A few snaps from the summer, including a visit to the NoDak, my grandpa’s birthday party in Sasky, and a lot of days spent on the water. I’m applying for an internship for next summer, so I’m glad I got in as much ‘home’ as possible while I had the chance.
In just under an hour I’ll be taking off for Bend, to spend some quality time with my best girl. I haven’t seen her since my last foray up there in November, so it’s long over due.
I am hoping for a weekend of coffee and crosswords, Caesar’s, yoga, mimosas at Chow, and a really good chat, as both of us hate to talk on the phone so we don’t communicate very well in the long spans when we don’t see each other.
That’s the thing about best girl’s though, is that it doesn’t really matter how long it is between visits, because things tend to fall right back into place as soon as you’re back together again.
The reason we went to Toronto a few weeks ago was because my best friend Amanda was getting married. I don’t really believe in love at first site, but she is the closest thing to that I’ve ever experienced.
The second we met, at a party in the penthouse of a Honolulu apartment building thrown by friends of Swedish boy she was dating, we loved each other immediately, and were inseparable from that moment on.
She is one of those people who is really good at everything, her hand writing looks like calligraphy, and she is a former gymnast, and current model with a degree in Biology, she bakes amazing cakes, and she gets up at 4 am to watch Manchester United play soccer. You almost want to hate her, but you can’t because she is so kind, quirky and fun to be around.
We don’t get to see each other that often anymore, since we live across the country from each other, but I was able to go to her wedding and be a bridesmaid, and it was so much fun. Weddings are always kind of bitter sweet because you get to see someone you love at their happiest, but it’s also a time of change, and being around so many family and friends that you don’t know reminds you that as much as you love that person, you are just a small part of each others lives.
The good news is, even though we didn’t get to spend as much time together as I would have liked (which is true at ALL weddings) her family was so amazing and fun that I had a blast partying with them. They have another family wedding in October and I am considering crashing it, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.
Love this poem:
We Who Are Your Closest Friends
Last week we had an onsite work training that our whole team flew out for from all over the country. At the end of the second day, we did a cooking class as a group for something fun to do together.
It was at Jordan’s Kitchen in San Francisco, and it was amazing. It is a full scale commercial kitchen, but they only do group cooking classes, so we had the place to ourselves. The staff were super friendly, and really knowledgeable.
We arrived, and they had trays of cheeses and smoked meats for us to snack on, and they were handing out wine before we even got our jackets off. We made mushroom risotto, flank steak with fingerling potato salad and chocolate mousse with sea salt for dessert.
Our group got to do everything, they taught us how to chop vegetables, season everything, and prepare, plate and garnish each dish. The food was delicious, mushroom risotto is one of my favourite things in the world. I may have gotten a little too deep into the wine because before I knew it I had nominated myself as the grill master of the group, and was picking up the flank steaks with my bare hands, and expertly (ish) maneuvering them around the flaming grill.
The chocolate mousse was delish, and we had a post-dessert mini-booze bottle pinata, which is not something I’ve done before but may well become a part of my supper routine every night. It was a really fun activity, and we got a copy of all of the recipes we made so we can re-create them at home. Not promising I will, because even though it was delicious it was a lot more work than boxed mac and cheese, but still it’s nice to have the option.
I hope everyone has the best day today, and gets to spend it with all of the people they care about.
I am hopefully either on my way to Mazatlan now, or I’ve already landed and I’m enjoying a margarita with my family.
Merry Christmas!
I love the Holidays for tons of reasons, one of the main ones is holiday parties. They do tend to stack up though, this last weekend I had 3, starting with my work Christmas party on Thursday night. They rented out a nightclub, Temple, and we partied and danced until the wee hours, followed by an obligatory 2 a.m. trip to In and Out.
Friday I had to work, it was a rough morning but they brought in McDonald’s breakfast and Bloody Mary’s to get everyone motivated.
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| I brought in my own bottle of pickle juice, I like to plan ahead. |
Derek’s work party was that night so I left work early, changed in the car and went for dinner and drinks at Rickey’s in Novato. I did pretty well off the start, I had a few martini’s to perk me up, but by the end of the night I was fading fast.
Saturday night we had a White Elephant party with friends, it was a bit more low key, but still lots of fun. I have three more parties this week, Friday is my last day of work, and then we’re off to Mexico next Wednesday.
It’s great to spend so much time with friends and always have something fun to look forward to, I kind of wish it was Christmas all the time, but at this rate I’m not sure I’d survive it.
One of the reasons I went to Vegas last weekend was to do the Colour Me Rad 5K with 2 of my best friends. I’ve done the Colour Run before, and to be honest, it was quite a bit better organized than this one, but the company for the Rad run was spectacular.
My hair was green for the rest of the weekend, and I’m pretty sure my lungs are still rainbow on the inside, but it was really fun. I put my “RAD” tattoo on my arm, and for the rest of the weekend people were like “RAD! I LOVE YOUR TATTOO” everywhere I went. There was so much enthusiasm for it that I briefly, after several martinis, considered making it permanent.
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| Love them. |
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| Another accidental .gif. I don’t know how this keeps happening but I love it. |
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| live colourfully, or not at all |
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| Amanda poured water on Kristine.. |
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| Look how mad she was. Priceless. |
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| That face. |
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| Before |
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| After |
Monday was Thanksgiving (I try not to call it Canadian Thanksgiving even though I’m sure some people think I just can’t read a calendar because it kind of feels weird and dis-associative. It’s MY Thanksgiving so I feel like I shouldn’t qualify it, as though I’m saying it’s not REALLY Thanksgiving).
I haven’t been able to be home for Thanksgiving in a very long time, but it’s become a tradition to celebrate it with friends, food and lots of booze, and it’s far enough away from American Thanksgiving (ha) that I’m not interfering with anyone’s plans with their family.
I’ve had some very memorable celebrations, the time at our Sheridan St apartment or “the ghetto” as it was less than affectionately referred to by our friends, when we didn’t have any furniture except for a tiny, musty futon and ended up eating and cooking most of our meal sitting on the living room carpet.
There was the year that my sister made electric purple sweet potato casserole that was way too nasty looking to eat. The year my friends in North Dakota surprised me with a Thanksgiving celebration of fries and gravy (poutine’s cheeseless counterpart), ketchup chips and perogies even though in their opinion, and this is a direct quote “Canadians don’t even believe in pilgrims.”
And one of my fondest orphaned Thanksgiving stories, my first year living in Honolulu when my room mates who I’d only known for a couple of months surprised me with a KFC picnic in our new dorm room to celebrate. It was my first holiday so far from home and to this day I think it was the nicest thing that anyone’s ever done for me.
This year was no exception, Derek and I had a turkey cook off (I’m pretty sure I won, ahem) and a bunch of our favourites came over to help us eat it (even though there were 10 of us, we didn’t put a dent in that turkey, in case you were wondering what I’ll be eating for the next two weeks). We had perogies, mashed potatoes, stuffing and some amazing mac and cheese, way too many desserts, and some very intense beer pong matches.
There was the small matter of a puppy almost getting ran over by a car, but it’s pretty likely that it’s not even possible for horrifying catastrophes to occur on Thanksgiving, and everyone walked away unscathed.
So as a status update, today I am feeling fat and happy because of all the delicious things I’ve had to eat lately, and also lucky that I’ve had the opportunity to make so many good friends, all over the place.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Over labour day weekend, my best friend got married in a gorgeous ceremony in Bend, OR. I arrived on Wednesday night, and despite a pretty terrible toothache, had such a great weekend. Nic’s family and friends are so much fun, so in addition to the actual wedding, it was pretty much just a 5 day party, broken up periodically by important bridesmaids duties like making bouquets and playing Cards Against Humanity.
Contrary to popular belief, I did NOT cry through the whole ceremony, but she looked so beautiful, and so in love, and I don’t think there are words to describe how happy I am for her and her wonderful new husband Mac.
I also began what I believe will be a life-long commitment that day, although mine was with a beverage. If you are looking for a sign that the world really is a lovely place, you can probably find it at the bottom of a lavender lemon drop martini.
