Squalor in the holler, say whaaaat?

Sometimes I am a yes person. I say yes and don't have a full understanding of what I'm getting myself into. I tend to just say yes to whatever because I think it will be fun and I'm all about experiencing new things. And I'm just generally pretty easy going and willing to try anything once. That coupled with stubbornness are probably two of my most, shall we say, noticeable traits. Sometimes those traits complement each other and sometimes the go with the flow personality just beats the stubbornness to shit. Or vice versa.

So. That being said.

There is a point to this.

Sometime in August, Justin asks me if I want to go east of the mountains to his friends' annual labor day gathering. We'll leave friday night and get back to Seattle on Monday. It's a semi-annual event, on both labor day and memorial day. He says it's great fun and that many of his old friends from east of the mountains go so it would be a fun time for us to get away and I could meet a lot of his friends too.

Sure, I'm in! Definitely! (See, yes person, there WAS a point in all of that jabbering...)

Um.

Baby?

Next time, let's elaborate. Elaborate in that this "event" rivals the BEER F-ING OLYMPICS OF THE WORLD, if there even is such a thing. Well, not even if there is, because if there isn't, then THIS is THAT. And that there are T-SHIRTS made commemorating the "event." Of course, T-shirts mean that it's SERIOUS, just like if you announce something on facebook then that makes it serious, right? And also, back to the beer olympics, let's elaborate next time that it's not just a "gathering" or "event" but that there are MULTIPLE "events" as a part of this whole 2 day madness in which we test our skills. Skills meaning our talent at drinking games.

Ok, ok, to Justin's credit he MIGHT have mentioned that it would be a little crazy but men usually embellish and exaggerate a bit so I MIGHT have just laughed and went on my merry way.

Women need to listen more.

Wait, did I just say that publicly?

Ok, women need to listen more sometimes. As do men. But we're not talking about men here, really. We're talking about me being a yes person and not really listening to what I was getting into.

Let's tell the story in pictures, shall we?

On Friday night, we made our way out to the middle of freaking nowhere to where Justin's friend, Jesse, owns land and a cabin. Aka: our little weekend home. We brought tents and camping gear to camp on his land. Friday night was relatively tame. We ate dinner on the road and made it to Jesse's around 9pm. We hung around and relaxed and ended up getting to bed around midnight. Tents were a good call. But I must mention: as gorgeous as it was in eastern Washington during the day (sunny, warm), it was FREEZING at night.

The next morning, we woke up to gorgeous weather. Jesse's property looks down into a valley and is absolutely gorgeous.

Another shot. I have to say, his idea of having a cabin up in the middle of nowhere is not a bad idea. Not only is it gorgeous but it's extremely peaceful. We enjoyed the views, ate a breakfast of champions, and then topped it off with a 9am beverage of Keystone light. And the fun began...

More and more people started showing up for the "events." At this point I'm piecing everything together and am on beer #2 at 10am. Good sign? I'm told there are about 15 events that will take place over the course of 2 days. And naturally we have scorecards to track our scores through them all. Beer pong, shooting (guns!), pool, frisbee golf, and tons of others. Funny that I can only remember the few events that I did when I was relatively sober... (sorry mom). The first event was shooting. Guns. Me. I KNOW. All of those years in the midwest of refusing to shoot clay pigeons was shot to hell by the effects of a) keystone light and b) trying to win these god damn beer Olympics or whatever the hell this was (you get points for every "event" you participate in and at the end of the 2 days a winner is crowned). Stupid competiviness (personality trait #3). So I shot a shot gun and a 12mm gun (I think?) There were two shooting events. And naturally they take place first when no one is that much under the influence. It's the smart people's beer olympics. Suffice it to say, I am not a natural at shooting. At all. As Justin said, "If you ever get the urge to shoot me, I'll just stand right in front of you and I'll have no shot of getting hit." Yes, I was pretty much that awesome. But hey, I got points on my scorecard for participation!

After shooting, we had an invigorating round of frisbee golf and after that, around mid afternoon Saturday, things started to get really interesting. Starting with shots. Like the matching shirts? They say "Squalor in the holler 2010...countdown to drinking" or something like that. Told you they have t-shirts made. It's serious, guys. Was. not. kidding.

Having some fun with the camera with that boy... We're serious too because facebook tells us we are. Or actually just because we like each other. At this point, we had finished frisbee golf and Justin's frisbee golf team was actually following the drinking rules associated with frisbee golf. You can tell. I was playing with three other girls and lucky for this lightweight, we ended up just walking/chatting so I was in pretty good shape. For the moment.

Me, John (Justin's old friend), and Mr. J himself. Hi, who here thinks that bourbon pairs nicely with keystone light? WE DO!

More fun with the camera....

And yeeeeehaww! Feeling pretty good.

As the night went on, after bourbon, keystone light, and some rather intelligent shots of 151, along with god knows what else (but definitely NOT water), someone was not feeling too hot.

Oh no, no, no. That boy was NOT feeling good. AT ALL. And he was in such a um, funny, state that he kept mumbling, "I don't NEED water, Jenn, come on, who needs water, not this boy...." And on and on. I tried so hard because I knew with water, he would feel better. But, since he's as stubborn as me, he wouldn't listen (SEE men need to listen too, AHEM). So I laughed at him and took pictures. OH COME ON. I did genuinely feel bad, too.

At this point in the night something thought it was a great idea to jump over a dog gate. This was a rather entertaining game for the observers (me), especially when someone wouldn't make it and effectively tried to de-ball themselves. Too bad it wasn't an "official" event. Maybe next year. Even Justin participated...and, to my benefit (and truthfully probably his too), he made it and there was no de-balling. This was after he eventually drank some water and wouldn't you know it, within the hour he felt better...enough to jump over a dog fence. CRAZY!

The next day, we felt like ROCKSTARS. Or maybe only like rockstars in the most sarcastic sense of the word... We ventured down into Wenatchee, the biggest/closest town and went to a health food store to stock up on some much needed healthy food and, more importantly, electrolyte enhanced fluids. Most people (who were even more hungover than us!!) were already drinking keystone light at this point in time but on that day even just the thought at that moment was enough to make me gag. On the plus side, it was a beautiful day in Eastern Washington.

Once we got back, which, by the way was TOUGH to do given the fact that I felt like asshole, we started to feel about 1000% better and started in on more events. Above- two of our friends' puppies who are oblivious to the happenings.

Since I still couldn't stomach keystone light, I switched to a hometown brew. KC boulevard brewery wheat beer. Yum.

Justin playing in another event complete with his keystone light (and, as an aside, he and his partner, Bryce, won this one!)

Later that night, it was beer pong time! Who doesn't love a nice game of beer pong? Here we are just watching and waiting to play. By this point in the night, I was back to feeling friendly with keystone.

And more pictures...

Justin and his old friend Jesse (the mastermind behind all of this and the man of the house) started wrestling. Boys will be boys.

The (almost) winning team. They came in 2nd place. My partner and I got destroyed the first round. Boo hoo. I used to be good at beer pong! What happened? Oh yeah, maybe those year long hiatuses between the times I play?

There might have been more wrestling that went on that night....

And a gorgeous shot of the sunset to wrap up day #2. Night #2 was complete with about 100 mile hour winds. It was exciting since we were sleeping in a tent. We almost blew away. I do have to say, day #2 was MUCH more tame than day #1. Thank god. Because that meant that waking up and realizing I was still alive on day #3 was bearable.

On Monday, we got up, showered and hit the road. Since it was labor day weekend, we had no plans that we were going to make it back to Seattle in record time (traffic is typically horrible). So we bought some snacks and just rambled around eastern washington...stopped at a park in Wenatchee to enjoy the sunny weather, then in Roslyn we stopped to walk around and ate at a little pub...

called the brick saloon. There's something about northern exposure (maybe it was filmed here or based here??) in regards to this town (and the saloon), but I cannot remember what. Wasn't a fan of the show so it didn't really matter a whole lot to me.

And, back to GOOD alcohol. Because I didn't already have enough in my system, duh. But I needed to redeem my liver by showing it that the good, non-Keystone stuff really still exists.

Shortly after eating, we stopped at a little lake and got camera happy. It was gorgeous (the lake, not the camera).

A shot of the view. So pretty. As you can tell, we're almost back to the Seattle side of the cascades. Hello rain and fogginess, goodbye sun!

And us. We're cute. And I'm modest (personality trait #4). After 2 full days of playing hard in serious battle/competition, neither of us was victorious at the beer olympics (I believe Justin came in 4th? Maybe 3rd. I have no idea where I ended up, certainly not at the top). And, to come full circle, I'm really glad I'm a yes person. Without just being willing to jump in to whatever, I wouldn't have experienced such a great weekend. And that's what it was- a great weekend. I truly believe that people need to let loose a little more. It was so nice to sort of re-live the college days... not necessarily by just getting shit faced but more just by being free to do so and free to just PLAY. 98% of my life, I am the epitome of "health," as is Justin. But health is more than just working out and eating perfectly and doing good in your career. I think that the 2% where I really let loose and play and allow myself a bit of gluttony is the 2% that makes me perfectly healthy because it's the part that brings my mental happiness to all that it can be. I believe Justin would say the same. And not to mention: I couldn't have imagined spending the weekend with a better group of people. Justin's friends? Amazing. Speaks volumes about his character that he has such a great group of core friends that have known him forever and vice versa. And after it all, the bottom line is truly this: I believe that both of us probably are in agreement on the fact that if we so much SEE a can of Keystone light in the next few months, we will hurl. By memorial day next year, we'll be ready to crack a can, hang with good friends...and compete in the beer f-ing olympics or squalor in the holler or whatever the hell it's called...again.

Ending August with a bang.

On Sunday morning, August 29th, Justin and I decided to go hiking. We had the whole day in front of us with a great night sleep behind us so why not? The weather wasn't fabulous but we're used to that as relative western Washington natives. We decided to do the Granite mountain hike which is a hike up in the cascades- I believe it's around 8-9 miles or so. Straight up. We knew going in it's tough- mainly because Justin has done it before and I believed he was telling the truth when he told me so.

Before heading out, we fueled up with fruity pancakes topped with syrup and peanut butter made by that boy himself. Have I mentioned he's a much better cook than me? We're a pretty good tag team in the kitchen and undoubtedly I think I probably make SOME things better than him but really? He's a much, much better improv cook than I am. This is probably another post entirely. Needless to say, the pancakes were fabulous and a great precursor to a tough hike.

We got all packed up with snacks and blankets for the top of the hike (On this, I didn't REALLY believe him when he told me how cold it would be at the top of the hike...) and we headed out the door.

Once there we signed in at the trailhead... you sign in and attach a tag to your stuff so that the national park service knows who is using the trails, and it's used in case there are any lost hikers as well. We met with a random couple at this point who told us a great story. They had had European vistors a few years back and they took them on this hike. They signed their names and everything and attached the tags and then their visitors basically SPRINTED up the mountain. The couple said they just let them go because they were going so fast they couldn't keep up. Eventually, later after the hike, the Europeans were talking to someone and said that they thought Americans were the bravest people in the world for doing hikes where you had to sign your names/attach tags in the case that you got eaten by a bear or other wild animal. So, they were going so fast because they figured they were going to get attacked! We had a good laugh at that.

After signing in and chatting with the couple and laughing at their story, we were on our way...

Almost to the top at what I will call the boulder part... Not the most attractive picture because we are a sweaty mess at this point. So you guys, let me just say: this hike was HARD. I mean, I knew it would be, I believed it, but WOW. I started off leading and was doing great at an awesome pace. I forgot though that I didn't have a pack and Justin did so I'm pretty sure he was convinced I was trying to kill him off. Thank god he did have a pack though because I almost killed myself off too. He started to lead and we went at a much more reasonable (but still great) pace. It was a HARD hike.

Getting hot, the clothes are coming off....

Nearing the tree line...

And closer to the top, it's getting colder so the clothes were put back on. I think he is a little sick of this crazy girl taking pictures.

Annnnd... finally at the top by the weather center tower. IT WAS FREEZING. I admit...though I hesitated just slightly and didn't fully believe Justin when he said it would be cold and was just being a good, supportive girlfriend by packing extra hats and blankets: Justin was right. Completely. Thank god he is such a planner/preparer otherwise I would not be alive anymore and would be an ice statue on the top of granite mountain.

And another cool shot from the top. We snacked at the top and cuddled up under blankets before heading down. And let me just say? THAT BOY IS A NIMBLE DUDE on the downhills. I have said this every time I've hiked with him but HOLY HELL. We pretty much sprint down, it's absolutely unbelievable. I only wiped out once (this time) but he was already around the corner and didn't see me. I told the guy that saw me, "ssssh don't tell my boyfriend." We laughed and I then continued sprinting after my nimble guy. We burned about 3000 calories (according to Justin's heartrate monitor) on the total hike. It was just incredible and a great way to spend a sunday.

A tale of a big metal truck: a sad, sad day

On August 25th, we woke up at the ass crack to get Ashley to the airport for her early morning flight. It actually worked out great because I had CPE (continuing education classes that are required in our profession) so I had to be at the class first thing. After dropping Ashley off at the airport, I was happily headed north on 405. It should be noted here that 405 is arguably the WORST freeway in the United States. It's right up there. If it's misting or foggy or actually (gasp!) RAINING, people that are on 405 are absolute idiots. Turns out the sun can be a problem too, you know, because we aren't really used to that yellow ball of light up here... especially after such a dismally cool summer of essentially no sun.

Well.

That sun? Apparently made me blind. The sun was in my eyes, traffic was moving finally, and all of a sudden BAAAAAMMMM. Crunch. Ow.

Oh and by the way? What the fuck?

My poor little mini and it's sun-blinded driver decided to meet a big old tanker truck face to face going about 20 mph. Our lane was the only lane that came to an abrupt stop and due to the sun, I didn't see the truck slam on it's brakes.

Uggggghh.

At that point I thought I was dying because my seat belt had basically seared into my body upon impact and my car smelled like it could blow up in about two seconds and was throwing smoke at me.

But, I have to give mini cooper credit: once again, even in a shitty time, they manage to be cute. On the dash after the crash, the mini told me that I had indeed been in a crash with a little wrecked mini cooper symbol along with blinking lights and bells. No kidding, SHERLOCK.

I THINK I AM AWARE OF THIS PROBLEM MINI PEOPLE.

We managed to pull to an off ramp where a state patrolman showed up and of course there's no damage to the big tanker truck, only to my poor little car...and it's all my fault. Ugh. Meanwhile, I'm about to keel over from feeling like I got hit by a truck. Literally.

I call Justin and tell him that I'm not having the best day and that sweet boy got in his truck to come pick me up...and endured more of the 405 traffic hell himself on the way to me. We got a tow truck since my car was in no shape to be driven anywhere and then promptly went shopping. I have to give Justin massive props for knowing me well enough to know what would take my mind off of the events of the morning...and the fact that I just plain felt like crap. After shopping and some retail therapy with the rather cute boy, I borrowed his truck and went home and slept and then had the brilliant idea that I was ok enough to work out. So after picking up my gorgeous rental car (a white Kia, classy) I headed straight to the gym. Upon walking in Justin gave me a look like, "really, you stubborn ass? Really?" NOTE to self, he might have been right: working out after a pretty intense accident is not the brightest idea I've ever had. Was. not. fun.

Later that night, I was even more off kilter. On the way to pick up Justin's truck from the rental car place (I drove it there to pick up the car and then left it there since he was working), I managed to somehow fall down all of the steps of my house and right onto my ass on the sidewalk. Justin's looking at me (and I think holding back laughter) like, "really, girl, are you ok?" Then 15 minutes later when we returned? I locked all keys to my house inside of the garage in the rental car. Let me tell you: all of this takes some mad talent. I wasn't able to rescue them until the next day.

By this point in the day after trying to kill myself a few times and feeling bad enough in a way that I convince myself that I pretty much almost suceeded, I promptly put on a helmet and pads and sat in a blanket fort on the couch being cuddled by that boy I love for the rest of the night. It seemed like the safest bet. It was.

Some photos of the carnage:


Basically the whole front end of the car had to be rebuilt (I know this now as I write it a couple months later)... the radiator, the turbo/supercharger, both headlights, total hood replacement, etc, etc. (Literally for a month, I got a call everyday on something else that needed to be replaced or rebuilt). Luckily I hit the truck on such a spot that it didn't cause the airbags to go off... that would have been REALLY bad.

More of the damage... though it doesn't look that bad from this angle.

And one more shot.... poor little Alfred. He got hurt. The damage ended up being about $10K. Mini parts are expensive and there was quite a lot that needed to be done, as I already mentioned. AND, it took about 4 weeks to fix. For the last week, I, er, Justin, was filling up the classy Kia's tires every morning as it had a flat tire from the get go (but only really deflated towards the end of the 4 weeks). That was fun.

And of course: to add insult to injury after my accident- the $175 ticket. I go to court on October 14 to try to defer it. We'll see what happens. As I write this, I'm just happy to have my little mini Alfred car back.

A weird note: this accident happened almost 4 years to the DAY that the lady at Walgreens hit my other mini, little Winston. Crazy, huh? Let's just say that in another four years in 2014 I will refuse to drive for the month of August... or at least during that middle week of August...

Exploring Seattle, day 2

Tuesday, August 24, Ashley and I set out the day again to explore this beautiful city. I told her we could do whatever she wanted to do but from the get go, she had one goal for this trip: conquer Mount Si. DEAL, I am IN. So, we decided that after we'd recovered from the weekend, Tuesday would be the perfect day for such a quest. We had breakfast (and let me just say: thank GOD Ashley was convinced to eat after watching me eat a bowl of cereal otherwise she would have died on the hike), packed up some snacks, and headed out. We had a PERFECT day. Since it was not a weekend, there was really no one on the trail and it was absolutely gorgeous weather.

Almost to the top, looking at the cascade mountains.

Both of us at the top...we made it!

And an absolutely amazing view of Rainier at the top where we stopped to snack and rest. I'm SO glad that we had such a good day for this hike so that Ashley could see the views. It's really not too exciting when you can't see anything... although it's always a great workout.

Once we got back to my car, we found that a bird had some fun. Yuck.

Right after Si, we changed into non-hiking clothes and headed straight to the perfect after-hike activity: a winery. Well, perhaps it blows the workout but who cares, wineries and wine tastings are FUN! We went to Chateau St Michelle because they make one of the wines that Ashley used to sell (and loved) when she was working as a bartender. The above is one of the buildings at the winery- gorgeous grounds.

Ashley outside of the tasting room.

And getting ready to taste... I think we paid $10 each and as a result we got to taste all 8 wines. 4 reds, 4 whites. By the end, we had a guy who was just giving us double tastes of each so it ended up being a great deal. Oh, and he gave us HUGE pours. It's too bad we had other things to do otherwise we could have really done some damage on that wine. I actually liked the chardonnay that we tasted best. The other whites were too sweet and the reds were just kind of gross. Surprising because I generally like the Chateau's wines (and usually don't like whites at all) but I think the tasting that day was a segment of their wines that I wasn't too familiar with and don't usually drink.

MMMM, yummy! Was so fun. Right after we tasted, we headed straight to whole foods to get a bunch of goodies (bread, sushi, cheeses, grapes...basically the best little finger foods ever) for our activity we had planned that night....

Meeting Justin for the Bellevue outdoor movie. The city of Bellevue (along with many other cities in the Seattle area) have outdoor movie nights during the summer which are free to go to... and are quite awesome, I might add. Justin and I had been a couple of times and when we found out the movie that Tuesday night was Harry Potter, we were in (Ashley loves Harry Potter). So we packed up big blankets and took our food and buckled down for the movie night. Perfect weather, too, I might add.

Our spread of food... after hiking and several glasses of wine, Ashley and I pretty much bought everything in Whole Foods.

A shot of Miss Ashley as we were snacking and waiting on the movie to start. All in all, another perfect day!