Friday: Horrible horrible blind date. I mean, pretty much blind. He looked nothing like his picture and was a total sleazeball. I'm talking, he tried to guess my bra size. I looked at him and said, "that's a really innapropriate question that's not getting an answer." Among other things. He kept hinting at how much he knew about the Kama Sutra. Seriously. He's a great guy on paper but his personality unfortunately does not match. No second date!!!

Saturday I got really drunk at john's birthday and ended up being babysat by my friends. That hasn't happened since my 26th birthday. That's how little I get drunk. I can tell you the last time it was that bad. Oh my lord. We're talking two day hangover. I didn't move from my bed yesterday. Which really sucks because I had all sorts of ideas about how I would spend my Sunday. These thoughts did not include barfing. Eeeewwwww.

Today I start the week anew. I can't wait for the inaugeration tomorrow. Thank God they are "letting" us watch it at work. Otherwise we'd all be crashing the server trying to get it online. But they are showing it on the big screen. Good thing; it's an important, momentous day! Tomorrow night I'll prob do a short Inaugeral Happy Hour somewhere downtown with Chrissy, and then go to Sambali class. I really enjoyed it last week and I want to keep going on a schedule. Anyway it's over at 8 so I can watch the Inaugeral Ball afterwards at home.

Chrissy and I wanted to do something different on Friday, so I was toodling through the internet, looking for something unique, and came upon a posting for an improv group performing at this brand-new venue, Curious Comedy, on NE MLK. We ended up going, having a drink, and a great big laugh! It was great! I'm so glad we tried something new and that we did it together.

Friday I am trying something else new. Lumberjax game with my best buddy AJ! We haven't seen eachother in weeks because of the snow, holidays, life... so we're having a little date night just the two of us. Makes me happy. And I'm excited to finally see what this indoor lacrosse is all about.

Went to bellydance on Monday night and that was a much-needed thing. Got to see Jessica and give her her Christmas present. We had a good class but I'm afraid the commute is going to hurt me. Gas is expensive and driving an hour each way plus work, and bringing dinner each time is really annoying. But Jess commuted to Portland for 2 years to have class with Claudia and me, so I'll stick it out a bit longer, but I'm not even sure the teacher is right for me. I need structure, and she is somewhat unorganized. A good teacher, don't get me wrong, but not structured.

So far good things in the new year. I'm liking it.

Friday night = AMAZING. Raks Awalim was so mind-bogging. Seriously. And Znama was freaky deaky and delicious as well! I so enjoyed the show. Ate some seriously good Indian food when we got to Salem and just barely made it to the library in time for the show. That auditorium is fantastic for a library, I must say. I didn't party with my ladies afterward but am okay with that. My knee was feeling really sensitive and I wanted to get up and work out in the morning anyway.

So Saturday's gym was fantastic. Alice and I are forming a really great repertoire with the medicine ball. And everyone was super friendly at the gym, and at the Sunset Bagel place, and then we were efficient and frugal at Costco, which is really hard to do! Great day!! Came home, napped and then got ready to go out with my ladies! The prefunk was good. But I couldn't dance at the bar because my knee was hurting a lot so I took a cab home early. But it was all good. I had fun while I was there.

Sunday went to the gym for weights and then relaxed my knee again. Peace.

Now it's Monday.

I can't remember what I last posted about my knee injury, but I went to the physical therapist today for the first time. She is this super cute little Asian chick who was so nice and helpful. I had a million questions and she answered them all patiently. She gave me a good printout of excercises I have to do, as well as doing some massaging of my kneecap, which is apparently out of whack, leaning too much to the right, and partially the cause of my pain. So I have to be hard core with this. I'm supposed to do two sessions a day of 5 different exercises. I really want to start being as active as I was before so I can't slack off. Good news, though! I am allowed to do powerflex class!!!! But definitely wear the brace and keep babying it. Try not to wear heels for awhile...GRR. I may have to wear my chunky platforms instead of my whore-heels on Halloween. That should be okay. At least then you can see my fishnets better!!

In other news, my weekend was super fabulous!! Friday night I went out with Claudia and it was just like old times. I say that a bit tongue in cheek because I feel like nothing has changed and yet I can't hang as hard core as I used to... I stayed up until around 3:30 and I was totally exhausted the next day. Granted I didn't get all that much sleep. Had a gross hangover and didn't stay overnight at the mountain because of it. But Saturday was fabulous nonetheless.

Lisa and I met up at Farmer's Market. I picked up fresh spinach, parsley, pears, and jalapenos. It was SO beautiful outside!!  Then we hit up the coffee place and gossiped and people-watched for awhile. I went home to gather all my dinner fixings and headed over to Clackamas so lisa and I could carpool up to Welches. Aleja generously offered to take Chivo so we wouldn't be going nuts the whole time, which was FANTASTIC!! We got up there, cooked up a SUPER dinner, including a yummy Goddess salad and chichis from Katrina's recent trip to Peru. Sooo yummy.

Katrina and Marisa were going to the bar later so I'm pretty relieved I went home. i was feeling pretty miserable by the time we got back to Lisa's. But the time at the mountain was worth it. Such great vibes! I got to see Katrina's Peru pics. SO AMAZING!!!

Sunday I woke up and decided it was a day to accomplish things. SO I did! I cleaned the bathroom! I cooked an amazing shrimp scampi AND a salsa verde stew!!! I wrote part of a cookbook chapter! And then I took a walk in the turning leaves. What a great low-key day....

When you want me to do something at work that is above and beyond my call of duty, I simply ask that you provide me with one of three things: Coffee, Chocolate, or a Single Man. In the past I've gotten quite impressive results with this tactic! I've gotten Peet's Coffee, dark chocolate, a picture of Johnny Depp (who I don't believe is single, but the intent was still there) and then the Ultimate Trifecta of them all!!

Today, my coworker Annie came in, and, without scaring the daylights out of me (I wear headphones a lot, so when people come over and tap me I usually jump out of my seat in fright) put down a bar of chocolate. But not just any chocolate! It's NewTree brand, called Sexy. Not only is it 73% cocoa, making it super yummy and actually kind of healthy, it contains guarana, which means that the bar has the equivalent of 3 cups of coffee!! AND, it's ever-so-slightly laced with ginger, which gives it it's sex appeal--enough to bring a man to his knees (of course, I could do that without chocolate...)! And I quote the back of the bar: "NewTree Sexy is chocolate in stilettos." If that isn't the perfect trifecta, I don't know what is!!!!

In other news, last night was absolutely amazing!! I met up with Kelly for coffee at Common Grounds. Kelly and I went to college together in Ohio and just last year found out that we are both PDXers! We have hung out a few times but due to our crazy schedules, we don't see eachother all that much. So we had our coffee and then went to see her new apartment, which is super cute!! We started getting all nostalgic about Wittenberg and were trying to figure out all the academic hall names, talked about Cyberwraps, etc. Called Alice and had a Witt three-way. It was great to see her. We made a date to do Cyberwrap night!! If you have never had one, you just don't know the magic...

Anyway. A lot of weird stuff going on in my body today, which was bringing me down this morning, but then my coworker Jeanette gave me three of her Zen Cards that read: Dance, Balance, and Patience. Those gave me big smiles. And then Annie gave me the Perfect Trifecta of chocolate, as a thanks for helping her with toner issues last week. How could I not smile?? So my day is definitely looking up!

I looked HOT.

I had fun in class.

I had fun afterwards.

I ate a pretty great dinner, even without a lot of quality food in the house.

My internet is working!

I am going to China in 2009.

It's been a fantastic week so far. Best-ofs all around!!

Had a really great weekend! It was perfectly balanced between social and chill time, and I just really enjoyed myself.

Thursday's coffee withsynthcat  was fabulous as usual. We went to one of my favorite coffee places!!

Friday night went shopping for essentials with Alice. Spent exactly the amount of money I had reserved for such a shopping trip. SO PROUD!! I've been hard core budgeting lately. I mean, if I'm going to China in the spring I better have some funds!! After that went home and relaxed with my self.

Saturday the roomie and I were up bright and early for the rugby games! Alice, Chrissy, Shannon and I went to watch Zach and the gang kick some serious rugby ass on the pitch!

Saturday night I went to Ragan's 40th birthday party. It was 70's themed. I looked fabulous of course and everyone else dressed up too! Lisa was hobnobbing with all her girlfriends so I took that chance to talk to Luis one-on-one. I haven't had much of a chance to get to know him as a person, even though we have known eachother for almost 3 years now. It was so great! I really like him! And not just because he's Lisa's husband. He made mention that everyone in his family has seen me dance except for him--which is true. Both his parents, his wifey, and his son have all seen me dance. So I told him I will personally invite him to the next performance! We had a blast. The food was catered, and amazing. The cake was made by Julie and it was fantastic! My knees hurt like a bitch the next day because I wore some seriously hoochie heels but it's all good.

Sunday I put in some time at the gym and then went to see "Nights in Rodanthe" with Amanda. I can't lie--I cried like a baby!!!! I am usually not one to fall for Nicholas Sparks' books/movies, but damn it was good! Glad I went. Plus got to hang with my girl Amanda!

Yesterday had a hard core workout at the gym. I went to Powerflex class. I almost wussed out and spent an hour on the bike, but I'm really glad I didnt. My knee actually feels better today than it did after the bike workout on Sunday. Sweet. And my arms are on fire! I realized I have a resistance band at my house so I'm going to see if I can work that in with the ball and my freeweights.

Headed to Zach's house for garden-fresh tomatoes and made a sweet mini pizza with the veggies and sauce--YUM!!

That's it for the Becky report. More as the week goes by. Feeling good!!

So yesterday was spontaneously amazing! I got up early and met Christa, Angela and Josh for brunch at Pambiche. We had the most amazing food and it was surprisingly pretty affordable. Dinner looks quite a bit more spendy. So brunch and lunch it is!! We must go back. Everything is so flavorful. I highly recommend it. While we were sitting there we somehow got into a conversation about different ways to prepare eggs. It got down to poaching eggs and none of us had actually done it. Hmm! I felt a tap on my arm, and the lady at the table next to me said, "She knows how to poach an egg!" and gestured to her dining companion. The lady actually got out her digital camera and showed me a pic of the poached egg she had made last week! It was beautiful. AND she told me exactly how to make it. So simple!!! I had no idea. But I was very grateful I had been in the right place at the right time. :)

After brunch we headed to Saturday market. Well, Christa and I did. We met up with Lisa, Chivo, and Jesus. It was fabulous!! Perfect weather, yummy food things, and HOTLIPS SODA. Fucking YUMMY! Jesus and I chatted a bit in Spanish. I told him all about la comida cubano.

Then we went to Uwajimaya for Festival Japan. I bought the makings for miso soup and went home and munched on fabulous Asian food! And the Taiko drumming at the festival was so freaking awe-inspiring. I mean, the sounds and the movement and the feeling it produced in me. Jaw dropping. Chivo didn't move the entire time. He just sat and stared. Love it!!

This morning I made poached eggs on spelt toast and it was grand! For dinner I had cod, brown rice, and salsa esencial. Oooooh yum. I am becoming a major foodie. I later went to the coffee place to work on my cookbook. I have three chapters started and part of the introduction written. It's going really well and I find that working at a table in a structured environment is really the best for me. Plus I get to people watch while I'm there.
Ok I'm watching Desperate Housewives. Gotta run. Peace.