Remember me? Just a few updates!

So many things have happened since my last post! I will go in order over the next few days.

First things first.

I got engaged! Brian proposed to me in the freezing rain during the snow-pocalypse we had in PDX not so long ago.

It all started on Saturday morning when the cheerleading competition my girls were competing in was canceled. His plans took a major turn, because now I would be with him all day! He INSISTED that we go over to his parent’s house, even though the roads were treacherous and it was snowing hard. I argued and practically melted down in protest, but he persisted. I seriously thought we were going to die on the road as frozen dismembered ice cube versions of ourselves. Now I know why he was so stubborn, the ring was there!

Once we got back to my house we went sledding with Marina all afternoon. It was ridiculous fun. When we began our walk to the harbor-side McCormicks from my apartment, the freezing rain had started. The walk was miserable, and much longer than I remembered! The last time I made that journey it was 75 and sunny…

Brian proposed on the waterfront in the snow, under freezing rain and twinkly lights. I wouldn’t want it any other way!

Sorry for the large face/ square Insta photos.

Leather pants like Ross Geller.

Yesterday I saw 4ish posts about leather pants. I live in the Pacific NW and am not as bold with my fashion as many. There are plenty of folks here who are, it is just that my city is pretty casual. Because of this, I do not rock a full leather pant. I have my own toned down NW version though, leggings with faux leather panels up the side. They are as bold as I’m probably going to get.

I love them because they make me feel sassy. They also make me feel like I am channeling my fave character from Friends, Ross Geller. So ridiculous and perfectly pathetic!

I love Ross and his leather pants:

- Fart noises on the couch

- Shrinking from the sweat/ legs expanding from the heat

- Powder to absorb the moisture

- Lotion to get them back up

…Poor Ross. How could he know that the lotion and powder would make a PASTE!?!

Anywho, I plan on wearing my leggings often. Especially now that fall is here! Luckily these leggings will also help keep me from a "Ross like" situation. Don't worry, I will check on you full leather pants people if you haven’t come back from the bathroom. I will always assume you are potentially coated in a baby powder/ lotion paste.

PS. If you say Ross isn't your favorite character, you are lying. Or you haven’t watched the whole series. The divorces, the leather pants, the kundis, the teeth, the spray tan, the margaritas. Seriously!

Bikes, floaties and fomo.

Summer is coming to a close and once again, I missed out on some major things. Not things that can be made up for either. Once a year stuff! It is like I have Portlander fomo. Let’s review some facts. Summer in Portland is awesome! Temperatures are steady and comfortable, it isn't humid and the city takes full advantage! We have festivals, brewfests, outdoor concerts, you name it. Don’t get me wrong, I did plenty of fun summer stuff. BUT there are some things that happen in Portland that I have always wanted to do, yet have never made happen.

1. Bridge pedal. Bridge pedal happens every year and somehow I miss it every. single. year. It happens in August and looks just lovely! You get to bike over the bridges, they close the roads (and freeway) for you and you experience the best views of the city. Yet, I have never been able to make it happen. It should basically be illegal that I have never done it. Oh well… until next year.

2. The Big Float. This is another PDX event that happens once a year. I mean, they have only done it twice… but I have effectively missed both. This is probably one of the coolest Portland things that happens. Period. Yes, the festivals are cool and stuff, but getting on your floatie and taking over the Willamette in the middle of your beautiful city on a hot summer day?! Yes please! Again… until next year.

Although I missed these two events and they have made a home on my bucket list, I am thrilled that is almost fall. I have already started using pumpkin and marinara in my foods. Don’t worry, I don’t mix them together.

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Elephants and Jessie Spano.

I wish I had pictures of Jessie Spano on an Elephant. But alas, this is not nearly as cool as that!

The good thing about living your life and not posting for 2 weeks, is that you actually have some stuff to post when you decide to start again! Crazy. How do people do this every day? Their lives must be far more exciting than my own. I actually have stuff on file for later! I think this is the first time that has ever happened to me.

The news in the neighborhood is this: Elephants has opened! Think delicious food, grab and go treats, a full bar, Stumptown coffee… etc. And it is a couple blocks from my home. This is going to be amazing for my life and terrible for my budget. When I saw that they were open, my response was similar to Jessie Spano on Caffeine pills. “I’m so excited! I’m so excited!... I’m so…SCARED!” Excited for the food, scared for my wallet.

Friendship Frittata at Elephants on Corbett! It isn't actually called that, but it should be. 

Big thanks to Jessie Spano for perfectly articulating how I feel:

Elephants (not the animal), if you read this and want to give me free stuff, please email me. I would jump at the chance to sell out! Especially if mac and cheese or Mama Leone’s soup is promised.

Elephants (the animal), If you read this, congrats! You can read! That is crazy. I thought you were only good at painting. Please forgive my ignorance. Do you want to come be my pet? Simply buy me a house with a big backyard first. You also need to hire a wrangler and a poop scooper. That is not something I will be doing.

Summer rain and real life.

Long time no post!

I have been busy enjoying the sunshine! But today it rained for the first time in a month. Oh my gosh the rain smelled so good! I know that is weird, but the smell of summer rain is one of my favorite things! Not candles that are scented as summer rain. Those usually smell disgusting. Like how “cotton” scent exists… basically, it is dryer sheet sent as a candle. Ummm…  no thanks. So please fans, do not read this and send me a bunch of “summer rain” scented stuff. Do you like how I just pretended to have fans that want to send me stuff!? HA. Yeah right.

I really have nothing else to say. Which is weird, since I haven’t posted in a million years. But whatevs! I’m enjoying my summer and I hope you are too! I’m headed out of town again, so let’s lower our posting expectations shall we? Do you like how I just pretended people have expectations!? I'm hilarious today.

Anywho, real life trumps internet life. Always! Deal with it.

Printing a retraction: Yoga.

I did yoga last night. Like good yoga. Know what I learned? I have only ever been to bad yoga classes before. Last night I went to Corepower Yoga. My friend Chelsii works there and has been trying to convince me to go forever! Well, ever since I posted that I don’t like yoga because I think it is boring. Because it was! Every single yoga class I had been to was boring. Hot yoga, regular yoga, vinyasa, freaking weird neighborhood studio (with creepy chanting)... all of it. BUT last night the class I went to was awesome! It was warm, not hot like Bikram, it had a good playlist and it was a fast pace. It definitely doesn't take the place of cardio paired with a Britney playlist, but at the end of the class I kind of felt like I could take on an attacker or intruder or something.

So Chelsii, I retract my statement that yoga is boring. I mean, it is still a little bit low key for me, but it is a great workout! Truthfully, I probably won’t be shelling out the big bucks for classes once my free week is over, but I may drop in every now and then!

If you like the idea of yoga and want a real work out, or if the hippy dippy stuff freaks you out, go to Corepower. I wish they were going to give me free stuff for this post… that selfish perspective is SO not yogi of me. Whatevs.

After only one class, I now have fame across PDX for my extraordinary skill in both child's pose and shavasana. 

Namaste.

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Car accidents, ice cream and bathrooms.

I got in a car accident last night. Just a minor one, but still super annoying. My friend Tracy and I were on our way to get ice cream (for her birthday!) when a guy pummeled into my car while we were stopped at a stoplight. Happy birthday Tracy! We quickly re-routed for a cocktail, you know, to medicate our whiplash. THEN we continued to Salt & Straw for our ice cream. You may be thinking, “why would you go to Salt and Straw!? They have such a long line.” To which I say, we got a pint (aka cut the line) and also purchased a waffle cone and a cup of hot fudge. You get what you want, you get to cut everyone, and you get glares. I love getting glared at for stuff like this. Sorry I’m not sorry for being awesome and knowing the rules!

That is not what this post is about though. It is about nice bathrooms. How and why is this post taking a weird turn? Well, I said to Tracy during the consumption of our sweet treat, that Salt and Straw has a cute bathroom. To which she said, “You can tell a lot about a restaurant and how much they value their customers by the quality of their bathroom.”

She is so right! You CAN tell a lot about an establishment that way. Is it well maintained? Is there cute décor? … What is the aroma? A good air freshener can go a long way. Yeah, we just went there.

Bathrooms are a weird thing to share about I guess, but if you are ever really trying to decide how you feel about a certain establishment, just check out the bathroom. Do they have amenities? Some places even provide hairspray and mouthwash. It’s like, “Thanks for looking out for me on this date!” Right!?

Car accidents, ice cream and bathrooms. That’s it for today!

Fears Realized!

Can we chat really quickly about what happened on the Marquam Bridge last night!? Let’s move beyond the fact that you were in heinous traffic for hours okay? Instead let’s talk about some scary stuff! Isn’t it your worst fear any time you pass a semi that the stuff on the truck will fall on your car? Or that you will get wedged between two trucks? Your fears are valid folks! Because that ACTUALLY happened to someone last night here in PDX.

For those of you who don’t live here, or maybe you do live here but don’t watch the news and you also don’t listen to KEX on your way home… Here is the reason traffic sucked:

Yesterday a semi was taking a turn on the freeway and a concrete beam that was loaded on the back of his truck somehow shifted the balance of the truck bed and tipped, crushing the car next to him and pinning down the driver of the car with a concrete beam. The driver was okay, but her hand was injured by the beam.

I have this strange fear of trucks on the freeway. Especially if it is raining, or if they are log trucks, or really if there is any kind of exposed cargo. This just confirms that those “irrational fears” are straight up VALID! It is a miracle that this woman came out of the accident with only a hand/ arm injury.

Check it:

via

via

And a vid:



Okay, happy sunny days you fools! Enjoy the 70+ degree weather while it lasts! Only one post by me this week. I’m a busy lady with sunshine to enjoy and a boyfriend to go visit in Seattle. Peace!

PS. Remember my post about fear?... oops.

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AIM and my work as a part time model.

Psych! I'm obviously not a model. I am considering busting out AIM again though. Dear AOL, thank you for teaching me how to type both quickly and incorrectly. Love, Laura

I just wrote that sentence after writing the post. Don't worry; it will make more sense later. But now I want to elaborate on my life as a part time model! Remember Flight of the Concords? Nope? You are missing out. Anyway, they have a funny song about "the most beautiful girl in the room (depending on the room)" and how she could be a part time model, but she should probably keep her real job too.

I just started laughing listening to it again! And yes, the girl in the video is Cher from Clueless the TV show.

You may now proceed to the original post:

I don’t know what the heck I am doing with this blog. I like to write and ramble but the longer I have a corner of the internet, the more I realize I have no idea what I am doing. Internet stuff is so beyond me! Tell me, do I now need to go on bloglovin, google analytics and that reader subscriber majig to fix my URL? Why are people all of a sudden using bloglovin!? Is it because reader is going away? I think bloglovin is so annoying to use. How dare Google get rid of something without providing us with a replacement? I just want to check my email and blogs at the same time! Is that so much to ask? At this point I may as well go back to Hotmail or AOL. If I switch back to AOL I will hear “ you've got mail” every time I log on! My life would get SO Kathleen Kelly. Maybe this isn't such a bad thing after all. I wonder if my handle from 7th grade is still available!? I’m pretty sure my password was the name of the boy I liked. Don’t worry guys, we totally “went out” and held hands at lunch time.

On a completely different note, Jenn Pfaus is da bomb! And took pictures of us rando bloggers at a PDX blogger event. She is awesome and fun, and made me feel super comfortable. But I think we can all agree that getting your picture taken alone is a terrifying and awkward experience. I’m sure fashion bloggers will say “you get used to it!” In response I say, “That is a really bizarre thing to get used to. You are weird.” Okay, back to the photo sesh. As soon as Jenn started snapping photos I forgot how to smile and couldn't remember what to do with my hands and arms. I was quickly corrected by Jade, who told me that standing with my arms plastered to my sides was a bad idea. My solution was to just laugh the whole time. Therefore my eyes were likely shut in 90% of the pictures. Sorry Jenn! I’m crazy squinty.

Jenn was great though, and by her amazing photography skills (and likely witchcraft), we ended up with some really great shots! … Although, upon getting them back I mega regret not washing my hair that day. Can’t win em all!

Peace friends! Hit me up on AIM (MissQTpie99).

An Urban Playground

I had a great weekend that happened to go WAY too fast. It was here and gone in a blink of an eye. There was some good stuff in it though, including spending my entire Saturday in workout clothes, renting a surrey and getting my picture taken at a blogger meet-up. Wait, maybe it went too fast because we lost an hour? No, that can’t be it.

Do you ever feel like your city is your own personal playground? Marina and I spent Saturday jogging and hop-skipping through downtown. I mean this literally. We rented a surrey, walked to Portland City Grill for happy hour, decided to go to a movie and ran and skipped to Pioneer Place to make it in time to catch the 7pm of OZ. Marina referred to downtown as our concrete jungle gym. To top off the kid like behavior we grabbed slurpees on the way home. It was awesome. If only we could have played a game of tether-ball or something. When we are roommates we plan to have what we will call, “yoga clothes days.” This is a day where you stay in workout clothes all day, even if you go to fancy places like PCG. Believe me, you won’t care what other people think when you are that comfortable!

That was my weekend, ‘twas great. Then yesterday was just painful! I have never been so ready for a day to be over. I am exhausted for some reason. I think I am actively fighting off sickness. I got over that lame cold, but now there are some new fun things like an ear ache. Not that you care about that… Whatever.

Honestly, the real reason I think I am dragging is that I feel stagnant in my spiritual life. When I get like this I tend to question EVERYTHING. I start to figure that my short-comings as a person are abundantly clear to everyone around me and that they can’t possibly even want me to be in their lives. E.g. she is probably my friend because she feels obligated; my parents probably think I’m pathetic because I am so incompetent about my taxes. I could write an entire post on my negative self-talk and how all of my relationships are false, but no one is tryna be brought down around here! I promise I will not do that to you today. I will say this though, awareness is the first step right!? Kinda like addiction… but kinda not. I need to spend more time in the word and less time believing the lies that are popping into my head.

Obviously the reason I hear all of these lies is because I am not actively listening to the truth.

Wow, this post about my weekend sure took an interesting turn. Have a great Tuesday! I hope you are listening to the new JT album on iTunes today.

Portland on Dwellable

Road Trips and MTV

No, I am not talking about Road Rules. Close though!

Only one post this week because I am going on vacation!!!!! Woohoo! I am beyond excited to kick it with my family, ski and eat. That list is not necessarily in order of importance, but to spare feelings I decided I better type it out that way. (Hint: put them in reverse)

I’ll be here:

This is from the @sunvalley Instagram YESTERDAY! 

On a completely separate note, the trailer for Real World Portland is out. My favorite part is when they show the carpet at the airport. My least favorite part is the rest of it. I can’t help but be slightly annoyed with the quality of the cast and how they will probably make PDX look super lame by spending all their time at Splash Bar and Dirty. At least they were here during an awesome time of year! Hopefully MTV reps PDX in a fab way! It is also likely that our favorite places refused to sign whatever MTV has that forces establishments to take on all liability. I am obviously going to watch the entire season. For many reasons… including seeing if that time we yelled at them from the car makes it on TV! Ha!

Click Here to watch.

I'll be back next week!… maybe. I’ll probably have a vacation hangover. You know, when you are so relaxed from your vacation that it is debilitating. Am I the only one who “suffers” from this?

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My Friends

I have a sick obsession with my friends. They are the most fun people ever. Seriously, there is no possible way that your friends are as fun as mine! My friends are hilarious (filthily so), beautiful and genuine.

After spending time with them, my stomach hurt from laughing so much… or maybe it was all the food.

My women at Rontoms. [photocred to Lauren]

And this is just a select few of the college ones! I am a very lucky girl.

I know this was a lame post. Guess what? Don't care! I am still recovering from the amazing long weekend!

A weekend of learning.

This weekend I went to a Portland Blogger meet-up. It was awesome because not only did I get to see my real life internet friends, I also learned stuff. Do you know what SEO is? I didn't either. But now I do! …kinda. I was a bad student in the back of the class talking to my friends (Linnea, Sam and Abby). I did take some practical notes though! I also got this super cute mug that Jenni made as our favor.

One thing I did learn that I will have trouble using, is the obvious point that your title and tags need to have key words and somewhat relate to what your post is really about. I struggle with that because I would rather have my title be eye-catching and weird rather than relevant. Meh, we’ll see how it goes.

Other things I learned this weekend are:

1. There is an Elephants going in down the street from my house. My heart is rejoicing but my wallet is pissed.

2. This is my favorite note from church this weekend. It was timely and lovely and beautifully put.

I hope your short T-giving weeks are as stellar as mine! Even with all this narst rain. 

Pretty Little Liars.

This is not about PLL on ABC Family… Even though it happens to be one of my fav shows.

First things first, I want to say thank you for the confirmation after that last post. I got a number of calls and texts from friends confirming how timely that post was to their lives. Which makes me think, are we all liars most of the time?

Reality is that we all deal with anxiety, fear and the unknown. Why aren't we more honest about it? It would be a lot easier to go through things together. Just saying.

You guys, we are all in this together. (Please watch this at least until Chad's toe-touch)

On a completely different note, I am going to an SEO (search engine optimization) workshop with the Portland Bloggers on Saturday! I am really excited about it because I know nothing about SEO. I love getting together with this group. No one is creeped out by you when you already know about their life! Haha. If you are a blogger you should join us! Check out the Website. And while you are at it, you should probably check out my guest post on their blog too. Duh.

Fog and writers block.

I am currently suffering from writers block. I usually have drafts in my email of random thoughts and ideas. Or I find notes in my phone that easily prompt me to write a post. These past weeks have been a struggle though. Once I get going the text usually flows, as I’m sure it will for this one… about writers block. In many cases it is hard to shut me up. Even when it is about absolutely nothing! I’m sure my real life friends are nodding their heads right now. I have a special talent for talking about things I know nothing about with extreme, yet baseless, passion.

It is foggy and I am lethargic. I am also thinking about buying one of those happy lights from Costco. I don’t have winter depression, but I also don’t think it hurts to make a preemptive strike.

I love fall so much! But the knowledge of the impending season of darkness is daunting. I just need to push it out and enjoy this time. The trees have begun to change! I am so excited to crunch through them in my boots! You know, on my walk from Nordstrom to Pioneer Place.

Walking on this will be boss. 

I am off to Black Butte this weekend! So I’ll be sure to spend some time looking out the window while coming up with some post ideas that you will all like!

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“Here’s to the sisterhood of the traveling pants.”

That was Cameron’s cheers to the fact that Marina is a traveler. We found her cheers incredibly hilarious, especially because I don’t think she even really knew what she was saying. So yes Cam, here’s to the pants... and Marina.

This weekend we had a send off for Marina. She is leaving us for 6 months for an amazing career opportunity. I am sure she will have an awesome experience and it is very exciting! Alas, I am selfish and I am going to miss my friend. I have not fully accepted that she is leaving. But that is just how it goes I guess. I think the day I text her and say “lets get fro-yo tonight” and she says, “dude. I am currently living in MT.” I will probably have a meltdown. So… anyway. We had a fab going-away send off for her. One of our favorite things is going to second Saturday at East Burn. Why? Because DJ Gray Matter breaks it down with the kickinest hits for us to boogie to. Think Whitney Houston, the Dougie and a giant dance party. You clearly missed out. But no worries, you can just go next month. You better make it though, because the next one is the last!

Send off Champy

Umm these next photos are going to come with a warning: View at your own risk! We were very sweaty from all of the poppin' and lockin'.

Music, dancing and friends are three of Marina’s favorite things (if only we could have incorporated her 3-legged cat into the evening). I can’t think of a better way to send her off into the great unknown.

Farewell Mar. Somebody is gonna miss you.

Tea?! You must be one classy broad.

This weekend I went to tea at the Heathman with my friends Libby and Tracy. I would do a brunch review for it, but it wasn't brunch. It was seriously tea! I have never been to tea before. When I realized that it would be dainty tea food (aka small bites) I was freaking out a bit. We were going at noon and I hadn't eaten all day. I was ravenous and nervous that I would stay that way for the next couple hours, expecting that this “tea food” would be good but that I would still be hungry at the end of it all.

Boy was I wrong! The tower of food was delivered to our table and it looked delicious. I was still skeptical, but by the time we were half way through the second plate I was getting uncomfortably full. If you really think about it, it was 3 plates full of food and there were 3 of us! Duh. My reasoning skills are clearly not the best.

All in all, it was really fun to get dressed up, drink tea and act like classy British ladies for the afternoon. Well, we were only classy until we were super full. At that point we turned into nasty slothy American gluttons.

Don’t worry, we revived for photos:

Yummy Bellini!

I had no idea tea was such a fun activity! I will probably be doing this more often.

Portland on Dwellable

Brunch in Bridgetown: Jam on Hawthorne

Last weekend I went to Jam for brunch with some ladies of mine. It was SO good. Maybe one of my favorite spots thus far. They have a large menu with tons of options. They also have lots of killer homemade jams… hence the name.

I was with a vegetarian friend, as well as a vegan friend. They both had ample options, a pretty rare occurrence on the brunch scene (yes, even in Portland). Usually there is only one or two things of the vegan variety. I did not go vegan and had a delicious Benedict.

One other thing to mention is the bloody mary menu. Yep. There was a menu. In all honesty, I did not love my classy mary. There wasn’t enough flavor. It had heat, but not a lot of spice. On the flip side, Cameron ordered the sassy and it was delicious. I simply ordered wrong. I think it was a subliminal message... always choose sassy over classy?... hmm. Noted for next time!

Other high points: The mimosas come in pint glasses. We only waited for 10 min. Our food was out in a reasonable amount of time. They let us substitute stuff. The coffee was constantly flowing. We got a booth.

Less than high points: Our waiter was super schmoozy. He even had us sing My Girl with him at one point. Usually I love that kind of stuff! We just weren't the right audience that day. Read the crowd dude... read the crowd.

A serious BM and an even more serious mimosa!

Amaze-balls Benedict. A standout difference was the real thick-cut ham. SO much better than a slice of Canadian bacon.

I really recommend Jam. You will have great food in a fun location.

Portland on Dwellable

PDX Blogger Meet-up

Calling Portland bloggers! There is a meet-up tomorrow. I will not be in attendance this time, but there will be lots of awesome bloggers there to get to know. I have been to a couple of these events and they are always really rewarding and fun. Email me if you want the details!

Created by Jenni. She is awesome and you should be friends with her. 

TGIF!!

Mishmash moments: Birthday and Easter

My birthday and Easter overlapped this year. This rarely happens! The last time I can remember this happening was sometime during elementary school. It makes things quite easy. My family only has to get together once and friends were in from out of town. 'twas kickin.

The Mish:

Like I mentioned before, this past weekend was awesome. I have always wanted to try Paley’s Place, so a few of my friends accompanied me there for a little b-day celebration. It was delicious!!! Seriously amazing. I had Dungeness crab risotto. I feel like I don’t need to say anything other than that. DUNGENESS CRAB RISOTTO!!

The day whole day was splendid. Went to the chiropractor, met my sister for lunch, got my hair did at the Blowout Bar in the Pearl, ate awesome food and had awesome drinks. PLUS I got to spend the evening laughing with some of my favorite people.

The Mash:

Sunday was Easter and I made Lemon Meringue pie. I make it every year. I love how tart and delish it is. Everyone who knows me will tell you that I prefer super rich chocolate over fruit desserts. It is true. I will always go with chocolate. But Lemon pie is the perfect Easter dessert.

On a totally different note...

You guys! Tonight LC is going to be in Portland. Yes, LC (as in Lauren Conrad). She will be here for a book signing. I really don't want to buy her book at all. I tried to get through her first one... but as soon as I realized it was about a girl who moves to LA and gets on a reality TV show I was done. I figure I will need to buy her new book though. I think that is the deal with book signings. Okay, truth time. The real reason I am excited is because I want to see what she wears! Oh em gee... what should I wear!?