Dashing through the snow

Okay, so technically we weren't dashing through the snow since the "blizzard" hit after we were done...but it makes for a cute title.

On St. Patrick's Day, I participated in the St. Pat's Dash for the very first time! It's a race that begins on Mercer street by the Seattle Center, continues down along 99 towards the bridge, and back to the Seattle Center (so just about 4 miles) where the Redhook beer garden awaits you.

My neighbor Anne and I woke up early that morning to start the race at 8:30am. We took off as it started to sprinkle on us, but we welcomed the cooler weather as I was overheating in all my layers. I was especially impressed that we never stopped to walk, and finished the race in 42 min 51 sec. It was pretty fun to take over the roads and run along streets that I usually drive on.

from start...

to finish

People really get into the holiday spirit with all the costumes we saw, and the sea of green lining the streets. We saw a few leprechauns, a few kilts, a pot of gold along with a rainbow, a man chasing a Guinness on a stick dangled out in front of himself, and even someone pushing a grocery cart with Irish car bomb fixings. So much fun!

post Dash pony keg stand

Anne and I hit up the beer garden for our well deserved post race treat and met up with Colleen, Will, and other friends that had also participated in the dash. As we stood indoors trying to keep warm and dry, it started to snow. We watched from under cover as the biggest snowflakes I've ever seen started to cover the grass. Snow in March? Crazy.

most flattering photo ever

snowfall

With the snow really coming down, we all decided to make a break for the cars and get home to a nice hot shower. This meant I was unable to find my cousin Jami who made the trip from Cle Elum for the dash, which was a bummer.

Anne frolicking as we headed to the car

Overall it was a fun time, and already planning for next year!

All About Alpha

This year I decided to become involved with the alumnae chapter of my sorority by joining the board committee as the Communication Chair. I am responsible for keeping the website updated (and hopefully re-designing the entire thing), as well as helping with sending out newsletters and other communications.

At one of the board meetings, I was introduced to Karen, who is heading up a new Chi Omega campaign for the Alpha (University of Washington) Chapter. Since she heard that I have experience in design, she asked if I would please help with creating a newsletter that would be mailed out to all of the Chi Omega alums from our school's chapter. I agreed, not fully knowing the extent to which I was volunteering. The newsletter ended up being a huge project to take on, including all the back and forth changes, editing of content (we went from 12 pages down to 8!), and collecting of photos and quotes. Finally we were able to send the final version to print, and I think it turned out great!

It was pretty cool to receive my copy in the mail. I now have a greater respect for all the mail I receive knowing someone must have put a lot of time and energy into things as insignificant as junk mail. Not saying that this is junk, so if you received it you better read every last word!

Pending...

I have some very exciting news for everyone...I am in the process of purchasing my very first home! I am beyond excited and nervous all at the same time. Everything has gone so quickly, but here is how it all started...

Last year I started toying with the idea of buying my own place for a few reasons...it's a good time to buy, my place is small and cavelike (although the view is amazing), my landlords were putting the house up for sale, and I'm an adult now, and having a mortgage is what adults do. My friend Henry knows everything about real estate, so I asked him if he'd start to keep an eye out for something I may like. He started to email me some places, and I started a list of features that I would want. A little yard, a garage (oh how I long to not park on the street anymore where my car is in danger of drunk drivers and metro buses), an extra room for an office or guests, and in a nice area still close to the city. I also knew I wanted a townhouse as opposed to a house since it would be newer construction and less likely for me to have things to fix or replace.

Then we started looking at places in person. This was the fun part. I love house hunting! I love going into places and seeing how different homes are set up. I should have been a realtor because I could do this everyday. As we saw more and more places, it got easier to weed out the no's as soon as I stepped into it. We looked all over...Ballard, Fremont, Greenlake, Madison Valley, Central District (yikes!), Leschi. Then I decided to check out West Seattle to see if it was a place to consider. As soon as we crossed the bridge and into the cute little neighborhoods, I fell in love. Pair that with cheaper prices and nicer homes, I was sold.

After our day of looking in West Seattle, we went home and Henry did another search. He sent me a link to one town home that we hadn't seen that day that looked nice. We decided to take a look the next day, and this one seemed like a winner. It had a nice fenced in yard, a garage, two bedrooms upstairs each with their own full bath, a laundry room as opposed to a closet with stackable washer and dryer, very nice finishes, and close to the bridge in a cute little neighborhood-y area. I thought about it all week, going back and forth on it. On one hand it had everything I was looking for and was a great price, on the other I had only just started looking in the area and what if another place I liked better would come up? We went again to look the following weekend, this time with Mom and Clint. Seeing it again and getting their opinions sealed the deal and I knew without a doubt I wanted it.

The next day, Henry and I met for lunch to go over the offer he had written up for me and I signed off on it. The next 24 hours were nerve racking. The sellers had received another offer, so there was some back and forth, and even a time where I thought it was gone forever. I don't think I got any work done that day, and probably developed a couple stomach ulcers. Finally Henry called and said they were going to accept my offer! I had a couple more things to initial and sign, but it was starting to set in that it was actually happening. We now have a contract, I paid the earnest money yesterday, and tomorrow is the inspection. If all goes well, I'll be closing on April 17th!

a "pending" flag I'm happy to see!

Rachel's Bachelorette Party

Saturday night we celebrated Rachel's last hurrah as a single lady, and did it up big with a night out on the town! We checked into the Grand Hyatt downtown Seattle that afternoon. Rachel's room was a suite up on the 29th floor with an amazing view of the city. We got ready for the night, and it felt just like old times in the sorority. I borrowed an outfit from Colleen and Kylee used her awesome skills to do my makeup for me. We gathered in the suite once we were all ready for a couple drinks before hailing cabs to dinner.

Colleen, Me, and Jenni

Me and Jecca

Dinner was at Barrio on Capitol Hill, one of Rachel's favorites (and mine too!). We had two big tables set up for us with a special set menu of delicious appetizers and entrees. I actually ended up eating way too much before my meal came, but everything was so good! Topped off with margaritas of course.

Personalized menu

blondes...whatever

girlfriends

we forgot to get a non blurry one :(

Lindsey and Elly

Erica, Jessica, and Sugar Momma

After dinner, we hit up Capitol Hill's gay bar scene and went to Purr, and finished the night dancing at Neighbor's. There was a performance at Neighbor's by Guinevere, who we had never heard of, but who knows...maybe she's the next big thing! She even had her "people" seek out the bachelorette so some of us could go backstage and meet her...briefly...since we were soon told our time was up. We had a fun night, but I can feel myself getting older as I was longing to get back to the hotel and take my heels off. Oh, to be able to party like a twenty year old again.

Guinevere and her dancers

party girl - love this!

The next morning we had room service delivered to the suite, and had brunch as we reminisced about the night before. Plenty of fun memories as we helped Rachel say goodbye to the single life with a bang.

Princess Reese

My lifelong friend Blaine's daughter Reese turned three (or 'free') last month on the 27th, and I unfortunately had to miss her princess themed birthday party. My mom and I decided to pick up some lunch and head over there on Saturday for a visit and to do a little belated celebrating.


the Little Mermaid cake Blaine baked for Reese's party

Reese is hands down the cutest little three year old girl I know. She is so personable, well behaved, and such a fun time. We opened presents, talked about Disney princesses, and learned that Mommy and Daddy like to eat chicken, but rabbits, princesses, and Reese do not. Reese also sang songs and tried on her new clothes for us. We had a fun visit. It's always nice to see Blaine and Paul, and of course little Reese.

Happy Birthday Reesie Boo!

a new monkey purse from my mom

cheese :)

modeling her new leopard poncho and
boots I got her

running super fast in her new 'cape'

playing with her new princess puzzle

The Full 90...plus 3

Yes, that's right. Now that I've been to my first Sounders game, I can use terms like "full 90" and totally sound like I know what I'm talking about. Last night, Clint and I went to the game and cheered (on our feet, in the cold) for the full 90 minutes...plus an additional three for whatever reason (still don't fully understand the rules to soccer). We had a blast! I had gotten the tickets from Boeing. Every now and then an email will go out to the marketing group with giveaways. If you are interested, you send back your name to be entered in the drawing, and the winners are announced later that day. I've scored some pretty cool prizes this way...a smoked salmon gift basket full of all sorts of goodies, a Birth of the 787 Dreamliner book, an Apple Cup scarf, opera tickets, and now charter seats to the Sounders!

Qwest Field...err, the Clink

Being down by the stadium before the game and not having eaten yet, we of course got ourselves some street meat cream cheese hot dogs. So delicious!

like a kid in a candy store...
or a grown man at a hot dog stand

We got to our seats just as the game was starting and were impressed with how close we were! I've never been down close to the field at Qwest before, so that was a fun treat.

4th row!

Sitting in our amazing seats, thanks Boeing!

It turned out to be a great game. Sounders fans really get into it. They stand up the entire time, jump around, wave flags, and have all these different cheers like "go Sounders" "I'm Sounders till I die" and what I could have sworn was "pizz-a-ri-a, clap clap clap-clap-clap" (or maybe that's just what I wished they were saying). After two fights, three goals, and a guy being carried out on a stretcher (only to immediately run back into the game - we were confused) we ended up beating Santos Laguna 2-1!

Head butting it in for a goal!

ref handing out yellow cards after a fight broke out

Great game, Sounders!

Hey Yoga Girl

So, my neighbor Anne and I just started an intro series to vinyasa yoga at Shakti Yoga in Ballard. It's an 8 course class for beginners to learn the basics on breathing and different poses. I've tried hot yoga in the past, but always had a difficult time with it for a few reasons... 1) it's frikken hot in there! 2) I have no idea what's going on when they say things like ujjayi and chakras, and 3) I lose all motivation to continue something I'm not automatically good at. This class seems like the perfect solution! They keep the room at a warm 80 degrees (not upwards of 100 like other classes I've taken), and start at the beginning to teach you the poses and make sure you are doing them correctly. In fact, the instructor told us last night to not be disappointed if we were just sitting around and watching for a majority of the first class (sounds like my kind of workout!).

I'm really looking forward to the rest of the class. It seems like a nice way to take an hour and a half out of the day to clear your mind and do something good for your mental and physical health. Plus, it gives me a reason to buy more lululemon workout clothes!