All good things...

I'm not saying that I haven't had a blog worthy day in the past almost-year since my last entry, quite the opposite actually, I'm usually just too lazy to take the time to write. But today was so many ways of great I easily overcame my lackadaisical tendencies and had to share (Dad will be so happy).

Disclaimer: you might get done reading this and think that these things aren't that exciting, however in my little life bubble they are spectacular! Also, I'm coming to find that it's the little things that make life so great.

Day in summary:
1. I find out about a large sum of money that is finally coming my way.
2. I experience an overwhelming amount of examples why I love my job and am so grateful for it.
3. I am able to use my massage skills to help me and my honey get essentially free acupuncture. This is sort of a continuation of number 2, but so awesome it gets its own number.
4. I take a bubble bath while listening to the perfect bath music (this makes a huge difference, let me tell you).
5. I eat my favorite kind of ice cream, while recounting my killer day.

1. So I've been going through and cleaning out our room, getting rid of old things made of paper mostly. Old pay stubs, bills, receipts, mail, school assignments--be gone! It has felt so good. Today, while going through this weeks long process, I stumbled upon some paperwork we received after we got robbed in October of last year, specifically (I'm just now realizing) the day after my last blog entry. For those of you who don't know, our apartment was broken into and trashed a couple days before Halloween 2011. It was traumatic, jarring, and a horrible invasion of privacy that has taken a long time to recover from. They stolen everything that had any commercial value; mostly electronics. Miraculously, or rather our-tax-dollars-at-work-ly, the cops found the culprits loading our stuff into a truck a few blocks from our apartment and were able to arrest one of them before the others ran away. Because of this incredible good fortune we got everything back except for my laptop, which was amazing considering the circumstances. SO, after almost a year of phone calls with crime victim people, prosecutors, and other extremely helpful and friendly individuals handling our case, I talked to a woman today who told me that I will be receiving restitution for my laptop! There's no guarantee for when I'll actually get the money, but just knowing that it's coming at some point is a great feeling. Being the victim of a crime ain't all bad! (It's actually awful and something I'd never wish to happen to anyone, but if you do ever experience something like being robbed, chances are that they system will work in your favor and you will encounter many kind people who are there to help.)

2. I've been working at the Ballard Health Center for almost two months now, and at first my flow of clients was very slow, however I'm now credentialed to accept insurance and it's made a HUGE difference in my amount of clientele. So today I got a called into work, which is pretty rare for a Wednesday, so I was super excited. I geeked out even more when I saw that one of my clients I had seen last week was coming in and had requested me. Me! So today I had my first return insurance client. This may not seem like a big deal, but in the world of massage I swear it is monumental. I also gave one of my coworkers a massage as a part of our ongoing trade cycle=another reason why I love being a massage therapist, especially at Ballard. Which brings me to another reason I love my job, as simple and basic as it may seem. Actually, for you, the reader, to appreciate this reason I have to explain what it is like at my other massage job. It is in a mall. Each room is small and dark, with no windows or air circulation. Also, the worst spa music you can imagine is playing on repeat. At Ballard, however, every room is filled with soft light from outside and an oscillating fan. There are windows we can open, and satellite radio with hundreds of stations from which I am free to pick. I think my favorite of all these perks is the window to the outside. Being able to breathe in fresh air while giving a massage has a really positive affect on my ability to do the best work I can do. Also, my boss offered me work on Mondays beginning in September! This will mean I'll be there four days a week. Since I mentioned my boss I should add that he is the best boss I've ever had. He is endlessly supportive, encouraging, positive, forgiving, and creates the most nurturing environment I could hope for. It should be noted that I haven't even met my actual boss at my massage job in the mall. I'm only mentioning this because I think it helps set the tone for why I am so grateful for how awesome the Ballard Health Center is and why I love it so!

3. I don't know if you've ever received acupuncture before, but I highly recommend it, and that isn't even because I've ever had a treatment. It's good for everything; from helping you relax to getting rid of acne to reducing pain, anxiety, depression to improving the function of your organs to maintaining emotional balance to strengthening your immune system---the list goes on. Robbie has been receiving treatments from this wonderful Chinese doctor, but it's getting a little costly. However, I am lucky enough to have as my coworkers two acupuncturists: one who practices standard acupuncture and the other who practices something called Five Elements acupuncture. Anyway, they are both two of the kindest people you'll meet, and I was able to work out trades with them for both Robbie and me to receive practically free acupuncture! One exclamation point does not even begin to describe how awesome this is. There are few things that feel as great as having a trade skill with which I can barter. Now I just need to figure out how to barter for groceries...

4. Baths. Are. The Shit. If you haven't taken one lately, I encourage you to do so. It is my wish that you treat yourself to an immersion of steaming hot water, aromatherapy bubbles (I personally prefer lavender), a candle or some incense (frankincense is the best), and chill the hell out. Music is key. Some prefer silence, which I can dig, unless you have the perfect bath music, which I do. They are called Balmorhea, and they are beautiful. Check them out here. Oh, also, take a shower with peppermint Dr. Bronner's soap when you're done, you'll feel all tingly and clean. And then you'll say to yourself, holy crap that was the best decision ever, I'm going to do that tomorrow. And then you will.

5. I have always had this affinity for mint flavored things. I rarely find something in this flavor realm of which I do not tremendously approve. So obviously my favorite flavor of ice cream is mint, preferably mint chocolate chip. Since realizing I am lactose intolerant years ago, I have done the tour of non-dairy ice creams and have happily settled on Luna and Larry's Organic Coconut Bliss, flavor Mint Galactica. Though Robbie and I often indulge ourselves with a pint of this outer-space treat, there is something undeniably great about ending your bangerang day with ice cream. It makes everything that happened even sweeter. No pun intended.


......Rachel sighed, remembering the long, eventful day......


Thanks for reading :)

Sometimes all you need is a bookshelf.

Our super friend Alicia gave us this bookshelf. She was moving and no longer needed it. She delivered it to our house herself and upon seeing it for the first time I openly expressed my love for how perfect it was. "It's everything I've ever wanted in a bookshelf!" I believe I exclaimed. She responded in her flawlessly deadpan way, "Well, it's a bookshelf. It will hold your books." Now, what she did not understand was that we had been in the market for something to hold our books for almost a year, to no avail. Though we did not search far and wide, the jaunt to Good Will every few months always proved fruitless, as our findings were always too tall, the wrong color, cheaply made, or just in bad shape. I eventually ended up having a surge of DIY inspiration and constructed a bookshelf by using the sturdiest cardboard boxes I could find and stacking them in the shelfiest way I could manage. I wish I had taken a picture before its demolition, because it was pretty freaking cool, I'm telling you, BUT it had a lot to be desired. It was weak, slanty, and maybe 2 and a half feet tall. Plus, it only fit about 2/3 of our books. I knew this creation wouldn't last forever, and that the right bookshelf would probably enter our lives sooner or later, but Alicia's bookshelf was blowing my mind! It literally fits all of our books, with one shelf leftover for pants! Now, in a dresser-less, small-closet world, that is a dream come true. It also has room for other extras, such as my box of photographs and my tin of treasures, my multiple jewelry boxes (which I should probably condense, but I have unintentionally collected many unique boxes over the years who do their job quite well), and the standard mixture of knick-knacks that have followed me most of my life. Of course, back to the most vital thing it fits: BOOKS!

(yes, okay, I totally just spent 10 minutes taking pictures of my books)

Oh, books, how I love thee...thou...whatever...the novels, zines, essays, short stories, auto and biographies, works of theatre, poetry, non-fiction, photography, music, history, hilarity, reference! Bringing such joy to my life, I always want more of you, and can never have enough. One great thing about living in Seattle is the abundance of independent, mostly used bookstores. Some of my favorites in our collection (from all over), which I would highly recommend to anyone, include: 

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

Wake Up, Sir! by Jonathan Ames

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

Zen and the Art of Happiness by Chris Prentiss

Without Feathers by Woody Allen

The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha

A Personal Season by Rhonda Groves Young

Him Her Him Again the End of Him by Patricia Marx

The SunFood Diet Success System by David Wolfe

I Love You More Than You Know by Jonathan Ames

Zen Flesh Zen Bones by Paul Reps

There are more I'm sure, but that' a good start.

And who do I have to thank for this wonderful, rewarding relationship? Who is responsible for this glorious obsession? WHO is the inspiration of this long-awaited blog entry, you ask?

My Dad.

My thoughtful Dad, who I remember as a kid staying up late to read, was worried not that I was awake past my bedtime, but that I was hurting my young eyes by taking in the words in the dark. My creative Dad, who remains so admirably humble even though he is an incredible writer, story teller, and poet. My awesome Dad, who drove all the way to New York City and back while listening to one of his favorite authors read to him via audiobook and was as happy as a clam. My intelligent and hilarious Dad, who I know will be content wherever he is, as long as there is a bookstore nearby. My Dad, who makes an awesome Elvis.

Happy Birthday, Dad. Thank you. I love you. 

p.s. (You are fucking cool.)

p.p.s. Here's a video I think you'll like. Lisa Hannigan doing a cover of Bob Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues." Wish I were home to listen to it with you :)

I just had the most vivid dream about my Grandpa. We were at some sort of graduation of mine, it wasn't clear what it was from but my entire family was there.  It was outside and there were what seemed like miles and miles of food set up like a buffet...lots of Armenian/Middle Eastern items. The dream kept splitting between me in some kitchen actually inside the fridge (which is its own silly thing that I don't know the meaning of) getting leftovers and me outside in this huge lawn where the buffet was, talking to my Grandpa. He was telling me how much he loved the ceremony and how it was the best graduation he had ever been to. He was wearing a suit and tie, and my Grandma was next to him also dressed to the nines. He kept hugging me over and over and at the beginning we were smiling and laughing and then it occured to me in my dream that I should cherise these fleeting seconds because he isn't here anymore. I was overcome with a sense of gratitude that I was having this dream about this person I miss so much...and then I looked around and tried to search into people's eyes, seeing if they knew what I knew, but everyone seemed to be in a state of pure bliss. I started to get that feeling you get when you know a dream is ending but you can't bear it and you try to trick yourself into staying asleep and encourage your brain to make the milliseconds last as long as possible. I then realized he had been humming and then actually singing lyrics of a certain song every time he hugged me but I couldn't really make them out. I tried to concentrate with all my being on this one aspect to try to keep the dream alive and then it hit me, and instantly I started to laugh through tears. My Grandpa, in the voice I remember as being his, was singing "Who Needs Shelter?" by Jason Mraz (for those who don't know, I am a fan, to say the least). Of course as soon as I realized this I woke up, and though I usually forget my dreams quite suddenly after waking, I tried to think of nothing else but writing down what had just happened.  It's very interesting because though I do love that song, it isn't one of my absolute favorites, and I honestly can't remember the last time I listened to it.  So why that song? I don't know but it was definitely the best dream I've had in a long while.  It was so incredibly real, too.  Exactly how I remember his hugs feeling, definitely his voice and mannerisms. It was just wonderful to see him. I am very grateful for dreams :) 

Grandpa giving my brother a haircut, while I sport a fashionable turtle neck circa 1993.

If you're curious about the song here's a video of Mraz performing it live at Austin City Limits.

A thought on the late shift.

You know that feeling when you are so drained you feel as if someone has squeezed all the live energy out of you like a tube of toothpaste? It's not like I did a large amount of strenuous work tonight. We were actually pretty slow for the first 5 hours of my shift, besides a few deliveries. But I think my brain gets tired of trying to entertain itself. Boredom can be exhausting, apparently, as can drunk people. I feel like an old lady, but really? I mean come on, you're going to go into a restaurant, order your food, and then bury your face in it like a sleepy 2-year-old and leave most of it on the floor when you leave? It's just stupid. And a waste. Mildly entertaining at times, until you have to clean up after them. Most of the people I dealt with tonight couldn't even make words come out of their mouths, but rather mumbled and moaned their orders to me so I had to make up what they wanted myself. They didn't care...munchies are munchies. And I get that we're only open this late to cater to the after-bar crowd, so I should just accept it for what it is. BUT when you willingly bring yourself to a point of being completely unable to communicate with others or perform simple tasks like taking your credit card out of your wallet, getting paid to deal with you just isn't worth it...but maybe that's just me.

This was a negative post, but I feel that writing is therapeutic, and I do feel better now. I did make some mad tips, which is a plus about feeding the drunks. So there's that :) And now it's Friday! Happy Friday.

Jazzing It Up

So I have all these wonderful pictures of recent happenings to share, but I cannot find my camera to computer cord anywhere! In the meantime, I think you'll love listening to some Seattle Jazz Radio. NPR's Jazz station here is superb! It is our favorite thing lately. You can stream it live on their site, I think there's a link in the upper right hand corner of their home page. So please, please do your ears a favor and groove to some smooth tunes to which we are probably jiving at the same time :) And stay tuned for some montainsunsetcity pictures which will appear soon...hopefully...

water, tips, bookstores, and coffee shops.

This entry is going to be rather scatter-brained, so please excuse me.

The bus ride home from work today proved to be quite lovely. My route goes right by Green Lake, a small body of water a couple miles from our house.  It is a walk I plan on making on the warmer days to come.  Every time I go by any area of the lake, I see people walking, jogging or just resting on the edge of one of the many docks that juts out toward the center. Water tends to make me feel very calm.  It gives me peace. Go Go H2O!

   Not Green Lake, but another beautiful body of water, Puget Sound

I wanted to mention something about the cultural differences between this city and my experience in the midwest regarding tips...as in the "you're so awesome!" people get to say by leaving any extra change/cash they happen to have to make your day super rad. Back home, I would be lucky to get one dollar to take home at the end of a 7 or 8 hour shift. One dollar. Which is really only 50 cents if I happened to be working with someone else and split it between us. But the other night during a closing shift I took home 24 dollars in tips (!!!). This has never happened to me before. And this was after splitting it in half, so if it had been just me in the store I would have gotten almost 50 bucks in one night. This is craziness. Craziness, I tell you! But it's such a non-issue here. So weird. Though awesome.

Had the most relaxing Thanksgiving yesterday. Just a lazy, lazy day. Being so thankful for my best friend and our mutual love for being a couple of couch-potatoes. Got to see some family via Skype which was a nice plus to a grateful day.

Today I received a small peace sign charm from this wonderful older gentleman named Ed who I met my first day at work. He's one of our regulars. He happens to have the same John Lennon tattoo as me, and because of this we are now best friends.  He works at the university's NPR office and told me about this new PBS documentary about John and Yoko's time in NYC.  He claims it's the best one yet, so I'm really excited to watch it. If you're a fan, go to pbs.org and it should be on their homepage.

I'm lucky enough to have a used bookstore (Twice Sold Tales) and coffee shop (Sure Shot) just a couple doors down from the Pit where I can spend lunch breaks and time before/after work. I am already completely in love with the coffee shop. It has made me want to paint the walls in our apartment dark red and only ever listen to Iron and Wine while I'm home. Plus they have local made chai and it is absolutely delicious. Probably the best ever. And I'm sorry but anytime there are cats in a bookstore I guarantee I will spend more time there than in a cat-less bookstore. Twice Sold Tales has two cats. Orange and grey. I am in love with them. Though this isn't very fair because the more time I spend somewhere the more likely I am to buy books. But I'll be getting my library card in the next couple days so that will be a helpful money saving tool.

Some random things I've learned so far...
People are weird no matter where you go, with the most unusual of all emerging at night. I find this comforting for some reason.
It's hard work to deliver food on a bicycle, especially up and down really steep hills. But I can do it!
Seattlites don't know how to handle snowy weather. It is endearing and humorous to watch.
You better not forget your bags for the grocery store because they will be disappointed in you.
It's difficult for me to write a short blog, even when I feel like I don't have a lot to say.

Anyway, I love you and I'm glad you're reading this.

This is what my life looks like right now.

I still can't believe I'm here.

It's been over a week and I've definitely passed the feeling of "I'm on vacation" and into something which feels like it's on the way to living here, though it is still way too good to be really happening for my brain to comprehend. If that makes any sense.

I love the rain. Yes, it does make things a little damp and it does make my hair into a frizzy mess of awesome proportions, but it makes me feel clean and good and safe. It makes things green and alive. It also makes the people's faces glisten, which makes me smile. In conclusion, it makes.

I start work tomorrow at 10am. It will be weird to go back since I haven't worked in a month, but it is completely necessary and I have only heard good things about this particular Pita Pit so I am confident it will be a positive experience. I am lucky I don't have anything to worry about as far as "first day learning new things" jitters, as I have had dreams/nightmares where I am rolling pitas.

Attending an all day massage therapy workshop at Cortiva this past Saturday has been the highlight so far, for me. I cannot even accurately describe the warm feelings of comfortability and endless possibility I felt while there. The small community of folks at this school felt very familiar to me and after my experience at school in Chicago (where I was part of a program with over 800 students) it is something of which I cannot wait to become a part. They make you feel like an individual while also stressing your importance in the whole of the profession. They are a family that believe in the healing power we all have at our disposal if we just choose to utilize our own bodies to reach out to others.
The day was split up like any normal school day would be there: anatomy and physiology in the morning, hands on massage in the afternoon. EVERY DAY is like this. Every day. I can't think of many other schools I could attend that incorporate so much calm and relaxation in a normal day. The balance between exercising the brain and then the body is something I have unknowingly longed for my whole life. Our bodies are our vessels for experience. If they aren't balanced, whole, and healthy, the toxins we carry around with us are bound to seep unwanted into our lives. I would love for it to be my job to help people chill the hell out! To get rid of the stress and the loads we all carry and make people feel anew, awakened, relaxed, and ready to face our world with a new perspective...or simply with the knowledge that at least they have a massage waiting for them next week.
The workshop made me want to start as soon as possible, which would be January, but realistically I want more time to explore and get acclimated. So the tentative plan is to start in March/April, whenever the next term starts. I cannot wait.

Something needs to be said for food. Food. FOOD. Besides being a weird word if you look at it long enough, the food in Seattle is unlike anything I have ever seen/tasted/juggled (the latter action is for my dad). Or perhaps it's the food selection that is so amazing. Besides all the farmer's markets to choose from, which I'll get to in a minute,  the array of places to eat out is astonishing. Whether you like Thai, Chinese, Mexican, Moroccan, Japanese, Italian, Vietnamese, the list goes on but that's all I can think of at the moment. Or whether you're Vegan, Vegetarian, or a Raw Foodist you have SO MANY options. The street that my job is on, in the University District (which is the area surrounding the University of Washington), has two vegan pizza places. Two. We went to the one called Vegan Pizza Pi and it was delicious. They have this garlic sauce that...well...you have to try it. And the markets. The markets! Besides being ever so photogenic, they are full of the freshest foods, a lot of which is local and most of which is from somewhere in Washington. We have 3 or 4 to choose from just in our one little neighborhood, not to mention all the ones that are scattered about the city. We also found this book of organic farms all over the state where you can go and pick your own food! They just give you a box and you fill it up with whatever you want and pay from $25 to $50 depending on the size of the box. So we will be doing a lot of that in the summer and fall.

I think that is all for the time being. I am content with what I have shared. Please know that I have been thinking of all of you. It's funny because I'll see something that will remind me of one person, and that will make me think of someone else, which will lead to another and the web continues until I feel like everyone I know has filled my mind for at least a snippet of a moment. I enjoy this. Have you ever tried to think of everyone you know? You'd be surprised how quickly it can happen. And though it is comforting to have you in my thoughts, I'd rather have your bodies here. So get your bodies here! I have a few things to show you...