I've always been of the mindset that an individual is a better writer, songwriter, poet, blogger when they are experiencing anguish and turmoil.  With that in mind, I should be a horrible writer for this post because there is no thorn in my side, besides the 85 degree heat wave currently blistering all of Seattle.

Another round of deadlines for work has ended and I always breathe a big AHHHH of relief on the first day of the new quarter with bouts of sleepiness mixed in throughout the day.  But I'm trying hard to fight it and turn a new leaf because perhaps it is unhealthy to have to resort to becoming a social hermit one out of every three months, while I sit staring at two computer screens for 12 hours a day.  I have to argue though, that these past two quarter's lapse into bad habits as not been entirely my fault... because of all the fun I've been having with people visiting and the trips I've been having!!!

First on the agenda was my good friend Thomas who took advantage of the flight over to the PNW to visit a friend in Portland before driving up to spend six loooong days with me.  Wracking my brains and armed with the knowledge that he already had some fabulously good eats at the foodie city, we wowed each other's socks off checking out Maneki, this traditional Japanese restaurant in the International District.  I say traditional because this place's focal point isn't the raw fish found at the very last page of the menu, but rather the traditional Japanese dishes like the agedashi tofu and the miso black cod collar.  I tried to get Thomas to bust out some Japanese phrases but he got cold feet and only said menu item names, like onigiri, which wasn't too impressive since I can say onigiri too.

We also tried out this traditional German restaurant in the Ravenna neighborhood of Seattle, called Heidelberg Haus.  Again, I say traditional because it wasn't like the regular German-themed dark-lit gastropubs you'd normally find with their pretzels and mustard.  When we walked in, Thomas remarked that it felt very homey, like you'd expect to see in a restaurant within Germany.  Good, because we found this place off of a reddit thread titled "Seattleites born outside of USA, what restaurant/take-out place makes the most authentic food from your home country?" :D.  Again, I tried to get Thomas to bust out some German but he got cold feet and only said his order, which was the rinderroulade, and pshh anyone can trip their way through saying that, so I was not impressed.  The entrees was amazing and for once, I can say German cuisine did not induce food-coma, so I'm anticipating the next time I go back to try out another item and beer.

Interspersed inbetween all the eating, we also checked out the Chihuly Glass museum and also went to our first Sounders Game!

 

We weren't too sad to see Thomas go because we were really tired of trying to entertain him.  Just kidding.  It's cause we were going to see him and our other friend Richard in a week's time in Whistler!!  I jacked these photos from Thomas' G+ account but I don't care, I need some pictures.

  

The snow was better than expected and it was fun to all hang out but unfortunately I caught something on the trip so a break in the middle of the week was more than welcomed as we went exploring in Vancouver at the VanDusen Botanical Garden and I absolutely loved exploring Granville Island and trying out liverwurst for the first time.  All in all, a very fun March!

 

In May, my friend Rebecca came to visit for a week, en route to her move to the west coast.  The great thing about Rebecca is that she's super independent and braved the Seattle public transportation (bus) to go exploring on days that I couldn't skip work.  We did catch up with our friends Tim and Tina from college by checking out the newly reopened Paseo in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle followed by trying some nice hard ciders at Schilling Cider House.  We also spent a day during her visit to go hiking Lake Serene, which offered fantastic views of the PNW- the forest, the lakes, and the mountain skyline.  It was probably my first hike of the season and a good reference point as to how out of shape I was!

And now I've been scolded for how long this entry is so I'll cut it short.  Hopefully I'll remember to come back soon and write the other half of my summer so far!

Keeping Busy

Ever since the holidays passed, things have been picking up around these parts.  Seahawks have been busting butts during the playoffs, I've been trying to be better about my work ethic, volunteering here and there, losing weight and getting into shape for an upcoming snowboarding trip, and also chasing after a cute cuddly neighbor.  

It has been quite fun to be living in a city with a sports team that is doing so well in the playoffs.  Outside of collegiate campuses, I've never experienced any sort of hype anywhere that I've lived (Panthers and Redskins haven't done too well in the recent past) so this is a real treat to have the whole city and state cheering for the Seahawks.  There are "12th man" flags flying around everywhere and messages typing on LCD screens on businesses and snazzy church signs that read "Go Hawks!".  I even see little lego men for sale at the local drug store that have different players represented (I'm very tempted to find Richard Sherman's lego man).  The last game was incredibly fun to watch, so I'm hoping that this coming Sunday's game will be equally exciting.  Now the hard part is deciding which superbowl party to commit to, but one thing's for sure, I won't be doing any work that weekend!

A common problem I've discovered as a work from home ("wfh") professional is that there's a tendency to be unprofessional about it.  You suddenly realize there are so many other things you should be doing- vacuuming, washing the dishes, folding the laundry, watching tv shows on hulu...  I have a tendency to work a little, rest a lot.  It puts me in quite a bind at the ending weeks of each quarter deadline, where I'm scrambling to finish everything, totally devoted to my laptop and become a hermit toward everything else.  I always manage to make it in time, which makes me wonder if that means I could be 3x productive all the time if I actually set my mind to it.  I've heard rumors that there are such things called overtime pay that I have never utilized.  So after last quarter's fiasco of working non-stop for two weeks straight, I made a promise that I would always be above 85% every biweek.  I am disappointed to say that I have not made that goal this past biweek, BUT that goal has made me reach 73%, which is 60% higher than my normal crash-and-burn the biweek after a quarter deadline number!  Exciting things.  I have high hopes for this quarter's productivity, however more recently, I've started looking into other activities that I could be spending my day time doing.  

There is this annual recreational bike ride called the STP, that starts in Seattle and ends in Portland, Oregon that goes on for a whole weekend.  The fee to register is hefty when you factor in all of the other associated costs, like the bus ride back from the finish line, bike transportation, lodging, etc.  On their registration website, they do have a little statement that if you volunteer 24 hours of your time with the organization that runs the ride, you can gain entry into it.  So for purely selfish reasons, I have volunteered my time to this organization doing various administrative tasks and/or bike maintenance tweaking.  I know that if I took those 24 hours and spent them working, I could pay for several years of STP registration, but it's the principle!

This past Sunday, I had my first actual volunteer day with Outdoors for All, this organization that helps get people with disabilities outdoors and active.  It reminds me a lot of my freshman year roommate's Best Buddies program for which I get nostalgic thinking about.  Outdoors for All is a year round thing, but in the winter, they offer up downhill skiing, nordic (xcountry) skiing, snowboarding, and snowshoeing activities.  The participants ride a bus to the local resort, and either strap on their own equipment or rent what they need before they start on their little weekly escapade with us.  Christine and I chose snowshoeing since we have our own pairs of shoes and had a blast hiking through the woods with Michael and Bob, singing Disney songs and quoting Dr. Seuss.  I'm not quite sure what kind of mental disability they had but they were fantastic at snowshoeing.  I'm going to have to be more diligent at getting into shape if I want to keep up with them!

Since I moved out here, I've gained about 5% of my body weight.  Though I could say all these things like snowboarding is exercise, it really isn't.  You're just going with gravity down the hill.  If you miss a turn, you don't climb back up the mountain, you keep going the way you're going and fake it like you meant to go that way.  So even with my attempts of going snowboarding more frequently, I know that it's all a sham.  Instead, I have been motivated to download this app on my phone called "7 minute workout".  It's pretty self explanatory.  You work out for 7 minutes each day doing various exercises like pushups, planks, against-the-wall chair sits, high knees, jumping jacks.  It's only been day three but I hope I stick with it.  This past Saturday I also tagged along with Christine to this dragonboat conditioning workout in Seattle.  The description is deceiving because it had nothing to do with actually being in a boat or being in water.  It was just a conditioning workout, so lots of burpees, pushups, squats, sprints.  It was exhausting!  I'm hoping all of this effort won't be in vain come March- that's when I'm going to Whistler for a snowboard trip.  Though I suppose if I'm huffing and puffing, I could try to blame my shortness of breath on the high altitude, but it might be a little less believable since Whistler is lower in elevation than past Colorado snowboarding trips.

And finally, to conclude this update, I have once again spotted the local bunny Joseph.  He is not to be confused with Jose, the tiny bunny living in the backyard of Christine's Aunt and Uncle's house but he is also of the cottontail variety, very little, very cute.  I've seen him twice now, within the same week, which leads me to believe that spring is coming!  I always get very excited to see Joseph when I drive up to the house late at night, and the other day he actually stayed in the front yard and kept eating even as we got out and approached the front door of the house!  I went in and grabbed four baby carrots but he sprinted a little ways away when I got close, so I threw them at him.  None of them hit (I have excellent marksmanship) but maybe they should've because he ignored every single one of them!  I looked out the window and the carrots are still there :(  Oh well.  Hopefully he'll come around again.