I'm doing okay on the book reading front, and I'll be keeping track here. Eighteen, I can read eighteen in 2015! As for the other stuff (staying active and being cognizant of what I'm eating, taking fun trips, making attempts to succeed in the Utah dating scene, etc), we'll just have to see how that goes.
A couple weeks ago Ms Jihan was in town, and she and friend, Sara, came over to my house to hang out for a bit. We chatted on my amazing sofa for a bit, learned more than I needed to know about childbirth (Sara is a midwife), we worked up an appetite and walked over to Trio for dinner. I had whatever special they had for the night, and it was delicious.
The next night the lovely Jessica had a birthday party with a pretty serious cake. There was karaoke, but I declined.
Tacos and dinner with Adam. I'm glad we still have regular dinner catch ups, despite his crazy doctor schedule. I finally tried Taqueria 27, and it rang in pretty solid. I mostly just wanted cheese dip that night.
My friend's kid found a jar of Vaseline and smeared it all over himself. I think it took about 3 days and lots of cornstarch to get him back to normal.
One of the cooks in the work cafeteria and I usually chat in Spanish (only a little bit) when I go downstairs for lunch. I asked him about making nachos and he said they'd be on the menu Thursday. There were indeed. I'm pretty over the cafeteria and have been bringing my lunch or going out lately, but I'll stay in for nachos!
Also on Thursdays - religion class. And it's really good. The couple who is teaching has a wonderful academic background and brings all sorts of interesting approaches to D&C. The singles crowd in attendance also seems to be pretty good. Better than Tinder, at least. But let me say, Tinder during Sundance - hilarious. What an influx of those film types here to swipe through!
Baby niece is learning to hike already and looks super cute doing it.
If I hadn't stuffed myself enough, I sure did when I met up with Nathan right after for some pupusas. I scored by going with the specialty, and he lost when he ordered the seafood soup. Ewh.
But those plantains. Yum.
Nathan was off to a Sundance flick after, and I could've gone, but early reviews said the film wasn't great, it was a tad raunch, so I decided against it and went with my first tenative plans, to see Guster. Man, what a band! Totally took me back to the college years. I probably haven't listened to an album since 2005, but they are still so much fun. Coworker/friend Ryan was there with a couple of his buddies, and we had a good time.
And does he look better in my coat than I do?
My plans for snowshoeing fell apart on a Saturday, so I finally made it back to boot camp and made myself an awesome breakfast taco after. That vertigo stuff threw me off for so long.
I drove down to see Taylor and Courtney and Hallie, so I could finally give Taylor his Christmas present that arrived fresh off the boat from China.
We had lunch at Cubby's, which was delicious. Reminded me of Mendocino Farms in LA, which was one of my favorites. And of course, this little one is my favorite of all.
Steak salad - solid.
She still loves my purse.
I mean.....the cutest.
After lunch we went over to the packed Museum of Curiosity. Courtney's work had a free employee day for families, so we didn't pay, which was nice. This is a great kid place.
I took a quick trip down to Provo to see Christian and Christina and grab some Sodalicious. Christina needs to make some cupcakes for a wedding and Christian's in charge of the dance floor playlist, and I totally am helping them out with recipes and suggestions. Don't mind me over here, doling out advice.
And to continue the packed Saturday...
I recently met someone at a work service project, and she looked familiar to me. Turns out she had lived in LA and we've got several mutual friends. She works in Public Affairs in our office and was in charge of filling at table at banquet for the Utah Democrats, so she invited me when some spots opened up. I later confessed to my very Republican parents that I attended, but mostly for the free food, meandering around of the Grand America, and the networking opportunities. Right?!
Are you reading CrazyJewishMom on Instagram? Cause you should be.
Karen in London/Canada/all around the world was in town for a grad school reunion ski trip. We got to catch up for lunch on a beautiful day. I meant to make it into the office that afternoon, but she and I talked and talked, and I didn't want it to end. Hooray for taking meetings from anywhere and going back home to work. We maybe see each other once a year, but sometime it seems like no time has passed.
I had to get out of the office for lunch, so I grabbed a buddy and we checked out Pizza Rev, which just opened. I was hoping it'd be like my beloved 800 Degrees, and while it's not quite there, it'll do when I want a quick pizza.
Sabra and I made plans to go to a concert, since she loves Mates of State, and I finally wanted to catch Fictionist. I hurried after religion class to go pick her up, and we made our way to the sketchy side of SLC (which I don't really find that sketchy). First problem, they didn't have my name on the list, even though I had purchased a ticket. Second up, I wanted a Coke and they only had Pepsi. At least they gave us free drinks.
Thirdly, Fictionist was scheduled to go on around nine (I used Twitter to confirm from two sources), and they started so late because of terrible, terrible sound issues. A constant buzzing drone that wouldn't go away, and trying to fix this monitor or this vocal or whatever. They finally just started. A mic went out in the middle of the show. After one song, some announcer in the booth said - let's hear it for Fictionist! - and we all thought the show was over. The band asked, does that mean we're done?, and the guy said no. It was so strange.
Definitely owe it to myself to see them in another venue. Metro bar sucked. They played some dance music between bands and tried to talk to get people hyped - it was so loud and mumbly. Ugh. Thank goodness for earplugs. Sabra and I took many steps back to get away from the sound and found ourselves in conversation with a traveling salesman from Kansas City. That was interesting. He thought we were roommates - isn't that cute?
Finally Mates of State came on, 70 minutes after they were supposed to play. Sabra needed to be home by midnight (her husband works nights, and they have a young kid), and we figured with the scheduled time of 940 for the headliner - easy. Nope. Mates of State started playing around 11, after having the same sound set up issues, and they finally said whatever, let's just do this. You could tell they were frustrated and just tried to make the best of it. Not a happy night, but they were awesome and adorable together.
I stayed up too late after the show to watch the end of Parenthood, and I'm still thinking about it. That meant for no hair wash the next day. I need to get better about buns.
Friday after work, Cher was in town and hanging out at my apartment. We had some catch up time, and I had a nap, then we met Kim and Nathan for Peruvian. Nathan was trying to recover from that bad seafood soup I mentioned earlier, so we hit Del Mar al Lago and found only delicious things.
To drink, chicha morada.
Many appetizers, including yucca and plantains and cebiche and more potatoes with a cheesy sauce.
Cher and I were set on splitting the lomo saltado as our entree (large portions), and Nathan quickly mentioned to Kim to get the seafood special or the bistec as he walked away into the restroom, but we thought he said to order both. So we did, and we had SO MUCH FOOD. They brought us another table to put next to ours to hold it all.
It was glorious.
Quick stop after at a photography studio for Niya's big birthday bash. It was full of lovely people, and I didn't really want to leave, but Cher and I had tickets for Tokimonsta at Urban Lounge.
Tokimonsta is adorable and fun, but I think I'm getting too old and grouchy for the Urban crowd. Crowded, loud, obnoxious people put me in the mood not to dance. Eventually we went to the back and we left a little early. I had planned to meet up with friend PJ there, and after scanning the crowd for thirty minutes, I found him. He's Filipino, and there were about eight guys in front that were all Asian, wearing beanies, and had hipster glasses just like him. SLC needs a new look.
Cher just got back from Melbourne and brought me Tim Tams, which I have yet to try, but they look awesome!
Saturday consisted of more boot camp and laundry and birthday party for Dr. Carly. Sunday was the Super Bowl and five hours of church for me (midsingles ward visit - blech), and Nathan and I cared more about cookies and the Simpsons. Except for the Katy Perry part. Dancing sharks for the win!
I spent tonight shopping and stocking up, cause it's Ragnar week! I'll be sleeping in a smelly van with other sweaty runner people this weekend. It's going to be awesome.
Since January's usually depressing, I had a goal to make it not suck (and a hashtag on Instagram, even), and I think I did a pretty good job.
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