backpacking

g loves me.

our travel backpacks for thailand!

the bread shame

came home just now and found the dogs have gotten into a full loaf of bread. this is the second time and the bread had been far up the counter!

to make myself feel better – I made them wear their shame. Bernie refused to take part of the punishment and mournfully stayed downstairs.

rain

yesterday, my neighbor who has three large poodles stopped me in the street to tell me her oldest, lily, had passed away this weekend. i felt bad because i was caught off guard and did not have the right words to say at the moment. hopefully these will speak for me.

jumble

with all the emails swirling back and forth about our upcoming hong kong/thailand trip, getting really pumped. still have a lot to do to prep for the trip, but it’s been awhile since i’ve been overseas (last time was 2009 in asia as well) so hoorah! i love traveling. and eating. noms.

i’m re-reading the hunger games and am quickly blowing through them again. my boss and i are watching the 9:15am showing on opening day as a “team outing”… that’ll be fun :]

neglect

poor blog, i’ve neglected you.

there’s one piece of news i forgot to write about. we booked tickets to hong kong/thailand for april! yay for weddings to be the perfect reason/excuse to take an eleven day vacation. super stoked to travel with only a backpack… but not as pumped about the heat that will await us. oh well, at least we’ll get to cool off at the end of the trip in beautiful phuket. :]

wong ladies attack

my lovely wong ladies (+ a little origon) came to visit and bearing gifts that are my puppy children. yay oink & nikon – back home at last! it was a nice visit, but too bad the weather sucked (rained rained rained), but we took full advantage of the dreary weather and did some damage (but not really) at northpark, tjmaxx and nordstrom rack.

here are some pics of us wearing EVERYTHING we bought ourselves on saturday:

my love squid

it’s my dear katherine’s birthday today. i’m not a girl of many words, but katherine is so i feel like she deserves some from me. :]

when my father passed away last month, i had two shining stars that kept me going. one was my amazing boyfriend, garrick. and the other was my amazing best friend, katherine. during times of tragedy, the truth in people will come out and you will learn who your true friends are and how much a family’s love can hold you together.

katherine was there for me every single day. she brought me and my family breakfast, lunch and dinner, even when she was exhausted from work. she stopped at target to buy us towels, toothbrushes, toothpaste, snacks and anything else she thought we might need. she stayed up with me until 2am after a full day. she played card games with me and didn’t even let me win at poker (but i still got a penguin). she apologized profusely when she wasn’t there with me in person when she was celebrating christmas with family (WHAT? exactly, i agree – completely unnecessary but very katherine). she surprised me with cupcakes and fruit. she met with me at plucker’s, at mccormicks, at my house, at the hospital whenever i wanted to let me ramble on about life. she opened up her home to me so i could escape reality. she gave me a big bottle of goose. she waited for me outside the bathroom to make sure i was okay. she took on the extra responsibility with no hesitation and took photos for us at the service. she held me while i wept and she cried with me.

and not only did she do all these things for me, but she did it for my entire family too. and that in itself means the world to me.

katherine – you are more than i could have ever wanted in a best friend. i told you earlier today, but i would not be the same without you. i love you more than words can express, and i’m so blessed to have you in my life. this is already too sappy, so i will end it here and say i can’t wait for lbt3.

happy birthday <3

sunday funday for one

is it sad that i’m this excited about watching monte carlo (which i’m sure will be terrible), eating a bowl of lion head meatballs with noodles (the lesser version of stephanie’s) and reading myself to sleep with shantaram?

no. i didn’t think so. :]

restless

one word to describe this week… restless. in my sleep. during the day. mix that with frustration and i’m so ready for the weekend. i just couldn’t sleep well… you know when you have those dreams that just stick with you for awhile? all my dreams had the same theme, so it was almost like a story that spread itself across my week.

le sigh.

i had some good conversation with coworkers.

convo #1: the eeyore
now, i love eeyore’s character… but mostly because i like his deep voice and how he’s so plumpy. but when a person is “an eeyore” it’s just depressing. we were talking about how some people are just perpetual eeyores and to keep your personal sanity… sometimes you just have to “cut” these people out of your life. i know it sounds harsh – but these people can really bring you down. there’s always something good around the corner, but if you’re so focused on the bad, have a need to just complain or just have no desire at all to be happy… then i don’t want you in my life. people in this world suck enough and i don’t need people close to me being that way. enjoy. life.

convo #2: culture
we rush through life. we have “first world” problems. my coworker came by to chat with me about a documentary she watched last night called god grew tired of us that tells the story of three young sudan boys who were given a chance to make a life in the states. the primary point was… we take a lot of things for granted. the simplest thing like turning on a light switch, locking the door, buckling your seat belt are all brand new. they were also astounded at the fact that people here are so unfriendly in a way that… people don’t openly help each other or talk to each other. we walk by each other on the street staring straight ahead. the three young men were confused since back in their home town, they viewed everyone as family. it’s so incredibly unfortunate that terrible people exist that take advantage of the pure hearted people who strive to help each other and be kind.

big jumble of words but… you have the power to change yourself. if you don’t like something – change it. if you have a desire to do something or be someone – do it. i’m starting to detest (and i mean detest) people who hide behind excuses as if those are good enough reasons to be less than who you can be. never settle… you can always be a better version of yourself. things i need to remind myself every single day.

pizza, pizza

took advantage of not having the dogs or a g to go back home to and went out right after work (gasp!) with jessi to eat at il cane rosso… finally! i’ve been wanting to go for quite some time now and eat there. it was a lot different than i envisioned it would be (maybe more spacious?) and although it’s still good pizza, i think i hyped it in my head so much that it wasn’t AS good as i imagined it to be. BUT still great company :] always fun to hang out with jess (FUTURE ROOMIE!!!)

afterwards, we trekked to central market to find this raspberry truffle cake dessert she always talks about… but ALAS… they didn’t have it!! so sad. so we got our own desserts (brownie for jess and strawberry shortcake parfait for me) and headed over to her apartment where we google huddled with kat, steph and later, frederick! fun times :]

photo courtesy of kat