Saturday Share: Thanksgiving come and gone, Wedding!, and Making Friends is Hard To Do

I've been a little neglectful of you, blog world. But my real life has felt super crazy as of late. Do not fear!, I have plenty to update you on but don't expect much insightful commentary. I just don't know if I have it in me tonight. 

Also, just to let you all know, Matthew and I lost the charger for our camera battery. So all the pictures in this post are from our camera phones. Not the most spectacular pictures, but at least they're somethin'!

Okay. So let me start with what has kept me away from you all for so long:

The enchanting wedding of Mr. & Mrs. E (officially!). This wonderful couple was married the Friday after Thanksgiving which made the holiday super hectic and extremely memorable. I felt so special and blessed to be able to share this day with my friends because it had been too long since I had seen the lovely pair AND now we we have newly wed friends! I was so excited to be in their wedding party (my very first time!) and I even did a reading during the ceremony (such a beautiful reading - click here to read). 

During my reading in the ceremony, I proceed to blush violently all over my chest, neck and face (which I didn't notice but is pretty typical for me). After the departing processional, the wedding coordinator hunted me down and gave me cortisone cream because she thought I was breaking out in hives (I'm sure most of the crowd thought so too)! But really, the wedding was amazing and I loved all the Persian dancing. What great memories for everyone to look back on!

While in Houston for the wedding, some of my family was able to drive in to visit which eased the sting of spending my first Thanksgiving away from them. I have been very diligent in requiring my thoughts to not linger on the strangeness of spending holidays without my family of origin (and I know Matt feels similarly). I am so thankful to my mom and grama for coordinating the trip and bringing along my favorite niece!

There were only two major downsides to this trip. Matthew wasn't able to come with me to see our friends and family. Obviously, getting Black Friday as your day off is impossible in the retail world. This also meant the poor boy had to spend thanksgiving by himself (playing video games and eating burritos). The second major pitfall was that there was not enough down time amidst the madness to get in as much super quality friend time that I wanted. Le sigh. You can't win 'em all, eh?

Travelling over the Thanksgiving holiday wasn't as awful as I thought it might be. However, my flight to Houston left 30 minutes later than scheduled so I nearly missed my connecting flight in DFW. I must say, I love running through airports at top speed. My flight back to Seattle was uneventful except for the fact that I forgot how long it takes to wait in line to check a bag - I almost missed this flight altogether because I didn't allot enough time before take off to get myself checked in (I was the last person to board the plane).

On the flight back, there were clear blue skies until we hit the Washington state border (I swear!). Then all I could see from my window seat was clouds and fog. Before we landed, the pilot was giving us an update on the local time and weather and said it was a "nice day" in Seattle with overcast skies and 50 degree weather!

Now it is back to work making money AND friends! Matt and I are both trying really hard to cultivate new friendships to help make us feel more at home in WA. It's not easy when all I can think about is how awesome my friends down South are. In the past, I wasn't so intensely aware of how hard it is to form friendships because school was always the perfect venue to create bonds with other people my age. But now that we have both graduated, we are having to seek other ways of building a support system.

In an attempt to follow through on this notion, we were brave little socialites last night. We were invited to a karaoke bar with a few of my co-workers from Olga's and decided to tag along. At first, things felt a little awkward but the night ended up being a lot of fun for both of us. Karaoke may not be soul searching conversation, but it was a step in the right direction.

Yesterday, I got off work annoyingly early so I had 3 hours to kill before picking Matt up from work. So I drove down to a nearby park to hike around and enjoy the partly sunny day! Here are a few pictures from my trip:

Oh the views from the Seattle Coast!

Such a pretty area!

Wild mushrooms I saw - Anyone know if they're edible?

Fern plants growing from the tree. Strange!

All bundled up in my winter coat and gloves, I hiked around the few miles of trails for about 2 hours. I enjoyed the quiet, the fall leaves under my feet, and the way the trail meandered the small plot of forest in the middle of a city. I was looking forward to stopping by the beach at the end of my hike to watch the sunset over the Puget Sound. I could already tell it was going to be a gorgeous sunset by the orange colored forest floor I was walking on.

As I got nearer to the beach, I saw a park ranger truck slowly driving around and then heard him calling into his megaphone, "Will the owner of the white Toyota please report back to their vehicle. The park is now closed and your vehicle will be locked inside." Eeeek! I panicked, flagged down the ranger, and ran back to the parking lot to collect my car. Apparently the park closed at 4pm and he had already been waiting 15 minutes for me. 

Unfortunately, in my rush to leave and not be locked inside the state park, I completely missed the sunset. I was really bummed about missing out but eagerly anticipate other trail rambling adventures (that will include better park sign reading).

Also, since I am posting pictures, here is one from a few weeks ago when we were experiencing relentless rain. The ground was so saturated that the water started to flood our back sidewalk and courtyard area.

 Another older picture we took on a walk around a nearby neighborhood. I love this mailbox made in the shape of an airplane! Too cute!

Well, I'm sorry this post wasn't more coherent or inclusive. I feel as if so much has happened in the past two weeks. I will be better in the future about updating more often, promise. I have three days off in a row next week, so expect some introspection then.

What we're into this week:

• Matt is playing Skyrim (still) and Saints Row: The Third, which I think is an absolutely ridiculous game but he is really enjoying.
• I'm reading Stephen King's The Eyes of the Dragon. This is my first time reading a Stephen King novel (not counting Duma Key that Matt and I listened to on our insanely long drive to WA) and I am enjoying the experience. King has a unique writing style.
• Here is a quote that has been roaming around in my thoughts lately, "A straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting." From the show Doctor Who, stated by the Third Doctor.