The Olympics are on.

So I've been working full time on a typical schedule for the last month+ and I quickly learned I don't have nearly as much time or energy to put into this as I once hoped.  I often think of creative topics to blog about during the day, then I never have the motivation.  So instead, this will probably continue to be a "update" blog.  Which I'm okay with, but don't really love.  Which is ironic because my favorite blogs to read are the ones that don't have a rhyme or reason and are usually just little vignettes into people's lives. 

So here we go... 

Since Mason and I returned from the holidays we've been graced with a visit from his mom, both of my parents, and his dad and girlfriend are coming this upcoming week.  It's be awesome showing people around and forces us to actually explore this city on the weekends instead of our default sleep-in, run, grab beers, sleep, repeat.  We dragged his mom to the Fremont market when she was in town. I don't think it was her favorite but I realized I never explained that it was kind of a junk/flea market.  Most people aren't interested in digging through other people's old, dirty crap like I am.  But digging through trash is worth it when you come across this gem of vintage postcards from the other side of the country!

So as I mentioned, I officially joined the adult career world of benefits and fiscal payment described in terms of years.  It's certainly kind of crazy, but it also doesn't feel nearly as adult as I expected.  The most adult part is that for the first time, instead of thinking about every way possible I can spend my new income before it's in my account, I get excited thinking about making loan payments in advance and pillowing my IRA.  Who am I?  Anyway, my one "splurge" purchase to celebrate was a kindle upgrade to the Paperwhite.  Totally worth it.  Except that now I no longer have the time or desire to read.  How ironic.

I swear my vision has become severely worse since moving here though.  I'm worried it's because of the lack of sunlight... but maybe that's just paranoia.  Either way, reading on the paperwhite instantly solves this.  Speaking of no sunshine.... 

... I am convinced the "Seattle Weather" is all a ploy to get people to stop moving here.  Because the weather has been pretty damn awesome. I actually took both of the pictures above. On my phone.  How amazing, right?

Oh, here's evidence of those typical weekends I said Mason and I have become accustomed to.  I made a New Year's Resolution on both our behalf's to try a different brewery every weekend.  That way we are forced to explore the 2734928374 located in the Seattle area.  But more importantly, we can know what is awesome and what is total shit when we are at the grocery store, staring at the wall of 2734928374 beers.

My dad sent me this awesome "Squeezebox" that hooks up to my stereo and wireless and plays Rhapsody, Spotify, internet radio (helllllooooo KEXP), and all music on my computer.  It's kind of amazing. 

Isn't he handsome?  He looks so youthful sometimes.  Just another one of those terrible PNW days....

We officially converted to the "micro-can."  It was surprisingly easy and we haven't actually filled it once. 

He loves the heat.  It's hilarious watching how close he gets to our space heaters and the fire. 

Now that we finally have two incomes in this household, we've been spoiling ourselves with some oysters every now and then.  It makes me miss Charleston every time :(

Life Lately: it's been busy

Flew down to LA before Christmas for one last visit before my BFF got married. 

Geeked out on some Schulzie's bread pudding. LOVE Shark Tank!

Of course visiting my favorite place in the world (only kind of joking)... Bev Hills.

Randomly went to a terrible metal show at the Whiskey.

And made some new friends while perfecting the LA gang sign.

Seattle got snow! (PS this is our house. Isn't it charming?)

...but we were in Florida enjoying these lights.

Insane lights, right?

"Santa" went overboard having Mason in Florida.

I read the best book of the year.  Actually, make that the best book of the last 10 years.

Mason caught his first fish.

We visited Winston-Salem.

And celebrated a bachelorette New Year's Eve.

...before the wedding

...after the wedding.

Attractive group huh?

I [finally] built something to hold my records, and may have collected a few more.

Mason and I went running through a crazy hail storm thinking it was normal for Seattle....

And we've started the ultimate Yahtzee tournament, of two. 

An exciting year

I never like it when people vow to make a year their "best year" because shouldn't every year be better than the last, ideally? Of course I anticipate 2014 being an awesome year and I'm making some mental changes to make sure that happens, but I also don't want all the other years in life to go down hill after this one's over, right?  So maybe I'll vow to make 2014 my "best year YET."  2013 was pretty damn exciting though.  I finished grad school, which I honestly consider one of my greatest personal achievements.  We got engaged, an idea I had kind of come to terms with never actually doing. We moved across the county, made friends, and started to create a life together here. That's pretty damn exciting.  But I have to admit- I had to remind myself all of this several times over the last month or so.  I don't know if it was the job hunt, the dark short days, or being away from my close friends and family (probably a combination of all three), but I was getting downright depressed and negative which is totally out of character.  I was convincing myself I would never find a job and that I had nothing to be happy about, even when I had opportunities opening up right in front of me and a healthy and loving group of friends and family that I knew I should be thankful for.  But you know what, I think things like that just happen sometimes.  It's easy to get into a funk where you feel worthless and have no energy, but if you keep telling yourself it's okay and don't do anything about it you start to have a problem.  So after an abrupt come to jesus moment this past december, spurred by a much needed trip to visit my BFF in LaLaLand following one of the more emotionally and mentally stressful weeks of my life, I made a promise to myself to genuinely take steps to stop being scared and caring what other people think. Anxiety is good, stress and fear are not.  Anxiety comes from having options and choices.  Fear prevents me from moving forward.  I'm kind of wondering right now why I decided to make this my first post on this blog in over a month, but whatever, that's where I've been and my positive, optimistic outlook is back. So I guess watch out, 2014.

Tis the Season!

Our tree was up before Thanksgiving and I've been playing Christmas music since November 1st, but after Thanksgiving the Christmas season really started to take off.  I spent Thanksgiving weekend finishing up a knitting project I started back in February.  This is the first thing I have ever knitted and I knew it would take me forever so I planned accordingly and used Christmas colors.  It isn't quite was I was going for... but my technique has improved and now I'm on a roll.

All around Seattle, signs of Christmas have started to appear...

Thanks to a crazy cold front last week we even got a few glimpses of snow!  Apparently it never snows out here and when it does it never lasts.  Most people would hardly even consider this dusting "snow" but because I'm a Floridian at heart this small amount on the roof tops made my day.  A really cool aspect of living on the coast is the mild climate year round with the ability to drive only 30 minutes East for some real snow.  This past weekend we went to Leavenworth, WA, to experience the Christmas Lighting Festival.

Leavenworth is a small town in the Cascade Mountains about 2 and a half hours from Seattle.  The whole "village" has Bavarian themed architecture which gives it a bit of a kitschy feel but also makes it a perfect destination for a quick weekend trip.  They do a huge Oktoberfest in the fall but I think the Christmas festival is an even bigger deal so we had to check it out.  The drive up was beautiful and covered in snow, but driving back down the mountain in the dark was a bit more treacherous. 

In true form, most of the food is German themed and we enjoyed some amazing Brats.  I was expecting the whole Christmas festival to be mostly families with children so we were surprised that the most popular form of transportation to the festival seemed to be party buses coming from Seattle and Olympia with hoards of drunk adults. It was literally almost uncomfortable seeing grown women in the 50's wasted taking Facebook pictures and Instagram selfies while yelling at the top of their lungs about not wearing underwear....

The lights are lit all at once at 4:30 and literally every surface of the town is covered.  It really becomes quite magical, at the risk of sounding cheesy.  But even an entire adorable town covered in lights complete with Christmas carolers can't keep me happy when it's only 6 degrees outside.

Tuesday night Mason and I walked up the street to the Woodland Park Zoo which is conveniently located in our neighborhood for their "Wildlights" Christmas lights.  I've been looking forward to these lights since we moved here and they started advertising it.  I'm not a huge zoo fan in general because I think they're kind of depressing.  But living so close, Mason and I both wanted to check it out at least once, if only to see the penguins.  Usual admission is somewhere in the $20 range for adults, but during Wildlights you can get in for $9.  Granted most of the animals are away for the night, but that's fine.  We were still able to see the penguins and walk around the lit up zoo which was kind of cool, but also still not worth the $9.  There weren't any Holiday themed lights and the highest lights only reached like 12 feet, so it seemed kind of low budget but it was still a nice way to spend a week night walking around the zoo with some hot drinks.

Thanksgiving

Well we didn't end up going camping for Thanksgiving.  It was too damn cold and the thought of not being able to gorge ourselves on the traditional foods just didn't sound that appealing once the week of Thanksgiving came up.  Instead, we went to Silverdale again to spend the day with Ellen's family and it ended up being the perfect way to spend the day.

We started off the day with a ferry ride to Bremerton, hometown of Ben Gibbard, which explains why he was on our ferry.  Our friend Chris was actually brave enough to talk to him and ask for a picture.

The view from Ellen's parent's house is amazing.  Apparently they watch orca whales from their kitchen window at the right time of year!?  No orcas on Thanksgiving but we did get to see this amazing sunset over Rainer.

Naturally I FaceChatted with the family and received a few festive snaps from my sister who seemed to be enjoying herself in Florida.

For the first time in at least 5 years I went out on Black Friday to brave the crowds of consumerism. 

This year was Mason's first black Friday experience and he was less than thrilled (although totally gung-ho before we left at the promise of Belgium waffles and festive drinks).  Our mission and sole purpose of leaving the house was the goal to try to find Mason a wedding suit marked down for a crazy sale.  But the deals weren't really that good and Mason has proportions like a monkey so we didn't have any luck but did end up bowling in Capitol Hill right as the stress of shopping would have destroyed an otherwise awesome day.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing by a trimmed tree with a roaring fire watching football and drinking spiked egg nog.  Not too bad at all.