Last Saturday my good friend Michelle and I decided that we kind of sucked at this whole “hanging out” and “seeing each other” concept and put a date in stone: Saturday the 26th of January. Yes, Saturday we WOULD hang out. No longer could both our general laziness be considered a valid reason for not seeing each other.

Michelle and I have known each other since sophomore year of high school. I’m not sure I’ve told the story of how we met but I think for awhile Michelle thought I was a legit stalker of some sort. I sat down beside her at an assembly (don’t you remember those? Weren’t they fun? Not) and just struck up a conversation since she seemed like a cool person. A few days later I saw her in the library and it literally took me a week to get up the courage to talk to her and be like “Hey, let’s be friends!”

And she hasn’t been able to get rid of me since.

Anyway, the last time we hung out we wandered around downtown Seattle and explored Pike Place Market. Due to both of our general laziness in checking stuff before doing it we ended up there way before the market was actually open (oops) and just walked around downtown taking random photographs (me) and talking. We had a blast and Michelle quickly remembered how much I liked walking aimlessly downtown for hours at a time.

I’m weird. This isn’t news.

So Saturday I swung by her house, picked her up, and we headed north for the day. In a typical northwest fashion it of course was raining but honestly? It made the adventure all the more sweet. I mean, sure, we could have done without the ATM freaking out and not wanting me to exit the screen; or her leaving her purse at Subway; but hey, it was all in good fun!

And here are some photos from our wonderful adventure (used with my old camera due to it being rainy and wet that day):

(more at the flickr set)

All in all: another great adventure had with an amazing friend!

Michelle: … dude, what’s with all the phone calls we’ve been getting lately where the caller ID says only a phone number and a state name? Like we just got a call that was apparently from the state of Nevada…
Me: The adult industry wants you
Michelle: (laughing) I’m sure that’s it.
Me: You know it is.

People find it really weird that I am friends with one of my boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend. I’ve discussed “the ex factor” before and to this day both that ex and I have been questioned endlessly by people of “How can you be friends with her? Isn’t it, like, awkward?” Actually, no, thanks for asking, for the millionth time.

Mack’s ex is currently about eight months pregnant with her first child. She has called me every-so-often to regale me with the “wonders” of pregnancy, thus ensuing that I don’t want to be pregnant for the next ten years. Mack and I were one of the first few people she told of the pregnancy and we’ve supported her as best we could from 3000 miles away.

While I am friends with this ex girlfriend, his previous one (aka the one before me) and I do not get along. At all. We have never met face to face and I bet she and I will go to extreme lengths to prevent ever having to meet. I say this about her since her name alone brings shivers down my spine and generally puts me in a bad mood. I am sure, of course, that the same feelings are felt about me by her.

Her name also happens to be the name of the pregnant ex’s sister. This is extremely important to remember. Let’s call her “Jane” just for clarity sake.

Last week when I was retrieving the mail I was surprised to find a card addressed to me. Usually, my mail consists of bills and credit card offers. Who cared enough to send me a letter? Now, a few weeks ago, pregnant-ex told me that she was going to have a baby shower the weekend after we moved up to the northwest, and she was going to be inviting me. This, of course, went completely to the back of my mind not long after she said this. I had more important things to think about such as packing and terrorizing the cats.

Now, imagine my horror at looking at the envelope and seeing the name of the city where Mack and all his ex’s grew up and the sender being “Jane”. Of course I immediately start to spazz out like “Why is she trying to contact ME!?” Quickly, my mind starts jumping to the possibilities. Could she have sent me a letter bomb? A picture of her middle finger? The possibilities were endless and in my panicked state I thought were perfectly legit and could happen (even though I know wouldn’t).

Staring at the envelope harder, after the initial spazz-attack, I caught myself and looked at the name again, harder. Then I realized this “Jane” had a different last name than the ex.

Then I realized it was pregnant-ex’s sister sending me the baby shower invite.

Picking up the phone as I drove my car back to the apartment, I called pregnant-ex who picked up the phone cheerfully. “Thanks for the heads up on the baby shower invite, jerk. You almost gave me a heart attack,” I snarled into the phone which caused her, in turn, to laugh till, I imagine, she was blue in the face.

Technorati Tags: ex’s, relationships, past girlfriends, mistaken identity, mistakes, spazz attacks, girlfriend, boyfriend

Mack and I both were born and raised in the northwest. As those of you who live (or lived) or visited the northwest know of the deep beauty and majestic splendor that is the very nature of the area. Nature is all around you, surrounding you, holding you close as it embraces its own. Mother Nature is like your second mother as the skies rain down on you and give life to the soil and keep you constantly drenched.

When I turned twenty, I grew antsy of living in the same place and felt that my life was kind of at a standstill. I had to take the jump and change. I loved being around my family but felt that, with only an Associates degree in web design, I’d only go so far— that little training is limiting. The college I went to in Seattle was taking its time about getting the Bachelors degree program and I was getting sick of waiting for it (they only recently got the Bachelors program). Sure, I could work the field, but I felt that I needed to go back to school and gain more of an education to have more of a background and understanding of the field. A change in surroundings, also, was welcome. At sixteen, I had lived abroad in Japan for a year and, having been in Seattle (minus trips around the country) since then without living elsewhere, I felt that I needed to embrace change and try living somewhere else while I worked on my education.

I choose Phoenix, Arizona since my brother and his family lived down there. I mean, come on, how could you not want to live close to this guy?

I thoroughly enjoyed living in Phoenix and watching my nephew grow from being a baby to a hyper toddler. I met and fell in love with Mack while living there. I was surprised, however, at how quickly I found myself missing the northwest. In the first month, while I had my brother only a twenty-minute drive away from my apartment, I was living alone and found myself missing my family and friends up there. I’m really close to my family, especially my Mom and brother Noah, so would call them everyday to talk about my adjustment to life on my own and, eventually, my life as Mack and I started dating and eventually moved in together. Phoenix had a beauty of its own and I adore it, however, I’m a northwest girl at heart and found myself missing it.

Both Mack and I graduated from college with our Bachelor degrees in our respective fields and we were ready to conquer the world and all it brought us. When Mack got a phone call from the company he did his internship with here in Jacksonville in February he jumped on the opportunity. Florida was a long way from Arizona (and diagonal from Washington) but it was a wonderful opportunity and a chance to experience another part of the nation. I won’t go into the Move From Hell (looking back at blog posts I allude to the horrible move but still won’t go into it since I don’t feel like bring up those memories— they still make me break out in hives) but we embraced Florida for all its quirks.

Thanksgiving of 2008, I flew back to Seattle for a week to see my family and friends. Back in the area and seeing my family, friends, and how much the state had changed since I had visited it a year earlier, I realized how much I truly missed the area. Although I generally hate the cold due to my inability to maintain a reasonable body temperature I was surprised that the cold, ultimately, didn’t drive me as crazy as it used to. The rustic beauty and nature embraced me and I found my heart yearning to return to the northwest. When my parents dropped me off at the airport I was almost in tears over leaving but was excited to see Mack and the animals again.

In December, Mack took a trip to visit his family. He, too, realized how much he missed the area and the northwest way of life. Family is number one important thing for both Mack and myself. Being separated from family cuts us both deep in the heart. After his trip up to see family, Mack and I vaguely talked about moving back to the northwest sometime since “wouldn’t it be wonderful to be around family? What about camping without fear of alligators eating us? That’d be really neat.”

Recently Mack and I sat down and had a heart-to-heart about where we wanted to be and the desire to be close to family. One of my older brothers just recently moved back to the northwest after living on the east coast for fourteen years. His lifelong dream of being an doctor has finally come true (having just finished his residency) and it would be amazing to be around to hear of the highs and lows of that experience? Mack’s brother is now playing pro soccer, kicking ass and taking names as he does so. Wouldn’t it be amazing to go cheer for him from the sidelines? I could go on and on about why we decided this decision but I won’t bore you with all of the reasons and just say that family is number one and we’re so excited to be around them again.

Already this move is shaping up to be 1000x’s better than the move here to Florida. Not to shit on Florida but our move here really sucked (mostly in part to our apartment complex in Phoenix). We have been able to go through our apartment and de-clutter and figure out stuff that we don’t ultimately need. Another is we have picked a moving company a full month before the move and have all our ducks in a row. We’re so excited as we look towards the future and being within the loving embrace of our families and the northwest. As my Mom said in an email to me this week: “Getting excited about you coming back!”

Me too, Mom. Me too. More than words can honestly describe.

Technorati Tags: moving, packing, relocation, cross country move, we are crazy, northwest, The South

Me: You have Katy Perry on your iPod?

Jon: Yes and I also like to go to gay bars.

Me: Okay. … are you sure you like girls? ‘Cause I mean, it’s cool if you don’t. Whatever.

Jon: I kissed a girl and I liked it.

Technorati Tags: katy perry, kissed a girl, conversations, sexuality, car trips, random conversations

Off to Arizona to spoil the nephew and meet my friends new baby. Am sure I will be updating the blog while there but am sure will be too jet-lagged tomorrow to honestly care.

Take care Internet. I am sure I will have stories to share when I next post.

Technorati Tags: Phoenix, Arizona, vacations, brb, spoiling nephew, sugar high, jet lagged, airports, traveling, travel

I met my friend Hayley when we were a month away from being seventeen years old. I had come back from Japan the week before I started back in American high school and had been given a week by my parents to adjust to the seventeen-hour time difference. In going back to my high school, I would be in a very different situation then the one I had left. Before, I was apart of the International Baccalaureate program and, in taking a year off in foreign exchange, I was no longer in that educational course and would instead have to take AP classes and take seven classes in the remainder of the year to play catch up.

Oh boy, was I glad to be home.

Hayley had, the week before, re-entered American high school after studying in Sweden for six months through the same exchange program. My fellow classmates were interested in me when I reentered the high school scene, but the interest only went so far and I kind of drifted through my junior year without anyone really to talk to… except Hayley. We had one class together and would run into each other in the halls, both stuck doing online classes to make up the first part of American history class we had missed in our time away.

“So, what point in history are you at for the class?”

“Oh, I’m still about the Puritan times. What about you?”

“About the same.”

“We should probably stop slacking.”

“Yeah, probably.”

That was about the extent we’d talk between classes as we both rushed off in different directions. It was on the last day of school, junior year, when we both didn’t skip school (the way most of the student population did) that we really talked and got to know each other. Getting each others phone numbers, we promised to potentially hang out but nothing really came of that.

First day of senior year we found ourselves in a class together, Algebra II. In my junior year experience, I had decided I didn’t fit into the high school scene anymore and, instead, enrolled in the community college in “Running Start” to do high school part-time and college the other part. In my senior year, I used to not suck at math (I managed to forget all my math education in the month between high school graduation and entering art school) and happened to be really good at Algebra, something that we ended up competing at to be the best in class. We made a notebook to write notes to each other and quickly became best friends.

Hayley was the one I’d hang out with every Friday night with, who dragged me (kicking and screaming) to the prom since “you have to experience at least one high school function in your life!”, and was my best pal through thick and thin. She went off to college in eastern Washington and we communicated the best we could. When she moved back to western Washington, we picked up the pattern of hanging out and generally being each other’s social outlet. Hayley forced me to stop being a tomboy and, occasionally, appreciate the art of dressing up and being a girly-girl. She drove down with me to Phoenix when I decided to go back to college and listened to me whine about how homesick I was a month later.

Last Thursday, she came into town to visit me at my current location in Florida and take a break from the cold of the northwest. We did our Jane Austen hair while watching chick flicks, visited a Civil War battle site, and hit up St Augustine to check out some of the first coast history.

I know I have a friend for life who makes me be the girl I know I am, deep down inside. Someone who will veg out with me and travel great distances just to be a nerd and check out our mutual love of history and good times.

Technorati Tags: relationships, friends, high school memories, foreign exchange, chick flicks, girl friends, girls night, estrogen, civil war battle sights, girl power