weekend musings...or something...

Went out after work on Friday night. That was fun. Shana & Beth & I sat and chatted with the bartender. And he made us stuff. :)

Saturday, I rented a car - thanks Josh! - and went over to West Seattle then up to Wallingford, shopped at University Village and also South Center Mall. I loved the freedom that comes with having a car and being able to go anywhere without trying to figure out the bus schedule. Some people just don't understand (Spencer). Found an awesome store on California Street called Moxie. It's a papergoods and gifts store - LOVE IT! :) In Wallingford, I ate lunch at Dick's then hung out with Chris. SO good to see him! Shopping was fun - I had no idea Crate & Barrel had real stores. Yay! There were plates in Domino this month from Anthropologie and they were ON SALE this weekend. But I was good and I didn't buy any, even tho they were an extra 40% off! Very fun shopping experience. Although it cracked me up that there were 2 stand-alone Starbucks and one in the Barnes & Noble..... I was going to experience other coffee shops, but ended up only going to Starbucks. So much for diversity..... :(

Saturday night was the "Ugly Sweater Party" at Krista's. It was actually Jacob & Melissa's birthday(s) party. It was a lot of people from work and a lot of other friends. Most of the guys were REALLY cute, but I couldn't figure out if they were gay or not. Ethan was the hottest. ;) Instead of adding juice - or whatever - to the jungle juice, they just kept adding vodka. So I kept adding water, unti that was all I was drinking straight water. I ended up leaving about 10:45. And walking home. From half-way up Queen Anne Hill. In short sleeves. And it was cold. But I was mad. At myself for wanting Ethan to pay attention to me instead of Whitney, the gorgeous redhead in the cheerleader skirt. I think what made me madder was that she was a total sweetheart and I couldn't be mad at either of them. Ack! So I went home.

Yesterday was a quiet afternoon in Kirkland, with an excursion to Redmond for albums at Ben Franklin, a 3-ring binder at Staples and coffee at Soul Food Books. Finally - not Starbucks! lol The power was out at the meeting room, so we had a hymnsing in the dark, then I returned my car downtown and Dallas & Lisa gave me a ride home. Hung out with Maggie & Corey for a while, then off to bed. And it's class again today.

xo :)

wicked homesick

I had no idea I would get homesick. But it's wierd, because I wasn't like I want to go home. It was more the whole not wanting to be where I couldn't make friends. Tuesday was rough. The gray cloud that had been following me turned VERY BLACK and I cried a bunch. That night, I listened to The Zambonis' Happy When We're Winning from Chippy Sessions and I went to bed with a smile on my face. Dreamed about a friend from home giving me a HUGE hug - it made me sad in my dream and again when I woke up. I want a hug like that out here. It would at least make me feel warm & fuzzy.

Thursdays are the worst! Typography is like working in the industry for 4 hours. She expects perfection, so that's a little difficult when you're not sure what she's asking. And no, it's not getting easier. We also have an over-achiever in our class. (It was amusing to us that she did her first comp the wrong size!) I got a "C" on the crafting of my first comp. But we can resubmit next week, so... Yes, I have piles of homework for that class, but I'm taking the weekend off. I did my first presentation in Cultural Theory last night. It was a group project and we managed to pull it off. 'Tho Melissa made the powerpoint go way too fast. Whatever. It's over now.

OOOO... I met a straight guy. He works at Starbucks with me! AND... He plays hockey!!!!!!! I informed him that he's my new best friend. Believe it or not, his g/f is named Rachel. I met her Tuesday night as well. Anyways, I came to this conclusion - as I walked home and with the help of Rachael & Maggie - that: Straight + Hockey Player does not = HOT I'm hoping he might have friends..... ;)

And I met a RHB who is also cute. And he flirts. And we're having a very wierd email conversation on myspace. Anyways, he lives on my floor and we have a class together. And Rachael & Maggie told me to stay away from him. Kinda reminded me of when you, KMC, told me to stay away from the army boy. Hmmm.... What would I do without my girls?! BTW, I had a 1-line email from the army boy.........

I bought 2 cds this week. Yes, I know I didn't need them, but... I was shopping at Bed Bath & Beyond on Monday night. I got a curtain for a door in my apartment. (Oh, right, I'm supposed to be posting pictures. Wait... I haven't taken any -oops!) Stopped by the cd display and discovered "Totally 80s" and just had to buy it! Then on Tuesday, Live from the Mountain Music Lounge Volume 12 released in all Western Washington Starbucks and I bought that. Because they've been promoting it non-stop on 103.7 The Mountain. WOW! It is so good. But I can't tell you what's on it, because I can't remember. One Man Wrecking Machine (Guster) and Easy (BNL) are both on there, but other than that...

Y'know, I wrote a list of things I wanted to put in this blog in my journal. My journal is upstairs and I didn't look at it before I came down here. So this is all for now.

Missing you! xoxoxo

random

I made friends today with 2 of the guys who the guys who throw fish in the market. That was fun. The cute one with red hair is married. Figures!

I spent $9.85 on vegetables and fruit in the market today. Yet Starbucks is cheaper out here than it was at home. Odd...

I was assigned to a group on Thursday night in class. Guess what our group has to do? Present a project on culture - next Thursday. Yeah, I know! We talked in class and said we'd email, but we really have NO IDEA what we are doing except that we might be talking about the disposable society in which we live. (Comments could be helpful here...)

Well, off to research. Sitting in Starbucks - like always - with no clue where I should even start looking or what I should be looking up.

And my friend Sam just invited me to go clubbing tonight. It's somewhat tempting as I haven't danced in years....;)

one more why

Why do I totally suck at walking? You would think that after being here for 3 weeks, I would realize the sidewalks have cracks in them and perhaps, you would think, I would remember to watch where I am going. Whatever. I wear a lot of coffee on my hands from all the tripping [over cracks in the sidewalk] that I do.

I haven't been anywhere but Belltown and Kirkland in a week & a half. Wait. I think it's been 2 weeks. It's sad really. I'd like to go shopping, but don't even make it up to Westlake Center. shrugs. Guess you know that means I've been staying in doing my homework.

I'm tired of doing homework. However, Illustrator is starting to make a little bit of sense.....

P.S. Email to PH as well, if I ever get around to writing it. ;) I really need to go home now and get ready for work.



love you! xoxo :)

why?

Why is White Zinfandal PINK?

Why do I have classes at 7:30 in the morning?

Why is it so hard to make friends in a new city?

These are just a few of the burning questions I ask myself on any given day. I do know that said White Zin is yummy. I have Introduction to Computer Graphics at 7:30 AM because I am a first-quarter student. The friends thing is still an unknown.

Last night, I was at Starbucks with Andrew & El & Beth. I was describing my dilema to them and they were most surprised that I hadn't made any friends. They said they thought I would make friends easily. I thought I would have made friends more easily than this. But the friendly Seattle that I had discovered on my previous visits doesn't seem to exist. I'm not sure why that is.

But it's not just the city where I'm not making friends. It's also really difficult to make friends at school. I have a friend that lives in my building - no classes together, but we connected on Surviving Seattle day and swapped phone numbers and stuff. My other friend is one I met on myspace - yes, I know..... - she goes to my school & also works at Starbucks so a mutual friend thought we should be friends. Turns out we have 2 classes together. And she is a very neat person! :) But other than that, I don't have any friends in the city.

Yes, I talk to people in class, but I don't hang out with them outside of class. It's very strange. Even my apartment building is like that. Everyone who lives in the building (for the most part) goes to the Art Institute. But this is nothing like college. Back in college, everyone had their doors open all the time and people were back & forth all the time. And there was a communal bathroom where you never knew who you were going to see in there. But now, we are all apartment dwellers - and totally un-connected. It's pretty sad that I meet new people on my floor on a very regular basis. In the elevator and then we go our separate ways and into our little apartments and don't talk until the next elevator trip - should there happen to be one!

So last night was really neat. First of all, I got to drive Andrew's F150. Woo Hoo! I am so a pick-up girl! ;) Then he took the 3 of us girls out to Starbucks. We sat there and talked. And talked. And talked. It was such a warm feeling. I am so blessed by my friends in Kirkland. I just wish I saw them more often than Sundays & Wednesday nights.

Oh, and I'd like to point out that working in tourism is not all that it's cracked up to be. My store manager told me the first weekend I worked that it was the last weekend for cruise ships. But they've been docked every weekend since then. Apparently, this really was the last one. We'll see....... But not only that. There were 12,000 people in town for the National Parks & Rec conference. And those were just the attendees! I met presenters that were really cute. ;) Oops - sidetracked! lol

Saturday was a "slow" day - you could see space between the people in the lobby, but still weren't quite sure who was waiting to order and who was waiting for drinks. We kept trying to keep those waiting to order in one line, but the people who were waiting to order coffee didn't want to wait for the people who were buying out the store and vice versa. Sure, why not take home a whole case of tumblers to your friends? Spend $300 in the United States - woo hoo! :) Anyways, it's fun to work there, just a little frustrating at times.

Looks like I'll be doing homework for the rest of the day, so this is it for now.

I'm trying to catch up on my email, so watch your inboxes - especially people like KH, KK, KMC, LD, FS, & RE!!! ;)

who is nada surf?

It always rains in Seattle. But it's kinda nice today.

Today I am supposed to be doing homework, but I got to see Gasworks Park & The Fremont Troll. And now I'm blogging, but Starbucks closes in a half hour, so I can work after that. :)

On Tuesday of last week, I met Stacey outside my building and we walked up to Mama's Mexican Kitchen. It was a cozy little place and the food was yummy. We walked up to The Moore but the list wasn't down to the will call window yet, so we wandered on down 2nd and into Fancy - Pants. I bought a really cute button ring and we befriended the owner. Back to The Moore, the list was down and I was on it and I just had to show ID. THANK YOU DAVE & ADAM!!!!!!

Tristan Prettyman opened. She has an amazing voice and a cute drummer. ;) A short intermission was followed by Nada Surf taking the stage and ROCKING The Moore. I had never heard of them, but they do "The Teenage Handbook of Popularity". Stacey thought their drummer was hot. Another intermissiong and it was time for Guster. Yes, I am from the East Coast. No, I had never seen them in concert. Yes, I know that's sad. But I enjoyed every minute of it! And was totally exhausted by the time it was over. Oh, CDs were only $10, so I bought Nada Surf's newest and also Guster's newest. That was a very fun night. Oh, and Stacey & I agreed that Ryan Miller (Guster, not Sabres!) was very talented, but neither of us thought he was all that cute. ;)

Other than that, things are settling into a routine of sorts. I may even get to learn to knit tomorrow night, but we'll see how the day goes. I have piles of work to do......

really...i'm here...

GREETINGS Y'ALL!!!

I know I gave out this blog to everyone, but then I had to finish packing and then we were driving cross-country and then I had to move in and then I had to unpack and then I started settling and then I started working and today I started school.

(Do you like my run-on sentence?!)

Schedule looks like this:
Monday Morning - Introduction to Computer Graphics *
Tuesday Morning - Color Theory
Wednesday Afternoon - Drawing & Perspective
Thursday Afternoon - Typography **
Thursday Night - Cultural Theory ***

* Using a Mac or Illustrator prior to this class would have come in handy. Instead, I'm getting a crash course in both...
**I am so excited!!!
* & ** I have both of these with Kristen - my new bestest friend because she has a truck and she took me grocery shopping today! :)
*** I am a little concerned about walking home from this one.

I love living in downtown Seattle and working at Starbucks. It is definitely a new experience and one that I am enjoying. I finally have an internet connection, so hopefully I can update more regularly.

P.S. Tomorrow night, Guster is playing in my neighborhood and I HAVE TICKETS!!! (not that I'm excited or anything) :)



This is a Washington State Ferry and me being in the right place at the right time! :)