A Life Less Ordinary

Simple Happiness

by Helen

Right before I moved to Seattle, Adam asked me what I would do to deal with the cold, dreary days (and nights) in the Pacific Northwest.  Well, the last week has been extraordinarily cold - in the high 20s, low 30s - which is unusual for Seattle.  It hasn't been raining as much, but the cold is tough.  Also, the days are really short.  On days when I'm on campus from 8am-5:30pm, I don't see the sun at all.  

So I got to go back to my answer to him from a couple of years ago.  I said I would have a warm house to come home to from a coffee shop, soup simmering on the stove and a happy attitude toward life because everything is well in the world.  I got to live that today.  It was nice. 

I will be even happier in 8 days when I'm on a plane to Belize. 

Life Outside the MBA

by Helen

The last couple of days, Adam and I got to do fun things around town.  

On Wednesday, I went to the Aveda Training Salon for a haircut which took a long time, but was cheap and worth it.  I also saw a classmate at Caffe Vita on the Hill, had a pulled pork sandwich at Paseo in Fremont and drinks at Six Arms. Adam and I had dinner at the Hunter's Club at the Sorrento Hotel which was lovely and they had great drinks! 

Yesterday, we tried a new Greek place, Alladin Gyro-Cery before we went to catch a modern ballet, Complexions at Meany Hall on campus.  It was a mix of modern music, more classical sounding music and U2 music. 

Midway Through First Quarter

by Helen

Today is the official half way point of the quarter.  I have taken 2 midterms, several quizzes, have submitted way too much homework and have a take home midterm in accounting coming up this week that will surely give me a whole new perspective on how much I don't know. 

I am also finally making friends in the program.  I am definitely seeing progress from saying hello in the class to friendship.  I was just offered a spot on the Study Tour to Kenya for spring break.  I think that will be an awesome opportunity, after I finish calming down my parents about my trip.  

This weekend, Adam and I hosted a Halloween party and a pub crawl in Capitol Hill.  I think the duties divided up in that I came up with the food to serve, Adam came up with dessert and titles of the food that we super creative.  We also borrowed decorations from a friend that really made the place look good.  It was then fun to walk around Cap Hill and see all the activities on Halloween out there. It was no West Hollywood, but pretty cool nonetheless. 

 Adam was a disco king and I was Pippi Long Stocking.  Unfortunately you can't see the striped knee highs in this picture, but they are rainbow colored if that helps. 

Yesterday my wonderful boyfriend treated me to a massage which was very needed and we went to change my tires at Costco because apparently I was a day away from spinning out due to worn out tires.  I guess my car didn't get the memo that I was busy. 

Life is good.  It feels stressful but I'm pretty sure it's self-imposed and unnecessary stress. At the end of the day, school is about learning and not worrying about grades.  I am lucky in that I have a very strong support network formed by Adam, my good friends and family. I don't think anyone is necessarily having an easy time depending on what their situation is or issues they are dealing with, but I know that everyone makes it out better than they started. 

Riding the Bus in Seattle

by Helen

Per my sister's request, here is a blog about my bus experience in Seattle.

Since moving to Capitol Hill, I have been pretty intent on avoiding to drive and taking the bus instead. I am lucky because we live in an area that has buses that run in every direction. Since I got my bus pass through school, I probably drive once or twice a week. It helps that my garage is ridiculously hard to get in and out of so my incentive is increased to take the bus. 

Here are the best parts about taking the bus:

-It guarantees at least 20 minutes of walking a day (total)

-I am able to read, listen to music, eat breakfast, etc. without being distracted by driving

-It inadvertently slows down life and makes me appreciate the change in the season, the various dogs and their owners on the streets, and the different faces I see on the bus.

-I am not the DD and I don't have to worry about driving myself anywhere after happy hour or any other drinking function

-I am really enjoying the fact that I am NOT driving. I feel like I have spent so much of my life behind a wheel and in traffic that it's lovely to just take the bus. I wish I could say I feel some great moral superiority about not driving and reducing my carbon footprint, but I don't really. I just selfishly like not being behind a wheel and have someone else do all the work. 

The worst parts about taking the bus:

-I hate it when the bus is early 

-I haven't really hit the rainy part of the season yet so it will be interesting to experience bus riding/walking in the rain. 

-Along the same line of reasoning, I haven't had to walk too much in the dark yet to and from bus stops. So hopefully that will be ok as well. 

Do you like riding the bus?

Tea

by Helen

I am a big tea drinker.  I have been drinking tea for as long as I can remember. I like it black, with no sugar and not very strong, so I tend to take the bag out pretty fast after I put it. 

I own many tea cups, a pretty flowery tea set, a tea box, a tea bag squeezer thing, etc. What I have not been a fun of until recently has been herbal tea or even accented black tea. 

However, not too long ago I discovered Mango Black Tea as courtesy of a client who sent me a holiday gift. And recently, I have actually been drinking hot herbal tea and letting it steep.  I actually find it quite comforting and relaxing, which has never been the purpose of the black tea for me, since it's just part of the daily routine for me.  I am also pretty excited that there are several tea places near the place where we will, so I look forward to trying those. 

I never thought this would change about me, but I am glad I am expanding my taste palette. 

My Day In Court

by Helen 

At the end of July I got a parking ticket at Golden Gardens Park.  It was one of the hottest days of the year and I parked far away from the actual parking lot. Then I went to get a blanket and saw that there was a parking cop giving tickets to people parked in the lot. I asked her if it's free to park here and she said yes, as long as you are not here for longer than 3 hours.  So I parked but ended up parking in the HALF of the parking spaces that were reserved for cars with trailers.  Mind you, there was not a single trailer parked there, so you could see how I would be confused. When I parked, I saw the ticket cop still writing tickets and we even made eye contact, but granted she didn't look very happy.

Anyway, I went back to my friends on the beach and when I returned to my car I had a ticket on there for $38 to the City of Seattle.  I know the city is broke and all, but I really felt like I had a case of an angry ticket cop who let her job get to her personality.

So I decided to contest the ticket.  I called the court and they sent out paperwork for me to write a statement or show up in person. In California, I've used Ticketbust to contest speeding tickets, but they did all the work and I just paid.  Here, I was going to have to come up with the language and the argument. 

Long story short, with the move to the new place, my family in town, etc. I missed the due date for submitting a written statement so I went to court today for my preliminary hearing. I have been sick the last couple of days so taking a shower and getting dressed AND driving 2 miles to downtown (glad we moved so it wasn't 20 minutes of driving). 

I showed up and eventually was asked to follow a person in. I definitely thought I would be entering a court room with a judge wearing a robe.  Instead, it was the judge who called me and we sat in her office (I did see a robe, so she is legit I think) and we discussed my parking situation. She suggested that she can reduce my ticket to $10 and I agreed.  And that was that. 

Very anti-climactic. But I did get my ticket reduced. 

That was my excitement for the day. 

Composting in Capitol Hill

by Helen

I'm procrastinating packing my kitchen so I figured I'd talk about how excited I am about composting at the new place in Capitol Hill.  I have a lot of respect for your passion about limiting the landfills on this earth, but to be honest, I'm not quite sure what happens to things I compost and recycle.  I know that's probably a dumb question, but better late then never I suppose.

  So maybe you can tell me in the next week or two about best practices for composting, the basics for people who start out doing it. 

Here are the questions I have: 

what is an ideal container to compost in
what are the items that can go in
what do you do with plastic bags
what are absolute no nos for composting and recycling
is there an easy way to remember what goes where and what signs to check for on food containers
do i have to wash stuff before recycling it?

So the ABCs of home sustainability for a busy person is what I am looking for.