Day 11 – Teaching computer classes and really good suppers

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Mennogirl

Tonight I volunteered for the second time as an instructor for a computer skills for adult english language learners class at the local library. However, thanks to a missing instructor I got a last minute bump from assistent to teacher! While not my ideal way to start teaching, the evening still went quite smoothly, although I missed having someone else there to help monitor how the students are progressing. Due to the set-up of the lap you can either instruct from the front, where you only see the backs of student’s monitors, or you can stand in the back and help out from there. Thankfully it was a pretty small class, with only 4 people in attendance, which let me balance helping individuals with leading the class.

I am enjoying this chance to both flex my instructor muscles and get to do more direct service, however seeing as I haven’t had the work to evening class transition in well over a year, these types of days tend to leave me pretty exhausted. But seeing as David just pulled this out of the oven, the evening just started looking up!

Day 10 – Some photos from the weekend

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Mennogirl

Another highlight of my Sunday spent hanging out with Katie was getting to take some headshots for her. While I don’t have any plans to start taking photos professionally, I do like taking photos for friends and getting more practice in general. So here are some of the results. Most have minimal editing, although some are examples of fun with Photoshop’s actions.

So if anyone else wants me to practice headshots (or other types of photos) on them, let me know!

Day 9 – Some things I have learned during the past year and 17 odd days

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Mennogirl

While today is technically Valentine’s Day and therefore a fitting day to write a post about someone you love, this post was actually mostly written last month when I intended to post it on Alex and I’s anniversay. Of course I never actually finished it till today…

Today marks a pretty amazing day for me – my one year anniversary of dating Alex. It was one year ago that I was out here in Seattle for a long weekend of visiting. Alex and I had spent much of the day wondering around doing various tourist things and were walking around the Seattle Center waiting for our IMAX movie start time (I think we ended up watching a odd movie about Boeing innovation masquerading as a movie about flight) when Alex asked me if I would be his girlfriend. To which I said yes and then promptly asked him if he would be interested in being my boyfriend.

So fast forward 12 months and I am now living in that city that I was just a visitor to and have been dating that same man for ~~365~~ 382 days. Here are a few things I have learned along the way:

It doesn’t get easier, but it does get better – During Jess’s visit a few weeks ago, she asked me the question that prompted this whole post – If you could go back a year and tell yourself anything about your relationship with Alex, what would it be? And the above phrase was my answer. It stems from my long-held incorrect assumption that if only the next level of relationshiphood was achieved everything would be instantly easy. For example, if only a boy liked me, than instant easy relationship would result. Then it was, if only a boy wanted to date me, than instant easy relationship would result. Turns out, there is no part of the relationship stepping stone that instantly makes any relationship easy and work-free. BUT, the second part is oh so very true. Turns out getting to know someone over the course of a year, does make things even better. Being comfortable with each other, knowing each other’s dislikes, quirks and the quickest way to incite some laughter means that dating someone for a year is intrinsically better than dating someone for a week, etc.
Driving around a Seattle neighborhood looking at Christmas lights and listening to an old Bing Crosby tape of carols (that despite his general dislike for the sappiness factor, Alex picked cause he knew you liked them) can actually end up being one of your highlights of the year.
Disagreeing can be almost as important as agreeing – Finding the right ways to disagree is a huge part of keeping a relationship going smoothly. I have always known that addressing conflict in interpersonal relationships is not my strong point, however I have also been putting in a lot of work over the past 10 years to get better at this vital skill. So of course I assumed that all that work would carry over into my romantic relationship – not true! Turns out learning how to communicate both the good AND the bad to one’s partner is challenging work. However the good is that I happen to be dating a man who is incredible at those necessary, but sometimes difficult work (Seriously, Alex is better at the “What I hear you saying is….” and general communication than most people I know).
Spontaneous foot rubs are exactly as awesome as I always thought they might be.
Finding someone who values dialogue, believes in doing what’s right, enjoys nerdy TV shows and geek board games, wears a beard well, reads books just as fast as you do, advocates for goofy humor, likes being of use to others AND thinks you are pretty darn swell, really is possible.

Day 8 – Weekend!!!!*

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Mennogirl

While this has been a pretty great weekend, I am not a fan of tomorrow being Monday. Sigh, I think I need to switch over to David’s current model of four days of work, three days of not work. Anyways let’s see, Friday night was a lovely chance to catch up with Alex’s aunt and uncle over dinner. Then Saturday started off nice and early with yoga with Katie, then I came home made these very delicious pancakes (the wheat germ ones out of the More with Less cookbook).

Then I sat down and made myself an ambitious to do list include all sorts of cleaning. I started with the kitchen, scrubbed the floor, cleaned the counters/stove-top/etc. After which, pleased with my progress I sat down to watch an episode of the United States of Tara. Four hours later I discovered that the day was almost over and my to do list would have to wait. What can I say, that show (especially the third season!) is highly engrossing! Saturday evening Alex came over for some supper and a quick game of 7 Wonders. Unfortunately after that he had to head back to work on homework, but David and I walked over to a bar in northeast Ballard to hear an old friend from college play fiddle in an Irish band.
Sunday brought about a lazy morning and a delicious brunch with Alex at Hattie Hat, where I tried the Red Flannel Hash. Who knew corned beef, potatoes and red beets, topped by two poached eggs could be so good? Then Alex headed off to play the epic (and very long) Twilight Emporium, and on his way dropped me off at Katie’s where Dominion was played, truffles were made, headshots were taken and part of Midnight in Paris was watched. It was a stellar day!

*For which, apparently, the theme was really good food

Day 7 – What I wore

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Mennogirl

It is late and I just got back from a marvelous evening of book club with the ladies, so I will keep this brief. I only took one picture today and it was of my outfit. So here you go:

This outfit was fun because it incorporated several of my favorite things including this cardigan, my boots and these striped tights. Plus it was fun to try belting on the inner layer as opposed to outside which is what I do more frequently. Also how fun is it that you get to see how messy my room looks right now!…..sigh

Day 6 – Nothing much to report

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Mennogirl

Today at work, I had a bad headache and was very tired of looking a computer screen by the time I made it home. But making a delicious spaghetti dinner (with meatballs!) and a side dish of roasted brussel sprouts for Alex and David helped turn the day around. Then David baked more of his incredible sourdough bread (with his very own homemade starter) and Alex and I watched the 3 most recent episodes of Community. Of which, I have to say, every time I think it just can’t get better than this, that show manages to top itself. It truly is the funniest thing on television right now.

But now it is 10:30pm, so it is off to bed for me!

Day 5 – Tax Returns

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Mennogirl

Today during the day I realized that I had obtained all of the various forms I needed to fill out my tax return, so I dutifully printed them out and assembled them in a pile to be taken home with me. Of course then, I forgot the pile completely, but so caught up with the idea of figuring out how much money I was getting back, I decided to carry on anyways tonight and just look at the various PDFs.

I must admit I take a certain glee in filling out taxes, I think this is probably almost entirely due to the fact that thanks to grad school expenses and student loan interest payments I have enjoyed rather substantial (and always somewhat surprising) tax returns for the past 3-4 years. Plus, there is something enjoyable about filling in little boxes and seeing the number in the upper right hand corner of the site increase. Sad to say, my experiences with those tax returns of previous years left me a little less enchanted with this year’s total. While nothing to scoff at, this return rates more in the possible airplane ticket (or two) home and less of an airplane ticket to Paris level. But in the end I should be glad, because this means I did a better job of estimating what I would actually owe the government and didn’t give them massive interest free loans of my money as I had unintentionally done in previous years.

Also apparently the great state of Washington has NO INCOME TAX, which blows my mind a little, so that also made the conundrum of having to fill out two separate state tax returns much simpler (i.e. nonexistent). So I want to wait a bit, double-check the forms I printed off at work and make sure I have all my ducks in a row, before finally filing and getting my hands on that nice little check. Although as of now, my only exciting plans for its use is attempting to revive my somewhat depressed savings account. Who knew moving halfway across the country and taking a massive pay cut would end up dissolving so much of my nest egg? (to which all the other real substantial nest eggs in the world snort a little and give me a patronizing look)

Day 4 – Weekend re-cap

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Mennogirl

While I didn’t intend to take my two days off this past weekend, that is what happened, so here’s to blogging every weeknight this week!

Saturday

Other than being one of the bluest sky days I have seen in Seattle, Saturday wasn’t super memorable. Highlights included making IKEA meatballs with Alex, buying stamps from the post office and getting to play an indulgent 4 hours of Civilization 5.

Sunday

On the other hand Sunday was lovely, an a cappella service full of good hymns, making this overly complicated (and ultimately somewhat disappointing – it needed more cheese!) recipe for cheddar, beer and mustard pull-a-part bread, and of course the Superbowl hosted by the lovely Katie and Bryan. Where I got to hang out with the cutie above and actually kind of paid attention to the game or at least the last quarter or so (butt-touchdown for the win!), spend a fun afternoon with friends and generally have a blast.

Monday

Today I found myself overly tired and so the only highlight was realizing that it is now this light when I leave work!

Day 3 – What I wore today

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Mennogirl

Recently Jess wrote about using the Boden catalog as inspiration for different ways to pair clothing she already owned (instead of the intended use of getting people to buy MORE THINGS!). I liked her post so much, that I signed up to receive my very own catalog and was inspired last night to look through and found this outfit that I really liked.

From this outfit I liked the black shirt paired with the straight simple mossy green cardigan and also the attention grabbing round pendant paired with basic jeans. For my interpretation I didn’t have the basic black option, so I went with striped instead. Then because I wanted to belt at the waist instead of the hips, I choose a chunkier black belt that had a larger attention grabbing buckle. Also I decided to make it a little more work-appropriate (which is funny cause I can get away with complete casual if I want too, it is the Northwest after all :) )

At the end of the day, this was a great basic outfit for work that made good use of my green cardigan which I have found myself under-utilizing and was also quite comfortable.

Day 2 – Best view of Seattle yet!

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Mennogirl

Today was a beautiful day in Seattle, blue sky with decent temps and so that made it extra awesome when a work meeting in downton ended early giving my Elissa, Stephen and I a chance to check out the view from the top of the Columbia tower. While I have recommended this experience to several people (including my parents, who went during their October visit), I had never actually been up it myself and boy was this the perfect time to do so.

I know I have talked before about how awestruck my Midwestern sensibilities remain by all these mountains! Really these low-res iPod pictures don’t really due this view justice. The sky was clear the whole way down to the snow peaks and the setting sun was lighting up Mount Rainier and the Cascades, while the Olympics were just looming dramatically in the shadows. I guess you all will just have to come visit me (and hope for a repeat of today’s weather!) and see for yourselves.