M.I.A.

  Guess who finally got their laptop back?  After having a couple friends ask me where the heck I've been and why I haven't posted, I've come up with an answer.  As you all know, I am in the middle of moving out, which means I'm sort of homeless right now??  Homeless in the literal sense of the word, but I thankfully do have friends who have taken me in, and I can't express how grateful I am to these people who have been so understanding and kind and gracious.  Anyway, I'm in between figuring my life out, which is basically five million different adventures in one big catastrophe, but I'm getting there.  Anyway, since I've been staying with friends and my laptop has been back at the apartment, I have not had the time or resources to update you on my very hectic life, so I apologize.  Ok, I'm over explaining and leaking too many details about my current situation, so let's go over some highlights since it has been uhhh like two weeks?  A lot can happen in two weeks.
  For starters, I want to congratulate my friend Thomas Simpson on self-publishing his first novel!  He is just 21-years old and has been working on this piece for a while, so it's quite the accomplishment that he finally got it finished and is able to put it out for the public to enjoy.  I honestly cannot wait to get my hands on a copy because he is one of the most intelligent and witty people I know.  So Thomasa, if you ever see this, I'm so proud of you and I wish you luck in your success.
  Next off, I have some sad news.  My really good friend up here in Washington, Melody, had to move back home to Louisiana for a little bit.  Hopefully she'll only be staying there for a few months and can return (to be my roommate) by the end of the year.  She has been such a solid friend and it's just so easy to be comfortable around her.  We had a little girl's dinner date that night before she departed at Olive Garden.  Come back soon, Mel!

  Have I told you guys about my dog?  Probably not since I've been away.  Well, my boxer Charlie will be 13 in November, so he's getting up there is his years.  Recently, my mother texted me to let me know that he is ill.  Whatever day that was, Charlie had gotten up, and then just collapsed.  He spent the rest of the day laying in the grass and didn't eat.  I honestly thought he was going to die, but I video chatted my family today and saw him!  He is still pretty weak and lays around a lot - at least only when my family is looking - but he is alive.  That old dog has lived through so many mishaps and accidents that it's a wonder and a blessing that he's still around.  Here's to you, pup.  I hope I get to see you in person soon and give you a good ole ear scratch.
  Ok, so let's get to some more exciting things about me.  Since Jimmy and I split, he's been spending time with a new girl and I've been hanging out with a new guy.  He really didn't want me to blog about him right now, but I get extreme pleasure from embarrassing people, so I sort of HAVE to talk about him here.  Besides, he's been a big part of my life lately and pretty much everything I've done lately has involved him.  You ready guys and dolls?  Say hello to Troy:

He's probably going to hate that I put a picture up with him wearing another man's shirt unbuttoned, but whatever, right?  So I think the first experience I want to talk about was when Troy decided to take me on a little dateski.  We went into this town called Poulsbo which has a very heavy German influence.  I've been to maybe one German restaurant before, but I was definitely excited to try a new place.  I wish I could remember and pronounce the name of the restaurant and even the dish that I had, but I just can't, so I will describe to you everything.  This place was located down a small little alley in this cute town.  Great start to a date, right?  But it really wasn't all that creepy.  We had to walk upstairs and you could just smell...German food.  Since it was such a rare and beautiful evening here in Washington, we decided to sit outside and overlook the town.  It was a really pretty sight, and I can't imagine what it would be like to sit up there and watch parades roll through the streets, since that's one of the things that area did.  We decided to order beer, of course, which was good, but also caused me to stick my license in my pocket (remember that little detail.)  We both got pork dishes and sides of spetzle (sp? pretty sure that's right...)  My pork had a traditional gravy, while Troy;s came with a creamy mushroom sauce.  He also got this cabbage side dish and I had a salad with dill dressing.  Ummm, so classic meat and gravy: can't go wrong there, but this particular dish was absolutely AMAZING.  Even though I eat like a bird, I still love food and flavors.  I wanted to clean my plate, but I had absolutely no room left, so I took the rest home for leftovers.  I wish I had a picture, but maybe I will just take you all to this restaurant instead if you ever are in Washington.  Oh ya, Troy also got a second beer.  Our first one was really light, but he likes ambers, so he went for a bit of a darker drink.  After having three waiters/waitresses/bartenders come by asking us what we wanted to drink this time, Troy went with this beer that was supposed to taste like caramel.  All three of those people who wanted to order our drinks said something along the lines of, "you gotta live life," or "taking a risk, huh?" or "you better watch out."  What the heck did he just order?  We could not wait to see what he was getting.  This beer was actually kinda pretty.  It didn't come in a classic beer mug and it actually did look like liquid caramel.  Troy had his first sip and was blown away.  Naturally, I had to try it.  Umm ok, I can't even explain to you how many different flavors were in this thing!  There definitely was a sweet and caramel-y taste at first, an explosion of other flavors in between, and ended with that bitter beer aftertaste.  Also, your mouth just felt like it was coated with syrup or something.  That flavor did not go away.  It was a really good beer though, but I don't think I could have drank all of it.
  Phew, that last paragraph was way too long and messy.  I was just too excited to tell you everything that I probably left stuff out or didn't make sense.  My apologies, I'm on a roll right now and can't go back and change it, and since I've already declared it an unorganized paragraph, I'm not even going to go back and proofread it.  Ha!  So if I have my timeline correct, I believe we went back to Troy's that night for a little social gathering.  We played board games deep into the night and took part in...adult celebrations, if that makes sense.  Ok, I'll just say it, we got a little too drunk.  I'm sorry Mom and Dad if you read this.  I'm good, I swear!  Remember how I told you about sticking my license in my pocket.  Somehow EVERYONE who was over that night saw my license, but it was gone the next morning.  Perfect.  How does that happen?  Where could it have gone.  Nobody knows.  I guess being license-less at this point is a pretty bad thing, so I'm about ready to stop searching and just get a new one.  At least I won't have a picture of me when I was 16 anymore.
  Troy is sort of a big guy in that he needs a lot of fuel because he burns it off all the time.  Therefore, he's always hungry.  I'm not always hungry, but I like food, so we like to try new things together.  We went to this Thai place in Poulsbo again that turned out to be really good.  We came in on a night that had a special where you could get a soup or salad, wontons, a choice of a main dish with phad thai and rice, and dessert all for the price of a regular entree.  Sounded like a good plan to me because I really just wanted the phad thai.  Again, wish I had taken pictures or something, but just trust me when I say it was all delicious.  Troy got the soup, which he didn't like so much, and I got the salad, which was pretty good.  Troy got the curry, which is one thing that I don't like a lot, and I got the garlic chicken.  I gave Troy a weird look when he ordered the curry because I didn't think he would like it, but you won't know until you try it.  Guess who was right?  We tried to like the curry, but we just weren't having it, so we shared the chicken instead.  Also, the dessert was a rice pudding that I couldn't stomach, but Troy loved.  It came out warm and purple and looked like it would be good, but I was too full from my phad thai.  Ugh just thinking about that phad thai makes me hungry.  And those wontons!  Those were really good too.  Take me back!  After dinner, we went to go see "Cowboys vs. Aliens," or as I like to say, "Pirates and Indians."  I didn't care to see this movie, but Troy really wanted to.  I mean, it had Harrison Ford AND Daniel Craig AND Olivia Wild AND Jon Favreau!  So it was bound to be an amazing film, and it actually was really good.  I kind of want to be a cowgirl now!
  Change of topics.  Since I'm newly a foodie, I've decided that I'm going to go to culinary school!  I plan on going to Le Cordon Bleu up in Seattle starting, well, next week, but I might have to push it back until September when I get more settled down.  Either way, I'm really excited to be more experienced and knowledgeable about what I'm actually doing in the kitchen.  Who knows, maybe I'll make a career out of this?  Also, I'm pretty sure I'll be back to working at Forever 21 again up in Seattle near my school.  I'm thoroughly excited for the way my life is working out right now.  I just can't wait to get started.
  I think you guys are pretty much up to speed on what's been going on.  Thanks for bearing through and reading all of this without have a lot of good pictures.  I need to get better at that.  In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy the rest of your Sundays.  I'm about to go back inside and put another layer of sweats on. :)