Green

It's the most wonderful time of the year . . . 

The time for having great hang times with friends at Christmas parties!! I know that the Christmas season is all sorts of jam-packed with one event after another, but I can't really complain. I enjoy getting to reconnect with people in the midst of busy weeks. It challenges me to make conversation and fun times count more because, like me, my friends are busy during this season and the time I get to see them is fewer and far between.

Another great thing about these parties is the delicious food I get to enjoy. Since moving to Seattle, I've gotten to experience a whole other style of cuisine. There are so many things that people make here that I never had in the land of Tex-Mex and Barbecue. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE those things as well and I will definitely enjoy them when I get home for the holidays, but it's interesting to try new foods too!

I'll share one funny thing that happened lately involving holiday parties and food. So, my workplace organizes a holiday party every year and we all sign up to bring delicious treats. Last year, I was one of the last ones to sign up because I couldn't figure out what to make. This year, I wanted to get a jump on things and go ahead and get my name on the list before I was stuck trying to make something difficult—those things usually don't end well. There were two people already signed up on the nearly blank sign-up sheet and I figured I would make a salad, because y'know, they're simple and don't require watching 8 hours of a cooking show. So I rushed to the list and made my mark:

(click image to enlarge)

That's me, first on the salad list, and let me tell you, when I figure out what kind of salad I'm making it will DEFINITELY live up to its description on the list!

The best thing though, is that AFTER I wrote that down, my other co-workers joined the fun! I love that the people I work with


1) Tolerate my shenanigans.


2) Know how to have fun.


3) Are just as mysterious as I am.


4) Make me feel awesome!

Party on, Wayne! Party on, Garth!

It's In Your Blood

I think if I was a Care Bear, I would choose to be Playful Heart Monkey. And just FYI, I totally count the Care Bear Cousins in the generality of "Care Bears," so Playful Heart TOTALLY counts!

Like Playful Heart Monkey, the world is my playground!
Take today for instance.
You see this bear?

Yeah. This one.
Well, today, this bear was my accomplice.

Every Wednesday, I attend a staff meeting at work. We usually go over all the basics: Buildings and Grounds, Publications, Computers, Office, and Appreciations. Appreciations is a new category we recently added to our meetings. It gives us an opportunity to share a short, sweet appreciation of someone on staff for something great we've noticed.

Today, a small number of other staff members and myself arrived to the meeting early and we were sharing some fun banter. Generally my co-worker H— sits in the same seat for staff meetings, but today I dared him to sit in a different spot just for fun and to shake things up a bit. After he moved, we laughed and then we all noticed the little bear you see above. It was just randomly sitting there, chillaxin' on the couch. So I schemed with my other co-worker, S— to coerce H— into "appreciating" the bear when it came time for the Appreciations category in the meeting.

The meeting was fun and light, and so when it came time for Appreciations, I looked over at H— and gave him the raised eyebrows hinting look. He looked at me, eyes wide, and then I motioned with my eyes toward the bear and he looked at it, looked back at me, and broke into a bright-eyed chuckle. Well after that, it was all over for me, I LOST it and started laughing and snorting. I just kept imagining what he would have said about the bear—how quietly it was sitting, how attentive it was, how even though it was blue it was seemingly happy. We dismissed shortly after that, and even though the bear never got its due appreciation, we laughed all the way out the door!

I LOVE staff meetings and I LOVE that I work with people who know how to have fun!

Stay Just A Little

Hey everyone! Meet Puff!! Puff belongs to my co-worker Katie. He kept me company this morning in the office. He's such a sweet little bird!

Today was another FAST paced day. It came down to the wire, but we made it (like we always do) ;p

I will say though, that with the panic of the day, came some sweet treats throughout it. First of all, one of my co-workers brought me a copy of She & Him for me to add to my iTunes playlist and relieve some of the tension with some smooth tunes. And THAT helped a bunch!

As the to-do list was dwindling down, it seemed that more and more things just kept getting tacked on. I'd gotten a large chunk of it done, when I got a call on my intercom. It was my boss calling me down because one of our volunteers made fresh homemade Pico De Gallo for the whole office! It was such a needed break and a GREAT treat!


I finally got the journal done and sent off to press and tied up some loose ends and then I got a text from my dad that said: DINNER IS ON US TONIGHT! GO CRAZY! WE LOVE YOU!

And at first I texted him back and was like, "Are you serious?" Cause it just totally caught me by surprise. But he confirmed that I could in fact go out for dinner and have whatever I wanted—and that was AMAZING! I decided to go to Red Mill Burgers, since I had heard rave reviews about it but had never actually been. I had the chicken sandwich and a lemon chiffon shake and it was DELICIOUS!


And then I went to my comfort spot: Cupcake Royale and had one of the Toasted Cocounut Lime cupcakes and some coffee.

The funny thing is, even though he said to "Go crazy," I only ended up spending a total of $20 bucks . . . but it went a looooong way! After going in to the office around 7 a.m. the past few days and working late, I decided it was a nice night for a treat. I'm just glad I had help along the way. And the best news of all . . . tomorrow is Friday and I'm not going in early and . . .

7 more days until I fly to the east coast!