Seis Puerqueños

Oh wait, no. For my 3 weeks of service I received a sweet $120, that’s right, $10/day, and free bus tickets to get to and from Seattle. But now it’s done so I can talk ALL about it. I know you are so excited. That’s too bad because you are going to have to wait, because I don’t want to spend 5 hours or even 5 minutes writing about it right now because I am starving. So you will have to wait. But I will tease you with this:

Medical malpractice case of a somali family vs. the University of Washington, claiming UW didn’t deliver their baby by c-section when they should have, giving the baby who is now 5 cerebral palsy. Oooh a cliffhanger…

(I looked to see if the case even made it to the newspapers, but it didn’t, so you will have to wait for me, ooh I’m evil.)

Looking for somewhere to live was about as painful as mattress shopping. We have come to suppose that since no one wants to buy a house, the rental market is pretty tight. I don’t think I’ve ever filled out an application to rent with so many pages, or one that has requested my bank account and credit card numbers. Needless to say we either didn’t fill out applications of such a horrifying amount of personal info, or we just left those parts blank. We finally found an amazing place we loved, but the girl that was there right before us was faster. We were sad, but then out of sheer luck (not for her) she was unable to occupy it, so we got a call. We went back to look and sign papers, and now we are stable residents of the state of Washington in South Bellevue for at least a year. Or until we get someone to take over our lease. Which we probably won’t, because we love it so far. If you know where newcastle beach is, we live right down the street from there. Aaron would want me to brag and tell you that we live in the downstairs of a house on the lake, which costs about as much (or in some cases less) than most other places in the area that smell funky and don’t have a nice place to swim at them. Needless to say, we are thrilled. We promise to invite you all over soon. But one at a time, because the parking is a bit annoying for guests.

For those of you who don’t live here, last weekend it was a million degrees. Moving when it is 90 something in Seattle is like torture. Also the aforementioned shopping for mattresses, and Aaron helping someone move on Saturday (besides us) is awful in said heat. But it was all worth it, and this weekend after we bring some more of our junk back from Montana we will be just about all the way settled.

Additionally here is a letter for the lady who sold us the tv at her garage sale:

Dear Lady who pretended to be awesome and trustworthy,

You are not. And you are a liar. Your TV is junky, it is blurry, horrible color and contrast, and not to mention really heavy. I don’t blame you for it being heavy, I already knew that. But the next time you want to sell a crappy crappy tv for $20 you should at least tell the truth, not “we just don’t have it hooked up to cable right now, but I swear it works great”. It can’t even pick up the non-cable channels at our house. The other night we watched the Office on the only channel we get. It was like watching a snowstorm on the Office, you just had to guess who was talking and what their facial expressions looked like. You will be receiving said TV back on your doorstep with a kind note just as soon as I get Aaron to put it back in my car.

Missing watching the View,
Kelsey

Anyway. Our new place is just great. We hope you’ll come visit us soon.

Mattress shopping was probably one of the most painful things we’ve ever done. Mostly because we were unaware (and also disagree with) of the fact that mattresses cost one MILLION dollars. Seriously, I had no idea. But we are adults and needed a mattress, and although we fit just fine in a queen, thought that since we were going to sell our kidneys to pay anyway, we may as well indulge in a king. And what a good choice it was. We began and ended at mattress depot in Bellevue, with a non-name brand plush comfort select something something I don’t really know. All I know is the scientific results:

Before:
-Common elbows to the back
-Waking up every time the other person got up
-Waking up every time the other person was restless
-Difficulty getting comfortable

After:
-Is Aaron even in this bed? Where is he?
-Aaron cannot guess how many times I have gone to the bathroom in the night
-Aaron was tossing and turning? Who knew?
-ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

I love my bed. This is the most best bed ever ever ever ever. And I’ve slept in a lot of really awesome beds. So the moral of this story is: I am really happy to have my bed, even if it means crying when the credit card bill comes. Probably anyone who has bought a mattress before will just laugh at me, but sometimes buying adult things is rough.

You probably miss us, because it’s been a while. We moved last weekend, to right by Newcastle beach. If you are really nice we will invite you over sometime soon. But in the meantime we don’t have internet, and I still have Jury Duty so I have had about zero free time. The rumor is we are going to start deliberating tomorrow. This being our third week I can hardly wait.

Dear Lady who fell asleep on me on the bus home yesterday,

Totally not cool or acceptable. Also, you stole someone else’s seat and acted like you were totally innocent. Also lame of you. And then how you couldn’t wake up to let me off the bus? Really, you need some more sleep and manners.

With Love, Kelsey

Dear Thug on the bus today asking me if I knew “where we at?”,

You are not a thug, for many reasons. Here are a few:
1. You have a nose ring
2. You have skinny jeans
3. You are carrying a sweater around in case it gets cold, thugs don’t do that.

With admiration for trying, Kelsey

Dear Whoever peed in the elevator in the bus tunnel,

WHAT? Why did you do that. There are plenty of streets you could have peed on where it will rain. That was totally not ok.

You almost made me barf, Kelsey

Future posts: Our Move & New House, Our Amazing Bed, Jury Duty Stories

I forgot to say really nice things about my really awesome husband. I got up Sunday morning and was stumbling to the kitchen to find food to put in me right away when I was instructed to get back in bed. Back in bed I was treated to the most tasty strawberry crepes ever. Complete with whipcream and chocolate sauce! My husband is a fancy husband. Oh, and he made them for my mom too. Also, he got me some pretty white tulips which he is playing tricks on by turning them away from the sun in the night to see if they will turn the next day. He also made dinner, cause he’s great like that. And he and Caelin did the dishes. It was real awesome, because my husband is the best husband ever.

Either that or I hate people, or both.

Dear Lady Who HAS to be first onto the bus in the afternoon,

We are all waiting. We all want to get on the bus. We all want to have a seat. You are not more important than anyone else. You don’t need to run up in front of EVERYONE else when you see the bus coming. You weren’t here first, in fact, you were here almost last. Also stealing seats from elderly people is not cool. This is of course only the second time I have seen you doing this because I ride various buses home depending on when my duty to the jury is done, but let me assure you if I see you doing it a third time, you are going to get kicked. I thought about chopping you, but getting kicked seems like a better idea because then you will be immobilized and we can all get on the bus in a nice orderly kind fashion.

Love, Kelsey

PS Didn’t I see your cousin/sister/aunt/friend at: Paris Airport trying to cut in huge line (nice try pretending not to speak my language), Ecuador trying to cut everyone at the Tia (that’s right, that’s a line), and a variety of other places? I think so. And just to remind you again, you ARE NOT more important than anyone else, so stop being so jerky.

That is my rant. Also jury duty is long, and I will be excited to tell you all about it sometime in the future.

So I get a lot of people asking me what I have been craving. For the most part, nothing. Generally I open the cupboards or fridge complaining that I hate everything, but need to eat. Today my refound freedom allowed me the time to revisit allrecipes.com and look at the things I have saved to try out. Everything that sounded good was mostly an appetizer or side dish, but whatever. So here is what we are having for dinner:

-Fresh spring rolls with thai dipping sauce, because they were out at the restaurant yesterday
-Garlic cheese flatbread (made it before, love it)
-Toum (made it before, love it) pretty much liquified garlic with lemon and oil. yum. P.S. Sorry I will have horrifying breath for the next several days.
-Hummus (made it before, if you add enough garlic, love it)
-7 layer dip, because I’ve never made it before, and you don’t need a party to have it
–Indian saffron rice we are not having this, as it turns out, saffron costs one million dollars an ounce. no joke.
and
-Lemon Ice for dessert

Is it time for dinner yet?

P.S. I just realized that this will be 3-4 new recipes that will count in my extremely long list of things to do. I can’t decide if 7-layer dip should count.

P.P.S. You can come over for dinner if you bring something to share with you. But you should call me so I know you are coming over.

Dearest AP tagged me, and since it’s Friday and I don’t have any jury duty today, I figured it was my responsibility to comply. (Unlike my mom…) Also my brain doesn’t work very well, so here are the most topical responses to these questions.

3 Joys
-Sleeping well
-Looking pregnant instead of just fat
-Non throw up days

3 Fears
-Something happening to my fetus
-Jury Duty going beyond 3 weeks and missing my Ultrasound appointment
-Tripping and/or falling

3 Current Obsessions/Collections
-Sewing things
-Sleeping
-Finding something to eat that is yummy

3 Surprising/Random Facts about Me
-I am almost 18 weeks pregnant. I think that’s pretty surprising still
-I always wanted to be a broadway actress. Too bad about no acting, singing, or dancing abilities
-I always say jello when I am actually talking about chocolate pudding

Tag, you’re it: Aunt Cornish Game Hen, Natalie, Teddie, and Meredith (if any of you read this)

My Dad and Jordan are pretty much geniuses. And I am REALLY good at jumping.

Lucky for me I got jury duty for April when I was gone, so I got it switched to cinco de mayo. Today I celebrated, no wait, cried, when I was selected for a 3 week jury. Except the lawyers kept saying “in a month” so I am slightly concerned. Since I am not allowed to tell you anything about the case (not even the awesome joke I told in jury selection) until after it’s over, I figured I could tell you all about taking the bus instead. The only other memories I have of taking the lovely metro system here are from middle school when my friend and I would take the bus to Seattle to meet her dad. At least I think that’s what we did. Now I know we probably weren’t going during peak commuting hours, but I would make a great guess and say that the people we saw (older ladies, crazy men) were the vast majority of bus riders at the time. But now, there is a new face to commuting. From what I can tell most people are now commuters. With companies giving their employees bus passes, parking, traffic, and gas being so ridiculous, it only makes sense. So props to everyone who uses the bus so on those rare days I want to drive to downtown there will be less traffic. But for the next couple weeks, I’m one of you. Here are some letters I composed to the bus drivers and passengers over the last two days:

Dear Tuesday PM Driver,

Please turn off the hair dryer like heat blasting everyone. It is not freezing outside, there is no snow, and we are all crammed together keeping it toasty enough. Also, you don’t need to drive off the exit at 70mph. We don’t have any desire to die.

Dear Tuesday PM Passenger Next to Me,

Please don’t freak out when I sit next to you. A. I am not scary B. There are not enough seats for everyone to have their own C. You are over the line anyway, for no reason D. I am not scary, just chill.

Dear Monday PM Passenger,

You only need to pull the stop button once, and there is no need to run up to the front half hour before your stop. I promise the kind driver will stop.

So anyway, you can see that I’m boring, and that sitting in a jury chair is totally not comfortable, and I will debrief you all in a couple weeks, or month, or whatever.