Thankful Thursday

On Tuesday night I started getting a headache. I stopped it from becoming a full fledged migraine, but it still lasted for about 24 hours straight.  This means of course that I was on Advil all day and that I didn't get anything done on Wednesday night except sleep.  Oh - and finish Happy Accidents, Jane Lynch's memoir.  (Interesting read, highly recommend!)

I'm trying to not turn on the heat in my apartment anymore.  I suspect that's contributing to my headaches...the dry air causing dehydration - I'm sure it's not helping.

Today, I didn't have a headache anymore...and I am incredibly thankful for that!

Thankful Thursday

Much to my old personal trainer's dismay, I have spent most of my life watching Diet Coke prices.  I religiously check the grocery ads each week to see if it's a "Coke Week" or a "Pepsi Week."  Both brands are rarely on sale in the same week.

Back in the day, twice a year - on Christmas and 4th of July - Diet Coke would go on sale for 99 cents a 6-pack.  I remember one year we bought about $100 worth and we built a fort in the garage.  Ahhh, childhood!

The days of 99 cents a 6-pack are long gone, and for a long time, the standard "good deal" was 5 12-packs for $10. 

 I used to think of Diet Coke pricing in terms of a 12-packs, so if there was a sale on 24-packs, I would divide it and think of what it would be for 12 cans.

Unfortunately, a couple of years ago the industry switched to 20-packs instead of 24.  Did they think we wouldn't notice?  Anyway, this made math a lot harder, so since they made the switch, I've started calculating down to the can level.  In case you're wondering, a good deal today is if you can find Diet Coke for around 25 to 27 cents a can.

What does this have to do with Thankful Thursday?

Well, for several weeks, Safeway has been doing special deals on Fridays and Mondays, and surprisingly, one of the days has included a $5 20-pack of Diet Coke.  It became so common for about a month, that I started to think it would always be there and I had no sense of urgency to go buy any.

Then it snowed, and I couldn't get to the grocery store....then the next week I fell asleep early and didn't make it to the grocery store.  I only made it in for 1 of the special $5 days actually....it's quite sad.  Last week, even though the $5 special was gone, there was a decent deal in place and I was running low on DC.  I planned to go the grocery store on Tuesday.  In fact, the next week's grocery ads arrived that day and alerted me to the fact that there would be NO good Coke deals in the coming week, so I definitely needed to make it to the store.

Then of course I fell asleep....and woke up at 11:30pm.

Dragging myself out of bed, I made it to Safeway.

When I got in line to pay for my Diet Coke (+ apples + a lemon + parmesan) at 11:52, there were 4 people in line in front of me.  Why were there so many people at Safeway at midnight!?!?  On a TUESDAY!!!

One guy in front of me must have realized that he didn't have his wallet, because he put all of his items back in his cart, swore, and left his cart by the cashier.

I checked out at 11:58pm - 2 minutes before I would have lost out on getting ANY sort of Coke deal.

Soooo...........

I am very thankful that the man in front of me forgot his wallet. :-)

Thankful Thursday

This week I have been incredibly thankful for two things:

1. That I live close enough to work that I can walk
2. That I didn't lose electricity

We are experiencing a "snow event" here in the northwest.  Typically we see snow a handful of times a year.  Generally it's an inch or two, and it doesn't REALLY stick around.  It may screw up rush up traffic for a day, but usually there's not even enough to close schools.

However, this week Western Washington saw a TON of snow.  My neighborhood had, at one point, around 3 inches (based on my non-scientific estimation).  This IS a lot of snow for where I live, but it didn't feel like a lot to me because other people had SOOOOO much more!!!  A co-worker of mine had about 10 inches of snow in her driveway.  Olympia had around 14 inches at one point.  We are DEFINITELY not used to snow at these amounts.

This brings us to TT #1.  Remember, I live in a city of hills.  It does not take very much to screw up traffic on these hills.  When so many buses are out of service and roads are shut down, it's reassuring to know that I will never be stuck at home or at work because of snow and ice.  My bus routes were actually running pretty well throughout the week, but I did walk a couple of times.  (It's good to have options!)

After our first big day of snow, the temperature dropped and we ended up covered in ice.  Tree snapped and broke from the weight of the ice and fell on power lines - lots of them.  I think at one point there were over 350,000 people without power and lots of people won't have electricity back until this weekend.  Remember, it's REALLY cold, so I'm super thankful that I have not had to deal with losing power this week.

Good night!

Thankful Thursday

I received FANTASTIC news via Facebook this week.  Starbucks is bringing the Chonga Bagel back to the Northwest!!

Photo Credit: http://cakeandicecreams.com/

Here is my Facebook post from September 29, 2011 - when I discovered it was being discontinued:

This is me, mourning the Chonga Bagel from Starbucks. :-( Good bye old friend. I'll always be thankful that my old manager was given an extra bagel one day and that he decided to give it to me. That was when I learned how delicious you are

....were....

I will treasure the years we had together.

Gone too soon.....I'll miss you!

You can tell I was extremely distraught.

Truth is, I have gone to Starbucks a LOT less since the Chonga went away.  I can tell because I don't use my debit card there, I just continuously load money on to a gift card.  (I do this because the I use their (red) card, and every time I used a charitable donation was made.)  I think I've only loaded the card once since September.

When you don't drink coffee, there are significantly less reasons to go to Starbucks.  I only love one other food item there (The Greek yogurt parfait with honey, granola and cranberries - PLEASE don't get rid of it!!!!) and it is often sold out at my usual Starbucks so....why risk going there if I have no back up food option?

This is a great time to mention that by "usual Starbucks," I actually mean "the Starbucks I try first" because I have 4 within a block from work, and this number grows exponentially with each added block.  (Tip: Never suggest that we meet at the Starbucks across the street from my work - we'll never find each other.)  I have been known to go do three different Starbucks to track down a bagel or yogurt.

Despite not drinking coffee, and despite the fact that some days I think it's trying to ruin my life, I do love Starbucks - a love that has grown even stronger with the return of the Chonga!

Thankful Thursday

Welcome to the first Thankful Thursday post!  I thought that having themes would help keep me on a blogging schedule, which I know is important for all of my faithful readers. (I'm looking at YOU Inventory Bear!!)

Thankful Thursday can be serious or silly - just anything in the world I'm feeling thankful or grateful for.

Tonight I was fortunate enough to view the preview performance of the first regional production of Spring Awakening.  What a treat!  I already have tickets to see two of the regular shows, but I was really excited for this sneak peak. :-)  For starters, I was able to sit in the front row, which is great because for the other shows I'll be sitting on the side of the stage.  I enjoy stage seating, but the sound is better sitting in the front.

Some elements (that were different from the touring production) were really enjoyable.  I liked some of the staging and choreography choices that were made.  The ensemble is large(r), and used on stage a lot more, which was very interesting (especially during Touch Me).  I really enjoyed Ilse's monologue - a LOT - which is something I'm really picky about.  All of the group numbers sounded great.  As for the few things that weren't so great (in my opinion) I'm excited to see how/if they change or grow on me when I see the show again.

After the show I was able to chat with Justin - he was on the second national tour as the cellist and is now in this production as Hanschen (and cellist).  It was fun to surprise him, quickly catch up and chat about how the show is different.  He snapped a super cute pic to post on Twitter:

I don't feel compelled to go to every performance, but a nice solid 3 shows will do me good.  How fitting that it is my first show of the year.  It is almost the anniversary of my Spring Awakening journey from last year - which started in Tacoma on January 22nd.

I'm very thankful that I was able to see the show tonight, and grateful that a friend put me in touch with her friend who is one of the stage managers - and that he was kind enough to invite me to the preview.  It never hurts to ask! :-)