NYE

Today is New Year's Eve. A time for renewal, resolutions and goals for the future. For many, it is also the biggest night of the year to party! For years, I felt the same. My friends and I would spend weeks figuring out where to celebrate, what to wear and how to where to stay. After the planning was complete, outfits were purchased and the big day had arrived...I found that New Year's Eve never quite lived up to its hype. It often ended with drama, boredom or simply a feeling of being let down of the promises of the night it was supposed to be.

After talking with a good friend (and former roommate) today, I decided to list memories of New Year's past. The good, the bad and the ugly:

1) Last year, after viewing some wonderful fireworks on Queen Anne hill, Adam and I opted to play it safe and cab it back to our hotel. However, there were NO cabs to be found. We walked and walked...past a shady night club, shady people and about two miles back to our hotel. This might be a slight exaggeration but being that I was in heel, it might as well of been ten miles.

2) Speaking of cabs, we should have learned this lesson several years ago when there were not cabs available in Belltown either. Lesson learned- it is impossible to hail a cab in Seattle on NYE.

3) Going back a bit farther in time...way back to when I was a 23-year-old student teacher and still living at home. Because there was not enough excitement in Mill Creek at this time (although The Jet may have been a lively option) a huge group of us girls decided to stay in Seattle and hit up a party at this club called "China Harbor." Thinking back on this night still makes me cringe.

I won't go into all of the details, but let's just say it involved me getting a bit intoxicated (pretty sure I missed the toasting at midnight), having my purse and coat stolen from coat check, a fire alarm pulled at the hotel and a HUGE headache the following morning.

4) You think I would have learned from the night at China Harbor, but that was not the case. In 2004 (2005 at midnight) we were invited to yet another party at a club. This one had the promise of being more adult, since there was a great band performing (G Love and Special Sauce). The night started out okay, but we soon realized the drinks were both expensive and scarce...pretty sure I waited for 30 minutes to get a beer. When we finally secured a bottle of bubbly, somebody took it and downed the whole thing right in front of us!

The night ended with me getting hit in the face (long story), my friend patting me on the head and driving about 6 people home in my grandfather's car. It is okay, the lack of alcohol (two beers the whole night) and slap really sobered me up.

On a positive note, the following morning (on New Year's Day) was the first time I talked to my (now) husband, Adam when my roommate and I decided to prank call him (really mature, I know). I guess things really do happen for a reason.

Happy New Year everybody!

"She's Crafty" ...or not so much.

There are many things I am skilled at. I run races at a quick pace (not record-breaking but still fairly decent), can read a novel in several days and throw a softball harder than many men. One area ,however, that is not my forte...crafts. At all. I mean I am probably the least "crafty" person you will ever encounter. To truly understand this, we need to go back. Way back to middle school...

During electives rotation, I was enrolled in "Home and Family Living" and we were working on a sewing unit. Each of us to select a pattern for a stuffed animal to sew and work on it during class. I still do not understand why we not given a simpler task to begin the unit-such as sewing on a button. Or even a useful skill... such as hemming pants, but I digress.

Anyways, I struggled constantly with my stuffed dog. In the process, I broke two needles and one sewing machine and the poor guy ended up looking nothing like the picture (poor guy). To make matters worse, the teacher graded these IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE CLASS-embarrassing. Needless to say, she was not too pleased with my product, especially when it fell apart in her hands.

Years later, in college I was seriously lacking funds and decided to make "no-sew" blankets as gifts for Christmas. Since this did not involve any actual sewing how difficult could it be? After purchasing the required fleece fabric from Michael's, I went to town. The first side of the blanket went pretty well. However as I progressed to the other three sides, the blanket became smaller and smaller. Soon, it did not really resemble a blanket at all. It sort of looked like a distorted pillow.

Luckily, I landed a holiday job at Starbucks...meaning my family received real gifts and not the fleece messes intended for them.

Don't worry...there were many other "failed" crafting attempts in college that did end up as presents for others: Picture collages, poem books (sorry Emily) and of course Moge Poge(sp?) picture frames and boxes.

After college my crafting attempts came to a halt. It is a good thing I teach middle school because I do not think the kids or their parents would have been pleased with my bulletin boards or art projects in the classroom.

Recently, I joined the site "Pinterest" where posters "pin" ideas for fashion, decorating, cooking and...CRAFTS! Perhaps I could tap into my inner artist after all- everything looked so easy to create. The clever fall and winter decor made with random objects found around the the house would be a breeze to duplicate! I would just need to get some basics to get me going...

But it was not to be. I nearly had a panic attack from the massiveness of JoAnn fabrics. There was way too much to take in, and after adding up the prices of what was in my basket, I decided it was not worth it. So, I headed to Pier 1 to purchase items for my tablescape. I reasoned it would be cheaper in the long run (as I would most likely mess up the homeade decorations and have to start over).


Although I have struggled with crafting throughout the years, one artistic feat I did have was baking and decorating "Cake Pops" for my co-workers. Even though they did not not look as nice as the ones on the box, they tasted delicious and that is what really matter, right?

Oh, and I can make a KILLER "Sock Bun!"
http://thatwifeblog.com/2011/08/the-sock-bun/