Warm Winter

All the holiday parties are in full effect!!

I had my office Holiday Party on Wednesday. I had my Westside Community Group Christmas Party last night. I have a Westside Leadership Christmas Party tonight. I have Heather J.'s Birthday Party (complete with White Elephant Gift Exchange) on Saturday night. And then I have another Gingerbread House Party going on Sunday afternoon. Monday night I have an Elf Party to go to and I'm reserving Tuesday and Wednesday night to get last minute Seattle gifts for the fam and to pack for my trip home on Thursday morning!

If there's one thing you should know about me, it's that I like to party! I don't mean I like to party in the sense that I like getting trashed and doing ridiculous things that I won't remember the next morning. I mean I like to create memories of quality fun times that I, or anyone else in attendance for that matter, can't help but remember it the next morning.

When I was in High School, I took Tech Theater for a year. After doing Theater the previous year, I decided that I wanted to be a part of actual design work as opposed to just getting out on stage and reciting lines. I was more intrigued by the technical aspects: the writing, the sets, and the costumes. I had such a wonderful experience working as the assistant to the Costume Director and spent most of my free time raiding the prop and costume closet, playing dress up! I can see how it's all carried over into my personal life a lot.  I think what makes holiday season parties better is that there are so many of them that you can dress up for each of them with a new level of fun. For instance, here's what I wore to my office Holiday Party:

My co-worker A— kept bowing down and 

hailing me as the "Snowflake Queen." 

It was so funny! 

I got two extra special holiday treats last night at our Community Group Christmas Party: I got an Old Navy gift card from the Irwins (holla what!) and our hostess, KL, made Lil' Smokies just for meeeeeeee!!!! Can I just take a moment to TRY to explain to you how magical Lil' Smokies are? Every great party I ever attended back home served Lil' Smokies as an hors d'oeuvre and they are just SO amazing. KL and I had talked about it a while back and she said, "I'm going to make some for our Christmas party just for you!" It was like Santa had just given me that pony I'd always wanted. Who knew that something so small smothered in barbecue sauce could hold the key to magical hopes and wonders of taste? Well, pretty much anyone who's ever served them knows. ;)

But as an aside, my outfit for that party was this:

When I got to KL's house, I was greeted by these sweet luminaries and lots of hugs from friends in my CG:

We had so much fun hanging out, eating great food, sharing fun memories, and doing our White Elephant Gift Exchange. What's even better is that I got everyone in my Community Group to let me take a picture of them in the snowflake glasses! I'm working to create a postcard & photo collage for each of our CG members and hopefully I'll be able to share it with you guys as well!

White Dress

As you've probably gathered, the Pacific Northwest is wearing a very hefty sparkly white dress of snow today! My neighborhood have gotten 4-5 inches of snow already. But as I sit at home enjoying the view of it all from my warm living room, I figured I'd share my adventures from my sleepover at work!

The snow had already started falling when I got into work yesterday and the buses had chains on them, and re-routed to suit their snow routes. Part of the trouble of working in Queen Anne, is that when it snows (and it rarely does in Seattle), it becomes incredibly dangerous the buses don't run up the hill. So throughout the morning, the opportunity to stay in the building overnight was presented to me and I decided I would do that instead of risking missing work hours during the high point of our publications cycle. Then, around 11 a.m., the surge protector in my office made a constant beeping noise. Shortly after that, all the computers in my office shut down, along with the electricity in every outlet. We tried to find alternatives to get the computers back up and running, but nothing was working. Shortly after, my boss noticed a smell coming from the area just under my office. It smelled like burning sulfur. We weren't sure exactly where it was coming from, so we checked around and waited to see if the smell would dissipate. Apparently, there was some kind of electrical fire brewing inside the walls close to my office. We had talked to someone and they said it shouldn't be a problem, so my boss and two others stayed overnight with me.

We went out for dinner at a great Indian restaurant called Roti and we rented a movie from Blockbuster so that we could have a fun time waiting out the snow. When we got to the store, we were torn about renting either THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT or PIRATE RADIO. We walked to the counter with Pirate Radio but right at the last moment, one of the other co-workers ran to switch it out with The Kids Are All Right. We decided to spend the evening on the couches in the lobby area so that we could be present if the smell of the electrical fire continued to grow. We made it about 20 minutes into the movie and decided to turn it off because it was just too sexually graphic for our liking, there was too much bad acting, and it just wasn't a worthwhile movie. So we watched THE KITE RUNNER on Netflix instead.

After e-mailing a few people earlier in the day, we got a call later in the evening from an electrician that told us to shut down the power to the building and get out of there. We turned off the movie and moved all of our stuff to the next building over, and just stayed up talking and laughing and having a fun time!

We woke up this morning safe and sound and my boss gave me the day off with pay! So now I'm here at home, relaxing with a hot latte, watching the people walk in the snow, and finishing up watching The Kite Runner (and crying like a baby from the story).

We found out that it was part of the remnants of The Great Pen Fire of October and they got the problem fixed. All in all, my Snowpocalypse Sleepover at work was a lot of fun and it gave me a chance to build stronger relationships with my co-workers. I think we all agreed that we should each keep a change of emergency winter wear handy at the office though . . . just in case.

Here are some of my pics from the snow storm. Enjoy!

"Sorry, we're closed!"

 It was crazy watching cars slide down the hill

Don't worry guys, I wore my snowshoes

 As I was waiting at the bus stop,
I saw this news crew filming a segment
about a traffic post that a car had
taken out when it skidded off the road

Snow covering the Experience Music Project Building

Back In Your Head

It snowed today!!


Well, at least for a little bit. It was definitely fun while it lasted.

Heather J. let me borrow her camera to work on a project this morning at Westside and then let me hang onto it until Tuesday. So naturally, I decided to take it out for a little photostroll this afternoon. While I was walking, I found this sweet little house with a little artsy display out in front of it. It was all very vintage and kind of melancholy, but I decided to take advantage of the rare neighborhood art and take some pics. It kind of reminded me of some of the artsy decorations in some yards back home in Austin. I love stumbling across little treasure troves like this! I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I do!

this is my neighborhood!

I've Never Seen A Witch

 Me & T— ready for some trick-or-treating

A few weeks ago, one of my youth group girls asked me to go trick-or-treating with her, and I agreed because she's so fun to hang with and I haven't been trick-or-treating in forever (naturally). I had so much fun trick-or-treating with T— tonight! She went as a pirate and I went as a narwhal. We got so much loot! One lady even said, "Oh I have something SPECIAL for the big kids!" and she gave each of us a huge bag of M&Ms!

I loved being a narwhal this year too. It was extra fun because most of the adults were like, "Are you a unicorn?" and a bunch of the kids were like, "OH MY GOSH I LOVE YOUR COSTUME!!! I LOVE NARWHALS!!!"* I got a LOT of compliments and many confused glances from people walking up and down Market Street. I'm glad I got to get out and have fun this year—I felt like I was a kid again "oohing" and "aahing" at the fun pumpkins and decorations.

Here are some pics from the evening:

A legit Cake Wreck!
I think the pumpkin got sick of all the kids enjoying
the sweetness and wanted to try some himself.

 A super cute family trick-or-treating on Market Street

 A sweet pup ready for Halloween . . . ps: it's a boy!

 Raise your hand if you're having fun . . .

One giant bag of M&Ms coming right up

My loot from the evening!

And as a special treat, here is a fun video of my friend, Heather J. dressed as a kitty making me laugh. She thought I was taking a picture, but I was filming!

*caps lock & exclamation points totally part of the deal.

Run Forward

Last night I got to go to my FIRST EVER professional soccer match! It was so much fun, and not just because we won, but because I was surrounded by wonderful people! The fans in the stadium were outrageous and fun but the company of the friends who invited me—the Reddys—really made the night exciting! I got to have quality conversations and learn a lot about a sport I'd never really taken the time to pay attention to. Although I must admit, I'm not a bonafide soccer buff, I feel like I don't have to be clueless in the crowd anymore.

Here are some photos from the evening:

GO SOUNDERS!

A Place Near The City

I finally got around to scanning some of my recent photos from my Diana Mini! I'm definitely seeing some improvement, as well as more areas to grow in. That said, I really love these recent shots. Enjoy!

 Washington Park Arboretum Visitor Center 

with a double exposure overlap of red berries

 Bug eaten leaves with a double exposure 

overlap of a card from Plain Jane's Cards

Elliot Bay Bookstore, Capitol Hill, Seattle 

 Alley near Pike Place Market, Seattle

Elliot Bay Bookstore, Capitol Hill, Seattle

 Fire hydrant near my house

 Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle

Red leaves near Washington Park, Arboretum, Seattle 

with an overlap of the Arboretum Visitor Center overhang

Washington Park Arboretum Visitor Center overhang