Photo Friday

Photo Friday time!  This is where I post random, unedited pics from my cell phone.

First up - in honor of Friday the 13th:

This is a pin I bought at Disneyland when we were there in May.  I've purchased pins while traveling for a LOT longer than Disney has been on the whole pin trading band wagon.  I'm not into trading, but I like that there are always so many for me to pick from while I'm there.  I like to pick up one or two per trip, so it was fun to come across this limited edition Friday the 13th pin! (I believe Jill and I bought the last two in the store!)

January 7th was Russian Christmas and Erik always hosts a Russian Christmas party that includes a white elephant gift exchange.  My first gift, a Lego torch (as in, flashlight) was stolen, so I brought home this little cactus from Arizona/California instead. (Grown in AZ, purchased in CA.)  It is now living at work.  I'm actually surprised at how "well" this picture turned out.  Pretty vibrant colors for a quick shot  in Erik's living room.

On the day of the Spring Awakening preview, I lost my bus pass.  It's the first time that's ever happened - I used it to go to work, and then when I went home it was gone!  Of course on a night where I was rushing and trying to make it to the preview in time.  I figured the best thing to do was order a replacement right away so I wasn't stuck using REAL MONEY for the bus for very long.  Well, when I ordered my replacement card on that Friday, I was told it could take up to a week to receive it...and it arrived on Monday!!  (Ummm, in case it's not obvious - that's what this picture is - my replacement bus pass.)

There you have it!  You were blown away by these amazing photos, right??  You can't WAIT until next Friday???  Yeah....good luck with that. :-)

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!

Barre3 Love Hate

Sara and I have been taking Barre3 classes - sucked in by a Groupon deal.  I was intrigued by the use of a barre - dancey, right!?  Well, it's a little different than I expected and I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

It's primarily a strengthening class.  Yes, they attempt to raise your heart rate a bit, but the majority of the class is spent on core, arm and leg work - lengthening and resistance training using the barre, a mat, a ball, and a yoga strap.  It's meant to feel sort of yoga-y and pilates like.

The first class we went to was a "foundations" class where they "go a little slower."  I was not a fan.  One of the reasons I don't like yoga is that it's too slow.  I know it's a good work out to hold something for 5 minutes, but I'm not interested.  Plus I felt sick because I hadn't eaten anything.

The second class we went to was a lot better.  We ALMOST didn't go in because we were late, but the instructor came out into the waiting area and physically dragged us into the room.  We really liked her, AND we liked the class a lot more than the first.  I particularly enjoyed that we went through things a lot quicker.

Today we took our third class and both agreed that we liked it less than the second.  It may have been the teacher's style.  This class ends our Groupon, but we have ANOTHER deal that we bought for 5 classes through Plum District.  That deal worked out to about $5 or $6 a class - how could we not do it? The classes are too expensive (for me) at full price, so I'm glad I've been able to find these promotions.

Here's the thing about Barre3 classes.  You spend the whole time thinking "I could do this at home - why am I paying to be here?"  The movements are small, and yeah we use the barre sometimes, but a lot of these things you can recreate at home.  ESPECIALLY since Sara and I both bought the DVD (which came with the ball!).  What's hysterical is that neither of us has actually used the DVD at home yet....which I guess is WHY we pay to go to class.

I get frustrated that these "simple" moves can be REALLY difficult!!!  Oh, I forgot to mention that we also use weights.  Well, I don't...(because it's too hard!!) but other people do.  I really do make an effort to push myself through some of the things that I think are too hard.  I imagine my old trainer is there pushing me through (Hi Jeff!) - he'd be so proud.  (Or not...I used to be much better at lifting weights).  I do realize that eventually these moves will become easier as I become stronger - right?

I did realize today that I DO need to be better about eating before going to class.  I've definitely had moments in the class where I've felt that my lack of strength was because I hadn't eaten.  It reminds me of how I used to feel at some of my old training sessions when I would rush straight from work and not have time to snack. (I guess some things don't change, huh Jeff??)  Of course, the problem now is that I'm taking these Barre3 classes so early in the morning, I "forget" to eat because I'm not really awake by the time I leave the house. *sigh*

Before January is over I WILL try the DVD at home, and I'm going to make an effort to remember some of the things we do in class so I can do them at home too.  Today it was this weird diamond leg thing that you do while laying on your side.  I can't even really describe them, but trust me - they were killer.

It is also worth mentioning that one of the best things about Barre3 class, besides hanging out with Sara, is going to Eltana Wood Fired Bagels after class. :-)

Photo from the Seattle Times

P.S. With this being my 4th post in 2012, I have now doubled the size of my blog - yay!

Photo Friday

And now it's Photo Friday!  I wish my theme days weren't right next to each other, but oh well!

Here's how Photo Friday is going to work.  I take 100s of photos on my phone that never get used for anything or seen by anyone other than me (plus a friend or family member or two).  Now, I don't have an iPhone, so I don't have "fancy" photos - these are plain, unfiltered, and in most cases photos I would NEVER post on Facebook...or even Twitter (I'm a little more lenient about what goes on Twitter...but not by much.)

But HERE!!!  Here is different.  Here I will post unedited snapshots of my daily life, so you can see what I find funny, worth remembering, or things that I snap to send via text to friends or family.

I can't stress enough that these are unedited and in most cases, taken with little (if any) consideration of composition or lighting.  If I ever switch to an iPhone, that may change, so enjoy these while you can!!

Lovely warning on the outside of one of my Christmas presents.  Warning from the manufacturer...not my parents.

Little penguin figurine at Jill's - how cute is this!?!?  He's dancing!!!

I bought a #16 scoop a few days ago to use when making muffins and cupcakes and I LOVE IT!  Check out these identically sized banana chocolate chip muffins - heavenly! :-)

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! :-)

2011 Kat Recap

I will remember 2011 as a year defined by Spring Awakening and travel.  I traveled a LOT this year (for me) and while I like to pretend it was in honor of it being my 10 year anniversary of Semester at Sea - a lot of it happened...almost by accident.

In January I saw the 2nd National Tour of Spring Awakening in Tacoma, WA - sitting on stage for the first time.  I watched the show twice in one day (hey, they were only in Tacoma for one day) - I LOVED IT!  I already knew that I loved the show, but I fell in love with the cast and a couple of weeks later, I realized I needed to see them again, so I flew to Phoenix and then drove to Tucson to see them two more times.

 I thought that was the end, I really did, but in March I found myself in Charleston, SC for two more shows.  It was the farthest I had ever traveled completely by myself, and I had a blast.  I adored Charleston and could've easily stayed longer than the 3 days I was there.  After the second show I said my good byes to the cast (again - since I had already told some of them that Phoenix was my last show) and went home, content with my little mini tour of the US.

However...the day I got home I saw that Broadway in Chicago was holding a contest - the prize being 2 on stage tickets to the opening night of Spring Awakening, plus a meet & greet with the cast.  My immediate reaction was that I was *not* going to enter - you had to make a 1 minute video about how you were the biggest fan of the show.  Well, *obviously* that was me, but I was NOT going to make a video of myself pleading to be picked as a winner - plus, I had never made a video before. But....what if I didn't enter....and then other people won....people that weren't "good enough" fans?!?  How could I live with that!?!?  Over the next few days I came up with an idea that would allow me to create a video without actually filming myself and ran with it.

 My Ultimate Guilty One Contest Entry: http://youtu.be/9PRKa3sI2qU

Thankfully, I was chosen as one of the winners and that's how I ended up going to Chicago for a week in May with Lindsay!  Oh...My...Goodness - I LOVED Chicago!  What an amazing trip! We saw everything we wanted to see and then some!  Chicago was REALLY the end of my Spring Awakening Tour - but what a perfect ending it was.  We actually extended our trip by a day to see the cast perform a benefit cabaret.  It was totally worth it.  It was great to see them all in a relaxed environment and gave us time to chat and say proper good byes.

Spring Awakening Cabaret: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB4EC52A47C2CA0A4

Other trips this year included:

• Disneyland twice (once with my mom, my aunt Laurie and Jill and another with just my mom)
• Cedar Rapids, Iowa for work
• Las Vegas for Lily's bachelorette party
• Sitka, Alaska for my Goddaughter's high school graduation
• Maui with my parents

Here are some other stats for the year:

• Weddings Attended: 3
• Spring Awakening Performances Attended: 7
• Other Live Performances Attended (Dance, Concerts, Plays, Musicals): 21
• Flash Mob Performances: 15
• New [to me] books read: 18
• Number of weeks it took to watch all 6 seasons of Bones on Netflix/HuluPlus: 5
• New [to me] shows I started watching: 7 (Mostly Sara and Jared's fault!)
• Miles Flown: 26,936

Flash Mobs continue to be a huge part of my life.  I'm so grateful for this hobby and the wonderful people I interact with as a result.  A highlight of this year, in addition to the Glee Flash Mob being on my birthday AGAIN was being able to assist with teaching at some rehearsals, which is something I've always loved to do!

No year is free of trials, but I feel blessed to look back upon so many great experiences and memories of 2011!

This is [almost] everyone who sat with me on stage at Spring Awakening in Tacoma!

The gifts I delivered to the cast of Spring Awakening in Charleston "Fans From a Fan" :-)

Saying good bye to cast members Devon and George at the Spring Awakening Cabaret in Chicago

Chicago - The Bean

Pondering things in Disneyland with Jill

Angels in Sin City!

Flash Mobbing at PrideFest

On a boat celebrating Byron's birthday

AJP on Ice!

Christmas time at Disneyland. This may be my most favorite picture EVER of my mom and me.

Up and Down the Mountain

This past weekend, flash mob friends Jen and Mike hosted almost 40 people for a day of tubing in the snow at The Summit at Snoqualmie and an evening of fun at their home.  This was my first time tubing, and not being a skier, this was my first time being out in that area.

Tubing was a LOT of fun.  I didn't know what to expect, but there were carved out chutes in a hill side - you would pick one, get in line, slide down when it was your turn and then either walk up the hill or be pulled by a lift (of sorts)

My first time going down the hill I sat on my tube, but after that I went down head first on my stomach.  Not only did I find that way to be more fun, but when you are sitting it is awkward to get started unless you have someone there to push you.  During my first run, I was surprised at how FAST you go!  Once I started going on down on my stomach, you could really feel the wind and snow on your face.  It actually snowed on and off while we were there!

After the tubing was over we took pictures in the snow.  We are so lucky that Mike is a wonderful photographer and so generously documents many of the good times we have as a flash mob family.  (See all of our tubing pictures on Mike's website HERE!)  There was some snow ball fighting, which I did not really participate in, and then we all trekked back to Mike and Jen's where we spent the evening (and much of the morning) eating, visiting, dancing (of COURSE) watching performance videos and enjoying the company of each other.  Some of the guys even performed a routine they had put together in response to the Burlesque routine that the girls had done in December.

I overheard one person say how impressed they are that the guys put that routine together on their own time, for no other reason other than to share it with us at this party!  Their putting together that routine illustrates what I love about this group of people.  I have no better way to describe it other than - People who meet because they're willing to rehearse and dance in the street with "strangers" are generally good, fun people that bring positive energy to those around them.

I'm so lucky to know this group of people, and I'm looking forward to the good times that I know we'll have together in the coming year!

In other New Years News:

•  A palm reader at my work holiday party said that a big relationship is "right around the corner"!
• I don't do resolutions, but I accidentally set some "monthly focuses" (Monthly focuses are something that I purposely created in place of resolutions several years ago when I lived with Jill.) January is Cleaning & Organizing and February is Finances.  Possible updates to follow ;-)

Top 5 of 2010!!

I wasn't very successful at blogging in 2010, but that's ok because as of right now, no one knows this blog exists!

Here is a 2010 Recap that I posted on Facebook on New Years Day shortly after midnight.  I think it's important to re-post here:


About a week into 2010, I made the decision to move to Capitol Hill and I truly believe it was one of the best decisions I've EVER made. Here are my top 5 highlights of 2010 (in no particular order!)

1) Moving to Capitol Hill
2) Joining the best Flash Mob group in the WORLD! (Glee Flash Mob on my birthday? One of the best days EVER!)
3) Starting a new job with the company that I love
4) Meeting so many amazing people that have become dear friends
5) Going to Anchorage - my birthplace! (Hadn't been in 20 years!) and Hawaii (Hadn't been in 10 years!)

There were some not-so-great parts of 2010 as well, but I feel incredibly blessed for all of the wonderful things that *did* happen, and I have high hopes for 2011!

Happy New Year everyone!!

 It's not every year that King 5 wishes me a happy birthday!!! :-)

*~*~*~*~*GLEE*~*~*~*~* (Westlake Park - 1st Location)

This is a "close up" of our heart taken from the helicopter at our Gas Works Park Photo Shoot for Seattle Metropolitan Magazine. Photo Taken by Will Austin.

Last minute photo op before it was time to Rock You/Beat It/Vogue/Jam/Etc!

With my girls before our performance - I love you guys!

 Posing at the Paramount! Photo courtesy of Elliott - Thank you Elliott!! :-D

My mom and me in Anchorage

This is our old house!!! (Only it used to be brown...with no deck)

Parasailing with my dad in Hawaii!