Okay, so I guess I’m shooting for once a month now?

Last month was pretty bananas. Not only did I go through quite a bit of Emotional Turmoil (which will remain mine and mine alone, I don’t feel that candid tonight) but I did some traveling! And I’ve already done some this month, so as long as I can get out of Washington’s I-5 corridor, then I’ll have quite the track record for this year!

First, Seattle!

side note: I will never look this good again

I went from going there maybe once every three months to being there just about every weekend in June (save the one where I was… wait! got to save something for later!) and kinda sorta one crazy airport evening. One time I went just because, and by “just because” I mean “just because Comcast’s connection kept dropping and Nick can’t work from home without the internet, so let’s goooooo).  Another weekend, Nick worked in the office and then we hung out with his newly-transplanted-from-New York friend ‘Tino, and then the weekend after I went to [LATER] there was a forum meetup where I drank a lot of beer and then spilled some of it while playing air piano and pretended to watch the World Cup and ended up having a crush on David’s ladyfan when the three of us went thrifting in Fremont afterward. I also got to meet Jamie and Becky’s little one, who was just absolutely the stuff. I mean, seriously, she gives Lor a run for her money at that age. Before the last weekend, though, Nick and I drove up to pick up Andy and his wife to take them to the airport, and it was nice meeting them too.

Meanwhile, in the middle of that, I went to Portland!

one of three pictures of portland proper, and one of those is from a train window outside of union station (the last one is also of union station)

I had promised Jen that I would go visit her in June, and oh, she did not let me forget it. Train tickets were bought, plans were made, and Portland was awesome. She and I hung out with her littles and ate strawberry shortcake and had a drink together and went to IKEA and had a really great time. I also ended up spending time with Steve, a fellow forumite, and even though we really didn’t know each other all that well going into it, we ended up getting along famously and having a really great time over drinks and deliciousness and looking at videogames and getting slightly lost on the way back to Union Station (I am a good navigator in Washington). Steve wants to make a Portland meetup happen, and I’ll definitely be heading down for that when (not if!) it does.

Sometime after I got back, I ended up getting garlic fries and drinks in the middle of the night with Pat, who I hadn’t seen in too long (read: a year), and we spent post-last call time on my front step, doing equal parts catching up and reminiscing. Eventually, after one more Seattle trip (as mentioned previously), a random excursion approached!

Leavenworth!

I'd really like to see the maypole in action someday (god, that sounded really wrong)

On a whim, Nick said to me “hey, let’s go somewhere. you choose!” and I was like “um… okay!” So I gave him the choice of Long Beach and Leavenworth and he (obviously) chose the latter, so we ended up packing a suitcase and road-tripping it! We drank beer and ate wurst in an Authentic Bavarian Biergarten where they had an Authentic Bavarian DJ playing Authentic Bavarian Reggae (it was locals night, so extra authentic). We also hit up a bar where we kept on drinking while listening to more ABR. The next morning was spent window shopping, and we did one of those wacky dress-up costume photo things in Bavarian-esque garb. Since Nick is burly and bearded, he could pull off the look with ease. As far as Authentic Asian-Bavarian milkmaids go, I think I looked pretty okay considering the fact that I couldn’t see a damn thing. (Oh, wait, you want to actually see the photo? That’s what comments are for, folks.) (Oh yeah, I just did that, I’m shameless.)

When we were heading back to Oly, instead of taking the boring I-90 route back, on a whim we decided to go the most indirect way possible. Thank goodness we were in Washington, because my excellent navigational skills came in handy:

I wasn't joking when I said it was indirect

In Ellensburg, I was mortified to find my sociology professor ahead of the line in the cafe we stopped in. I wasn’t mortified because I didn’t like her — quite the opposite, actually, for she really helped me find my direction regarding my studies. I tried to hide in order to avoid having to broach contract (no, really, I am that shy), and thank goodness she recognized me (but I don’t think she remembered my name anymore) and I didn’t have to worry about it anymore. We walked around in circles trying to find their invisible visitors center before heading to Yakima to buy an SD card and cut through Packwood to get back on I-5. This was the first time Nick had seen mountains that up close, Central Washington, and other parts of Washington that weren’t on the corridor. It was a really fun trip and just therapeutic in ways that I can’t even begin to explain.

For now, the traveling is done — I’m saving up money for a possible Labor Day trip to places unknown, and next weekend I’m sticking around so I can (finally!) go see Theater Artists Olympia’s production of Othello. At the end of the month, I’m forgoing my crazyexpensive high school reunion to go to Andy and Mrs. Andy’s murder mystery party! It’s a costume party too, so I’m going to be hitting the thrift stores to find a really awesome outfit once I find out who I’m playing, and I’m just way too excited about this. After said party, I may end up at Pints and Quarts for some (more?) drinking and socializing for us broke non-reunioners, so even better!

June was pretty good, despite all of the emotional upheaval and eek and ack and yeah, but July! With murders and costumes and roadtrips and such, I don’t see how it can go wrong! (please don’t try to prove me wrong, july)