I've Been Roaming Around...

Driving past The Gorge last weekend reminded me of my spur of the moment decision to hit up the Kings of Leon concert there in July. I'd never been to a show at The Gorge and I thought that after two years it was time to check that off the list.

Just a quick stop at the Dairy Freeze for dinner. We like to keep it classy.

It was 90 degrees, but it felt amazing. 

The view [of nature] was beautiful and the people watching was unparalleled. No, really. Apparently we missed the memo about wearing your swimsuit and/or any other article of clothing that covers just as little. I was entirely overdressed.

 

I will forever think of Cara every time I hear Kings of Leon. Memorial Day 2009. Oregon Coast. The album on repeat. It was only fitting that I see them with her.

I kind of love this photo of Linds and I. It really just sums up a lot.

 The show a little disappointing since I couldn't really hear anything. At one point the entire lawn was chanting "Turn. It. Up!",  so it wasn't just me that was having issues. But it was fun to hang out with these ladies.

Okay. So I'm a creepster and took this photo of the adorable family in front of us. The two boys were probably 9 and 11 (side note: I'm SO bad at guessing ages; they could have been 5 and 15 for all I know.) and they were still just sweet, innocent kids. They weren't too cool yet to be hanging out with their parents and they all teased each other in a fun, loving way. 

Although all of the crazies around us were entertaining, I couldn't help but want to pull those two boys aside and say, "You know everything you've been watching these people do? Promise me you will do the exact opposite. Always." 

Things We Learned:

1. The Gorge needs help with their sound system.

2. I love nature. Well, the kind of nature I can enjoy while sitting on a blanket in a sundress, reading USWeekly. Let's not get carried away.

3. I'm a slightly creepy people watcher.

Just so you know...

...I punched Debbie Downer in the face for writing that last post.

I mean, I see that her intentions were good, with all that talk about how even if things don't go as planned good can still come out of it, blah, blah, blah. But did we really need a list of complaints and a pity party first? Probably not.

I'll do my best to keep DD in line. Sometimes she sneaks up on me when I least expect it.

Supposed To

Yesterday I set off on a quick weekend trip. The agenda was to hit Sandpoint, Idaho for a concert, stay in Spokane for the night and head back to Seattle sometime today.

Well, a lot of things were supposed to happen. But plans change.

I was supposed to leave on Thursday night with three friends. 

But I needed to be in town Thursday night so I decided to separate from the pack and head out on Friday.

I was supposed to leave on Friday morning with one friend. 

My designated buddy for the weekend decided he couldn't make it. And then my replacement buddy realized she she couldn't make it either.

I was supposed to leave Friday morning at 9:00 am alone. 

But I overslept [shocker].

And then I realized I had a work project to finish up.

And then I remembered that I actually needed to pack.

And then I discovered that I needed gas.

And then I was told that I-90 was closed for Sea Fair.

I didn't get on the road until 12:30pm.

I was supposed to meet up with L&P in Spokane before the show.

But I got detained getting onto I-90 from 405 [see previously mentioned Sea Fair issue].

I was also detained at the McDonald's in North Bend where I stopped to use the bathroom. My real mistake was when I decided that since I was already there I would get food. Well, no other customer but me spoke English [I'm not exaggerating. The cashier was asking if anyone could translate.] so it took at least 25 minutes to get one burger. However, I did find out that the location is in the Top Ten Busiest McDonald's in the country.

The sky turned blue as I was driving through the pass and I thought all was well, but then I hit inexplicable traffic. I went 63 miles in two hours.

I realized that things were not going as planned and that I would just have to make the drive to Idaho alone and meet L&P there.

I was supposed to make it to Sandpoint by 7:00pm (after the aforementioned delays).

But after passing through Spokane and seeing a sign for "Coeur d'Alene 14 miles", traffic came to a dead stop. It was a literal parking lot and once I came to terms with the fact that I wasn't going to move, I put the car in park, rolled down my windows, shut off the engine and caught up on the internet.

I was supposed to love the show.

But I just didn't.

I felt disconnected from the experience, almost as if I was watching something on TV.

My heart just wasn't in it.

I was supposed to head back to Seattle early Saturday afternoon.

But my attempt at a 30 minute nap turned into a 2 hour and 30 minute nap and my schedule was thrown off.

And so here I am. 

Saturday night in Spokane. 

Alone.

Thinking about how we can make plans in our minds for how things are supposed to go, but sometimes things just don't go according to plan. 

But that's okay.

Although it did not go as planned, this weekend afforded me the opportunity to:

escape Seattle, see beautiful scenery, sing at the top of my lungs, have a dance party in the car, take time to be alone and to think, see a beautiful sunset, smell the outdoors and be taken back to some childhood memories, arrive to the show exactly on time, clap, sing with a crowd of people, drive with the windows down and feel the cool night air, look up at the stars through the sun roof, sleep in, take a 2.5 hour nap, eat dinner on the deck, read a book, go to bed before midnight.

So...success.

This post was supposed to be a photo journal of random iPhone photos taken of the trip to this point. But in keeping with the theme, things didn't go as planned and lots of words just came out. Lots. Here are the photos anyway.

The part where I expressed gratitude for green things on this planet.

Right here I fell in love with Washington all over again. 

This was soon after the expression of gratitude noted above.

Not only was a grateful to be moving again after two hours of stop and go traffic, but I can't help loving nature when there is water involved. 

[I have a love/hate relationship with water.]

These windmills are still creepy.
My windshield is still dirty.

Bridges. I still just love them. I think this is near The Gorge.

Still near The Gorge.

Lovely sunset driving over Priest Lake into Sandpoint.

The show. Outdoors. Right on the water.

A little post-nap, pre-dinner reading on the deck.

I can't wait to see how tomorrow deviates from my plan. Let's just hope it doesn't deviate from the part of the plan where my car is supposed to make it back across the state without dying. Anything but that.

Know Your Audience

Since I'm posting about creepy things lately...

Last week at work I came back from a meeting to find a package on my desk. Getting sent gifts is not unusual and it's always fun to see what random stuff publishers are sending.

When I opened the box I found this:

A BYU hat. From someone I had never met.

To make a point about "knowing your audience" [and how their targeting capabilities would allow me to target my client's ads more effectively] they found out where each media planner went to school and sent each planner a hat with the logo on it.

Clever? Possibly.
Creepy? Definitely.

LinkedIn profiles are good for something, I guess.

I moved desks last night at work. This is my fifth desk since I started here just over two years ago. If I were tall enough to see over the top of my wall, I could say that I have a view of the water. Since I can't, we'll just say that I have a view of the sky.

Perfect in Summer. Depressing in Winter.

I decided to "decorate" this space asap, as opposed to one month before moving like all the other times. This so-called decorating included putting up the pictures I've had sitting around my desk for the last two years.
[note to self: print and bring in new photos.]

Just now, as I was zoned out while thinking about how to approach this next project, I realized I was staring at this photo.

More specifically I was staring at the CREEPY CLOWN HANGING FROM THE CEILING IN THE BACKGROUND. I'd never noticed it in this photo before and now it's all I can look at.

It's crocheted (you know, needlework) and it's sitting in a very large metal ring.

No one can explain why he has it there. My mom has tried to take it down when she cleans his house, but when she comes back the next time, the clown is back.

Moral of the story: Clowns are creepy. I wish I'd never noticed.

Time is going by really, really, really, really slow.

We were sharing funny YouTube videos at work today (What? Can't we have fun sometimes?) and I remembered this one.

Shamed by Automated Emails

This morning I got an email from my gym with the subject line: How many gym visits do you have so far?

Now, part of me just wanted to check the box and delete the message like I do to all other junk mail, but another part of me was curious.

So I clicked on it.

And I found out that in the three months I've had this particular gym membership, I've been to the gym a shockingly few number of times. Not only was it a shockingly few number of times in total, but they went even further to break it down on a per month basis. Thanks for that. The email continued on, asking how this compared to my goal and if I was exceeding it or not quite hitting it, blah, blah, blah.

Shaming me, basically. They wanted to shame me into coming back to the gym. They might as well have sent me an email that said, "Based on the number of times you've come in, you're clearly still chubby and I'm not quite sure you've grasped the purpose of this membership."

Well, it worked. Kind of. Tonight I ran around Green Lake (Can we really call it running though? Not really.) and tomorrow I'm heading to the gym to get back on the Zumba train.

Don't worry, if I fall of the wagon again I can always count on an automated email system to shame me into getting back on track.

I want that to be me someday.

I mean, really.

Karaoke: The Proof

This photo is completely unflattering. However...

...it proves a few things:
1. I was on the stage.
2. My body was moving. Remember, there was choreography involved.
3. My mouth was moving.

Things it does not prove:
1. That any sound was coming out of my mouth.
2. That anyone could hear me. Notice how there were only two microphones and I just happened to be the one that didn't get one?

I love this photo for a lot of reasons, but primarly because of the look on my face.

It's clear that I am the only one not under the influence of alcohol and am (oh so) very aware of what we had just done on stage.

Oh, and it's also clear that I'm judging people. At that very moment.

"whoa!"

So there I was, holding my nearly two year old nephew as we were standing in line for a delicious Paseo's sandwich (first of the summer!). He was touching my glasses, touching my necklace, when all of the sudden he grabbed the top of my shirt, pulled it out and peered down it.

That's awkward to have your little nephew giving The Ladies a once over.
But it gets better.

Not only was he peering down my shirt, but he then said in the cutest, two year old voice, "whoa!".

Huh.

Elbow Grease

What I learned tonight:
The time and energy you save is totally worth whatever it costs to get your car washed by someone else.

No, really. It's unlikely I will ever wash my car by hand again.

My car has been covered in sap for two months. Okay, probably more like three or four. [I have to park on the street. And now I know why the spot under the jumbo tree is always available.] But I just haven't been able to muster up the motivation to figure out how to get rid of it.

Tonight was the night.

My roommate, TheNewKid, told me rubbing alcohol would do the trick. So off I went with my iPod, a bottle of rubbing alcohol and rag, ready to tackle the project I'd been procrastinating for so long.

Yeah, it was about as fun as you'd imagine it would be. The only thing that could have made it worse was if I had been on my hands and knees and scrubbing with a toothbrush was somehow involved. By the end I was so tired of it I was practically dumping the rubbing alcohol directly onto the car.

But it wasn't over. I still needed to wash it. I had already been out there for over an hour and it was getting dark so it's safe to say I just wasn't into it. 

The best part? The residue left by the rubbing alochol/sap combo isn't easily washed away. Awesome. I'm pretty sure the car looks worse than it did before.

Lesson learned.

Sweet Caroline

There are just so many things I could say about today.

• It was the day of our summer company party and I wasn't allowed to sit at my desk or turn on my computer. Apparently I'm addicted to my email because not checking it was very hard.
• We had the presentation portion of the party at the Showbox at the market.

• There was Plinko involved.
• There was an actor with a very bad wig that hosted Plinko.
• We talked about a lot of the work being done out of our office, including the strategy around distribution for this piece of content. Kind of awesome.

• Walking through the office the other day, I saw a cardboard cut-out of Edward Cullen. I thought it was weird, but wasn't totally surprised. Today during a presentation they showed a close-up of it and not only is it a life size Edward Cullen, but he has a conversation bubble taped to his face that says, "Bella is a b!@*h, Joanna. You're the one I love." Obviously, I found this hilarious.
• During one of the presentations there was also a picture of Justin Beiber (it worked somehow), which reminded me of another favorite M&D story from last night.

       M: Why are they selling Justin Beiber t-shirts right now? Is he from Vancouver or something?
       D: He doesn't have to be from Vancouver. The whole country has Beiber Fever.

• After our gathering with the entire Seattle office, we broke off into departments for the rest of the afternoon. My department chose to go to bar in Queen Anne. TO SING KARAOKE.
• Karaoke was mandatory. Of course my first time singing karaoke would be in front of all my co-workers. Of course.
• Sometimes you wish you were drunk. This was one of those times. 
• Sweet Caroline, in case you were wondering.
• I had to turn around and shake my butt during the ba-ba-ba's. Choreography was part of the judging criteria. Oh, didn't I mention there was judging? There was.
• We came in 2nd place (out of 8).

That was only Thursday. I'm a little nervous of what Friday will bring.

The Boys Are [Back] in Town

I love Seattle summer nights.
I love them even more when they are spent at the ballpark.

(Am I legit enough to use the term "ballpark"?)

I love them EVEN MORE when they are spent at the ballpark with awesome people.

M & D are in town from Chicago. 

I met them on my first Cayamo cruise. We had tickets seated next to each other for our nightly headlining show. It was in the cards for us to meet each other. They were a highlight of the trip.

Meet M.

Meet D.

We reconnected last year on my second Cayamo cruise. Again, they were a highlight of the trip. (Mexi-faux, anyone?)

So of course I was thrilled when I heard they would be in Seattle for a visit. If you spent even five minutes with them you would be laughing. Some of my favorite moments of the night:

D: "It's really annoying when you post pictures on Facebook because your friends are so good looking. Mormon boys are hot!"

M and I explaining the difference between a Mr. Misty and a Misty Freeze. We're from the mid-west and our love for Dairy Queen runs deep.

Me: "I'm being forced to sing karaoke with my co-workers tomorrow."

D: "I know that I'm here so we can just talk about it, but I'm really looking forward to those FB status updates."

Me: I want to steal that baby. It's just so cute.
M: I wanted to order a baby in Target the other day.

Random Girl: "Free passes to Dream Girls!"

D: Really, I think we're good.

Their White Sox lost, but I'd still call the evening a success.

I'm looking forward to the next four days!

One More Thing...

...my house smells like fish.

Not just the kitchen, but THE HOUSE.
My bedroom.
Everywhere.

Do you know me at all?

Right. So then you know how crazy this is making me.

Best Moment of the Day

Maybe this story is strange to write about, but I loved it. So here it is.

I have been thinking of my parents a lot lately and realized yesterday it had been a long time since I had talked to them. So, thinking my Dad was out of town working, I gave my Mom a call on my way to work. (Sometimes the three hour time difference works in my favor instead of against me.)

No answer. Left a voicemail.

Skip three hours ahead to me sitting in a meeting. I see a gmail notification pop up on my screen and find an email from my Mom just checking in and providing a quick update.

That was nice, I thought. Maybe she just wanted to send me the update now isntead of waiting to talk after work.

Jump to seven minutes after that when another email comes through. Again from my Mom, but this time she said that she got home and sat down to write me the email telling me she was thinking of me. After hitting send, she noticed she had a voicemail. A voicemail from me telling her I was thinking of her.

Kind of adorable, right?

I thought so too.

The Good and The Bad

The Good: Calling a friend on the way home from work and chatting for an hour and a half in the driveway. So much to talk about!

The Bad: Realizing when you open your car door 1.5 hours later that your headlights had been on the whole time. Knowing what will happen, you put your keys in the ignition and turn. click.

The Good: Friends that will come over and roll your car down the driveway to give it a jump.

The Bad: Having them tell you that you should really get a new battery.

You've Got a Friend In Me.

But do I really? Because by the looks of things, you are super creepy and I'm not quite sure I want to be your friend, Big Baby.

Also, creepy? This guy.

Look Who Showed Up

Summer. Summer showed up.
And Summer brought a few things into my life:

Monday: Poetry reading/writing in a backyard with cupcakes. Sounds awkward. It wasn't. (But was).

Tuesday: Backyard movie night. A personal favorite, Dumb & Dumber. I'm not ashamed.

Wednesday: Butterfield is back! And along with her return came some time spent at the water.

Thursday: Ice cream and conversation at Green Lake. At midnight.

Friday: Dinner outside and a bonfire. Nevermind that it was a million degrees and too hot for a fire.

Saturday: Milk Carton Derby at Green Lake + more celebrations for Susan.

Dear Summer,
I think I'm in love. I never want to be apart from you again.
xo!
S

After the Storm

My heart has nothing to hurt about.
But the chorus of this song really, really wants my heart to hurt.

Different year. Same me.

2009: If I couldn't have fireworks, I wanted a sparkler. I got a match.

2010: A sad, little star.

2009: Happy Fourth of July (!) crazy eyes.

2010: Happy Fourth of July (!) crazy face.