Community Dinner – Evolving in the Emerald City

This week was a transitioning week for me with work and with social a bit. I feel like my schedule this week didn’t allow for much to get done and yet most nights I arrived home late in the evening. I didn’t fit in many workouts and I didn’t get very many hours in studying. Hopefully this weekend allows for a little of both.

Part of the reasoning behind lack of studying was a few scheduled nights of girl time. After one night at home on Monday I met Polly for dinner at Palomino’s before seeing the movie Lady Bird together. I also spilled the beans to my dear girlfriend who was very happy for us and very excited. The next night I grabbed dinner at the FareStart Community Dinner before heading to church for yoga and a meet and greet for the winter season of our women’s Practicing Presence group. Pretty much the same girls with a few additions, which is a good thing, and I was glad that I made the effort to go to this first one, even if just to tell them the reason I won’t be making them all; the test. We were led through 50 minutes of gentle yoga and stretching, which I realized were needed after having a few days of mostly office work with little exercise and very tight muscles. An enjoyable session but one that didn’t really leave any time for chatting or getting to know one another.

Thursday night was a good night at FareStart, as it always is, with a fabulous meal and both of us getting to perform our favorite roll of food running. And today we were greeted by sunny skies! I’m back at the main office for the day for our monthly staff meeting, and moving forward I will be spending Fridays, and hopefully as many others as I can, in the main office and so happy to be here instead of up the hill. I’m looking forward to settling in to watch the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. I’m looking very much forward to the weekend, even if that means I have a lot of studying to do. At least I don’t have to clean. Bryan’s going on his first ski day tomorrow with Mark to White Pass and they have decided to spend the night there tonight so I’m thinking I might go see I, Tonya on my way home for work for a solo date.

Amazing FareStart dinner thanks to Rider restaurant. Beet and burrata salad with beet hummus, steelhead with hazlenuts and fennel puree, and the most amazing chocolate semifreddo with cream, cherries and brittle.

My three days at the Seattle Municipal Tower were not the most fun. The office is quiet and sterile and no one talks to our group from MJA. There are a maximum of eight of us up there at any one time but that number fluctuates throughout the week. It is super strange to me to work in a building where you have to take an elevator up to the 40th floor to then get off and get on another elevator to take you up to the 47th floor. Our floor has spectacular views of the city, however, I really only get to see these when I walk around or are in meetings because in Seattle Public Utility’s contract “no consultant is to have a nicer desk than an SPU employee”. Thus, we are in the middle with super tall partitions and certainly no windows. There is no coffee here either so Bryan makes me an espresso to take with me to work, although there is a Starbucks on the first floor if I was really desperate (but I am cutting back on caffeine intake). My main issue with it though is that there is no conversation or social aspect to this office like there is at First Ave. Our group talks some but everyone is so quiet around us we stick mostly to business, versus the main office which can get very rowdy and loud on a regular basis. Absolutely no one eats lunch together in the kitchen. The work here is mildly interesting which is the one saving grace but I’ll be looking forward to getting back to 1st Ave full time.

Chelsea

Wow, the time has flown. And not because I am having fun. On the contrary, there has been so freaking much to do and my brain is split a thousand different places…most often with “you need to be studying” on repeat, which doesn’t help anything. But January, as a month, seemed nice and long. Not usually my favorite month by any stretch of the imagination but I’m also needing time to go nice and slow for a few months, at least until April.

While the weather has been mostly wet we haven’t had that many chilly days and we have had some breaks in the rain that help keep me sane. It hasn’t been the worst weather this January, nor the best. Probably perfect for studying and working, which is more or less what both of us have been doing. Since being back we have had a little bit of fun in the form of:

Saw the Book of Mormon at the Paramount Theater and loved it!! Enjoyed a Mexican happy hour beforehand at Rioja with Mark and his girl.
Book of Mormon
I took a cycle class complements of Yelp and really liked it. Since then I have started ClassPass and have checked out two more spin classes and a barre class. I like the philosophy of ClassPass and being able to do a variety of workouts at a variety of places with a very flexible schedule.
Enjoyed a dinner at home with Billy and Ainsley.
Dined at Eastlake Bar and Grill twice with Groupons.
Enjoyed FareStart community dinner for the month of January and there have been many stellar meals at FareStart already in this new year for Guest Chef Night.
Have had fun and love our Google Home.
Obsessively watched the entire last season of Top Chef – Charleston, made bets on the winner, and now I owe Bryan two GOOD massages.
Love Top Chef
And watching Always Sunny in Philadelphia all over again because even though it is vain and vulgar it is quite possibly the most hilarious show on television and puts us in a good mood every single night.
I’ve been rowing for short stints when I can, mostly for a break in the study action to break up the doldrums.
We got sushi with the whole gang for Carina’s short return to Seattle this past Sunday. Everyone (except Mark) I hadn’t seen since well before Christmas so it was great to catch up with everyone all at once. Sushi was meh.
We had our first Novelty Hill/Januik wine club member party of the year and like usual we collected our wine and enjoyed the always delicious dinner feasting.
And we have been cooking as much as we can at home, per one of my goals for “18 for 2018” to come shortly in the next post. My goal was 20 dinners at home each month but with FareStart every week and other occasions with friends or fun that are just not right to turn down I have modified it to 20 meals at home, which works because we do have brunch at home most weekends when we could (and sometimes do) go out for brunch. And we have been doing pretty good with this with only a few quick dinners scattered in there. We have been doing a lot of the cooking together to get Bryan some recipes under his belt. We started off the year with a trio of meals from Home Chef delivery service, we made an awesome and simple hot sausage and fennel pasta, callilloo stew, beef stroganoff, chicken paprikash, moussaka, steak and potatoes, Thai turkey lettuce wraps, and others and they have all been delicious.

As you can see, for an entire month we haven’t been that active. Largely that is due to my study schedule (which isn’t all that strict but just needs to happen) and that Bryan was pretty darn sick for a good long time. He even had to take two days off of work because of how awful he felt. But being stuck at home isn’t too bad with good company. At some point we are going to start going stir crazy though. Fortunately, we do have some exciting performances and dinners out ahead in our future.

Chelsea

Tag: Community Dinner

Transitioning

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