Everybody's Gonna Love Today

+I was on the bus by 7am this morning and sitting in the dentist's chair at 7:30. Not necessarily the highlight of my day. Later in the afternoon Lindsay mentioned that she had gotten out of bed at 8:15...I had already had my teeth cleaned and walked across town to my office by then.

+The internet is kind of my job. While reviewing a site for my client (maybe one that included celeb gossip and entertainment news) I discovered that FNL was picked up for two more seasons!! I immediately spread the word to my fellow FNL fans...all three of them.

+I spent the afternoon reviewing a list of 5,500 websites. I was at it for four hours and still have 4,500 left. I pretty much wanted to poke my eyes out by the end of the day. And let me tell you, there are some super ghetto sites out there.

+After typing in the URL of one of the sites on the list, the page loaded with this message:
It made me laugh out loud. I guess it's true, Facebook IS very popular.

+Seattle is rubbing off on me. Tonight after institute I bought a yoga mat. YOGA. I've been wanting to try it for a long time but am too scared to attend an official class at the gym. Last night I did a weight loss yoga DVD with trainer Bob (!) from the Biggest Loser. I kind of loved it.

Put Up Your Hands and Surrender to Me

Tonight Lindsay, Jen and I made it out to the Tractor Tavern to see Gavin DeGraw. I had seen him back in October but it was like a completely different person was on stage tonight - skinnier, less hair, sans hat, plus scarf, a southern accent that I don't recall and slightly Debbie Downer-ish. It was just a completely different experience.

He toned down all of the songs to more stripped down versions and spent a lot more time at the piano. His voice also had more soul than I remember, which I like, and at times reminded me of my boy, Marc Broussard. All in all I would say it was decent.
And I don't know what it was, but there were so many strange couples out tonight. A lot of slow dancing and making out going on. I felt like I was at a high school dance.

On this day last year...

...I had just completed my final interviews with the company I now work for. I had already quit my job and was moving to Seattle in exactly one week. I was relieved that the interview was over, but still unemployed and moving to a new city without knowing what was coming next.

I can't believe it's been a year since that day.

All of the feelings I was having around that time were so intense. Sad to be leaving my co-workers. Ecstatic to not have to care about online education anymore. Unsure about leaving my family and friends behind. Disappointed that I couldn't stay longer in my temporary home. Excited to meet new people in Seattle. Nervous to meet meet new people in Seattle (because I'm bad at making friends). Worried about not having a job. I felt the extremes of all of those feelings and I was physically tired from trying to get everything done and mentally tired from trying to make important decisions. And I was on my knees praying - a lot.

The last year has been pretty incredible. It's so interesting to look back and see how I was being led from there to here. I got offered a job while I was at a gas station in Idaho heading to my new home in Seattle. I got the job and got settled before there were no more jobs to be had. I've never had any real freak out moments of "Why did I move here again?" since I got here. I've made friends! The city is amazing. It really just all worked out.

It's looking back at experiences like this, experiences that are evidence that it all works out, that give me peace. Sometimes you just need to act, even if you don't know why. And it's a good reminder that I don't always need to know what's coming next. I'll just take it as it comes.

Wow...I don't know where that all came from. But there you have it.

Ten Out of Tenn

I have yet to blog about the cruise. I told you - it's overwhelming. And I procrastinate. It will be done, it's just a matter of when. Does anyone even care anymore?

Regardless, I discovered a new artist on the cruise. Katie Herzig. [She's the one in white below. And yes, that's Brandi on the right!]. I can't really explain what I like about her. There's just something about her songs that draws me in.
We chatted with her after that show and she informed us that she'd be hitting up Seattle at the end of March with the Ten Out of Tenn tour. Ten artists out of Tennessee. I know what you're thinking - COUNTRY MUSIC. I kind of worried about that too, but after checking out the tour's MySpace page and confirming that they weren't country artists I was on board for the show.

The show was at The Triple Door - a venue I had yet to experience in Seattle. It ended up being really cool. They seat you at booths or tables and you order dinner and enjoy the show.
Even though I only knew Katie, I still thoroughly enjoyed the show. They each played two songs and were all singing and playing on each other's songs. It's fun to get introduced to new artists, especially through a live performance.


The ten we saw were:
Andy Davis
Butterfly Boucher
Courtney Jaye
Griffin House
Jeremy Lister
K.S. Rhoads
Katie Herzig
Matthew Perryman Jones
Trent Dabbs
Tyler James
*I bolded my favorites.

Oh, and below is a picture of K.S. Rhoads. Yes, please! There may have been some slightly awkward freestyling from him, but he rocked everything else - the keyboard, guitar, harmonica, his fedora, etc.
Photo by Heidi Ross

I walked away from the show with ten CD's in hand (They had a bundle deal going on: $5 each if I got all ten! It could not be passed up.) and feeling satisfied after another evening of good music.

When You've Gotta Go, You've Gotta Go

I was waiting to catch the bus home from work when I noticed a homeless-looking man digging through the trash can. Honestly, not really surprising. I've seen it many times before in that very same location.

But I've never before seen what I saw next.

The man dug a cardboard milk carton out of the trash and began tearing open the top as he walked away. He proceeded to walk into a bus shelter, turn his back to the street and urinate in the carton. He then set it on the ground and walked away.

Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

Luckily the glass in the shelter was frosted, because his back may have been facing the street but it wasn't facing me. Yikes.

No Tomato, No Onion

I'm addicted to Quiznos. (Have I mentioned this? I can't remember.) I hated Quiznos until a couple months ago when I discovered the honey bourbon chicken sandwich and I've pretty much been eating it ever since. Almost daily. I guess I should also mention that it is directly across the street from my office and I'm pretty lazy, so that's another reason.

On my way to pick up lunch today, as I stood at the corner waiting for the light to change, one of the Quiznos employees ended up standing next to me. He makes my sandwich every day. I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye and saw him glancing at me. I thought about pretending I didn't notice him (because that's what I do) but decided to go for the awkward conversation instead.

Me: Hey.
Quiznos Guy: Hey.
Me: I'm heading over to see you guys. [awkward laughter]
QG: Honey bourbon chicken, no tomato, no onion, right?
Me: You got it.

Totally embarrassing. Maybe tomorrow I'll go in and just ask for "the usual".

This Is What It Has Come To

Lately I've been struggling with a lack of motivation at work and last week it got particularly bad. It's not that I haven't been working, it's just that I know I could have (and should have) been working harder. I thought about my motivation issue all weekend and was trying to give myself pep talks to prepare for this upcoming week.

This morning I added a little reminder to my desk:
And you know what? It kind of worked. Every time the ADD started to flare up I looked at the note, took a deep breath and dove back into my work.

I got quite a bit done today. I think I'll try it again tomorrow.

Just Not Right

Something is wrong when you turn on your iPod and the last song you were listening to was "Hootenanny" by Bubba Sparxxx.

Does the fact that I was listening to it at the gym justify it?

No? Didn't think so.

Quote of the Day

Brought to you by a co-worker that will now be working on the part of our client's business that I also work on.

"I'm totally going to ride you guys like Seabiscuit."

Awkward, yet still funny.

According to Plan

I had a session at the gym on Saturday with the good trainer. I used to see him once a week but since he stopped working on Saturday's I haven't gotten my butt kicked in a while. It just happened to work out that he was available last Saturday...and I soon regretted my decision.

I went in tonight to see my regular trainer and he immediately said:

Trainer: Joey worked you pretty hard on Saturday, huh?
Me: Oh my gosh, yes! How did you know?
T: He told me. He said he kicked your ass.
Me: Uhh, yeah....I was sore for DAYS.

Strangely, this conversation made me feel good. Normally when I leave the gym wanting to cry I imagine that my trainer watched me struggle for 30 minutes while thinking about what a weakling I am. But to know that he acknowledged that it actually was hard made me feel better about myself.

I guess not being able to move my arms was part of his plan.

Bad Timing

Why can't I ever remember how to set the time on the clock in my car? And then as soon as I go back to the manual to figure out how to do it, the time changes again a month later and I've already forgotten what to do.

It's annoying, that's all.

Want to Know What's Awesome?

What's awesome is having to go to work after a fantastic vacation (even though your now sick) and finding nearly 400 unread emails in your inbox, but not being able to read/respond to any of them because the project you though someone was working on while you were out hasn't been touched but is DUE TODAY so you spend the entire day scrambling to finish it and when you leave the office you have even more unread emails than when you got in that day. Oh, and the project still isn't finished.

Welcome back.

I've Returned From Paradise

I'm back in my own bed and about to turn out the light earlier than I have for the last eight days. I'm a little overwhelmed at the thought of documenting this trip. And I have a bad habit of not blogging about big events because deciding what pictures to use, what events to write about and how to write about them stresses me out just thinking about it. But I want to have it all wrapped up in a nice post (or two or three) for my own enjoyment, if not the enjoyment of my faithful readers (or my mom, either way).

So in short, it was amazing. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I tried to find a picture that summed up the whole trip and this was as close as I could get.
If only you could see the ice cream cone in my hand. Oh, and the band I was watching from my lounge chair.

{Sigh.}