Updates, answers, and the like

Hello 2013! Excuse my absence from this little blog, I've been quite busy wallowing in the winter weather and sleeping 10 hours every night. Spring has reluctantly arrived and there are a few sunny days most weeks now which has given me extra energy to pour into this space.

Matt is still working for a local company as a quality assurance engineer and he rides the bus to downtown Seattle 5 days week. I was working part time at a local domestic violence agency, but as of April 2nd I will be a full time staff member of the part of the agency that runs a shelter for abused women and children.

I'm absurdly excited (and only a teensy bit anxious) about transitioning to full time. In my mind, this is my first "adult" job because I will be eligible for benefits, accrue vacation time, have sick pay, etc. It only took 23 months after graduating from college and 19 months after moving to Seattle to get here, but they say life is a journey.

I also applied for graduate school in January and finally heard back about admissions early this morning. I didn't get accepted. And while that distresses me a little, I'm also relieved. I had just accepted a full time job and I was unsure of how I would juggle both commitments. In addition, the path to become a licensed social worker isn't exactly a short one. It requires 2 or 3 years in school and 2 to 5 years to get all the supervised hours and then you've got to take a competency test before you're officially licensed.

The idea of starting a graduate program became this huge commitment hovering over me that I wasn't sure I wanted to make, but who says "no" to something they've already said "yes" to so many times? Not being accepted was a reprieve in many ways, but I was also majorly disappointed. Several times I have asked myself, "What the heck? Why didn't they want me? I am AMAZING." But more often than not I have said to myself, "Thank goodness, now we can move back home whenever we want."

I wouldn't mind committing to the PNW for another year or two, but the idea of being here for 2+ more years is stressing me out. I've had numerous anxiety attacks about being stuck here for the duration of graduate school, or being unable to get back to Texas if I became pregnant, or being trapped here by job opportunities we couldn't pass up. Now I feel like there is one less obstacle blocking our path to getting to where I see us in 5 years: surrounded by our support network of family and friends.

Downtown Date Success

Our downtown date was a success! The bus ride took about an hour both ways, but it was nice to be able to read instead of having to drive during rush hour traffic. We enjoyed walking around, people watching and getting to eat two meals out at a restaurant in one day! 

Ere relaxing while I pack boxes just before our move!

Matt and I on the bus to downtown Seattle bright and
early. We're testing out his commute to his new fancy job!

Street art near Pioneer Square.

Matt at breakfast in this little diner/deli. Delicious omelettes!

Me at breakfast enjoy the fresh brewed coffee!

Strange street art taking up several parking spaces, which I think
might have been the point. 

Apparently it was pedestrian participation preferred so I tied
some hot pink strings to other strings.

Outside the downtown Seattle library. I <3 libraries!

Down the strangest hallway I've ever seen.

So bizarre.

Oh dewey decimal system, why must you make me laugh?

Our new Ferris Wheel that cost $14 pp to ride. Absurd!

Intense street preacher who basically said that we're all going to hell.

Near Pike's Market Place

Guerrilla gardening!

 

Beecher's handmade cheese. Yum!

Flowers I picked from the garden :)

Team Smelkins Moves. Again.

How often does this stable couple move in the first 16 months of their marriage? Three. So far. It could be more, but dear god I hope not.

With the way our old lease ended and new lease began, Matt and I had 36 hours to move our stuff, profusely clean our old space, and crash into our new place. And I can honestly say this is the only time I wished that we had more deadbeat friends who had nothing better to do than haul boxes up and down a half flight of stairs in exchange for a big meal and a cold beer.

My favorite quote from our moving experience came from Matt when he was driving the 14ft U-haul across town and excitedly shouted "I'm in a big orange tank!" And let me tell you, it felt like we were driving around in a tank so he wasn't exaggerating. Our tiny Corolla will never be the same to us after the power of a tank.

On the bright side of this madness, Matt and I will be able to celebrate meeting my life goal of living up North for a year or more in our shiny new apartment. Hooray! We're in a slightly smaller space than our previous apartment, but we now have a washer & dryer in unit and that was completely worth the sacrifice in square footage. Our new complex is very cute and we live right by the amenities so that Matt can easily continue his evening workouts.

The only downside we've discovered is that our apartment has an east facing window in the bedroom. This means we get oodles of early morning light in our bedroom while we're still trying to catch up on beauty sleep! I've bought some curtains to put up, but we need to borrow/purchase a drill before we can set them up. I'm not sure how excited I am about Matt operating power tools in the near future....

Work, work, work for the busy bee

Oh my goodness. Where to begin?

Things have been crazy hectic on my end, hence the lack of updates. Two days after Matt and I celebrated our anniversary, my mom came to stay with us for a week. We acted like tourists and took in all the sights and ate delicious food. White truffle pesto, Dungeness crab, a double chocolate cookie lavender ice cream sandwich, calamari steak, lavender lemon cookies, figs on pizza, and  the list goes on and on. It was an interesting to see my life and this city through someone else's eyes.

Immediately after my mom left town, I started working part-time on-call relief (8 – 24 hours per week on average) for the domestic violence shelter (DV) I had been volunteering with since January. New jobs are never easy, especially ones that deal with crisis work, and DV is no exception. This position has been amazingly exciting and absurdly stressful but I am incredibly happy to be with such a wonderful agency doing work that I am proud of.

My part-time serving job at Olga's has morphed into a full-time position with the change in management in May. We got a new general manager (who is wonderful) and lost half the serving staff within a few weeks (not everyone enjoys change). Olga's is in the process of hiring and training new people, but nothing happens quickly in a corporate company so until then we're all sharing the strain with fewer days off, busier work days and shorter breaks.

Between being full time at Olga's, part time with DV, keeping my volunteer hours with Planned Parenthood and commuting across the metropolis, I have been a very busy bee. It's fun to have a full planner again, but I'm ready to find a balance that leans a bit more towards the leisure side than I'm currently sporting (more hiking in my Seattle summer please!).

Matt has been wonderfully supportive and is often the only reason I survive the madness of daily life. Our kitten Ere and her adorable furry face being survival mechanism #2. When these things aren't quite curing the insanity, I take several big deep breaths and just let it go. Life moves on.

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and
absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall
begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."
-Emerson

#SeaSnow

Seattle is undergoing some really intense weather. We've had freezing temperatures and snow storms and sleet and ice storms the past few days. The power has gone out at our places of employment and at some of our co-workers homes (but not for us, thank goodness!).

We are grateful that Matt's work is closed because of the power outages and hope that my evening work shift will be canceled as well. I really don't wish to be driving on these roads, especially after dark. Our tiny car was not built to handle such wild conditions, nor have I much experience with them. (Update: my shift tonight was cancelled!)

We are safe and warm right now. Drinking lots of hot tea & hot chocolate, eating chili & oatmeal. Thank goodness I stocked up on food and good library books a few days ago! Thus far, we are enjoying being snowed in and are hoping to remain so until the weather & road conditions become more reasonable.

The winter wonderland we woke up yesterday!

When the snow was just beginning....

Snow on all the plants & cars

Sledders in our backyard

The snow after the sledders got to it. It melted some yesterday
& then refroze during the night. The snow isn't so soft and fluffy anymore.

Finally we were brave enough to venture out for a few minutes!

Ice clinging to the tree branches.

Icicles on the bushes

Back indoors with my cookie monster feet to keep me warm!

Saturday Share - Why does the sun hide from me? And other life updates

I have never been more aware of the sad, sad fact that it gets dark early in the North. Last weekend was day light savings which is a time change that never much mattered to me in Texas! In Washington, the sun starts it's rise about 5:30 - 6:00am. Around 2:30pm there are looong shadows on the ground. By 3:30 the sun has officially set. By 5:00pm it is as dark as night time in the city gets which completely messes with my sense of time. And this awful scenario is a day with sunshine!

If it is cloudy all day, then the sunrise is grey, day time is light grey, and night time is extra dark because the clouds block out the moon & stars! I could have been told every single day of my childhood that this is what it was going to be like to live in WA and I never would have been able to wrap my mind around this experience without living it. Why does the sun hide from me? Is this a punishment!?

For many people, the weather directly affects their mood but when you live in a cloudy place like Seattle, you just can't be that type of person. Luckily, I don't think the weather heavily influences my moods (although the lack of sun does make me feel a little extra crazy) but I am positive that it influences my cooking and baking.

Now that the temperature is pretty regularly in the 40's I find myself craving hot foods and beverages more often that not. Baked sweets are making regular appearances in my kitchen crazes - homemade cinnamon rolls, baked apples, sweet potato muffins, banana bread. I am unsure if I am baking to warm the apartment or so that I can eat comfort foods because I am secretly upset about the lack of sunshine, but either way, it is delicious and Matt has requested that it continues!

Today at the store I bought anjou pears, pomegranates, gala apples and Wisconsin cranberries and it felt so nice to be buying seasonal produce. Hopefully we will soon become a part of the community supported agriculture movement here in the area. Maybe we could visit local farms and have farm fresh produce delivered to us! This a hope for the near future so I should probably do more research...

Anyway, work has been very work-like for both of us. We had a Veteran's Day special yesterday at Olga's so we were busy and things were hectic on my 2nd first day waiting tables. I forgot how exhausting it is to run around a restaurant but I am happy to be working! Matt's company is preparing for the Black Friday crush of patrons. Oh consumerist culture, how I dislike you yet desperately need you for my family's livelihood.

Since we only have one car for the two of us, I created a car sharing calendar to keep us organized that we have posted on our cork board wall. We both have varying weekly schedules, so I make it at the beginning of each week and plan out with Matt how to share the car. Neither of our work places are far from where we live - both are between 3 & 5 miles. The difference lies in the fact that there is a bus route directly from our apartment complex to Matt's work. Unfortunately, there isn't a bus route to my work - I would have to catch a second bus and still walk 1/2 a mile to the building.

Fairly often, I am able to drop Matt off and pick him up from work after my shift ends. Sometimes our schedules don't mix and he has to take the bus to or from work (which isn't a very cheap option - it's $2.25 a ride on the route Matt takes). Sometimes I feel guilty because I am sure one or both of us could ride our bikes to work and that would be more eco-friendly than car sharing. Call me a pansy if you like, but it is freaking cold and wet outside. I might try my bike it if it was only one or the other of those ugly weather conditions but together they make riding a no go. So far, we haven't had any glitches with this system of sharing and I hope it stays that way!
 

What we're into this week:

• Matt is playing Skyrim and enjoying most every second.
• I'm reading Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb the second in a series called the Rain Wild Chronicles. It's a pretty decent fantasy novel. Nothing to make my inner fangirl squee but I look forward to the sequel, City of Dragons, which doesn't come out until February 2012.

Well, that's what I have to share today. Keep your eyes peeled for a post celebrating our 6 month wedding anniversary soon! Much love to you all.

Keepin' it classy with bikini-clad baristas

Picture Source

Seattle is well known for its love of coffee. And yes, the rumors are true that a coffee shop (typically a Starbucks) graces most major intersections and destinations. Additionally, there are a multitude of family owned coffee shops in the area and the one nearest to me is called Haven Espresso. They serve a delicious cup of coffee and amazing specialty drinks like caramel macchiatos!

What I find most interesting about this local coffee shop is that they emphasize being a family friendly establishment. Well, of course they're a family friendly shop - they sell coffee and pastries! What could be risqué about coffee and pastries?

Picture Source

Then, one day when Matt and I were gallivanting around our neighborhood we ran across Sweet Cheeks. This hot pink building had a line of cars at the drive thru and, suspiciously, the patrons we saw were all male. Once we crossed the street to get a closer look, we could see the sign more clearly and realized it was called Sweet Cheeks Espresso (the espresso part of the title being in tiny lettering) and the product for sale was coffee!

We were a little wary of the place with all that hot pink paint, so instead of going inside Matt and I walked home and scoured the internet for more information. That is when we learned about the bikini barista trend that started in Seattle in the early 2000's. A bikini barista is exactly what the title claims - a woman who prepares and serves coffee-based drinks while dressed in a bikini, lingerie or other revealing clothing item.

Seattle is keepin' it classy and innovative with the conception of bikini baristas, who I am sure make business very profitable indeed. The message board at Sweet Cheeks always has something sassy to say like "2 girls for a quickie morning" or "so good you'll come twice a day". Oh and did I mention the drink sizes are "A cup", "B cup", "C cup" and "Money Shot". Really. See the picture below. 

Picture Source

There are about 60 bikini espresso stands in the Seattle/Tacoma area according to a few internet listings. Some are cleverly named and some are just raunchy: Baristas Gone Wild, Brewlesque, Grab N Go Bikini Hut, Hot Chick a Latte, Java Juggs, Lace n' Lattes, Moulin Brew, Natte Latte, Pink Spot Cafe, Twin Perks Espresso. The list goes on.

The bikini espresso stand nearest us has not been in trouble for any illegal activities, but other stands have been caught in prostitution scandals over the years. Now really, these places are no worse than a Hooter's or Twin Peaks or similar establishment but they still bother me. Below is a music video for the song "Bikini Barista" by a Seattle band called Quickie. The video features baristas from Cowgirls Espresso and gives an accurate depiction of what the craze is all about.

In my opinion, sex is not and should not ever be considered a commodity. While these bikini baristas may feign selling a decent cup of coffee, I cannot help but think they have other "products" that are being purchased more frequently. Sure bikini espresso shops signs boast hilarious innuendos, the names of the coffee creations and stands are cheeky but I still can't agree with the worker uniforms (or lack thereof). People have the right to buy their coffee from scantily clad women if they like, but I am going to vote with my dollar and stick with family friendly coffee shops. Your thoughts?

Today, success tastes like spinach & artichoke dip

At dinner the past two nights, Matt and I have enjoyed spinach and artichoke dip. It has been delicious and tastes exactly like success to me. Can you guess why? If you thought it had anything to do with being able to cook in my apartment with my own dishes again, then you would be correct! Hoorah!

Our beloved stuff finally made it to Washington and I can quit whining about eating off paper plates (remind me to hate myself for that later on). When the moving men were bringing our stuff into the apartment I was jumping around like a crazy monkey! Interestingly, our belongings arrived in more style than we did. See!

Hello big truck that is double parking all my neighbors!

This seems a bit excessive for our tiny amount of stuff but apparently,
they had several families worth of stuff.

And just for giggles here is a picture of Matt taking a picture of me from
our ground floor bedroom window!

Yes, did I ever mention that Matt and I are actually down a half flight in the building? It is very strange thing staring at people's feet as they walk by. Typically, houses in Texas don't even have basements so it is bizarre that buildings in the ground are normal even in apartment complexes here! Ah, the strange things to become accustomed to when you live up North.

Can you guess the very first room of stuff that I unpacked? The kitchen. Yes, I missed my dishes more than my books and I am not afraid to admit it. The first thing that we ate was cereal - from legitimate bowls instead of out of a cup! After that, we moved on to a real meal - homemade spinach and artichoke dip with toasty bread. 

I have copied the recipe we used below, in case you get the urge to bake yourself up a batch of this tasty dip. We adapted the recipe from a vegan cookbook of all places, because this version is definitely not vegan! There are a million recipes out there for this dip, so by no means will I promise you this one is the best. But for today, this spinach and artichoke dip tastes just like success.

Spinach & Artichoke Dip

6 servings 

Ingredients:

3/4 cup tightly packed fresh spinach

3/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1 cup mozzarella cheese

1.5 tsps lemon juice

16 oz canned, drained artichoke hearts (If you use marinated artichoke hearts then you may not need or want to add the spices listed below. Be sure taste test before baking to ensure good flavor!)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

1/2 tsp paprika

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor (or a blender would work), blend all the ingredients except a 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese until well mixed. Taste test for tastiness and adjust the spices and ingredients as necessary. Then spoon thick mixture into a greased 8x8in casserole dish and top with the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until bubbly. Once finished, allow to cool for a few minutes before digging in (if you can stand the temptation!) with toasty bread, crackers or chips! 

And for those of you who are interested, I did a quick write up of this version on nutrition data. So if you would like to check out the nutrition facts or calorie count, you can do so here. Also, do any of you have a spinach and artichoke dip recipe you would like to share? I hear lots of recipes include cream cheese or mayonnaise.

Please let me out of this car

Route Map thanks to Google Maps!

As I posted previously, Matt and I made it safely to Seattle. We drove the 35 hours and 2,083 miles in 3 days. When we were picking our route we decided to travel West out of Texas to New Mexico then Northwest through Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Oregon before reaching Washington. This way, we could see as much of the U.S. terrain as possible and the route had plenty of small towns to stop at for snacks and gas.

The view in Colorado from the car

Unfortunately, picking this route meant we spent half of the first day just trying to get out of Texas! That darn state is ginormous and there isn’t a lot to see in West Texas besides cattle. After that we hit New Mexico, which has even less to see from the highway but at least we were allowed to travel at 75 mph. The creepy barrenness of New Mexico convinced us it would be best to stop in Albuquerque a few hours early for the night or face being stranded in the desert at night once we got too tired to drive.

On our second day, we drove through more of dusty New Mexico then we hit a dramatic biome change when we came to Colorado! For a bit we were surrounded by mountains, green trees and motorcyclists. Soon after that we reached Utah and enjoyed more canyons and dust. We were determined to get really far on the second day so we drove on to Twin Falls, Idaho where the air reeks of cow poo. It was well past dark when we reached our hotel thus it wasn’t until morning when we were leaving Twin Falls that we noticed the HUGE Snake River Canyon we had driven over last night just outside of the city. Ahh! What a sight to see and drive over in the early morning.

Apparently they have quite a few dairy farms in Idaho, which explains the heavy scent of cow pies on the air. We saw (instead of just smelled) the dairy farms on our drive and enjoyed debating about what kind of food was growing in all the farm fields we passed by. The next state we drove through was Oregon which was fairly similar to Idaho as far as we could see. We did learn that Oregon is a full service ONLY state (Oregon and New Jersey are the only two full service states in the U.S.) and that Matt hates the idea paying a premium price for someone else to pump his gas.

Halfway through day three we FINALLY reached the Washington state border. Once we crossed the Washington border the scenery began beautiful quickly. We drove through Washington wine country and enjoyed seeing all the vineyards and fruit trees. The last few hours we spent driving through Washington took the longest and were the most painful to drive just because we were so desperate to reach Seattle! We were counting down the miles there at the end.

Such a welcome sight!

Our drive was not full of misadventure (which I am so thankful for) considering how we packed our car full of necessities and had two bikes strapped to the back. If I could do this trip again, I would bring better tunes to listen to and better snacks to eat while we drove. We supported Subway consistently, drank Jamba juice for dinner twice and ate enough gummi worms to make me want to vomit.  In truth, the drive was not nearly as awful as I thought it would be. Matt and I made wonderful car buddies and switching off driving every 3 hours helped to keep us from going looney until the very end. Also, I think the Stephen King novel, titled Duma Key, we listened to was the key to our success because whenever we ran out of words for one another we could always travel to Duma Key, Florida and pretend we weren’t trapped in the car.

Our "stuff." Not very much, eh?

Now that we have signed our lease, we are just waiting for our other belongings to meet up with us so that we can resume “normal” life. Our apartment is lonely and empty without our stuff. Most days, I hate the idea of “stuff” but I am so accustomed to having my possessions available that I feel nearly naked without them. Cross your fingers that it reaches us all safely! 

Speaking of "stuff" here are two relevant youtube videos on the topic that I really enjoy: The Story of Stuff & George Carlin talks about "Stuff" Enjoy!

Houston, we have arrived!

Just to quickly update you all, Matthew and I did arrive in Seattle safely and in high spirits last night! We signed our lease today and get our keys to move into our new apartment tomorrow. Internet access has been a little sketchy, so I don't want to write too long of a post right now. But very soon you can look forward to a lengthy post with pictures about our 2,000+ mile drive!

Love to you all from the Pacific Northwest!

Come hell or high water...

It has happened! After hemming and hawing around for the past month, a date and a location has finally been picked for our move. September 3rd we leave for Seattle. It is inexplicably nice to stop saying "We plan to  move..." and start saying "We are moving...".

(Source: Google Images)

We have been living rent free with our family and generally meandering about life. Matt has still been working, but I usually just hang out at home with the plants, animals and a book in the sweltering Texas heat. About a week past, I had some strange meltdown where I felt like my life was totally out of my control because I didn't have any direction or structure - no school, no job, no worries.

That amount of freedom was disconcerting and uncomfortable. My guess is that my pace of life changed so dramatically from being absurdly busy to painfully idle that it sent me reeling after a few weeks. I felt useless and indolent - the amount I accomplished in a day was so minuscule in comparison to my prior standards.

Now, that has all changed. Matt and I have a huge load of decisions to make, things to research and contingencies to plan for. I have never felt so pleased at the prospect of being overwhelmed.