Earthquake?

This morning there was apparently an earthquake in Seattle. See!

I am pretty bummed because I just slept through it, didn't even wake me up. Tim was working though so if I had woken up to an earthquake, I probably would have been slightly freaked out. Mainly because I have never been in an earthquake before. I would have no idea what to do.

I grew up in the midwest, where we had tornadoes. And when they come around you hide under stuff (unless you are my mom and you feel compelled to open the garage door and stand outside so you can see it-this, by the way, is not recommended). Hiding under stuff is probably not the best tactic for earthquakes. In Phoenix, the only real natural disasters were monsoons and dust storms. And these, I just kinda sat and watched from a distance.

But earthquakes? No experience.

On my first day of my job here in Seattle, I got handed an "earthquake survival kit" to put under my desk as well as a lecture about how I should keep walking shoes in my office so that if an earthquake happens while at work, I can walk home. Uh.... I was a little freaked to say the least.

Since then I have been anticipating my first earthquake. For two years I have waited. And I slept through it. Bummer.

Ladies night!

I've delayed posting this for about a week... all for a picture of a cheese board. Sounds ridiculous, right?

Everyone knows how I am with pictures... last Thursday proved to be no exception. I had about 6 lovely ladies over to my house for a night of cheese/wine/bread/chocolate (basically all things good). Tim was working so it was the perfect time to do it.

I love entertaining and even though I had the perfect, brand new house to entertain at in Phoenix, I never really entertained there because as my friends liked to tell me, I lived in Eastern LA so it wasn't exactly convenient for people to get to my house... and then drive home after drinking wine.

In Seattle, I live in the perfect location. 10 minutes to get anywhere... makes for a great commute, a great place to go out, and a great place to have people over. So last Thursday I left work a few minutes early to come home and get things ready. Wine opened, cheese board made, bread cut, crackers/dips out, music on, etc. I was pretty proud of my cheese board (I don't know, it looked cool) so I took a picture of it figuring that would get me into the picture mood and I would take pictures.

Well, the only picture I have of that night is of my cheese board. Once everyone was over and we were talking/snacking/drinking, I neglected photography. And now it's a week later and I still haven't uploaded that one picture so I figured I would just make the post without it. It IS just a cheese board, anyway. The point is that it was a great time to have everyone over... to relax, to forget about work, to not have to get all fancy to go out, and to just have a little bit of girl time. I think everyone had fun and enjoyed it. It's just too bad we had to go to work the next day... I think next time we will do ladies night on a Friday or Saturday night.

Currently contemplating moving back to Arizona...

Ok, not really.

But it is January, almost February, in Seattle and I am tired of being cold and wet, wet and cold. And on Monday it snowed AGAIN. It is FREEZING. Not to mention dark, although on the plus side, it is now staying light out until about 5:30pm versus 4:30pm.

I'm off to Alaska in a few weeks... I'm sure that will at least make me appreciate the weather here more. But I sure am missing those 75 degree sunny January days in Arizona.

I do love Seattle... everyone knows that. I am just ready for summer.

Poisoning the boys mind.

My poor husband.

I am poisoning him with pop culture.

Since we are now just a married couple, we have gotten into the "popular" shows on during prime time. I used to watch all of these shows, but I admit that I haven't really been real tuned in for a couple of years. Even though I haven't been very into prime time TV for the past year, I still always manage to pick up a people magazine every now and then to get the latest and greatest gossip in pop culture. Or, I would look online... or watch E or Extra. I don't know why, it's stupid, but I kept up with it.

But this year? I have introduced Tim to the Bachelor. Granted, I haven't watched the bachelor since Trista and Ryan's bachelorette wedding in college days. BUT this bachelor is from our hometown up here in Seattle. And pretty much all eyes in Seattle are on this guy. Us too.

I also introduced Tim to American Idol. He has never seen it before (seriously). I mean, I can't really blame him... he used to be solely involved in training on his bike 24-7 and then he was in school 24-7. This is the first year in a long time that he has actually had any time, even though his schedule is still quirky (comes with the healthcare territory, something most business and accounting people will never relate to).

Anyway, so a couple of nights ago we had a nice dinner together and were just hanging out for the night. We flipped on American Idol. At first Tim groaned about watching it until he started seeing the progression of the show (laughing at the horrible people, being amazed by good singers). There was a point in the show where a contestant was ooing and ahing over Paula Abdul (and how he used to be such a huge fan, his first concert was one of hers, blah, blah, blah). And Tim, goes, "oh, yeah, I remember her. Wasn't she the one that had the superbowl revealing?"

As someone who is slightly more in tune, my mouth hit the floor and the first thing that I said was, "seriously?" And laughed, thinking he was joking. It reminded me of a prior contestant on American Idol... the judges just thought she was singing bad on purpose, as a joke. Um, nope. Wasn't a joke.

I quickly realized that and said, "No, no, that was Janet Jackson, honey."

To which he responds, "Ooh... wait, now, she isn't related to Michael is she?"

And then I fall on the floor and clutch my stomach in laughter... I mean, first of all, the first songs I sang were probably Paula, Janet, and Mariah. From the time I was 4, I knew these gals and would never get them confused. And then I did the moon dance with Michael once I got older and knew everyone of his brothers and sisters' names. It was funny to me that someone grew up without this same experience. But who can blame him? He's a guy that was more into sports and bikes than music and pop culture. Probably pretty typical.

But I did do the only logical thing I knew how to do at the moment. I stopped laughing, gave him a hug, told him that it is probably better that he does not know so much about pop culture (I mean, really, who really needs to know that much?) and then I told him that I now had a blog post that I would be posting in the next couple of days.

It has been fun to have a bit of time at night... to do whatever we want. Eat a nice dinner, work out, spend time together whether it's watching TV or just hanging out... we both know that these days are getting more and more numbered as his schedule IS so sporadic and mine is just becoming consistent: work and work and work. Not my favorite time of year.

Currently torturing myself

By looking at puppies online.

There is an 8 week old black lab that needs to be adopted. I wish I could have him.

BUT, I am about to enter busy season and couldn't give him the attention that he would need. But I really want him. Sigh!

#$&*(#&$(*#!!

Back to four eyes!

Remember this post? About giant papillary conjunctivitis because of the asshole doctor that prescribed me contacts that I was allergic to?

Well apparently because of this said doctor, my eyes are now becoming intolerant to ALL contacts. After I began treatment for the condition last year (which, by the way, took two months of drops, no contacts and solely glasses), I switched back to the contacts that had always worked for me (which the stupid doctor told me were crap... even though they had always worked. Ugh, whatever). Lately, I have noticed that I cannot wear the contacts more than an hour at a time, my eyes get blurry/red/watery/itchy, there is some gross discharge, etc. All things lovely, yes.

So I go to the eye doctor yesterday to find out that because of that other doctor, my eyes are now more sensitive and intolerant. It's not as bad this time (and it took a few months to get to this point) but the end result is that my eyes are being increasingly sensitive and intolerant to contacts as a result of the contacts that they were incredibly intolerant to. This stupid doctor is at fault in several ways: a) he prescribed contacts that now put me in this predicament b) he would not listen to me when I told him I just wanted my normal contacts (I know, I should have fought harder but when a doctor tells you something is crap, what basis do I have at the time to argue back? I kinda took his word) and c) when I went back in with the later problem (giant papillary conjunctivitis) he completely discounted me and told me that I just had seasonal allergies, I shouldn't have wasted his time and then left me sitting in the patient room without telling me we were done with the appointment (with no resolution by the way...) So, stupid doctor, as my friend Steve likes to say:

DICK MOVE.


Can that be my argument in a lawsuit? That the guy is a dick of a doctor who just made an absolute dick move to take away my eyes?

No, no, there is not going to be a lawsuit. Slashing tires, however... hmm... no, probably not that either. I just want my eyes back!


Apparently, I have to go through the whole treatment process AGAIN, try new contacts with different material AGAIN, and my new awesome doctor said that basically in a couple years this will all most likely end in lasik surgery because my eyes will become intolerant to all contact materials.

#&*$()#$&*()!!!

ANNOYED.

January 20, 2009: A historic day in our country (and also it's apparently no bush left behind day)

In honor of Barack Obama as our new President and to say farewell to George W. Bush's 8 years in office, some bloggers have declared this day, January 20, 2009, as national "shave the date" day. The purpose of this shave the date is to get rid of the bush... both literally and figuratively.

Check out this link if you want more information, if not, it's probably best left unvisited.... Did you get rid of your bush today?

In all seriousness, what a historic day. I cannot imagine how incredible it would be to be in the throngs of people in Washington, D.C. today. Instead, I watched the inaugural address with about 40 of my co-workers in our conference room. It is a historic day, no matter how it was witnessed, to everyone in this country. I am most certainly proud to be an American.

Sunny in Seattle!

This weekend it was sunny both. days. And completely, not a cloud in the sky sunny.

Tim had to work until Sunday and after he made up a few hours of sleep that he get at all the night before, we went out to the mountains to play in the sun. It was almost even 60 degrees. It made me feel like summer was right around the corner until I remembered that, oh yeah... it's January 18. And even though I have been on an audit since January 5th (SERIOUSLY, and yep, it was a disaster... I have never met any client that can close their books in 5 days and this experience pretty much verified that it isn't possible), busy season is really not fully underway yet. The sun and warm weather made me feel like busy season is almost over. Lame.

But I won't bore everyone with how daunting my schedule appears to be for the next few months... I will just say that this weekend here was glorious. It was absolutely beautiful.

Of course, this morning... new week, new client... up at 5am, cat pukes 3 times, don't have gas in my car, get stuck dealing with issues at the office before I go to the client, an interesting email in my inbox that left me feeling quite perplexed... Oh well, once this week is rolling, it will be great. Especially if the sunny trend continues!