house keys are so tricky

You know what is not fun? Traveling all day, finally arriving at your home and realizing you have no idea where the f&$% your house keys are.

When I got home last Monday around 10:30pm, I parked my car and thought hmm, I wonder where my keys are? Start looking through my carry-ons…nothing. So then I start looking through my luggage..nothing. Granted it is dark out and Seattle decided to turn into Antartcia while I was away, I did my best to search but after about 30 minutes I gave up. My lovely, awesome friend Julie saved the day and we had a sleepover. Two humans and three dogs in a bed. So fun J

The next morning is when the scavengar hunt to find my spare key began. To make things easier these are the names you need to know:

Julie – day saver and sleepover extrodaire who has Jen’s key

Jen – Keeper of all keys (uh, well except mine..) who has Lesley’s key

Lesley – holder of my spare

So, I took Julie’s key for Jen’s place and drove over to her apartment, Jen was at work already so she buzzed me in from her phone (amazing) and I go grab Lesley’s spare. Drive over to Lesley’s place who has the same set up, she buzzes me in from her phone (in NY?!? Crazy) and I go up to her aparment. But when Les buzzes me in, her aprtment buliding treats vistiors to a little mission impossible action because you have to get to the elevator in a certain amount of time in order for the elevator button of your desired floor  to work. Very intense. Anyways, I make it to her place and it was like the heavens opened up and angels were singing when I saw it. With my key finally in hand, I head over to my place and get in no problem. And that..is how this very exciting story ends. Apologies to anyone who has already heard this. Probably about 75% of the 10 readers haha.

And since I know the suspense is killing you, I found my keys that night. In a hidden pocket in the first bag I checked and only bag they were ever in. So that was a fun discovery.

GUYS I am doing so well. Two posts in a week. ((hand clap emoji))

traveling with a dog

Hi everyone! Happy New Year! I know my blogging frequency is a little weak but I figured I would try and post one before the end of 2014. Obviously that didn’t happen since today is the 5^th..whoops.

First things first, I can’t believe it is 2015. I also can’t believe I have been in Seattle for TEN months?! I have had to officially stop saying ‘Oh, I just moved here’ because very few people consider March in the recent past. Where did the time go?? I guess time flies when you’re having fun, right? Or when you have thrown yourself into a new city, new job, not knowing anybody, got a new puppy and moved apartments twice.

Anyways, I just got back from my trip home. Marley and I traveled the 2,700 something miles to Woodbine for 10 whole days to soak up some family love and Christmas fun. Obviously, Marley is from Taiwan so she has technically been on a plane before but I kind of consider that dog I picked up from SeaTac in July a totally different pup than the one I live with now. When I first met Marley, well, she went by Betsy and was scared, freaked out and hid from me. Now, she gets sassy when she wants something, steals all my socks and cuddles with me. So really, with all the progress she has made over the almost-six months we have spent together, I considered this her first plane ride.

Any normal person with a somewhat emotionally unstable animal would probably put hours of prep into getting ready for such an adventure. So naturally..I did not do that. I had the crate in my living room for about a month and a half, not quite sure what my intention was. I guess I thought she would get used to it, maybe even explore and then one day I would come home and she would be sleeping in it. Well, for the first week or so Marley took every route to the couch that allowed her to avoid the crate entirely. She was not sure about this little prison box I introduced to her living room but she was clearly not into it. Her vet told me to try and feed her in it. Yeahh, Marley did not eat that day. (pssh. don’t worry, I fed her eventually, I’m not a terrible person) But still, every day I would just look at the crate, too overwhelmed to think about putting her in it and  just hope it all went well. My mom would ask, in her sweet, calming voice, “how is the crate training going? Is she going to be ready for the plane?” And of course I just snapped at her (sorry mama bear) and said “IT WILL BE FINE! I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!” Even though I was about 17% sure it was actually going to be fine.

So with travel day quickly approaching, I was really just like well, we’ll get some drugs in her and hopefully she will be so sleepy, I can just put her in and she won’t notice. I got a Xanax prescription from her vet. Real life human Xanax. I had to pick it up at a real life human pharmacy. My hopefulness spiked, I thought no way this won’t knock her out! It is for HUMANS! So we did a test run the Sunday before we were supposed to go home. Marley does this adorably hilarious thing where when she is really tired, she fights sleep so hard. She will be sitting up straight but her eyes are slowly closing and then she hears a noise and her reaction is almost like, “yeah, I wasn’t sleeping, what’s up?” So during the test, that’s exactly what she did at first and then 28 minutes in, she was sleeping. This lasted about two hours. And then…she had more energy than I ever thought was possible. Running, barking, jumping, playing fetch with herself, typical Marley things but amplified by a thousand. So after that disaster, I figured whatever, what can I really accomplish in four days. This two hour drug coma will make her calm during handoff and then, welp, we’ll just see each other on the other side.

Travel day arrived. I woke up very excited to go home but at the same time I felt like I was about to turn myself into the police (orange is the new black, anyone?) and didn’t want to open my eyes because that meant the day was going to begin and this horrible thing was about to happen. My dear friend Robyn helped take me to the airport and push Marley into the crate. Then I thought I was home free.

(Side note: During this process, I had this dumb food/water dish that was supposed to attach to the crate door but kept falling off. So I threw it away outside. Plus, I wasn’t planning on feeding her so it seemed very unnecessary. But, remember this little tid bit – it will come up again.)

So anyways, I thought the worst part was over. So I take the crate and my bag over to check in. While I am waiting in line, I realize I am totally shaking and my heart is pounding. Hoping to keep myself busy, I use my unstable hands to start putting the zip ties on her crate door. When I get to the check in counter, I am all nervous and giddy mixed with pure terror and queasiness. The guy goes through the checklist and asks if I have a food bowl for her. Refer to part of the story that I threw it away outside. Yep, that’s right. I had to run outside and dig it out of the trash, take the zip ties off, put them back on only to then be told to go to an area where they will check her crate to basically make sure I am not smuggling anything across state lines so guess what? Had to take the zip ties off again, TAKE MARLEY OUT!?! and put those effing plastic devil ties back on for a third time. Shaky hands, a terrified dog and zip ties are the worst combination.

I nervously wander to my gate and board the plane. Alaska Airlines is so sweet, they give you a little card once your animal has successfully been put on the plane. Doors close and we’re off. I just tried to distract myself by becoming obsessed with the podcast Serial (I know, I am late to the Serial party but ohhhmygoshh, who listens to it? amazing, right? If you haven’t, do it. You’ll love yourself forever. And then watch the SNL skit about it.)

So that’s it I guess. When we arrived to DC, my awesome, beautiful sister greeted me at baggage claim and we got Marley who was verryyy excited to get out of the crate. I was pretty nervous she was just going to be pissed at me for a few days so when I heard her tail wagging, beating against the plastic as I walked up, it was the most magical sound EVERRRR.

Nothing too exciting happened traveling back to Seattle since obviously, Marley and I are pros at flying now. Saying goodbye to my family after such an amazing trip home was hard but knowing my Seattle framily was here made it a tiny bit easier 🙂

Here’s to hoping my blogging skilzzz flourish in 2015. Happy Monday y’all.

Dating in 2014

(disclaimer to my grandparents: I used curse words in this post. I’m sorry.)

Okay guys, I am trying this dating thing. It is fun and exciting and then it is nerve wracking, full of anxiety and makes your stomach hurt. There is a stereotype that boys in the pacific northwest are passive aggressive. They don’t approach you, they don’t initiate shit and unfortunately, I have to report that stereotype is very, very real. And it is f*cking annoying.

Another thing that is new to the world of dating is everybody is on all this online stuff! Tinder, okaycupid, plenty of fish, how about we, grouper, etc, etc. Just to be clear, I have never been against online dating, I think it is great. Personally, I wasn’t ready to give up on organic connections, meeting someone, being introduced by a friend, you know, how our parents met. But, I am beginning to think that is no longer an option. Because everrryyybody is on some sort of free dating app/site. So let’s say you do go out to a bar and see a cute guy. Well 1. You will absolutely have to take the initiative and start the conversation because he sure as hell won’t and 2. He might already be tindering or whatever. Hashtag annoying.

So as some of you know, I have been preoccupied by a certain someone for the past two and half/three-ish years. Now that that is no longer going on and military ball date stopped talking to me, I have decided challenge myself to go out on dates. I haven’t really ever dated so I thought it was time to give it a try. They can be set up however I choose which means…yep, tinder has been downloaded and I am swiping right as often as I can.

Tinder has been on my phone for a couple weeks now and I have to say it is not as bad as I thought. I have met up with three guys and they were all great. I never really saw the difference between tinder and meeting someone at a bar, other than hiding behind a phone vs having to walk up to a pretty lady. But it is cool because you can kind of screen them via messaging back and forth before a meet up is scheduled. For example, if they make suggestive comments about not wearing clothes or can’t spell for shit, you know that they probably are not your Prince Charming. So we’ll see how this goes. I’ll try to keep you posted.

Dating obviously leads to exchanging phone numbers which leads me to all the freaking games. Seriously. Texting with a potential whatever is a roller coaster. The unfortunate cycle usually goes like this: really responsive, super into the conversation, asks questions and then slowly but surely the time between responses gets longer, answers get shorter and you’re sitting there wondering what the hell happened.

Let me give you a little peek into my experience so far. Let’s say I met a guy, we hung out, it is super fun and then the date ended. I walk away all happy and excited, like wow, that was surprisingly enjoyable and he didn’t seem like a serial killer or like he might have a strange foot fetish. This is awesome!!! (fist pumps all the way home)

A few hours pass and all of a sudden my mindset has changed. I mean he hasn’t texted so that must mean he had a horrible time and hates everything about me. Clearly. Because that is logical..

So now I’m thinking well, that date went really well, how can I turn this great experience into a stressful situation? Girls have to use a non-existent, magical calculator to figure out how long it should be before you text him, or you have to wait impatiently, staring at your phone wondering why he has not contacted you. You want to talk to him, why doesn’t he want to talk to you?! Which is when the over-analyzing begins..you start walking through every. single. moment of hanging out. Did you say something weird? Did you have food in your teeth? Did you bring up your obsession with (fill in the blank) too much?? Could he read your mind when you were confused why his shorts were so short?? Oh God, Is he gay!?! Naturally the over-analyzing starts to get out of control and very ridiculous. Meanwhile, we are also driving ourselves crazy thinking he doesn’t give two shits about the whole thing and is probably just going along with his day, doing boy things, completely unaware you are driving yourself completely insane. AHH!

Which then, of course leads me to ANOTHER point. Hey boys, you think girls act crazy? Well, we think you all act like a bunch of idiots sometimes. If you don’t want a ‘crazy’ girl on your hands, here is a tip, just contact them. Ask them about their day, ask them if they would like to hang out again and if you don’t think any of those things sound fun, then TELL THEM YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED. And then I promise you, said girl will stop talking to you. 1. We’ll be annoyed/pissed or 2. We don’t really want to embarrass ourselves, and we certainly don’t want to contact/hang out with someone who doesn’t want to hang out with us.

Yeah, it is uncomfortable telling someone you aren’t into it anymore but grow a pair and do it. Just make it happen. And every girl learned a valuable lesson from the movie ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’ so boys, if you are waiting for us to reach out to you, well then never mind. You don’t get it and we don’t have time for that ish. Acting like you don’t care is not cute or intriguing, it’s rude and stupid.  

It seems so simple yet this part of dating is truly a little nightmareish. I got asked out to my senior prom over the home phone at my parent’s house..man, little did I know those were the days. A real phone call?! Get out of town.

(breaking news: in the middle of my drafting this post I got an email from a website called Sosh. It tells you stuff going on in your area. Anyways, they sent a ‘Cheap Dates edition: 6 under $6’ and this was written in the body of the email:

Once upon a time, wooing was done from the drivers’ seats of expensive cars, en route to fancy restaurants where would-be lovers eyed each other over caviar and champagne.

These days, there’s more pressure to be the person who cares less than the one who spends more

There you have it ladies and gentleman, in order to date, you have to act like you don’t care. Well..shit. and also a $6 date? Are you serious, Sosh. What if we want caviar?! Or hell, just a full meal. Geeeez.)

So, I really didn’t mean for that entire thing to turn into a vent session about dating. Dating is great and honestly, I could get a few eye rolls after this post because I don’t even have much experience. I am only speaking from my short time putting myself out there. So apologies if those who are more experienced think this is just a load of dog poop. It is just my opinion. And I am actually very excited and looking forward to this little adventure. Football season is upon us and I have fabulous wing women in Seattle. Things are awesome 🙂

Thanks for reading, love you all!

I am back from hibernation..

So..my writing career may have seemed short-lived.. BUT I’m back..at least hopefully for at least a few more posts before I get distracted again.

Let’s see..where did I leave off? Oh when Target kicked me while I was already down. Right. That day. Well you will all be happy to hear that I have gone back to that Target multiple times now and left feeling much less defeated. And I finally purchased stools to sit on.

What else has happened? So much! I have been in Seattle for five months now! Holy cow.  It still feels so surreal. Sometimes I wake up or take a second and think woahhh I live here! I live in this awesome city. So cool. My lovely, dear friend Cassie sent me a link to an article that encouraged people to move to a new city where you don’t know anybody. Everyone should do it because it is an awesome, awesome feeling!

So friend update: one of my last posts was about sitting awkwardly at a bar writing on napkins and twitching. Welllll guess what?? I HAVE FRIENDS NOW!!! Wooo hoo!! Celebration time!! (insert all the celebratory emojis here)

I met THE most fantastic group of girls ever. Ehhhhverrrr. They have been so welcoming and lovely, I just can’t even believe how lucky I am to call them my friends. You all know who you are 🙂

I also have made a few awesome friends at work. Again, so welcoming and so nice, feeling super blessed in the Seattle friend department.

I definitely can’t recount all the crazy/fun/awesome things that have happened since I last posted but I will give you a top 10 list of my favorite Seattle times so far. Then hopefully I won’t suck so much at updating and I will be able to provide entertaining stories again! Okay here we go:

1. My co-workers are all huge movie buffs and it turns out, I don’t know anything about movies. I haven’t seen any ‘classics’ that I am learning is equivalent to voluntarily running over a puppy. And as a result, I obviously don’t know quotes, references, etc. So what have my lovely friends at work asked me to do? Well write multiple lists of 10 things I think would be in said movie. So far I have a list for Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Terminator and Highlander. I make a list on Fridays to really start the weekend off right. We are trying to keep the list to trilogies only, otherwise, there wouldn’t be enough Fridays for me to get laughed at. I have to say my lists have gotten quite elaborate. Fun stuff. And I swear we are all enjoying this, they are laughing with me, not at me..right..
2. I tried stand-up paddle boarding or SUP as these pacific north-westerners call it. I went with my awesome friends (see above if you forgot about their awesomeness) and we chose to go on a day that there was a sailboat race happing on Lake Union. I am thinking ohh it will be fine, I’ve got this. I didn’t have it, not even in the slightest.  I stood up for the first time, I am paddling along, thinking yeahh this is great and then my board starts wobbling back and forth uncontrollably and before I know it, splash. Into that disgusting lake I go. I did knee paddle boarding for the rest of the time out on the water. I also thought I was out on the water for hours and turns out the whole experience was really only like 15 minutes long. i have to give it another try! I will keep you posted!
3. I went to Hawaii!!! The beginning of my second week, my manager comes up and says “Hey, want to go to Hawaii next week?” No. that sounds terrible. I should quit right now. Obviously I went, Monday through Friday, missed my 5:45am plane the morning of but thanks to going to China every month with Under Armour, my United airline status helped me get to Honolulu without any problems. Hawaii was beauuutifull! We stayed in air bnb rentals so my little condo was literally right on the beach. Heaven. So, so pretty! We worked the whole time, interviewing runners about their running life, what got them into it, how they keep it going, etc. but whatever, it was sunny, 80 and you could see the water everywhere. Also one of the runners was pretty hot. Bonus. It was beautiful and a lot better than the places I used to go to with UA. (No offense Under Armour friends..)
4. I went to a military ball! Heyo! It was a lot of fun, I got to dress up, got my hair done, I had a super hot date and we danced a lot. So fun!
5. I tried Tinder for a hot second (to all those who are out of the loop, all you need to know is Tinder is a free dating app. So you can use your imagination as to who you think you may find on such a service..to be honest, it’s a little scary) But anyways, that lasted for about a week because I found myself lying and making up horrible excuses as to why I was on Tinder yet could not actually go out on any dates. One guy seemed fine, I almost committed to actually meeting up but then..when we were trying to decide what to do, I said well where do you want to meet? And he said somewhere public. Umm..what the f*ck? Uh yeah, I think that’s the idea..to go on a public date..? So naturally, I said ‘Well damn, I was really hoping to meet in an abandoned warehouse’. He played along for a little but kept using that word..public. And then I was just alright, I can’t do this. I don’t want to meet someone who may or may not have a history of restraining orders and feels it is necessary to mention a first date needs to be in a public location. Tinder got deleted shortly after.
6. I started frequenting this one coffee shop down the street from my building. It is called Sip and Ship because why not have a store where you can drink coffee AND mail things? I started become friendly with one of the barista’s and turns out she is pretty awesome. We hung out for the first time outside of her taking my coffee order and talked about lots of fun things. I went to see her boyfriend perform at a restaurant downtown and it was awesome and I had so much fun.
7. I have had so many amazing visitors. I mentioned how great my Seattle friends are well, my Baltimore friends rock too. My mom and Allison came out, Kelly, Cassie and Boris and John. Each visit was different and perfect in its own way. It is so nice to have such a strong support system in my hometown friends and family. I absolutely would not be here doing what I am doing without the support of all those special people.
8. I saw the Orioles play the Mariners! I wore my orange and black with pride and…watched them lose. But it was so fun seeing all the Oriole support all the way out here. Plus I got to watch it with a fellow Baltimore fan which was awesome.
9. I have been training for a half marathon with the help of a coach at work. The training was the most intense training I have ever done. I did a lot of speed workouts on the track and I ran the longest distance ever..14 miles! I ran my half this past weekend, it wasn’t great but I feel proud of the progress I made in the time I trained. Looking for another half ASAP. I also ran this crazy race called Ragnar. It is a relay race where you are on a team of 12 people, split between two vans. You basically run three legs over the course of 24 hours. It is a 196 miles total and a total team bonding experience. I met some awesome people and had so much fun. Run happy bitches 🙂
10. Okay last one..i got a..PUPPY!!!! Little miss Marley, she is so perfect. She is very sweet but also super sassy. She likes to play fetch with rocks by herself at dog parks. She is a really fast runner and thoroughly enjoys racing, full speed down the hallways as we come in from walks. She has the most adorable, big dark brown eyes and even when she has dragged every piece of dirty laundry from my room to the living room, one look from those eyes and it’s like it never happened. I absolutely don’t know how to train her, she doesn’t listen to anything I say. But she has learned sit and she kind of listens to her name. She is pretty awesome and I love her to pieces. Even when she acts like a little shit 🙂

 

Okay, phew. That was a lot of stuff. Happy reading and I will catch all you fabulous people later. Family is coming TOMORROW!

Until next time…xoxox

Target – 1, Natalie – 0

I had a revelation this past week. I need a lot of sh*t for my apartment. I am literally moving a bed. and all my clothes and shoes and random things but as far as furniture goes, I have a bed. I have been fortunate enough to live with the fabulous Deb these past two years and she is a grown up with real furniture and kitchen trinkets so I have been lucky enough to use all those wonderful things. Well now, I am on my own. So when the movers drop it all off, I will have probably seven things to fill the larger part of my studio (kitchen and living area) and wayyyy too many things to put in the room that is literally the size of my bed.

So as a result of this revelation, I decided to go buy the ‘necessary’ items to help get me through the first couple weeks and so I can, you know, have something to eat off of.

I found myself in Target today, searching for just a few bowls, plates, cups, silverware, etc..you know, like i said the necessary basics. Well I think I walked up and down the five aisles that make up the ‘kitchen’ section of Target for 30 minutes, I don’t know, expecting to make new discoveries each time? I put so many things in my cart just to take them back out five minutes later. I finally decided it was time for me to get out of there because I was on the verge of talking myself into needing cloth napkins and it hit me. I don’t have any chairs. If I were to use all these utensils and dishes to make myself dinner, where exactly am I planning on sitting to eat said gourmet meal? So I wander over to the furniture section, and now my head is just totally spinning. There are bar stools in multiple heights, metal ones with wood on the top, wooden ones with fancy sideways seats, some with backs, some that look like they are trying too hard. Oh and if you need multiple, there is not such thing as a multi-pack or a two-for-one deal. Nope, you have to buy them separately. Needless to say, I decided I would sit on the floor for a little while and I left Target.

Thinking I am free from iron grasp of that red bulls-eye, I proceed to find my car in the parking garage. I remember I had to walk up a few flights of stairs to get to the entrance so I walk down a few floors and look to where I think my car is. And it is not there. So naturally, I think oh, whoops, wrong floor, I’ll just walk down to the next. Go down, no car. what the hell? Where is my cute little angel? She is playing hide and seek and I am not in the mood.

I wish this had a better ending but I am not joking when I say, I looked for my car for FIFTEEN MINUTES. I could not find it to save my life. All kinds of thoughts are racing through my mind. Was she stolen? Was she abducted? Did I dream that I parked in this garage? WHERE AM I!?

I got really desperate and had to start thinking outside the box. I remembered what the parking garage entrance looked like so I found another set of stairs that took me outside. I continued my fun little scavenger hunt by walking around the outside of the whole parking garage until I found the entrance, and there she was. Sitting there all innocent. Turns out I passed my car multiple times but when I got to each floor I was looking in the wrong direction, so of course I didn’t see that little white doll. Really the conclusion of the story is that devil of a store got the best of me.

If anyone has tips on furnishing an apartment on the budget of a 12 year old, please send them my way 🙂

until next time you sexy senoritas (and senors?), much love.

two weeks down

So it has been a full TWO weeks in Seattle. Exciting things happened this week, I started my job, I met up with lots of different new friends and made it back to my hotel three times without using googlemaps! Yippee!

Work started out great, everyone is super nice and welcoming and I feel like I understand whats going on. Now I just have to gain the trust and respect of the team and figure out how all these Brooks people work!

I have been taking the bus to work..i feel so city..it’s so cool haha. I mean I am the newbie who is paying with cash still, I need to get my hands on one of those fancy passes that all these people have..

I had some small bus mishaps (got off early a few times and ended up walking a little longer than I anticipated) but by the end of the week, I had it all figured out.

One funny thing did happen on my first day. I was sitting at my desk and I hear a man say ‘Hey, I want to take a picture of you.’ Confused, I turned around to see it was my manager’s manager, the VP of Product who is kinda temporarily heading development. So I am thinking well, this seems weird. So I laugh uncomfortably and say, um..what? Another guy I work with yells ‘Hey Dave, you have to add ‘..for work. I want to take a picture of you for work because it sounds creepy otherwise’ (agreed) So we all have a little chuckle and then I see he is still standing there with his iphone photo ready. I am thinking, alright, he is serious about this. So I stand up and ask what its for, what should I do. He throws a shoe at me and tells me to pose with it. So I do, and its awkward and people are watching. Just an overall uncomfortable situation. But it gets better because when I ask why he needs it, he tells me he wants to add this weird picture into my introduction email..that gets sent to the whole company. So now not only does this photo exist, but that is how I was introduced to Brooks. Fabulous.

Anyways, like I said I had some friend dates, happy hours and brunches, went to some cool bars and had a great weekend hanging out with new people and exploring. Move-in date got pushed to Wednesday and I am SO excited to be in my new neighborhood and have all this cool stuff within walking distance.

alright, that’s it for now. thanks for reading, you fantastic people 🙂

so..I went to a bar by myself..

Alright, let me begin with the night started out with me googling ‘dining along in Seattle’..haha yikes. That was not super successful so I emailed a friend of a friend, she gave me some suggestions, I got ready and headed out! As I gave myself a pep talk in the car, I drove over to an area called Belltown which is close to Downtown Seattle..basically more fancy than other areas. Which, now that I reflecting back, is maybe where I went wrong

My goal was to walk into a bar, eat some delicious Seattle food, have a beer or two and head out. I wasn’t expecting to meet my new Seattle bff or something. But I did imagine that I would sit down, the bartender would ask me some questions, we would share some friendly banter, I would explain I just moved here and THEN we would become best friends and he or she would make me feel 100% comfortable and not awkward at all.

Well turns out, that is not how it works.. not at all. It is not like the movies and you do not become besties with the bartender.

The pep talks continue as I am walking up to the restaurant I decided on. I got to the front door…and I kept walking. I walked up and down the street, in the rain trying to work up the courage to walk into this damn bar! I passed it twice and then ended up going to the bar next door. Ha!

Anyways, long story short, I ate dinner and had a beer at this place and decided I was going into that original bar before the end of the night! no matter what! So I do, have another beer and it was even more awkard than the first bar! At least at the first one I had food to keep me occupied. This time I just had the beer! I end up drinking it much faster than necessary. Then I decided to started writing on napkins..? So now I am the weirdo practically chugging my drink and writing on napkins!? At one point I googled ‘how are you supposed to act when you are at a bar by yourself?’ needless to say, it was not a helpful google. Oh and in both bars, the bartender and I were basically wearing the same outfit. I had a a black and white striped shirt on and both bartenders had a variation of that. come on!

So moral of the story, going to sit at a bar alone is awkward. There is no way around it. You end up drinking and/or eating very fast. You twitch a lot and make multiple outfit adjustments. Lots of looking around and fiddling with things you can hold..like straws, napkins, lint. But hey! This was my first time and I am not giving up! I will master the art of going to get a bite to eat by myself. It should be a liberating and confident adventure and it will be for me..in time. Stay tuned for more excursions out on my own!

well HELLO there!

Hello lovely people!

I went to a bar by myself tonight (see more on that later..) and had a revelation! I should write a blog! mind. blown. But seriously, I want to keep all you fancy people up to date on this crazy adventure I decided to embark on and a blog seemed like the easiest way. I figure there is bound to be some funny/embarrassing and FOR SURE awkward moments in my near future so who better to share it with than all my loved ones 🙂 So we’ll see how long this lasts, but while it does, I hope you enjoy reading!

xoxo