holidays, food, trucks, more food.

the  last few months of 2009 seem like one chaotic blur. i moved, got a new job, and had a great thanksgiving with my family. my amazing parents sent me an incredibly thoughtful and generous package (i now am the proud owner of the most darling sewing machine that ever was! i am now one step closer to being on project runway and becoming bff's with tim gunn!)  that made having to work christmas and christmas eve, and spending christmas alone a little easier. i have so many amazing holiday memories from my childhood, all of which my parents are directly responsible for.  the holidays really are all about being with those you love.  having to miss out on that aspect of the season, it really makes me appreciate my family and friends that much more.  while i was slinging dinners to the people of portland, i was thinking about you all and hope you all enjoyed the holidays.

i have to admit, i had a small case of the bah-humbugs this year for christmas.  i attribute this to several things. as far as i'm concerned, any christmas without snow, is not a real christmas. and no snow was to be had in portland. also, my work with oregon ballet for their nutcracker season sucked my soul of all things christmas.  i've always loved the nutcracker, but when you see, listen, hear, and talk about nothing but the nutcracker for 40 hours a week... the excitement and christmas cheer that generally surrounds the nutcracker can quickly become a bit stale. (while working for obt i made 4 women cry, was yelled at by numerous individuals, and was even told i was "killing christmas"... and all just by selling tickets. people are CRAZY about their nutcracker. i should say that 2 of the 4 crying women were out of joy. so it's not as if i'm a total grinch. but geeze people-- i'm only doing my job! it's not my fault you can't afford tickets for your children because the cheap tickets are sold out because you waited until the week before the show when tickets have been on sale for 6 months.) i assure you, i'm not as bitter as i seem and actually quite enjoyed my time working for obt.

on the 19th of this month, ben took off for Baltimore for a seasonal job of his own.  it is possibly the most bizarre job i have ever heard of.  he was hired by an ad agency based in portland to work on an ad campaign for Ikea. what does this job actually entail? driving a truck around with giant screens on the sides playing Ikea ads. the job doesn't make sense for a lot of reasons, but no matter- it's a trip to the east coast, it pays incredibly well, and hotel, travel and food are all paid for. the down side was it meant ben had to spend the holidays in an unfamiliar city alone, and (most importantly) away from  me. right before he left he was informed he would have to drive the truck back to portland.  as much fun as a cross-country road trip sounds, (it's been on my to-do list for years now) making it happen in january, in a big truck (with no working cd player), alone, doesn't sound like much fun. especially for a boy born and raised in arizona who has never before put chains on tires.  so, he enlisted me to join him, found a cheap one way ticket, and on the 29th i joined him in baltimore. i'm a bit anxious about the drive home, but i have always wanted to be a trucker, so this is not only fulfills that dream, but i also get to spend new years with my darling beau who i've become slightly fond of.

i should have a disclaimer about any blogs about this trip-  99% of them will be about food. i.love.food. being able to explore new places and find tasty new things to try is one of my favorite things to do. ben is allotted so much money for food, and has been staying under budget so we could explore things together. we are wasting no time in doing so. my first day here we went to Papermoon, an awesome little joint our friend and baltimore native (& our current dog sitter), jen, recommended.

we are so glad she did- not only did it have phenomenal food, you could spend hours there just looking at all the cool stuff they had. the place is decorated with all sorts of toys and mannequins and other bizarre things. (most of these pictures are quite dark- we were using ben's work camera which neither of us have mastered  just yet.)

ben had a big ol juicy blue cheese turkey burger.  i had an incredibly tasty portabella pesto sandwich with goat cheese. i intend to recreate this sammy as soon as i get home, but know it will be difficult to get their hoison sauce right. it really was a perfect sandwich.  we took a slice of their peanut butter blitz to go and devoured it when our bellies were a little less full.

 please note the awesome bowie poster

 

we're all about the high fives

check out the lego undies!

Day Two

we tried a place really close to the hotel that we'd both seen on a couple of food network shows, as well as on anthony bourdain. Chap's Pit Beef. you can check out a clip of it from Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives here if you're interested:

i went with the pit beef which really had enough meat to feed a small family, and smothered in "tiger sauce", mustard, pickles and onions. ben had the rachel and we both agreed the baked beans were the best we'd ever had. these are pretty mediocre pictures, but i'm putting them up anyway so i can look back and remember what dreams are made of.

we both spoke fondly of our pit beef babies we had in our bellies the remainder of the night.  we were pretty incapacitated as we could almost feel our arteries clogging with greasy goodness.  a heart attack would have totally been worth every bite.

Day 3

 i went out on the job with Trucker Ben. his.job.is.crazy.  he drives around, parks, takes pictures of people watching the ad, drives some more, repeat.

it turns out, some people do not like having their pictures taken.

this guy on the right tried to grab the camera out of my hand while making some pretty scary threats with a few choice words for me. luckily i'm a pretty tough cookie, and i think my aggressive tone took him off gaurd and i was able to make my escape, camera safely in hand.

after that experience i took to asking people if they'd pose for me, which worked pretty well i thought. like with this couple:

totally believable, right?!

i'm doing my best to earn my meals on ben's company dime. 
the ad is horribly loud and a little more than slightly obnoxious. poor ben thinks he hears it all the time. it has become a perpetual ear worm that he cannot get rid of. i'll try and get some video of it so you can all experience first hand the catchy little jingle and the woman shrieking "they're having a saaaaaaaaaaale! i'm going back for more!!!!"
like i said- his job is crazy.
while cruising the streets of baltimore, we took a break at lexington market where we did not eat, but experienced the Faidley lump crab cake.  it was hands down, the best seafood anything i had ever put in my mouth. the coleslaw was amazing, too. i'm a big fan of coleslaw, but never thought i'd be raving about it. this, was definitely rave-able.

mmm.... look at those big-ol-chunks of crab. i could eat these until i die. i might have to go back for another before we leave.

eatin trucker style- yes, it's blurry, but who has time to focus when you have food like that waiting to be devoured?! not us. never was a better meal enjoyed inside of a truck cab.

and the holidays begin!

if you're looking for some music to go along with your holiday fun, npr posted a thanksgiving mix (songs for stuffing) that i've been enjoying very much today while sipping spiced cider at work.  i thought i'd pass along the info.  you can stream the playlist here.

i'm looking forward to seeing my parents, camber, emily, jason & paul! i hope you all are able to enjoy turkeyday with people you love.

downsizing

the last 3 places I've lived have been 3 bedroom multilevel homes... needless to say, downsizing to a 850 square foot single level two bedroom home has been interesting.  It's a good change, because really I have entirely too much stuff for a 25 year old, and should not require more space than my lovely little home of el tenino provides.  however, getting rid of things is more work than it should be.  more advantages to living in a smaller place: i can communicate with anyone inside without having to leave any given room at a time. vacuuming just became ten times easier. and remarkably, ziggy has been incredibly well behaved. i guess the less space he has to cause trouble, the better. (i suppose the backyard is helpful as well...) i realize after writing this, the benefits of a smaller place all lend themselves to my laziness. which, depending upon how you look at it, is a good thing, or a really bad thing. because really, do i need more reasons to be lazy? probably not. but i'll take them just the same.

music and moving

how does They Might Be Giants do it?! they're just so stinkin awesome. and it looks as if i'm going to be able to attend a performance by them tonight! i thought i'd share one of their podcasts, that's especially for rugrats. (Liam- i thought you'd like the pirates!) 

i don't know anything about the opening band, guggenheim grotto, but they have this rad stop motion video:

exciting news!  as of this weekend i will no longer be a burbanite, but will be joining the ranks of portlanders in a cute little neighborhood called sellwood in the southeast part of town.  i can't wait! goodbye 20 minute commute and horrible rush hour traffic... hello biking to school & work! i meet with the landlord tomorrow for finalizing the lease, so hopefully all will be in place to get moving in the next few days! farewell beaver-town. it's been a swell run... but other than awesome neighbors i'll be leaving behind, you won't really be that missed.

The Post In Which I Share How I Entertained Myself Whilst Not Selling Tickets

The craziest news stories always seem to come from Florida. This one is pretty great... sorry eddie ates, but being fat just isn't a good enough defense for murder. Can you imagine if had actually worked?!
 

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I'm going to work on tracking one of these down for all those fools who are always full of excuses for getting out of a night of dancing with me. (and maybe one for myself because, well, it looks like fun.)

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Apparently I need to be watching a lot more women's soccer... these ladies are vicious! New Mexico's #15 is certainly not someone I'll seek out to pick a fight with anytime soon.

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I've always been really intrigued by phantom limb pains.

This makes the prospect of losing my hands seem not so bad.

Plus you could be part robot that can feel!

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bloggin at work... muah ha ha!

lately i've felt a bit like this poor bear cub...

as if i have my head perpetually stuck in something; in this guy's case, a bird feeder.

With midterms out of the way i'm slowly being able to shake the anxiety associated with what has been my daunting to-do list the last week or so. i awoke this morning with nothing on my schedule until 1 (my new job! my first that involves me sitting in front of a computer with internet access all day! this could be dangerous...) and was able to be super productive, which is not something my mornings consist of, as I generally like to stay useless and in my pajamas as long as possible. (I'm a lady of leisure in training!...and I have super comfy pajamas.... check out my rationalization skills! BAM!) I'm quite pleased with my ability to join the world of useful people (did i mention i worked out too?! because i did. let me say it again, because it really is quite the feat... i worked out!) and realized that running errands in the morning provides me with a great deal of hilarious people watching. I had to go to Costco to get a passport photo to replace mine which has sadly been MIA for far too long.  (I was hoping for a slightly better photo than the one on said missing passport, but ended up looking slightly like quasimoto... but that's besides the point. I've long since given up on the hopes of being photographed like a normal human being.) While I waited for them to be developed, I watched as a little boy (3 maybe?) tried to shove an entire hotdog (a costco hotdog at that- have you seen those weenies?! they're HUGE!) in his mouth as his mother just stared in disbelief, not even trying to stop him. I'm glad the kid didn't choke, although maybe it would have taught his mother a lesson that it may be a good idea to intervene when your kid is trying to shove mass amounts of food in his mouth at one time...  (criticizing other's parenting skills is so easy when you don't have kids.) anyway... perhaps this is my first of many productive mornings to come. just don't hold your breath. 

something you can hold your breath for is great music.

because here it is:

These are two of my favorite groups, both from iceland, that I am lucky enough to be able to go see tonight! B. Alexander being the boyfriend extraordinaire that he is bought me tickets for my birthday and I couldn't be more excited. I'm a bit disappointed by Múm's last album as they seem to have moved away from their more experimental spacey/ghosty feel and moved onto a much more pop sound. I like certain pop music as much as the next bloke, but in this case, it just isn't as great as what they've released prior. I just hope they play a good amount of old stuff, too. If you aren't familiar with Sin Fang Bous, I HIGHLY recommend you do so. Sin Fang Bous is Sindri Sigfússon's side project from his other band, Seabear, who is also fantastic and you should definitely also check out.  

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spooks and spiders

First of all, I think this needs to be said:

the fall daylight savings change is AWESOME. Especially the day after my birthday. As I enjoyed an extra hour in bed this morning I did utter a silent thank you to george w.... probably the first and last time that will happen.

Somehow ben & I were able to finish our Halloween costumes that turned into quite the ordeal.  We had a lot of fun constructing them, but have decided next year we will go for something much less ambitious.

 David Bowie and Steven Colbert both had a new species of spider named after them recently. So we did the only reasonable thing and went as the spiders and their namesakes. I think we pulled it off pretty well- I was actually recognized as David Bowie, which only happened twice last year with my costume.  Apparently I don't hangout with enough people that are familiar with Dr. Who, which I really should do something about. How can you not love the Doctor?!The first few pictures were taken at the end of the night, so my faux-mullet and duct taped boots were starting to fall apart, but I think you get the idea. Thanks to Chelsea for lending me an awesome jumpsuit!

Here we are as Aptostichus Stephencolberti and Heteropoda Davidbowie. 

 

This was my favorite costume of the night (besides the other David Bowie I ran into). 

She was a jellyfish. The pictures doesn't really do it justice- she had glow sticks around her tummy and head... and my favorite part- plastic jelly sandals!!!  I was very impressed.

I hope everyone had a lovely Halloween and thanks for all the birthday wishes!