my boyfriend's back

It's no secret that I don't hate routine. Routine tucks me in at night and sings a sweet lullaby as I drift off to sleep. (What does that even mean? No one knows.) While 2010 has brought progress in terms of stepping out of my comfort zone, I'm still me.

And one of the things that makes me ME is the fact that sometimes I eat the same thing for lunch. Nearly every day. At one point in time my lunch of convenience choice was Quiznos. I ate there so often that I never had to say what I wanted. In fact, my order was told to me by Quiznos Guy as soon as I stepped up to the counter.

Having a "usual" is a strange mix of awesome and embarrassing.

But I broke up with Quiznos a while ago. So imagine my surprise when I walked into Subway last week with a co-worker and saw Quiznos Guy behind the counter. At Subway. I only had time to mumble, "I know this guy" to my co-worker before I was greeted by his smile.

QG: Hi! How are you?
Me: Good! How are you?
QG: Good. I work here now.
Me: I see that. How long have you been here?
QG: Two weeks.
Me: Great.
[order sandwich]
QG: No tomato, no onion, right?!
Me: Yup.
QG: How was your weekend?

My co-worker, having zero context, just watched in amazement. As we walked away she said, "What just happened?".

Even though I broke up with Quiznos, I didn't have to break up with my sandwich maker. He's learning the Subway version of "the usual" and soon it will be just like old times. It's perfect.

hoo hoo

Halloween.
Remember how it is the holiday I'm the worst at?
Remember how last year I accidentally dressed up as a Zombie Olive?
I'm happy to report that things went better this year thanks to my crafting superstar roommate.

A few weeks ago I got an email from LL that contained a photo and a one sentence message:
"We could make this..."

For a minute I thought she was crazy. Then I realized she was a genius. And then I got excited because I had an idea for a costume! AN IDEA. The hardest part.

She made it happen.

There were even feathers involved.

I was in a meeting at work watching YouTube videos with co-workers (yes, we work hard) when I had my own stroke of genius in the form of a costume idea for AB. And our very own Antoine Dodsen was born.

SU put her own craftiness to the test by sewing a skunk costume and Butter got some good use out of her very legit taekwondo getup.

We hit up the famous Halloween dance party and danced the night away. Sadly, I have very few pictures of the happenings.

And the night ended with Butter escorting Adam to his car. Without getting out of her own. We keep things classy around here.

My favorite quote of the night came from SU during our post-party recap.
SU: "Your hair looks good like that. Even if some of it is stuck to your head from sweat."
Again, keeping it classy.

Overall, two thumbs up for Halloween 2010.


PS. Did I ever show you the photo of the 2009 zombie olive? Probably not. But it's been a year and I've dealt with it, so here it is.

conversation of the day

Sometimes meeting with sales reps is enjoyable and most of the time sometimes it’s torture. Yesterday I had three rep meetings, one on each end of the spectrum and one in the middle.

My favorite conversation resulting from those meetings went as follows:

Co-Worker: “There’s nothing going on in Canada.”

Rep: “Justin Bieber, dude.”

….

Rep: “What? He’s from Vancouver!”


For the record, none of our campaigns have anything to do with Justin Bieber. So, yeah, it was a totally relevant piece of information.

feeling festive.

I love this time of year.
And I love traditions.

do the puyallup.

The Puyallup Fair is a big deal around these parts.

Something about the fair just makes me happy. The lights. The food that makes you spend the rest of the evening questioning your judgment. The premium people watching. All of it.

But really, it all comes down to fair food.
Last year I tried my first corn dog. This year I bought a soft pretzel and immediately dropped the majority of it on the ground like a small child.

Roasted corn.

 Elephant ears.

 Oh, and giant pumpkins just for funsies.

Three of us were repeat visitors from last year. Puyallup Fair 2009 vs 2010. Can you guess which feet belong to Lindsay?

See you next year Puyallup!


PS - Can you tell I just loaded several months of photos onto my computer? Don't you worry. There is plenty more where these posts came from.

twenty eight. (continued. and completed.)

Remember that birthday I keep talking about? Right.

So after the surprise part where things got real awkward, the attention was quickly turned from me to everyone else. (This is why my friends are brilliant. No stress for me!) You see, I know a lot of musically talented people. Sometimes I hate them because I wish I had their skills, but mostly I just love them for it. CK and I had talked for most of the summer about throwing a backyard summer concert, but it never came to fruition.

That is until my pre-birthday surprise party. (Except it wasn't in the backyard because it was cold and rainy. Whatevs. Still counts.) But what I'm telling you is that my people performed for my birthday party.

I love music. I love my people.
It was perfection.

Somehow I only have photos of Adam and Jon. But there were more. I have video proof that I will somehow use to my advantage at a later date.

There was cake. (Red velvet!)

There was smiling. (The hostess!)

There was hugging. (Dreamboats!)

There were dino nuggets. (Supposedly my favorite meal!)

And there was a fake performance. (Not legit!)

Twenty eight started off right.

And to fully round out the birthday recap, a few more photos of the big day in Maui.

Looks like I'm feeling a little less than confidant that my wish will come true...

The Professor, The Captain, The Madame, and The DJ. 

Just look at them. Who wouldn't want to spend their birthday with these fools?

And then there was the moment, just before bed, that I heard a yell and ran out of my room to find Lindsay kneeling on top of the table. I saw the gecko climbing the wall and quickly found myself standing on a stool. nbd.

Here's to my twenty-eighth year. I have high hopes for this one.

dreamed a dream.

I was feeling miserable and sick at work today so I left for the afternoon to curl up in a ball and sleep. I did, however, have to dial-in to a meeting around 3:00 so I set my alarm and shut my eyes. I might have been concerned about waking up in time because I had the following dream.

Two of my teammates, my boss and I were getting  ready to call in for the client meeting. But we were having the meeting at my house. We were all sitting on my giant bed. Eating homemade cookies shaped like pumpkins. And we couldn't get the dial-in to work and we were all stressed that the meeting was starting and we were missing it.

Then I woke up. Two minutes before the meeting was supposed to start. Got a homemade cookie shaped like a pumpkin. And sat in my bed and ate it while on my conference call.

My dream was trying to tell me something.

twenty eight.

I recently turned twenty eight. It just happens sometimes. And the celebrations were perfect.

Let's start with some video, shall we? More words and photos to come later.

My celebration in Seattle was a complete surprise. I had gone to dinner with CK and SB prior to heading off to Maui (where I would spend my actual birthday) and thought we were stopping by to pick up a couple more friends to grab dessert.

Not so.

I'm not quite sure you are ready for the amount of awkward you're about to witness in this video. There is a reason I hate being the center of attention. Prepare yourselves.

So many people staring. I especially like the part where I turn around and pretend to walk out.


On the night of my actual birthday I found this gem waiting for me in my email inbox. Don't mind the pause in the middle, they were just paralyzed with fear for a minute.


A birthday always helps remind you that your people are awesome.

to sum up.

Sunday: The usual Sunday activities, including teaching RS, followed by the biggest Family Jam we've ever had.

Monday: A day off! Helping a friend move, making buttons, dinner & good conversation, FHE that was actually fun and realizing that my visiting teaching partner and I color coordinate. Who wouldn't want to get visited by that duo?!?

Tuesday: P-Rizzle's birthday! Delicious food! Turns out I like eggplant parmesan.

Wednesday: Amateur circus night. It was exactly as awesome as the name makes it sound. Meaning really awesome.

Thursday: Adam's birthday! Food. More food. Topped off with crepes.

Friday: A low-key evening with good people. Nothing photo-worthy.

Saturday: Apple cider. Breadsticks. Dressing up for a costume-ish party but never actually making it there.

Life keeps happening.

the definition of fall (part two)

Saturday was the perfect Fall day.
The sun was shining. The air was a little chilly. I got out of the city. I saw trees with changing leaves.

And I purchased cider. (And a fruit leather. Because who doesn't love fruit roll-ups?)

The cider mill was a little different than I remember. There were no apples being pressed (only on Thursdays) and they didn't make or sell donuts, BUT it was still a good time and fun to get outside and take advantage of a beautiful day.

Have you ever seen someone so happy to be holding jugs of apple cider? (PS - I bought the spiced cider in my left hand because the jar was adorable. It will taste good too. But that jar...)

Drinking cider is not the same without a donut to go along with it. Powdered is my preference. So we picked up Fred Meyer's finest to make the outing complete.

One box is checked on the Autumn To Do list.

the definition of fall

I had three separate conversations yesterday about cider mills and no one knew what I was talking about.

Me: Can we also find a cider mill?
AB: What?!?
Me: A cider mill...apples. cider. donuts. pure happiness.
AB: And totally random.

------------------------------------------

Me: Should we go to a cider mill?!?
SB: A cider mill? Don't think I have ever been to one of those. Sounds interesting!

-------------------------------------------

Me: And we're going to a cider mill.
SU: A what?
Me: Cider mill.
SU: Haunted house?
Me: CIDER. MILL.

Since no one knew what I was talking about, I took it to the world wide web to find a cider mill nearby. What I found was several people posting things like "I'm from Michigan and I'm looking for a cider mill in the area...".

I guess it's a Michigan thing. Who knew?

What I do know is that today the air is crisp, the sun is shining and I'm going to drink real cider and eat a powdered donut.

It's the definition of Fall.

Some Kind of Back to the Wonderful Future

Somehow MSN sucked me in today. I know, it's MSN, but it happened. While perusing some of the content, I came across this.

Did anyone else know that Eric Stoltz was the original Marty McFly?!? Because I sure didn't.

Mind. Officially. Blown.

i read it in PEOPLE.

Side note before I even get started: It's amazing the things I decide to take pictures of with my phone. That's all.

 In flipping through the pictures on my phone today, I found this one from a random Friday night in July.

It couldn't be better.

you're never gonna be jello.

When my mom and aunt were in town (Did I ever mention that my mom came to visit? No? I'm a failure at blogging.) we went to a real classy dinner at the Chinese restaurant down the street. For our complimentary dessert, they brought us this:

I had no idea what it was, but I decided to taste it anyway. The white side was...not disgusting. The purple side was definitely disgusting. After being the taste tester I announced, "I don't feel good about eating anything that moves like that." They both tried it anyway.

When our server came back and asked us how it was, I asked her to help me understand what exactly it was that we were eating. She said jello.

Right. Well, better luck next time.

conversation of the day

Me: Okay, I really need to keep working on my lesson.
[a minute passes]
Me: You know, I really wish glow sticks lasted longer.
LL: Hey, how's your lesson going over there "Distracto"?

the head and the heart

google knows things.

Google tells me that since September 1st, 216 people have visited this small piece of the world wide web 780 times. This small piece of the world wide web with the super lame title and obnoxious yellow background. My small piece of the world wide web.

I don't even know 216 people. Who are you?

You know, the only thing I love more than a good lurker is a good confession of being a lurker.

 
Speaking of things Google knows, read this post (and this one) listing some of the search terms that led readers to that site. People are awesome.

and then there were two.

My house is now only inhabited by two humans (and a cat).
And it's possible that I just stood in the entry way (with two non-roomies) and took turns shouting.
SHOUTING.
At 11:00pm.

Just because we could.

now you're speaking my language.

Just in case you don't speak in kilobytes or megabytes, Outlook wants to make sure you can still understand.

If I Had a Hammer

Last night at Family Jam we attempted this song and as it turns out:
1. I should never be trusted to be the only one singing. Also known as, a solo. Shouldn't ever happen.
2. I didn't know all of the words off the top of my head like I thought I did.

It was kind of a train wreck, really. But that's what makes Family Jam fun.

You know what's not a train wreck? The real deal.