Transitions for Team Smelkins

Image Credit: someecards.com

Since my last update a few exciting events have occured in the Smelkins household:

• We paid off our car loan!
• Matt left his crappy day job at a big-box retailer. Today was his last day!
• I realized that my temporary, part-time restaurant job has morphed into a year long, full-time commitment that is leaving no room for seeking full-time, meaningful career-type work. So I'm leaving Olga's and this is my last weekend waiting tables!
• Matt had an interview last Monday and a job offer by that Friday to be the newest Quality Assurance Engineer with a local company!
• Matt's starting wage will be larger than our yearly combined income!

Life is changing in a wonderfully strange way. It is awesome that we are both leaving jobs that were killing us to pursue work that we enjoy. Until I find myself an adult job like Matt did, I'm going to continue on-call work with our local DV agency.

Tomorrow Matt and I are going to take the early bus to downtown Seattle to check out the timing and bus route he will be taking to work. Since we'll already be downtown we're going to make a celebratory date-type event out of it! I'm very excited and you can look forward to a picture post detailing our date.

Image Credit: vahidbehzadi.wordpress.com

Gardening Update

Last time I posted, I was writing about local food and gardening and it's about time I updated you on the latter of those topics. We've had quite a bit of sunshine lately in the PNW and the weather is starting to warm up (highs of 60 degrees and lows of 40 degrees)! The advent of spring has slowly started to change the landscape and it's starting to look like the place Matt and I fell in love with when we visited on our honeymoon.

The local flora are taking advantage of the warming weather by putting out buds and flowers by the ton. One of the pacific rhododendrons living in our apartment complex is heavy with beautiful blossoms. Did you know that the pacific rhododendron is the state flower of Washington?

Anyway, about a month ago I planted the potatoes (organic red potatoes that I accidentally let sprout on my counter) and snap pea seedlings (from Lowe's - nothing fancy there). They're both growing great thus far. I even put in some stakes for the snap pea plants to grow on because their little grabby vines were grow all over the place (they're a bush variety so I wasn't supposed to have to stake them but this may be for the best).

Sprouted potatoes just before I covered them with 1" dirt.

Tiny potato plant breaking the soil! (~ 1 month later)

Snap Pea plants just after planting.

Snap Pea plants growing big! (~1 month later)

I won't be doing another round of planting for another month or so but I am really excited about what we already having growing. By my porch I also planted a little patch of echinacea seeds and another patch with a daisy wild flower seed mix. The daisy seedlings are just now poking their little leaves above the surface.

Matt laughs at me every time I drag him outside to show him another seedling but I am so terribly proud of all my little plantlings! I can't help it. I don't think I have a particularly green thumb but I am determined to be a backyard gardener even if we live in a landscaped apartment complex. 

First Day of Spring

How can such a cloudy, drizzley day be the first day of spring? There are no butterflies or bees hanging around our back patio and it's only 44 degrees outside. From what I understand, we won't even get spring time weather for another month here in Seattle. That is a total bummer. 

On the other hand, that fact does give me a bit more time to plan the container garden I am going to start. Since this will be my first time growing plants to eat, I am going to start with easy crops like potatoes, zucchini, baby lettuce, peas, tomatoes and strawberries. I might throw a few herb plants out there too - like mint and lemon balm. I really need to get my on potato and pea planting. Their planting time is now! I'll keep you updated on how things go with the gardening. 

Until then, we will keep enjoying our produce from the Full Circle Farms delivery box we have signed up for. We get fresh, local, organic produce every other week delivered to our doorstep!

Above is a picture of one of our first boxes! We've been getting them since December and it is still amazingly exciting every time. It is always a lovely surprise what produce we get in our box (though you can pick & choose if you want to so it doesn't have to be a surprise). 

I love our produce box because one of my goals in life is to eat locally and this delivery allows me to do so without breaking the bank! Matt and I still run supplemental trips to the grocery store for specific produce and other grocery items but I love the seasonal produce and I keep trying new recipes because of it!

Anyway, I gotta run. More updates later.

How Darkness Came to Cuddle in My Lap: The Story of Erebus

One of my co-workers, who we shall call Bandanna Man, is the most abrasive person I have had the pleasure of working with.* He is fond of glaring at people through the expo window, grumbling about fixing the mistakes of grown-ass adults, and generally harassing everyone around him. Bandanna Man often claims that we (the servers at Olga's) should all be riding the short bus instead of bothering him with our petty problems.

One evening, the food for one of my guest's (a pepperoni pizza - a long ticket item) came out to the table all wrong. I stormed back to the kitchen with the offending pizza in hand, indignant that my guest should have to wait twice as long for their food because of a needless mistake, and shoved the plate back into the window and said, "Bandanna Man - I needed this pizza without cheese!".

"The ticket didn't say no cheese."

And as I distinctly remembered specifying "no chez plz" in the special instructions area of the order I responded with, "YES. IT DID." I was right. I knew I was right. I had to prove I was right.

"No."

"YES. IT SAID NO CHEESE. WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM? CAN YOU NOT READ? I NEED A PIZZA WITHOUT CHEESE. MY GUEST HAS A DAIRY ALLERGY. IT SAID NO CHEESE YOU JERK!!! WHY ARE YO-"

Thank goodness another co-worker dragged me away (forcibly and while I was still screeching) otherwise I would have gotten myself fired (or at least written up) because I had no kind words to utter at that moment in time.

About twenty minutes later, my guest had gotten their cheese-less pizza and my ability to think rationally had returned so I walked back to the kitchen and apologized, "Hey Bandanna Man...I'm really sorry for yelling earlier. It was kind of stupid and uncalled for."

"It's okay. I messed up your pizza on purpose." **

That was not a response I had anticipated. In fact, his response was so absurd that I couldn't do anything but laugh hysterically. Bandanna Man was so rude to me that I decided I wasn't going to talk to him anymore.

So a few nights later, when I was getting off work well past dark and Bandanna Man asked if I need someone to walk me to my car, I was too surprised to say no. I typically deny chivalrous attentions from men, especially my co-workers, because I hate the idea of being some fair maiden who needs rescuing. But Bandanna Man's ninja move got the best of me.

On our way out of the restaurant, I began some idle chit-chat and Bandanna Man began complaining about the bitter cold of early morning dog walking here. Our conversation turned to cats and whether I wanted one and how Bandanna Man's wife had saved a kitty that was abandoned behind Olga's and that they were hoping to find a good home for it.

And all I could think was please give me a kitty! I need the unconditional love and amusement of a pet in this lonely, rainy state. I called Matt to confirm that "yes" was the only answer we were capable of in this situation. Within minutes, I was driving to Bandanna Man's place to take home a half-starved, fur-matted, impossibly adorable stray cat.

Our first cat-venture, was to the vet for a check up. The kitty hadn't previously been microchipped so there was no way to track down any possible owners if she was a runaway. Weighing in at a pathetic 5 lbs, the kitty was assessed to be about 10 months old with good teeth, no incurable health issues, and a sweet tempermant. This meant she could be ours forever!

Good thing too because we had already named her for her potentially beautiful coat. Erebus - a primordial diety in Greek mythology, one that has been around since the beginning of the universe, representing the personification of darkness.

I cannot wait until Erebus has a few more weeks of TLC, because she is going to be beautiful instead of skin and bones. Her coat is going to be long, full, and shiny instead of matted and patchy. At present, Ere (pronounced "airy") spends 60% of her time sleeping, 30% eating, and 10% engaging in sweet kitten-like behavior. She gives us more cuddles and attention then most kitties I've met and I am happy to accept them while her benevolence lasts. She's been through so much and I am pleased that we'll be able to love her back to health and aristocracy.

So thank you Bandanna Man, for your abrasiveness because without it I never would have accepted your kindness and thus never gained the pleasure of cuddling with all that is darkness and shadows and night.

* Just to clarify: This anecdote including Bandanna Man, while being true, in no way fully encompasses our interactions at work or his personality. Bandanna Man is a generally good guy and sometimes a shitty customer service job can make you grumpy and crazy in ways that are very unlike you. I like all of the people I work with, Bandanna Man included. Also, I wouldn't say ugly things about my co-workers on the internet even if I did have ugly things to say.

** Bandanna Man went on to explain that when I went back to the kitchen earlier in the shift to clarify with him that the pizza needed pepperoni but no cheese, that we had miscommunicated. He thought I wanted the pizza to have both pepperoni and cheese and that's what I came back to the kitchen to clarify.

Does this count as a New Year's resolution?

"I'm a strong proponent of having adventures, but only in the name of achieving balance. Stand still for too long and you're restless, run for too long and you're exhausted. The other side of the coin is the static serenity of home. 

If you're prepared to exercise a healthy dose of both daring and caution, the only caveat is this: An adventure without a mission feels a lot like wandering, and wandering - for too long - feels a lot like being lost. The conclusion? You don't necessarily have to look before you leap... just know why you're leaping."  –  Kathleen S., 2011

When I originally imagined moving to a new, faraway, and foreign place, I thought it would be such a life altering adventure. I truly thought that after Matt and I got to WA things would fall into place just the way I envisioned it because obviously, if I was living someplace else than I would stop procrastinating and start doing all of the things I wanted to accomplish with my life.

As you can see, I had a ridiculously unrealistic and romanticized idea of what my life would be like if I were living somewhere else. It was silly for me to assume that my location would change my life so grandly when the biggest piece of the puzzle was still the same – me.

After five months of feeling unsettled, I think I have finally realized what has been missing – a rallying point, a sense of direction for my everyday choices (and a nearby support network to see me through, but I can't have everything, can I?).

When I was in school (as I have been for the past 16 years), most of my choices revolved around my education – what books I would read, what my daily schedule looked like and how much free time I had for extracurriculars and friends. This is the first period of my life not determined by my first day of class, the school holiday schedule, and exam times. I feel lost without the guiding force of the school year.

The days seem to blur together as I aimlessly wander through them towards no particular objective. To remedy my drifting, I am going to embark on a journey, albeit a slow and ambling course, of self-improvement to see me through my days. As a beginning point, I am going to use the product of an exercise that I did with Matt two years ago. What we did was, individually and without conferring, create a list of short & long-term goals we wanted to accomplish (this was to help us evaluate our future plans and make sure there weren’t any huge discrepancies between the visions we had for our shared future).

What I would like is to utilize this blog as a tool to evaluate my progress while keeping in mind the broader goals I want to achieve. Of course, I will be ecstatic to cross off minor goals I achieve along the way but what I really want is for this to be an ongoing project of self-development. To start, I will list the goals as I originally wrote them (last edited 3/2013):

• Make dean’s list
• Don't get pregnant before graduating from college
• Earn a job I love
• Volunteer for a cause I love
• Live up North for one year or more
• Live abroad for one year or more
• Buy local products (meat, seafood, produce)
• Read more nonfiction books
• Become an amateur astronomer
• Become more interested in current events and news
• Become politically engaged
• Stay physically fit
• Plant a flower, herb, fruit and vegetable garden
• Build a house
• Evaluate and develop the spiritual facet of myself
• Develop and maintain relationships better
• Be a supportive lover, friend and coworker
• Don’t get caught up in the insignificant details
• Be a looking glass for others
• Grow up to be a Centenarian (added 8/2012)

A few of these things I have already accomplished, a few are currently in progress, some I haven't even thought of yet and some I will not even begin to tackle for another decade. Regardless, it is nice to see all my life-goal ducklings written in a row – it gives me a sense of purpose. I want to live in a better world, therefore I must begin with being a better person.

"The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands." - Robert Persig

"Action is character, our English teacher always says. I think it means if we never did anything, we wouldn't be anybody." - Jenny Mellor in the movie "An Education"

Wednesday Wise Up - Work & Weather

With no real topic in mind to write about this week, I have only to update y'all on the basic going-ons of life here. The Halloween holiday came and went without making much of a blip on our radar. We went out the weekend prior to a Halloween party where we dressed up as ninjas and attempted chainsaw pumpkin carving (forgot to take pictures, sorry!). On Halloween, we were planning to attend a showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show but I ended up being too sick this entire weekend to go anywhere. Instead Matt stole treats for us from the bowl of untouched candy the neighbors put outside their door and we watched movies.

What we're into this week:

• Matt is playing Dungeon Defenders on his pc and reading Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien in his spare time.
• I'm reading two books
•  The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by John Gottman in an attempt to keep my career-type knowledge and skills from rusting.
• Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love by Betsy Prioleau which is mostly an anthology of mini-biographies of interesting women such as Mae West, Veronica Franco, Wallis Simpson and Catherine the Great. Very fun read!

This week I started my first of six days of training to become a server at a nearby restaurant called Olga's. Olga's isn't the establishments true name but that is how I want to refer to my place of employment on this blog in the interest of not getting fired for writing unseemly things about the patrons, my fellow team members, or the company (not that I anticipate doing so). 

Olga's is a full service restaurant (not just a bar or buffet) so tipping is the normal 15% - 18% of which I am expected to tip out 3% - 5% to bussers and bartenders. This is all very typical and similar to working in a restaurant in Texas except for the fact that even with the tips I take home, I am paid $8.67 per hour (WA minimum wage) instead of $2.15 per hour (TX minimum wage for servers). I am very pleased by this change in server minimum wage though it comes at the higher cost of living here in WA.

At present, my search for a meaningful job opportunity has halted. I have decided to take a few weeks to adjust and become excellent at the job I do have before I begin searching for a second job. This will also give Matt and I the opportunity to enjoy the downtown Seattle scene more without worrying about our dwindling savings account or the school loans I am obligated to begin repaying in December. 

As for Matt, I believe he is enjoying working full time as a geek. He has risen to an unofficial second in command role in his division which increases the stress level of his job, but will hopefully lead to advancement opportunities in the future! Matt and three of his co-workers were selected to attend a series of "Pre-Leadership" meetings with the management team that he has been enjoying and will hopefully give him an extra boost.

In other news, the weather has turned interesting here. Yesterday morning our car windows were covered in a layer of ice and today there was so much fog Matt could hardly see the road. The mornings are chilly (in the 30's) and the afternoons warm up a bit (to the 50's). This morning, we turned on our apartment heater for the first time to warm our Texan fingers and toes. My mother will be so pleased!

That's life!

Eight days into October & this is my first post for the month?

Not sure who to credit this image to. It's all over the net. If you know then please
let me know as I am happy to credit the creator/owner.

So I hate to admit it, but being alone and jobless in a new state several thousand miles away from my closest friends and family is hard. I miss everyone. I miss my old life. I am not admitting defeat, by any means, but I would like to mention (for posterity's sake) that I'm sad. Infinitely normal feelings, I know, but annoying to deal with nonetheless. Which is why the poster depicted above (my current desktop background) acts as a daily reminder that there are things I can do to help turn my mood around.

10 Positive Steps for Mental Health

1. Accepting who you are - I haven't cut my face out of any of the pictures while decorating my apartment, so I think this step is well accomplished.
2. Talking about it - I spend at least 15 minutes a day whining to Matt (poor boy) or one of my lady friends about my loneliness. I try to rotate this support system duty so as not to exhaust any one person's empathy too greatly.
3. Keeping active - I work out at the apartment gym almost every day. Nothing hardcore but at least I am there!
4. Learning new skills - Does learning how to be alone count?
5. Keeping in touch with friends - Snail mail is the best. Checking the mail box is my favorite part of the day thanks to my girls! If you want a letter or little drawing from me, just drop a note in the comments and I'll send one your way!
6. Doing something creative - Hmm, does crafting cover letters count as creative work?
7. Getting involved - I signed up to volunteer with a local organization called Neighborhood House! I hope to get started working with them soon. 
8. Asking for help - I have received incredibly sage advice from my friends, family and supporters. There hasn't been much need to ask for help because it has been given so readily.
9. Relaxing - The library is my friend. Not only is the library only three quarters of a mile away, but they also have e-books available to rent online if I'm too lame to leave the apartment. Reading is my favorite way to relax and escape.
10. Surviving - This one is easy. I just refuse to give up. "Being alive. Best thing there is. Being alive right now is all that counts."

To be honest, this week has been one of the best since we've been here. Loads of great things have happened. We acquired Chuck Testa the beta fish. I got an early look at the gorgeous engagement pictures of my friends B & Mr. E. I received snail mail from my friends JJ, MgB and L. I attended a ladies spiritual small circle at a nearby church. My mom came back from her month long trip to Africa. We were invited to a Halloween party. I cured my insomnia by listening to folk tales read and recorded by my grama at bed time. I made homemade rice milk. We received a care package from the best mother in law in the world (that contained drool-inducing gummi snacks). Matt has the next two days off and we might go visit Mount Rainier. Life is good. So I will leave you with pictures of Chuck Testa the fish.

Chuck Testa swimming like the fish he is.

Chuck Testa posing for the camera like a pretty boy.

New Acquisitions

Hello all! Today is Tuesday which means Matt and I have officially been in our apartment one week. This is exciting but would be more so if our stuff had come in and I could announce that we were all settled in the new place. In reality, we are less than settled with the only furniture we have in our apartment being a folding card table, two folding metal chairs and an air mattress.

Over the weekend, we added a small bookshelf and two lamps to that short inventory! The book shelf only cost us $10 at a yard sale and is in great shape, one lamp was new from Fred Meyer for $6.50 and the other lamp base is gorgeous but doesn't have a cover or light bulb yet (which is why it was only $2 at the yard sale). I love buying items secondhand. It makes me feel better to know that these things get a new lease on life and won't end up in a landfill, especially when they are still in good working condition!

This lamp has an 80's electrical
cord which makes Matt unhappy.
He says apartment fires are bad
even if we have renters insurance.

We had a decent amount of furniture in our last apartment (most gotten secondhand) but we were not attached to many of those items and did not bother to ship them across the country. The few furniture items we did keep were our bed, our bed side table and a folding card table (that came with us in the car instead of traveling in the moving van).

Of all the items we do not currently have, the things I miss the most are from my kitchen. Over the past few years I have grown very fond of cooking and baking. I was originally intending to bring some kitchen items with us in the car for the two weeks we would be here without the bulk of our stuff. Unfortunately, I never got around to it because I knew when it came down to choosing which of my beloved kitchen items would stay in storage and which would be free to come with me, I would panic. I wanted to bring them all! So instead I chose to bring none of them.

Here is a picture of the $4 tea kettle I bought from good will.
When I realized I didn't have any way of boiling water
to make tea, I almost fell over. This was my first household
item that was purchased when we got into our apartment!

Call me crazy, but it seemed the only fair thing to do (I didn't want to hurt the feelings of any of my kitchen supplies!). Currently, we are living off of microwaveable and no cook foods (like fish sticks, sandwiches, granola bars and cereal). Before we left, I nicked a few pieces of mismatched silverware from our old set and we bought some paper plates and compostable cups.

I sure do miss me some home cookin'. Warm and cheesy baked casseroles, mellow melange soup with squash and coconut milk, quesadillas from the george foreman, homemade pizza hot from the oven, birds nests for breakfast, etc, etc. Oh food! I think the first dish I am going to make is this baked blueberry oatmeal recipe I became obsessed with over the summer. It is so good and good for you.

I originally read about this recipe as a peaches and cream casserole but it is so excellent when made with blueberries! It is super easy to tweak for personal tastes too - for a sweeter casserole add more sugar, for a different texture vary the amount of oats/liquid, for a different flavor add a different fruit, for a less creamy version use water instead of milk! I have made all these changes and was never disappointed with the results, but I might be biased by my love of oatmeal!

Sigh. All this writing about food I can't make is making me feel gloomy. Therefore, I shall end with a picture of the flowers I bought to cheer up our new apartment. Enjoy!

This obviously wasn't taken today because there is awesome sunshine in the picture. Today is all clouds .

On the Origin of our Partnership

Call me Alycia. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no life beneath my belt, and nothing in particular to interest me more, I thought I would venture about a little and see what would become of me. Who could have guessed that soon B, the most particular and intensely admirable person in my acquaintance, would be the one to point me towards a life and a partner I could not have imagined better.

There was a puzzle and a dragon and a floor and as ambiguous as that sounds, it was unusually comforting to share those moments in such a volatile time. Soon, Matt became the figure I scanned for in crowds. The face I could not shake from my thoughts.

After a painfully patient courtship, there was a mutually agreed upon dependence that could be put off not much longer. And thus they were happily bound.

Side by side they proceeded through a number of days until an unremarkable evening came to a close. That was when things began to evolve, and with a bathroom proposal (to be expanded upon at a later date) they were set to create a new family unit. The pair were anxious to begin a bout of exploration and since they did not need much, arrangements galore began.

This brings us to today. It is not a complicated or tremendous tale, just the production of several simple decisions by two individuals so relentlessly infatuated with one another that they knew no other way.

Here within lies an ongoing tribute to the trials and triumphs of Team Smelkins, as they so fondly refer to themselves.