Sex and the City Movie!

I just got back from seeing the Sex and the City movie (finally!). I've been literally waiting for this movie to come out since I first caught wind of it MONTHS ago. And I'll be the first to say it was worth the wait...

Annie and I went together because, frankly, Sex and the City has always been a huge part of our friendship. It served as our reward for long stretches of studying, the key to a lazy Sunday or the cornerstone of a Girls Night In.

I feel as thought I can't say much because I don't want to spoil it for the few readers of my blog who have yet to see the movie, but it was truly fantastic. I get nervous when something like Sex and the City--something that has become a cult hit, a pop icon, an integral part of everyday vernacular--is taken to the big screen. The series finale tied up all the lose ends and I felt that it was ended particularly well. That being said, I felt that they could spoil that contentment I felt at the end of season 6. But bravo to Michael Patrick King and Co! Ends were untied, no doubt, but tied up tightly again. My heart was broken momentarily, but quickly put back together. And most importantly for me, the little things that made me love the show were there. Miranda's cynical outlook, Charlotte's undying optimism, Samantha's curt humor and Carrie's play on words. All there. And then some.

I love this show. And now I love the movie. The themes of love, honesty and true friendship runs much, much deeper than the sexual innuendos and outlandish tales of the womens' love escapades, making it SO much more than just Sex and the City.

Mile High Vacation!

This past Memorial Day Weekend I had the pleasure of hoping a plan to the Mile High City to visit my dear friend, Steph. I was super excited to visit Denver for a variety of different reasons:

1. I missed Steph. Duh.
2. I hadn’t been to Denver since I was a freshman in high school
3. I really needed to get away from Seattle

The weekend was absolutely fantastic. Not only did I get to hang out with Steph for nearly 4 days, but I got to meet all the boys in her life—Brian (the boyfriend), Brodie and Solo (the dogs).

Friday night I got in around 7:00, so we hoped the Light Rail for some dinner downtown (sushi!) and then hit up a few of the bars in downtown Denver.

Saturday we headed over to Littleton to see Steph’s folks and then off to the Castle Rock outlet malls! Steph and I shopped until we dropped. I got some great summer clothes and only 1 new pair of shoes (that’s pretty good for me)

Sunday I had the distinct pleasure of meeting the other man in Steph’s life, her 2-year nephew Lucas. I’m not even kidding when I say this is probably one of the most adorable little boys I have ever seen! He entertained us all at breakfast. Then we headed to Coors Field to watch the Rockies take on the New York Mets. We were perched high above the field in “The Rockpile”. The sun was out and so were the Rockies! I got a little sunburned and the Rockies got the win.

The view from The Rockpile!

Steph and Jen: front and centerfield.

Brian and Steph!

All 3 of the bleacher creatures.

Monday began bright and early as Brian, Steph and I hit the road to Boulder to partake in the 30^th Annual Bolder Boulder, a 10K road race through the streets of Boulder. We had to race to the starting line in order to start with our specified group. I have to admit, Jen totally wussed out. I have my 3 excuses as to my lackadaisical performance:

1. Altitude. I went from sea level to about 5000 feet above sea level. The mountain air was a shocker to this girl’s lungs
2. I didn’t tie my right shoe tight enough at the beginning so my ankle hurt, then I tied it too tight during the race, making it hurt even more
3. And finally, I’m a wee bit out of shape.

I walked a little ways into it because I thought my chest was going to explode, but then I sucked it up and jogged the rest of the way, finishing the 6.2 miles in 1 hour and 13 minutes. (Which, btw, is right around my best time for Bloomsday. A 7.46 mile race. Pathetic.) Apart from my lack of performance, it was a really fun race! It was great to see all of Boulder. I apologize but I do not have pictures of the race yet. We got a disposable camera and I still have a few pictures left before I can develop them. But I will share them when they become available.

And then it was time for me to head back to Seattle. Sadly. I really liked Denver—like I could totally see myself living there. Denver is a lot like Seattle in many ways. They would be like cousins or something. Maybe Step-sisters. Steph and Brian showed me a good time and it was hard coming back to Seattle.

Here are a few other pictures from the weekend:

Post game refreshments. The Coors Light represents me being in the middle of Coors Light Country.
Breaker One-Nine. Breaker One-Nine. Brian rolling in the big rig at EspnZone.
We had our own sweet rides too!
This is, by far, the best Starbucks sign I have ever seen!
The Rock Bottom Brewery Sampler that turned into a race.

Personal Sabotage

I'm not sure why I continue to sabotage myself. More often than not, when I have something great going, an opportunity to grasp, I find myself doing something to blow my chances, to cripple my chances. Most of my missed opportunities are handcrafted by yours truly. Of the things that I have let slip from my grasp, it is solely myself that let go of the rope.

There is a line in my favorite movie where Kevin Bacon asks Alex Baldwin "Do you think I'll be happy?", to which Alec Baldwin replies smugly "Yeah...you just won't know it". I have this sinking feeling in my stomach that I have this adverse reaction to letting myself just be happy. I can't help but get nervous when things are going good because it just means that there is something coming around the corner to knock me back down to reality.

Apparently, my favorite hobby is building a case against myself, lighting the fire to burn the bridges and pushing myself off cliffs. At least I finally found something I'm good at......

A Shout Out to the Magic City

some people get their news from The Seattle Times, the New York Times, CNN, Fox or a host of other media outlets. As for me, I choose msn.com. It has everything on one page that takes newspapers pages upon pages to report.

As I was 'catching up' on my current events today, I clicked on an article entitled "The 100 Best Places to Raise a Family". And to my surprise, and I do mean surprise, good ol' Billings, Montana was on the list. And not deep in the list---try #3. Check it out here: http://men.msn.com/articlebl.aspx?cp-documentid=7560549&GT1=32001

I'm proud of Montana roots, no doubt. And now I gotta give props to good ol' B-Town!

i am absolutely in love with what i do for a living. and who i get to do it with.

We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.

I just purchased Jason Mraz's junior album entitled "We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things." This is a big deal for me because I very rarely buy cds, but I can proudly say that I have purchased all 3 of his studio albums.

Anyway, I have to say, this is far better than his last cd "Mr. AZ." He wrote all the music and lyrics on the cd, which I love because he is know for having complex lyrics that are both witty and hard to lip synch to! He even paired up with 2 of my favorite artists--Colbie Caillat and James Morrison. The Colbie Caillat collaboration produced the song "Lucky", which I totally loved. Here it is:


And the duo with James Morrison is equally as delicious, it's called "Details in the Fabric". It's a slower paced, but I love both Jason and James' voices, so I think they sound so good together! And I can't help but love love the guitar in this song. So good.

The first track "Make it Mine" could possibly be my new favorite song. As with "The Dynamo of Volition"--this is the song that truly illustrates his tongue twisting lyrics. It has a great beat too.

The only gripe I have about the album is the version of "I'm Yours" he opted to put on there. I've been listening to "I'm Yours" since sometime last summer so I was pretty excited for it to be released on an album, but the version(s) I have are way better than the one on the album. The ones I have are live versions and I have to admit, Jason really shines live so that is probably why I prefer the live version over the studio recording!

Overall, definitely worth the wait for the cd to come out! Let me know if you want to borrow it! If I could see him in concert this year my life would be complete!

Bloomies Unite!

This past Sunday was the annual running of the Lilac Bloomsday Run in Spokane, Washington and made the trip to the east side to partake in my 4th Bloomsday. My friend Brandi drove up from Portland and then we headed to the 509 on Saturday afternoon.

Bloomsday is a 7.46 mile road race that literally takes over the streets of Spokane. This year saw 42,697 'Bloomies' take their turn on the course. Bloomsday is such a fun event--there is live entertainment along the entire course, tons of people cheering you on from the sidelines.



I have to be honest--I did not train for this year's Bloomsday as I have in the past. I basically was hoping that my adrenaline would propel me to run the majority of the course. Lucky for me, my adrenaline showed up. I did walk a little--I would venture that I ran 6 out of the 7.46 miles. My finish time was not my best, but I was happy to cross the finish and get my t-shirt. And for the record, I did run up the entirety of Doomsday Hill.

Here are my stats:
Finish Time: 1 hour, 31 minutes
Finishing Place: 13, 817 out of 42,697
198th out of 505 in the category of 24-year old females.

You can see me cross the finish line here: (I'm wearing a blue shirt with red shorts)

Apart from the race, the trip to Spokane was really quite nice. I got to see a few of my favs, eat at a couple of my favorite restaurants (I miss Ultimate Bagel more than Kwan misses the gold). And after the race I got to walk through campus a little bit. There is just something so special about campus to me and I'm glad I got the opportunity to walk through it on my quick little trip.

Can't wait for next year's Bloomsday!