Lazy blogging

Guilty as charged. I am a lazy blogger. I write consistently for a couple months and then drop off the face of the earth. Why I do this, I have no idea. It’s not because my life becomes any less interesting – I consider myself a fairly entertaining person, actually. I really don’t even know why I feel the need to explain myself, since I really write this blog for me, and not you. But I suppose it’s nice to keep my friends updated on my life, and when I disappear for weeks and / or months I can’t really expect my friends to come back every day checking for updates – only to find disappointment. I’d stop reading, too.

In any case, I am really going to try and start blogging again on a semi regular basis. And to make up for the past few months of laziness, I’ve posted some “Recap” blogs for my apparent hiatus in October, November and December. Please feel free to go back and read / enjoy / comment but do not judge, please!

I heart all of you for taking an interest in my life.

Snow Bunny

Snowboarding this season has so far been everything I dreamed it would be and more. I went to Alpental with Stewart, his friend Drew, and Drew’s girlfriend Laura for my first time up. Luckily Laura and I are pretty much on the same skill level, so we were able to spend the day together practicing on the green runs, and even went on a couple blue ones toward the end of the day. The boys came down from the black diamonds every once in a while.

A couple weeks later I met my friend Christi at Sonqualmie’s Summit Central, where Stewart was working Ski Patrol for the day. Christi dropped her son off at ski school and we were free to spend the rest of the day boarding. Once again we were at about the same level and so after a warm up on the green runs we headed over to the Central Express chair. We spent the rest of the day going up and down the blue runs and I was really starting to get my toe side down.

Then this past weekend I headed up to Steven’s Pass with my friends Tara, Winston, Carolina and Jeanna. Since Carolina had never gone snowboarding before she spent the majority of the day in a private lesson while the rest of us hit the slopes. I’m still working on my toe side and in all honesty I think the only problem is I’m too hesitant. If I could just suck it up I think I could get it down.

I’m hoping to continue to go up snowboarding at every opportunity, and I’m really looking forward to our three-day trip to White Pass next month. Hopefully by then I will be doing backflips over Stewart.

Project Red Dress

Make it work. I am a huge fan of Project Runway, so when I heard Seattle was hosting their own version of the competition I was extremely excited. In addition, one of my co-workers, Karly Orr, was a contestant!

Project Red Dress is a competition featuring 12 hopeful Seattle area designers challenged to create one red dress. Karly was selected from among hundreds of designers to represent New York Fashion Academy. After weeks of working on their designs, the competition came to conclusion last night at a fabulous event sponsored by Seattle Metropolitan Magazine and Macy’s.

My co-workers, roommate and I began celebrating a little early at the office with a couple bottles of wine before we headed across the street to Macy’s for the event, which featured a fashion show, cocktails and appetizers. All proceeds of the event benefit the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women movement. Go Red For Women celebrates the energy, passion and power we have as women to band together and wipe out heard disease and stroke. The color red and the red dress now stand for the ability all women have to improve their heart and health and live stronger, longer lives.

As the fashion show began we couldn’t wait to see Karly’s dress, which we had heard so much about. When her model came out it was clear that the gorgeous, jersey-knit, floor-length, backless dress would get rave reviews. The judges, including Project Runway finalist Nick Verreos, all had fantastic things to say about the design and construction of Karly’s beautiful gown, and we stood near the stage in excited, cocktail enhanced anticipation as she moved into the top three… top TWO finalists… KARLY ORR WAS THE GRAND PRIZE WINNER!

I don’t think I’ve been that excited in a long time. I felt like a beauty pageant mom as Karly headed down the runway with her model to celebrate her victory. As the winning designer, Karly will receive a $3,000 scholarship and a Macy’s window display – you can check it out now on Pine Street between Third and Fourth Avenue.

CONGRATULATIONS KARLY!

Girl Power Hour

Last night Jeanna and I decided to attend Girl Power Hour, which is a monthly social networking experience for young professional women in Seattle. The event was supposed to be a “stylishly inviting environment conducive to meeting other cool women, sharing ideas, inspiring each other and connecting on a personal or business level, over cocktails.” The goal is “to get like-minded women together in a comfortable environment that facilitates relationship building in a non-threatening way, allowing socializing and networking to occur naturally.” Sounded like a pretty sweet deal to me. I loved the idea of an opportunity to meet other fabulous ladies in a situation where they would be no men to complication the experience or create pressure / competitiveness. I convinced my co-worker, Joni, to come along and check it out.

Held at Solo, the same location of Jeanna’s birthday party, we arrived in style to red carpet – fancy! The tables contained tasty little pink cupcakes and appetizers, and the bar provided fantastic drink specials for the ladies. After sipping our cocktails and socializing for a while, the co-founders of Girl Power Hour, Darnell Sue and Samantha Lawton, got up and talked about one of the evening’s sponsors: Women of Purpose. At a table in the corner the organization was selling beautiful, hand-crafted necklaces made especially for the event, and they had come directly from women in Thailand. By purchasing a necklace the proceeds would go directly back to those women – pretty awesome. (I would have bought a necklace but by the time I got there they had all been snagged, bummer).

Afterward, author Rebecca Agiewich talked about her book, Breakup Babe (also available at the event), and read some funny excerpts about her cheating boyfriend, which I’m sure everyone could relate to in some way or another. The night ended with some killer door prizes and I actually met some very nice women before the night was over. We left with a swanky bag full of goodies that was more than worth the $10 cover charge.

I definitely plan on attending the next Girl Power Hour (they occur on the third Thursday of each month). Let me know if you want to come and partake in what the girls call “changing the social norms of run-of-the-mill women’s networking groups.” Bottom line: cocktails make any get-together more fun.

Happy Birthday, Jeanna...

As each year passes, Jeanna seems to outdo herself with a fabulously themed birthday party. This year, she asked all her friends to come and celebrate her birthday in their swankiest, sparkliest, shiniest cocktail attire at Solo, a small, intimate new bar in lower Queen Anne on Roy Street. She had the majority of the bar reserved for the festivities, and provided hors d’oeuvres trays for the party-goers. So after a day of snowboarding, I dragged my sore self into the shower and mentally prepared myself for a night of partying and celebrating Jeanna’s fabulous life!

I had never been to Solo before, and was very impressed when I walked in. The bar is pretty swanky but still has a casual feel, and there were couches and chairs around coffee tables that made it easy to sit and gossip with friends. There were also tall bistro tables that of course Jeanna decorated in red, the party’s theme color. (Did you really think she wouldn’t have a theme, complete with decorations that matched her sparkly red outfit?)

Once I arrived (already a glass of wine deep) I checked out the drink menu and decided to order a “Ruby Red Cosmopolitan.” Yum. I basically then spent the rest of the evening socializing and going back and forth from the bar to order more of those fabulously yummy, slightly sweet, slightly sour drinks. I lost count, but I think I had about six or seven of them. By the end of the night I was feeling more than a little drunk, but continued to socialize with Jeanna’s many guests and even her parents (sheesh, I hope I didn’t say anything too embarrassing)!

The last ones standing, Jeanna, Mike and I finally decided to head home. We packed up Jeanna’s many gifts and decorations and as a birthday treat Mike paid $20 for a five block cab ride home. Of course I tagged along.

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEANNA – You are one of my best friends and the most fabulous person I have ever met! I can only hope the next year of your life is just as amazing as the last. Cheers!

New Year's Resolutions - 2008

I never bother to make New Year’s resolutions, mainly because I know I will never be able to keep them and am therefore just setting myself up for failure. However, this year I am trying to set realistic goals that I just might be able to accomplish. For the record, here they are:

Exercise at least two or more times per week
Even to me, this doesn’t seem like very much effort, but I know myself well enough to realize that if I set a lower goal I am much more likely exceed it. However, if I set a higher goal, such as exercise at least four times per week, or every other day, that won’t happen and then I will get discouraged and quit all together. Hence my totally wasted gym membership at Pure Fitness. I would also like to incorporate eating healthy into this goal.

Stop gossiping so much (especially at work)
I’ve really been doing this far too much. My work environment is not the most healthy, and it seems the way most people have dealt with this is by shit talking. Eventually this is going to get me in trouble. Instead of focusing on the negative aspects of my job and then perpetually complaining about them to my co-workers, I instead need to focus that energy on either having a positive attitude and doing the best that I can at my current job, or find a new one.

Put $150 per paycheck into savings account
It is completely unacceptable for a 26-year-old woman to not have a saving account, in my opinion. I am embarrassed to admit that for the past year my savings account has had less than $10 in it. However, now that my credit card is paid off (yay! – a huge goal I was determined to accomplish by the end of 2007!) I am going to try and put the $300 I used to put toward my credit card payment every month into my savings account. This combined with my Roth IRA contributions and I think I might really be moving into a more stable financial situation.

Seriously pursue going back to school
I have really felt the itch to go back to school lately. After doing a lot of research I think I might look into the Executive MBA Program at the University of Washington. I am going to an informational meeting next month to get more details, but the program is really flexible and I would be able to complete it while working at the same time. So now I really need to focus on how to pass the GMAT. My current score would read “Verbal: 1 billion, Math: negative 2” so I need to look into a study course or something.

LET IT GO
I have been harboring some serious resentment and borderline hatred for some people who have affected my life during the past couple years. Unfortunately, I will most likely have to interact with a couple of these people in the future. I am really trying to convince myself that hating these people does nothing to them, it only amplifies my own negativity, which does not make me a better person. I need to take a deep breath, rise above, and continue to remind myself that taking the most mature approach possible is probably the best answer.

I hope that the goals I’ve set for myself this year are realistic and that I don’t look back on this entry a year from now feeling like an embarrassed failure. Time will tell, wish me luck!