2012 Kat Recap

Soooooo.....2013 is almost over!  Thanksgiving has passed and now it's full speed ahead through the (super short) holiday season that will end with ringing in 2014.  I'm not exactly sure why it took the entire year to post the previous year's recap on the blog, especially since it has been posted on Facebook for almost the whole year.  I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the photos.  Dealing with photos is a pain. (Update - yes, it's definitely the photo situation.  I need a better filing system and/or I need to post this recap immediately after posting on Facebook.)

Anyway - here you go...this is what happened LAST year.  Stay tuned for a 2013 version in a little over a month from now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A couple years ago I started writing annual recaps on New Year's Day. (I did start writing this on the first but didn't have a chance to finish it until a week later.)  2012 was another year of travel and musicals!

The year started with an epic (and you know it really was, because I can't stand that word and wouldn't use it unless it were true) trip to New York with Lindsay to see shows.  I haven't been to New York since my mom and I went to see Lion King on Broadway in 2004.  Lindsay and I saw 9 shows in 7 days!  Did we eat?  Barely.  Did we sleep?  Not really.  :-)  I could go on and on about the shows but in an attempt to summarize I'll saw that the highlights were seeing the original cast of Book of Morman, meeting Alan Rickman, seeing a preview performance of the breathtaking cast of Once, seeing our friend George in Godspell, his Broadway debut (!!), and having him take us back stage and ON stage after the show.  There were so many amazing performances, and words simply can't do them justice.  

I do need to share that the SECOND Once ended, the entire house was up on their feet.  It was pure Broadway magic, and stage dooring that show was a blast.  It was only the third night of previews and only about 6 of us were at the door.  Some of the cast seemed surprised we even wanted to talk to them - let alone their autograph or their picture.  We had a lovely chat with Steve Kazee, where he told us his [now ex] girlfriend was from Bellevue (and then we felt incredibly stupid a couple months later when we realized we didn't IMMEDIATELY make the connection that he was referring to Megan Hilty #BroadwayFanFAIL).

We even managed to fit in all of the major sites, taste the best cupcakes (Georgetown), visited Mood, and saw some old friends.  I was able to see my Semester At Sea RA, who I haven't seen in 11 years, and had breakfast with his family on our last day in the city.  It was a crazy, wonderful trip

Over the summer I flew up to Sitka over the 4th of July weekend to visit with family.  This trip was extra special because I got to see (and hold and play with) my Goddaughter's beautiful newborn son, Tucker.

The next big trip was in the fall.  My mom and I met up with my Aunt Laurie and cousin Rachel in Florida for a week at the Disney World resort - a place I haven't been since performing there during my senior year of high school.  I learned that I could never live in Florida - the weather would eventually kill me, but it didn't kill the trip!  Highlights of the trip included the best meal of my life at Kouzzina (so great that we re-arranged our dinner reservations for the week and ate there again), visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios and seeing Disney World with an intent to actually *remember* it.  The Epcot Food & Wine festival started toward the end of our trip - we highly recommend it!

We ended the year with a family vacation to Disneyland in early December for "Christmas."  It rained EVERY DAY.  Highlights included seeing the new Cars Land, going to the newly opened LA Georgetown Cupcake, visiting Universal Studios and seeing Beth & Connor's new apartment.  Plus it was the first family vacation with all four of us since 2002.

I'm not feeling inspired to do a full stats list like I did last year, but as you can see, I took four trips this past year.  I saw 35 performances of musicals in 2012 and 8 other performances that were not musicals.  (43 total vs 28 last year.) 3 of those 8 were plays, which I think I will continue to see each year, but I still haven't found one that I've actually liked.  :-/

I was in approximately 15ish flash mobs.  (Flash mob math is tricky.)  This is actually right on par with last year - interesting.  Our Glee mob was outstanding and included a surprise proposal which has since been featured by today.msnbc and Huffington Post! http://youtu.be/nZqsVk4XYKk What on earth are we going to do to top that this year??  There were lots of mobs that introduced something new, different, or personally challenging, which I really enjoyed.

Other random things about 2012:

• Blueberry picking in Bellevue + ice cream maker = Blueberry Ice Cream! (so delicious)
• Met The Pioneer Woman (.com)
• Went to PAX for the first time
• Did the Puyallup [fair] for the first time
• In search of loukoumades (and other Greek fare) Jared and I drove to Greek Festivals in both Bellingham and Tacoma (since we were out of town for the one in Seattle)
• Video I shot with my phone on election night is on its way to becoming my most viewed video on YouTube: http://youtu.be/lpDk6NUrtGg
• I tried a handful of new recipes this past year...excited for more in 2013!
• There was a short time frame in 2012 where I belonged to 3 different gyms.  If you know me you'll know that this is hilarious.
• Instagram for Android :-)

As always, each year has its share of sadness but I'm grateful that as I look back over 2012, I see a year full of friendship and lots of laughter. 

One of my favorite pics of the year! This was a big deal because I rarely do costumes - let alone coordinate them with others. It ended up being really fun :-)

Love More, Hate Less

A collage of Once - starring Steve Kazee and Cristin Milioti. You get an upgraded version of this pic because I didn't make the collage until mid 2013.

Another favorite pic from the year - taken at a flash mob rehearsal in Cal Anderson Park

Another Fave - Glee with the Quiet Zebra Girls. We have no idea who they are, but this picture is framed in my apartment.

One of my best phone pics of the year - Seattle Center at Christmas

December 7, 2012 ~ Photo by Steven Kahn

Holiday Season

It really makes me sad when I write a post that doesn't include a picture.  But not so sad that I don't write at all (as evidenced by my last four posts).  Let's be honest, if I enforced that kind of restriction on myself you'd see even less of me here.

So here you go - a photo of a book I bought on Halloween!

This my friends, is a "Thanksgiving Book."  A Thanksgiving Book, because it is about the man who created the balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.

Jared picked me up from downtown that day because we were headed straight to Sara's and when I got in the car he said "So....just standing there on the street....reading a children's book?"  and I said "That's what makes me awesome!!"

Also awesome = this book. I LOVE having seasonally appropriate children's books out on my coffee table, but have always lacked a Thanksgiving representative because - as I'm sure you can imagine - most of the Thanksgiving books out there are stupid.

But I'm not here to talk about books (...tricked you with that picture didn't I?)

I'm here to talk about decorating for Christmas...which may start as early as next weekend.  As in, before Thanksgiving. *gasp*

This holiday season is all screwy timing wise.

I know that technically there are the same number of days until Christmas as there always are, because Christmas doesn't move, but with silly Thanksgiving moving, and being extremely late, it's thrown everything off.

It's moved my vacation with my mom later in the month, it's moved my Christmas party later (and to a weekday - what?!), it's reduced the number of full weekends in December before Christmas because the first day of December is on the Sunday of the weekend after Thanksgiving.  See? All messed up.

I went into last December convinced it was going to be awful, and in an attempt to make it #NotAwful, I packed it full with every single activity possible.  I'm more positive about this December, but I'm sure it will be just as busy, so I'm trying to reduce stress by moving as much prep into early November as I can.

Of course, in order to be ready to decorate, I need to finish cleaning my apartment first.  I made massive strides this past week.  My living room is "put back together" for the first time since March  - it's really quite amazing.  I wish I could keep up that momentum, but instead I'll use a hashtag that Beth created this weekend....

#ButCouch


In other news:

• Online shopping could eventually destroy me.  Instead of being that crazy old person ordering everything from QVC and HSN, I will be the crazy old person who loses everything to Amazon.
• I turned on the heat today for the first time this fall.
• Despite this past week trying to kill me, it was full of some awesome things like Gena coming to visit, and my episode of The Big Bang Theory airing...and some packages arriving...of things I ordered online.
• The ceiling of the parking structure is leaking...again.  It's a miracle my building is still standing.
• North Dakota photos have been posted to Facebook, so that trip happened.  Still on deck - New York, Tim and Emily's Wedding, Florida, and Chicago. (Maybe I'll post Chicago photos on the 3 year anniversary of that trip...)
• It was a #TeamSatrina weekend, complete with a rowing class, running, errands, and an awesome Garfunkel and Oates concert - Sara thinks we should be them next year for Halloween, which could be really funny.  I just need to find a way to be 4 inches shorter and 100 pounds lighter by next Halloween.  #WeTotesGotThis

#BusyBusyBusy

I didn't actually identify until recently that I REALLY like to stay busy.

It may be the planner in me? I like to know what's coming up and planning and organizing all of the details.  There are decidedly less of those tasks to do if there is nothing on the calendar.

I've often said (jokingly - and possibly even on this blog...?) "my life sucks because it's so full of amazing things."  To be clear, I've never felt like my life sucks, but this year more than ever, I've had an overwhelming sense of gratitude for everything I get to see and do.  (I'm...fairly certain I've said that before on the blog too...which is funny, because I haven't written a lot.  A lot of time I compose blog posts in my head, maybe that's what I'm thinking of.)

For all of my planning, what I'm not great at is recovery.  During this weekend I've been trying to restore my apartment.  There are things on my kitchen table from PAX, I had bags that weren't unpacked from Byron and Christine's wedding, I wasn't fully unpacked from LA and NYC.  The only reason I was unpacked from North Dakota was because I had to use that suitcase again for New York.

It's things like this that make me wonder how people manage with kids and/or how they travel with kids.  I'd like to think that when I have kids, I'll have a husband to partner with, and hopefully a home, where my suitcases aren't stored at the foot of my bed, switching out bedding doesn't involve puzzle piece precision in my closet, and that doing laundry doesn't monopolize the entire living room.  As far as business travel...let's just hope that's never a regular occurrence, because in addition to destroying my living space, I also hate flying.  (I've written that before, right?  How do people remember what they've blogged.  Use that "search" feature?  Pshhh....I've got laundry to do.)

#FromTheBlogs

I'm not always current, but there are several blogs I follow.

It was a mini-crisis when Google Reader announced it was going away, but now I used Feedly, and order has been restored. I don't even feel the same pressure I felt with Reader to have everything read, which is nice.

I refer to the blog authors I follow as "my bloggers" as in "One of my bloggers wrote about..." and on occasion I send my friends excerpts in emails entitled #FromTheBlogs.

One of my bloggers is Mayim Bialik. I love reading her blog.  She's vegan, a devout Jew, a home schooling parent, practices attachment parenting, and her ex-husband was Mormon before before they met and he converted.  She likes things simple, natural, doesn't wear pants, detests over-the-top places like Disneyland, and doesn't shave.  Sooo....we're quite different, and it is difficult to imagine that she and I would be friends in real life, but I still adore her (and...do I even need to mention that she's an incredibly talented actress??) Her writing is so easy to read, and I feel like she has found the delicate balance of being personal but not-to-personal in her writing which I strive to achieve as well because what we do have in common is that we are both fairly private.  (Although I think I'm winning at privacy right now by having a completely secret blog).

She recently posted a link to a young woman reading a poem...

http://www.kveller.com/mayim-bialik/watch-this-college-student-nail-how-it-feels-to-be-a-woman/

So I watched it.

I didn't have an issue with the poem itself.  I like poems.  I even liked this poem and its message. But this was at a poetry slam, and so the whole time I was watching it all I could think about was how different I was from the people who were at this event and watching her speak.  Who are these people - responding with murmurs?  How do they know when to respond in unison?  Is that....snapping??

It's like when I'm at a play, and have that very distinct feeling that a "play audience" is so different from a "musical audience" and it's obvious which one I belong in.  What struck me was how strong these feelings were just watching a YouTube video.

Was I surprised by these feelings of discomfort? No...it felt pretty on par for me. I've always claimed to not be a "spoken word" fan. I think what was most interesting was how....the presence of the audience distracted me so much, that it turned a pleasant piece of art into something uncomfortable and basically unpleasant for me.  That I was almost a the point of dismissing the poem because of the environment in which it was presented.  That's what made me stop and think...and write.

Not a Running Blog

It would be so easy to turn this blog into something about running, but that would kill my soul.

And even though it would be seasonally appropriate, being Halloween and all, I prefer to keep my soul for now.

All I will say is that our team is still running - and I ran a total of 11 times in the month of October.  Not too shabby - especially since I never could've dreamed of that before.

But a LOT of other things have happened since my post on July 11th other than running.  Not only that, but they are things that are at LEAST 1000 times more interesting.  I'm going to employ a technique I've used before, which I like to call "Here Are the Things I Would Blog About If I Had More Time."

• I held a Christmas in July party - also referred to as Christmas Lite.  It was definitely a success...this may become a tradition.
• I served on Jury Duty for the first time, was assigned to a trial, and was the head Juror.
• My parents bought a brand new house! It's beautiful, single level, and only 3 miles from their old house.
• I went to PAX again this year - this time with my brother - and I was one of the Pajaggle champions of the weekend.  I actually won something.  At Pax!  
• I got an amazing new bed - and then promptly began traveling nonstop so I barely had a chance to use it.
• Byron and Christine got married in a weekend extravaganza on Whidbey Island.
• I learned my Myers-Briggs type: INTJ. I love it and it explains SO MUCH!
• I went to North Dakota with my dad and grandma - I haven't been to ND since I was probably 4 years old.
• (For the sake of chronological-ness, running began 2 days after I came back from ND)
• Jared and I went to LA during which the following things happened:
• Staying with Beth + Trivia Night
• 1 Day (17 hours) at Disneyland
• San Diego Zoo (OMG Pandas!!)
• We took a dance class from SYTYCD's Donyelle
• WE SAW A LIVE TAPING OF THE BIG BANG THEORY!!!!
• I had my dresser repaired and have completely moved back into my bedroom for the first time since MARCH!!!!  (Did I write about that? Probably not.  Surprise, surprise, there was a leak in my shower wall that destroyed part of my bedroom dresser last March.)
• Lindsay, Jared and I went to NYC where we...
• Saw 8 different shows (5 shows each)
• Saw 12 friends and family members
• Purchased 30+ Schmackary's cookies

I sincerely hope I have the time and energy to write about all of these adventures some day. I really think if I had the time I would enjoy writing about them!  I decided recently that what I NEED is an iPad with a keyboard.  Then I could take that anywhere and easily blog all the time.  Right? Right?  #RightToolsRightTime

To say I like to stay busy is an understatement.  When I look over the past few months all I feel is gratitude.  I'm a ridiculously lucky girl.

Team "Let's Run Tomorrow"

I went running yesterday.

And I didn't die.

I didn't even hate it, but don't tell anyone that yet.

Here's the thing - I've always HATED running.

• I think it's boring
• I think it's a waste of time
• There are at least 50 other ways I would rather work out

I don't say "never" often, but I firmly believe that I will never want to run a marathon. I won't bore you with my usual rant, but I cannot imagine spending that much time training, plus doing the running on the actual day - I just see it as time I'll never get back (and did I mention the boredom factor?)

That said - I've always acknowledged that this is ME. Obviously there are people who love running. That's fine.  There are things I love that other people don't like. Whatevs.

So why did I go running?

Jared, along with his brother and sister, have decided that they want to start running regularly at a track by their apartment, and I was invited to join them.

My initial reaction was to throw up.  In fact, Jared may regret ever bringing it up in the first place (he said I looked like when he invited me to go camping). We sort of had a pretend fight (much to Sara's amusement - as it happened in front of her).  Ok, kind of like a real fight, but not one where either of us was really angry.  But I was frustrated.  There were some other factors at play that I won't bore you with here.  On top of that, just talking about running stresses me out.

Beth told me once that she loves running because she just has to grab her shoes, her phone, and go.  To me - running isn't that simple.  It's extremely complicated and anxiety ridden:

• Do I have the right shoes? (Obviously I need the right tool for the task)
• Do I have the right clothes?
• Do I wear layers?
• What if it rains?
• Do I listen to music?
• Do I have an appropriate running playlist?
• Do my headphones stay in or do I need different ones?
• How am I carrying my music?
• What else am I carrying? Do I have my phone? keys? if not - where are they?
• Do I take water?
• Will I have a place to set things down?

I also can't workout without a plan.  This is why I'm almost completely hopeless left to my own devices in a gym, and why I almost always work out by taking a class or working with a trainer.  I'm unable to efficiently guide myself, and I can't stand working out inefficiently.

Jared: You know can always just....not go running with us.

Yeah, right.

So I went.

I don't really plan on running WITH Jared or his siblings at this point - it's more like "going running at the same time."  I needed my own plan, which is sort of following the c25k plan.  At least a little bit - to start - to provide me with a little more structure.  I'm definitely starting with a timed interval approach, and they're going more with distance.

It even turns out that my iPod Nano (6th generation) has an awesome fitness app - it tracks my time, distance, gives me updates while I'm running and plays my music over the top of it.  Um, perfect!

I could probably fill a book with the other side rants about running, my search for "signs" that I should run, the things I witnessed that were "definitely not signs," how talking about running still makes me want to throw up a little, how I still roll my eyes at the thought of running - but trying to do that would be how this blog never gets posted.

Katrina I just thought of our team name!!!!!!!  

Jared Our running team?  

Katrina......Obviously....  

Jared just checking 

#TeamSports  

so???  

Katrina Team name:"Let’s Run Tomorrow”:-D !!!  

Jared haha 

Katrina You're in charge of apparel

I've made some peace with the "waste of time" issue.  As long as any running endeavor is under an hour - that falls into an acceptable range.  Realistically that's how long I would spend in a dance class or with a trainer, so it falls into reasonable "working out" time frame.  That would also mean I could reasonably run a 5k at some point and feel ok with the time commitment.

So there you go. I had to document the start of my running journey, because someday I may love slightly enjoy running and it will be nice to come back here and read about how it all started while Jared laughs at me.

Accidental Cleverness

This is me really trying to blog.

Did you know that a lot of people in my life ask me to blog?  It's not just Valerie anymore.  It's lots of people. (If "lots of people" is any amount over 3.)

That's a lot of pressure on this pretend blogger!

What pressure you ask?  The pressure of a well rounded post, the pressure of always having a photo, because I read once that "a post is always better with a photo."  Not groundbreaking information...and an obvious statement besides.

A photo.  This post is about the jewelry I wore today, so the smart and RELEVANT thing to do would be to photograph the jewelry.  Or photograph me wearing it...but it's dark now, and the lighting in my apartment is weird, and it means I would have to stage a photo and edit it.

Even as I say that a part of my brain says "you can do it!" while the other side says "if you stop to take a photo you will NEVER finish this blog!"  Hmmmm....right vs left much?  My left is winning, even though my right is imagining what that photo would look like.

Instead you'll get this other photo that's already on my phone and edited....it's from July 5th right after I got my hair cut:

It's still relevant because I'm wearing another new[ish] and favorite jewelry item.  A small, persimmon colored House of Harlow suburst pendant.  I love it because it's small (the signature HoH sunbursts are bigger and on a longer chain) and it's "trendy" enough that I've actually received an "I love your House of Harlow necklace" comment from someone.  That's as trendy as I'll ever be, so I'll take it!

Oh, right...the jewelry I wore today.

A few months ago I found this website that had custom hashtag necklaces.  I fell in love with the idea.  I NEEDED one!  I LOVE hashtags.  Not in an annoying way, because I maintain that I'm always an appropriately enthusiastic fan [of things] - never a crazy, over the top fan.  I don't go out of my way to use them in a ridiculous way, but I think they're amazing because they actually gave us a new way to express a thought, feeling, or theme.  It's an actual advancement in language.  That may be romanticizing it a bit, but I really find it fascinating.  And useful.  (At the time that I'm writing this, the current name of the blog uses a hashtag "#KatBlog".  This is the second name of the blog.  The first name was "I remind myself of someone named Alice")

Back to the necklace...what should it be?!  I polled my friends....none of the hashtags I use for myself made sense on a necklace.  #Katriculous (haha) #RawrKat (love this #, but...a little strange to wear around my neck).  I realized that what would make the MOST sense would just be #Kat, but....no one very few people call me Kat in real life.

There went the custom necklace.  Then a couple weeks ago I found new inspiration in an instagram post.  Someone I followed was wearing hashtag earrings - GENIOUS!!!  WANT!!!  MUST HAVE!!!

.....

They were harder to find than you think.  I wanted silver, but I took the first decent looking pair I found, which were gold.  That's fine - I equally wear gold and silver.  No one (as in...none of my friends) knew that I was looking for hashtag earrings.  I wanted to debut them and hear a chorus of "oh my gosh - hashtag earrings!!  How PERFECT!!!"  This plan led to disappointment.  No one seems to notice them. To be fair, they're studs, and I have long hair that probably blocks my earrings most of the time, but...they're so amazing - how can people not see that?!

I caved and pointed them out to Jared.  I wish I hadn't done that - it made it less fun.  I won't do that with anyone else.  That was exceptionally hard today for two reasons.  (Oh hey...this is the ACTUAL story I logged in to write about.)  One: I had lunch with Byron.  Byron would totally appreciate my hashtag earrings, having been along for the whole hashtag ride.  Two: Without thinking, I also wore my gold Marc by MJ necklace that has his little signature bird on it.  At a glance....I'm wearing a bird necklace and hashtag earrings.  It's like Twitter, but not, and better, because it was an accident.

Byron didn't notice...no one noticed.  #SighStorm

Which is why I wrote this today...because I can't tell anyone about my awesome new earrings.  Except you.

Happy 4th of July!

Seattle Fireworks Display ~ 7/4/10

Did I ever tell you about the time I worked for the 4th of July Committee in Vancouver, WA?

The committee was responsible for the fireworks show which used to be the largest 4th of July fireworks display west of the Mississippi River.  I don't think it's actually the biggest anymore, but it's nice to have that history.

Vancouver, WA (USA!) has a historic district near downtown and a Fort (Fort Vancouver of course!) so take my word for it, the town feels very patriotic, and it's a great place for a big fireworks display.

Working for the 4th of July Committee was one of my first paying jobs as a teenager, and one of my most favorite jobs of all time.  We sold fireworks to fund the display, and when I say we sold fireworks....I mean we worked in a huge fireworks tent!  Now, take whatever you're thinking when I say "fireworks tent" and triple it in size...and then add at least 12 registers...and shopping carts. 

I worked there for...I want to say 5 years.  Without boring you with all the details, it was a great lesson in leadership, overtime, controversy, retail, fireworks law, teamwork, and above all it was a blast.  Customers buying fireworks are [usually] happy, and I've never personally seen so much cash in my LIFE.

I grew up going to the fireworks show with my parents.  I can remember sitting on blanket in the grass, sitting in my mom's lap and her leaning back and saying "woooaaah!!!" with the big explosions, and then leaving the park with THOUSANDS of other people!  How on earth did we even get there....or get home with so many people!?!  Other years we watched from my dad's office building - they had a lounge on the top floor with a great view.

Once I started working with the 4th of July Committee, going to the show was less important.  I was exhausted by that night, plus I was older and more interested in setting off my own fireworks than going to the show.  Although one year we were given VIP passes and allowed to drive down near the airfield where they set them off.  That was pretty sweet. :-)

Being me, as much as I love fireworks, I also have a healthy respect for the danger that surrounds the holiday.  If you're setting off fireworks tonight, please be safe! Keep water near by, never relight, don't hold fireworks in your hands, and take care of your pets!

In the midst of all of your celebrating, take a moment to remember the reason for the holiday.  I often think about how I could've born anywhere in the world, and I'm incredibly grateful to have been born in the United States.

Happy Birthday America!