"NO CANDY NO VOTE": sarapada

sarapada

"NO CANDY NO VOTE"

Jan 01, 2015 20:29

January

For my birthday this year, Ben and I went up to the harbor to spend a weekend with Mom, since we all hadn't gotten together for Christmas; while it's always nice to see Mom, there was weirdness, too. The next weekend, a bunch of us got together to celebrate Cyl's birthday, and there was much joyful singing along to YouTube videos from our younger years. I had an extremely anger-inducing conversation with the old lady who lived across the street from us, which was the last time I'd been angry in a really long time.

Movies seen in theater: Hunger Games: Catching Fire

February

In February, we had one of Portland's rare Snowpocalypses - my office closed for a day (although I'd already gotten on the bus and headed in). Of course, this happened when Peter was out of town, traveling for work, but all was well and he made it home with no problems.

One of my big 2014 resolutions, Mission: Up My Wardrobe Game, got underway with a couple of shopping expeditions. And, as a part of my ongoing support of my boss's efforts to prank people, I bought a five-foot tall stuffed giraffe - it was meant to come along on my work trip to Las Vegas in February. However, my boss and I learned exactly how prohibitively expensive it is to ship a five-foot-tall stuffed giraffe, so he now lives in my office.

Books read: Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell; Daring Greatly by Brene Brown; The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum; Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone (highly recommended)
Albums discovered: The Heist by Macklemore; Days Are Gone by Haim; AM by Arctic Monkeys
Recipes made: creamy polenta with roasted grapes & sausages; caramelized onion & rosemary foccacia; chicken adobo

March

I took a couple of days off of work in March, just to have a little rest at home - the biggest accomplishment was a comprehensive sorting of every single piece of clothing I had as a part of Mission: Up My Wardrobe Game. Also, my allergies flared up like WHOA.

Books read: Divergent by Veronica Roth
Craft projects made: fingerless gloves for me
Recipes made: maple roasted chicken with root vegetables; butter chicken; naan; mustard-coated salmon with roast asparagus; pomegranate-glazed salmon

April

The big thing in April for me was getting my short, short haircut - which I continue to have and to love. As a part of Mission: Up My Wardrobe Game, I had a clothes swap at house, where I got rid of a lot of clothes that no longer fit me and I got a bunch of new, great clothes for free. Mom and I went to Astoria and spent a weekend with our friends, the Perrines, which is always a lovely time.

Craft projects started: cross-stitch project for a friend's birthday; socks for a friend's anniversary
Movies seen in theater: Captain America - The Winter Soldier; Grand Budapest Hotel

May

May started off with the Great Boise Road Trip, in which Ellen and I drove across Eastern Oregon and Idaho to go see Kerry in Boise for a wonderful long weekend. I also started getting deliveries of vegetables from Organics to You, and picking up organic meat from Sweet Home Farms, which was really great in terms of getting me to try new recipes and make actual meals for myself. We had a new patio cover put in, which made a great spot to give myself a pedicure and soak up some sun once the days started getting nice again. Over Memorial Day weekend, Peter found a nearby hiking spot - Mt. Talbert Nature Park. A bunch of us got together at the Secors for a movie night - enjoying Top Gun (#butts). We also threw a little BBQ that weekend, which was so nice.

Books read: Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Albums discovered: Girls by Pharrell
Movies seen in theater: Only Lovers Left Alive
Recipes made: cacio e pepe; chicken in mustard cream sauce; roasted potatoes in lemon butter; roasted carrots; grilled steak; pressed roasted vegetable sandwich

June

Peter and I started off the month by taking a quick drive to Silver Falls State Park, where we took a hike, looked at some waterfalls, and ate a nice picnic by the water. At the gym, I started using the rowing machine to break up my cardio routine, which turned out really well. In mid-June, one of my good Linfield friends came to town, and a bunch of us went out to dinner together - it was so lovely to catch up with so many people that I hadn't seen for so long. I helped Peter sew the beanbags for his carefully constructed cornhole set, which came with us when we went on our annual camping trip to Hood Canal. I bought a personal hammock to bring with me, so I spent a lot of time relaxing and reading books, which was HEAVEN. Later in the month, Peter and I went out to Sauvie Island for a picnic at Howell Territorial Park.

Books read: Dinner with the Smileys by Sarah Smiley; World's Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne; Lexicon by Max Barry (LOVED IT); Devil in the White City by Erik Larson; Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer; The Happiness Project and Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin; Comfort Me With Apples by Ruth Reichl; Black Moon by Kenneth Calhoun
Recipes made: broiled halibut with Asian-style pineapple sauce; roasted bok choy; shiitake panini with roasted asparagus pesto

July

July was a huge, busy, super fun month - Cat and Heath came to town for Heath's birthday, and spent July 4th at our BBQ. Since I get to see Cat so rarely (and I hadn't met Heath), it was even more fun and special than usual. The week after that, I spent a weekend in Bend - Lily, my college roommate, was celebrating her marriage to Steady J, and it was really, really wonderful to see them. It was also really nice to be back in Bend without the angst of trying to fit back into family patterns. I got a *huge* raise at work, and also paid off my car. In less fortunate news, Melissa and Micah and the kids moved down to California for Micah's job. Cyl and Isaac celebrated their 10th anniversary, which was reason to celebrate in and of itself, but the fact that Kerry came to town for the party made it that much better.

Another big part of July was that I wore make-up to work every day that month, as a way of getting more practice and feeling more comfortable not only with the feeling of having make-up on my face, but also with the increased attention that comes with wearing make-up. It was a successful experiment - I haven't worn make-up more consistently since, but on those occasions where I do, I feel much more sure of myself.

Books read: The Dinner by Herman Koch; Among Others by Jo Walton; The Novel Cure by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin; You Are One of Them by Elliot Holt; Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Movies seen in theater: Snowpiercer; X-Men: Days of Future Past
Recipes made: strawberry-basil-black pepper ice cream; cardamom-brown sugar-coconut sorbet; plum cream cheese swirl cake; peaches 'n' cream streusel bread; zucchini bread

August

In August, I had a brief health scare - one of the weird elements of my Crohn's is that the symptoms of a flare can look a lot like food poisoning, but I try to err on the side of caution, so I went in to the doctor and had a colonoscopy (which, at this point in my life, is SO not a big deal). Luckily, everything looked good. In better news, in August, I got to see my brother's band, South Saturn Delta, play an awesome show at the White Eagle, and the next day Ellen and I started the Great Seattle Train Caper, an overnight trip capped off by seeing Haim perform, which was *great*. I also went for a picnic with Cyl in Mollala River State Park. Finally, Peter and I spent a Sunday out past Hood River, witnessing the wedding of our friends, the Hatches - it was a gorgeous, Pinterest-perfect wedding and they were clearly incredibly happy.

Books read: Two Serpents Rise by Max Gladstone; Offworld by Robin Parrish
Movies seen in theater: Guardians of the Galaxy (which we saw twice)
Recipes made: grilled balsamic chicken with peach-avocado-mozzarella salsa; sea beans sauteed with shiitakes

September

I went to Hoquiam over Labor Day weekend to see Mom, and we went to the Logger's Playday parade together, which was cute and really fun. I finally started using Pandora to listen to music - as usual, I was a super-late adopter, but I'm making up for lost time now. We had a movie night with Peter's parents, and watched The Sting, which I hadn't seen since high school. My boss gave me a pink stun gun, because he thought it would be funny. I also (thanks to Ellen) discovered Drunk History, one of the great joys of my life this year.

Books read: When She Woke by Hillary Jordan; The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot; Ash by Malinda Lo; Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
Recipes made: well, this one was made for me by Ellen, but it was so amazing that it deserves honorable mention: the grilled sourdough, smoked Gruyere, bacon, apple butter sandwich. AMAZING.

October

October was an incredibly busy month. We started by having out annual cider-pressing gathering over at Peter's parents' house, which was a lot of fun. In mid-October, I had a four-day business meeting in Chicago that I arranged and oversaw; immediately upon getting home, I drove down to McMinnville for my ten-year college reunion. I almost didn't go, but I ended up having a great time! And THEN instantly Peter and I moved into our new house - the house that Melissa and Micah used to live in. They came back to town in October, both for our reunion, and to celebrate Tayla's 4th birthday.

I also took a whirlwind 18-hour work trip to Denver to support my boss.

November

In November, I got to take a long-anticipated trip (which was also my fourth airplane trip of the year - a personal record!) with Cyl to go see Cat and Heath at a convention in Chicago. I also got to finally meet Kris, a friend of all three of them who quickly became my friend as well. The next week, we had the inaugural Movie Night in our home theater - we showed Blade Runner (and I fell asleep, of course). We spent Thanksgiving with Peter's family, which was lovely as always.

Books read: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer; MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood; Lock In by John Scalzi; The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
Craft projects finished: the socks I made for my friend's anniversary (FINALLY)
Movies seen in theater: Interstellar; Birdman; Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1

December

In the beginning of December, our seldom-seen friends Bo and Amy came over for a visit, which was lovely. Cyl and I discovered Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries on Netflix, which quickly became something I thoroughly enjoyed. I went to my company's holiday party, which was a lot less fun than usual, since a lot of my most beloved coworkers no longer work with me. For Christmas, Mom came up to Portland and Ben stayed at the house - since we live next door to Peter's parents now, and it's their first Christmas since the grandkids moved away, we decided to mash up all of our traditions and spend Christmas together with the six of us, which turned out so well! We ate breakfast at Peter's parents' place, ate lunch here, opened presents in both places, and ended the day by watching A Muppet Christmas Carol in the theater, which might just need to become an annual tradition. The next Saturday, we went to Cyl's for FriendsMas, which included the first half of The Hogfather and a rousing round of Cards Against Humanity. On Tuesday, I went to a Blazers game with my former work BFF, my boss, and his wife (aka my former boss) - it was a lot of fun, for being a sports-ball event. Finally, we rung in the New Year at the Secors' house - they had "Hipster New Year's" (i.e., do the countdown super early so that their small children could go to bed on time), so I got baby hugs and there were delicious snacks and we got to bed on time. It was lovely.

So, overall, 2014 was pretty calm, and filled with lots of good things - I'm hoping for more of the same in 2015.

As for resolutions (which I'm always a huge fan of, despite my irregular record of keeping them), I have some ideas - I'm trying to be really kind and gentle to myself around it, but I know that for sure I'd like to execute:

By the end of 2015, I want to …