.  I knew this was happening.  I knew I was going to make it.  I knew I was going to make it in style.  

I'm still #2. 

September 2010

Even though school was consuming our life, our time, and our date nights, we still dug our nails in and managed to have some good times.  Sure, the camping trip fell through, and yes I'm still mad.  But, it turns out that ticks didn't go away until the middle of November this year, so maybe that was a blessing.  

In a pathetic attempt to capture some of that fire and energy from the summer, I wrote a Fall List.  Then proceeded to do absolutely nothing on it.  But, I did go to Seattle, and I did keep on growing dahlias, and I also celebrated my 100th post.  We also celebrated a year until we get married.  I in the airport, he at home.  Romantical. 

I liked October, but boy did it go by fast. 

October 2010

The remaining two months of the year were focused on finishing and surviving.  Finishing things on our lists, finishing classes, surviving the winter months, and surviving whatever curve-balls came our way.  I was in total denial about the seasonal change.  I like Fall.  We get along.  I like Summer, we can get things done.  I don't like winter (I'm not going to even capitalize you because I don't like you that much) because it's cold and you can't go outside without your lungs hurting.  It's windy.  It's freezing rain that makes tree branches heavy and breaks things. 

I didn't want to do it, but I put my garden away for the winter. 

And was reminded of home. 

November 2010



I will seperate December into two.  One part is exhaustion and running that last stretch. The other is accomplishment and celebration.  

I graduated.  I did it.  

Finally, I can do the things that I want to again.

I'm not going to write about that now. I'll wait until I have my license, so as not to jinx myself.  

December 2010



And the blog got a facelift.  Or got saggy, depending on your interpretation. 

Now I've totally screwed up my pageviews counter by clicking on all of these links. 

2010.  You brought some biggies. 

But, 2011, I think you're going to be even bigger. 

To be continued

I passed nursing school and the parents flew in for it, so we are now walking the dog, shopping, cooking with my new Le Creuset red pot (!!!!), doing Christmasy stuff, and just living. 

So, I won't be writing until after Christmas, when things slow down and I can catch up on the things that have been put on the back burner for, oh about 12 months. 

Expect a nursing school post, a tribute to Maverick post, a Christmas post, and quite possibly, a New Year's list.

Sidebar

Okay, I can't actually change my url because it IS taken.

Here is my competition.

Check me out

So, I decided to google my blog today because apparently someone clicked on the site after searching, "Mommy blog in Pennsylvania."  I didn't find any connection between my blog and mommy blogs, considering I don't have a child, well, I have a dog that I talk to like a child, but that's totally normal. 

I did find a lot of Fish out of Water blogs however.  Like, a ton.  And, it made me feel unoriginal and kinda part of the crowd. 

Hence, the new name of the blog.  Same old url, because I'm not going to make anyone type in everydayhappenings.blogspot.com.  That's insane.  Too long.  Or, maybe I will if it's still available.  I'm not sure. 

K came up with the name Fish out of water, so it is bittersweet to say good-bye.  He is no where near unoriginal or part of the crowd.  It was a good name.  But, I feel like life is changing right now and so, your blog should too. 

I don't feel so out of place anymore.  I feel like I'm rounding a corner and about to embark on life.  Being from Seattle is what makes me special out here and I'm able to include that in my daily life. 



When I was in elementary school, I loved writing.  I'd create chapter books (which, when you're 10, means like 5 pages a chapter, in that really big font, with pictures). I'd come up with all of these elaborate stories and characters.  When I was 10, I thought it would be really awesome to have a story called, Everyday Happenings, even though I didn't know what it would be about.  I just thought that was a quirky name that could mean so much, and for some reason, that name stuck in my brain.  I probably couldn't tell you the name of my teacher from that year, but I remembered that book.

So, here I am, writing.  Not sure what it will be about, and yes, that title could mean so much.  And, yes, that is all so very cliche and cheesy. 

New name, new header, new year.  The holiday is three weeks away, but we're ready to start now. 

I have lots of nursing things to study this weekend, so I must go to bed.  But, there are important things that I must write about too, so stay tuned for that.