WE OWN A THING!

IT'S OFFICIAL!! And we have the keys to prove it.

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3435-California-Ave-SW-APT-304-Seattle-WA-98116/48651144_zpid/

First order of business: dance at the awesome deal we got. Seriously.

Second order of business: rip out that white carpet. We went and met with one of Jeff's cousin's who designs kitchens for a living and she helped us pick out new flooring, cabinets, countertops, and we picked a few options to get a sample for tile backsplash. I of course was a slight idiot and didn't take a picture of any of this so that will have to wait. Now all I have to do is call the contractors to set up some times for them to come and do bids.

The reason we're do all this is due to a few factors:

• because we spent a lot less than we were planning on, we have the extra money saved up now
• Murphy's Law made it so we had to sign a 4 month extension on our current apt so we have time
• it seems much easier to put in new flooring when all our stuff isn't in the apt

The first week

First week of the new job went EXCELLENT. Monday we went out to a "welcome to the team" lunch where I got to meet everyone and we discussed the practicality of building a pork tower (5 stories, with the first floor being the hard salamis and then moving up in juiciness). And then on Friday the whole floor had a "summer salad potluck" which was awesome.

Katelin, who I'm replacing (she's being promoted) has been awesome. Great balance of letting me figure things out and imparting the wisdom that I need to know. I also met our Product Owner, who once Katelin is promoted I wont have to deal with as much, and he's an interesting character so I'm glad that she's getting paid the big bucks :]

Anyway, everyone on my team is super extroverted (our is the team that is always getting trouble for being loud) and I really like everyone and I think it'll be a great fit. Our team is also the team that is the most innovative in the Agile/Scrum stuff so we try new things a lot. For instance there was a discussion this week about trying to switch to three week sprints rather than two like everyone else does because we have process set in place for pushing from testing to production and it eats into a lot of the actual sprint time.

Also I've decided that I'm going ot implement "dress up Friday" rather than casual Friday. I'm sure I'll dress up more than just on Friday but having that set in place will make me at least once a week not just wear jeans and a nerd shirt.

I GOT A NEW JOB

We officially have a reason to live in Seattle now. And let me tell you, it feels totally grounding. 

So what happened: I actually interviewed at this place back in December. I went and the interview went great but the lead dev suddenly decided he wanted someone more technical and the recruiter said she wanted to keep my resume on file. Well she called!! They had a new PM position open and they reorganized so that the director of PMs (who really really liked me) is now the guy with the final say on hiring a PM rather than the lead dev. So I had a pretty good feeling that as long as I went in and didn't fall down drunk or anything I would get the job. And I did! They offered it to me on the spot and we talked terms and I start July 6th. One thing that Jeff and I knew was a risk of me getting an office job was taking a pay cut, but the benefits at this place definitely make up for it (and of course not having to pay our own taxes since I'll be a W2). I am so excited. The recruiter was talking about all the office activities they do and food all the time and I met the team I'm going to be on and I'M SO EXCITEDDDD. And from a career perspective I'm excited to learn how to do internal projects and finally get away from client projects.

Some really awesome interview questions to note:

- what are you reading? (I already knew that one from Ken, but it's the first time I've been asked it in an interview)
- Not a loaded question, but what kind of job would pull you out of here and go somewhere else?
- In one year, we're sitting in this same room, what would you be telling me you're proud of? (I thought this was a really awesome question because it made me think of some goals to have)

Rejection #2...followed very quickly by "we want this one instead!"

Ok so jeff and I have had some serious house identity crisis. If you recall, we started this adventure on the "2 bedroom condo that we can live in a few years and then when we have 1.5 kids we rent it and buy a bigger place." Then we started thinking about (and I quickly jumped on this bandwagon while Jeff was more hesitant) "how about a 1200 sqft 3 bedroom house that is a longer term live in but can still easily be rented out?" And so the identity crisis began. We have literally looked at everything for 800 sqft condo to a 2000 sqft 4 bedroom house - and every type of townhouse in between.

So we took a much needed break when Jeff went to Vegas and I went to San Fran and then we got back and pretty much instantly went of the family gathering so we've had a couple of slow weeks. But on Monday we were back in the saddle. We had a bunch lined up (again ranging across the entire spectrum) and we went looking. And we found two that we liked:

- the turn key Beacon Hill house - http://www.movoto.com/seattle-wa/4886-24th-ave-s-seattle-wa-98108-501_802941/ - completely redone, totally move in ready, with the potential that we could live there probably our whole lives if we wanted to. Only weird factor was that it's in Beacon Hill (good neighborhood just not what we had in mind) and we knew instantly that it would sell for way more than asking price and jeff was basically needing to breathe into a paper bag when he thought about the words "half a million dollars."

- the fixer-upper condo in West Seattle - http://nwhomes.seattletimes.com/homes/for-sale-3435-california-ave-sw-unit-304-seattle-wa-98116-nwclassifieds-nwhomes-798269-d - this would be going back to the original plan (and bonus - the building doesn't have a rental cap so easier to rent) PLUS it would give us an opportunity to dip our toe into the reno arena without using sledge hammers (hardwood floors, stainless steel appliances, and the adventure of installing an IKEA kitchen).

So what happened was this: we did a pre-inspection on the Beacon Hill house, and put an offer in for a slightly lowball number (only in Seattle real estate is $501,000 a lowball number for a 3 bedroom house) and figured "hey if we get it then we got a really good deal and we'll see where the neighborhood takes us....and if we dont get it, we're doing anything we can to get that condo." And as of an hour ago, we're moved into the "we're doing anything we can to get that condo" phase. And to be completely honest, we are both really relieved. The Beacon Hill house would have been nice, but I dont think it really hit me at all until we put an offer on it that "lifetime house" meant lifetime. And we would have seriously rattled around that place for quite a few years, whereas the condo will be just right for us now and we can make big life long decisions after we have a kid so we're used to making big life long decisions :]

Family Gathering weekend

This weekend was a bit of a whirl. I'm calling it a Family Gathering bc Andrea, Jessica, and I decided that you can't call it a family vaca bc vaca implies relaxing. So anyway, it started Thursday when I went to a book signing. Mamrie Hart, Hannah Hart, and Grace Helbig are doing a #NoFilter tour right now to support Mamrie's book but the Seattle show was on Friday which I couldn't go to bc of the family gathering. However Mamrie was doing a book signing on Thursday. And bc Jeff knew I was really bummed out about missing Friday, he made it so I could go to the book signing and then he would drive all the way to Spokane during the night. So I went and met Mamrie Hart - who is a person I want to be friends with. I also met an amazing lady while standing in line for the signing and we bonded over the fact that 98% of the people standing in line weren't old enough to drink but were in line to meet someone who does comedy based on drinking.

So then we drove to Spokane to spend 12 hours doing meetings that I couldn't get out of and hanging out with Andrea before we hit the road yet again to drive to Pend Orielle Lake. We stayed at someone's super nice cabin complete with enough beds but no gate down to the dock - which is where the non-relaxing came in because no matter how many times the children were told to either stay off the dock or put their life vest on so they could go onto the dock, they didn't listen. But it was nice for everyone to get together and since we were only going to be there for a short time we kept everything very casual. On Saturday night we went to thai food in Sandpoint, and it was the tiniest hole in the wall place - so tiny that we used every table and every chair for the 14 of us. It was really funny - and amazing thai food. 

Then we drove home Sunday and didnt get in until 1 in the morning and I pulled the second shift

Our first rejection

We have faced it. The first rejection. On Sunday we saw a place we really liked and put an offer in on Monday. They were reviewing offers Tuesday night so we didn't hear until 10pm last night that we didn't get it. The people who got it waived the inspection and offered $50,000 above listing price. But Brian had prepared us for this to happen and so we weren't too devastated. But the process was stressful and lot's of "Oh boys" were said.

We're going out tomorrow to look at more options and Jeff is wanting to open our options to other neighborhoods than West SEattle so we've started looking at other places. So we'll see.

Back in the saddle!!

We're pre-approved to go into debt

It's official. Someone called an underwriter has decided we're grown up enough to give large quantities of money in order to buy a house. We're meeting with the guy tomorrow to talk actual numbers and all the ins and outs and whatnot.

Yesterday we spent a couple hours driving around West Seattle with the realtor and we learned many things

1. We're pretty sure we're over condos. Like to point that if we end up with a condo then it's going to be an amazing condo
2. So that leaves us with either a townhouse or a small house. And I'm yet to feel it for a townhouse. Now that houses are definitely on the table I'm really liking that idea. The other key factor is that townhouses are very close to each other. Even the end units - the other building is 6 feet away. We started asking if the townhouse was in a "Townhouse-ville" or not.
3. We are expanding our price range a little bit. The places we were looking at in our original price range were more in the "best house on the block" range and we're thinking we want more middle ground. West Seattle still hasn't been 'gentrified' in a lot of places so it definitely depends on what part of the block you're on.
4. We're thinking very seriously about the 3 bedroom idea (actually to be completely honest, I've stopped even registering 2 bed places). So what happened is yesterday morning a house that was 4 bed, 3 bath came out. And we really liked it from the pictures but agreed that it was way out of our thought process. So we asked if we could tack it on to the end and we went and looked at it. And after looking at it (for a lot longer than any of the other places we looked at), we realized that if it was seven years from now, we would be all over that house. But it got us really thinking about the idea of staying for 3-5 years rather than less than three years.

So it was a fruitful adventure in that it got us really thinking about things and possibilities.

Other news - I just got home from watching Pitch Perfect 2 and it was acca-amazing. I haven't laughed that hard at movie in a long time and we (the ladies I was with) decided that it might possibly be better than the first one, which is rare.

Buying a House!!

Jeff and I have officially begun the process of buying a house. We've been talking about it basically since we got here and started paying crazy rent. We figured that since we're in the financial position to do it, buying seemed more practical. And we realized we could live in it for 3 years or so and when we have 1.5 kids then move into a bigger place in the 'burbs for the kids and keep this place as a rental. So after doing some research on our own, we've settled on the West Seattle area. We like that it's close but still feels casual. Far enough away from the bustle but still good sushi. Jeff was originally against it because of the bridge, but we've now been back and forth enough to realize it's not that bad and if we were ever to need to cross it during rush hour then we'd probably be on the bus anyway.

So we chatted about it with Grandpa Ron when we were in CA for Britney's wedding (since he's a realtor and knows things). And he hooked us up. Called a few people in the Seattle area and pre-interviewed them for us and found us a really nice guy. So we met with him last Friday. And talked about what we're looking for and he actually suggested instead of looking for 2 bedroom condos we should look at 3 bedroom houses - which works out a lot of the time to the same space (1000-1200 sqft). And he said it was much easier to rent out a house rather than a condo which could have building restrictions. This got us thinking and we actually decided we really liked that idea. It would be a different experience for sure (yard work!) but it would mean that if we wanted to we could stay longer than 3 years. It wouldn't be a "we have to move now!" but rather "well the kids get to share until we decide we're ready" or a "Jeff's office is moved to the basement/another room."

So anyway, the realtor sent us a filtered MLS search and we spent 2 hours on Saturday going through different options. We flagged 4 of them as "love" and about 10 that are "like" and we're planning on going and looking at a bunch on Wed. This is my favorite so far. But we talked to the realtor a lot about the hotness of the Seattle market and the guarantee of doing a bidding war, so be prepared for a little frustration. And of course you never know until you go stand in a house if it'll be a good home for you, so we'll see if I like it on Wed.

The other ball that has to be rolling for this is money. We contacted a mortgage lender and filled out some crazy application that told our entire life story. Now we know the fact that we're self-employed puts some weird parameters on what we can do (for instance we had to wait until now to start because we needed two years of showing we owned the business and were working), but when outlining our situation to people, they've said we really shouldn't have a problem. The only wrench is Jeff's credit sucks from when he was sick and wasn't working for a year so we might not get as awesome of an interest rate as we would like, but we know we can always refinance down the road if we want.

The other crazy thing is the realtor told us that if our offer is accepted, the whole process takes about 30 days. So it's crazy fast because of the crazy need in the market. But we're excited to start this process. Jeff is sitting in a corner saying "Oh boy" Jackson style* but I keep reminding him of all the cool stuff we get to do with our own place - and we can always hire someone to do the yard work :]

*also I'm fully aware that Jeff will be exactly like this when we have kids as well, but I love him anyway

EMP Anniversary

Jeff and I have officially been married for two years (I know, such a big milestone) and we still love each other and haven't wanted to kill one another at least at the same time yet, so I would say we're doing pretty good. We went to the EMP and then to fancy sushi. The EMP has some serious nerd exhibits happening right now. The ones we saw:

• touring Star Wars costumes - super cool. Because I'm a huge nerd, I'd already seen about half the stuff they had but it was still cool. The fabrics and beadwork on all of Padme's outfits are amazing. My favorite was her wedding dress. The beadwork was crazy and the lace was super intricate. The other crazy thing was the amount of people who worked on just her costumes alone was insane - something like 80 people. The other thing that the quotes on the walls and videos kept talking about was how bc of all the green screen that was used in Episode 1,2,3 (which is basically the entire movies) the costumes were really the only thing the actors had to connect with the story so they became really important for them.
• 
  
• Infinite Worlds of Sci-Fi - so Paul Allen clearly has way too much money, even after helping Bill Gates save the world. This entire exhibit is literally sci-fi show memorabilia that he has collected over the years. An entire exhibit! But Jeff and I decided that if we had that much money that's probably what we would do with it too.
• 
  
• Indie Games - so this was a whole exhibit about Indie video games and how the process of building an indie game rather than big money game is completely different. But the cool thing was there was 20 stations throughout the exhibit where you could play a game. Jeff and I found a few that we like: The Floor is Jelly (this one Jeff really liked and I wanted to throw it), Lumino City (I really liked this one), and Quadrilateral Cowboy (which according to the site is still in production yet we were playing it...)

Then we killed 40 minutes waiting for our reservation by going ot the same bar we went to last year when we went to Shiro's for anniversary sushi (last year was when we came to Seattle for Nickel Creek and stayed in the really nice hotel) - except it wasn't the same bar. It has a new name but other than that we couldn't tell any difference. But anyway, I ordered a "Green Tea Fizz" which is basically this. It was amazing and Jeff was appalled that I would drink a cocktail with a raw egg white in it, but it didnt taste weird - just added a nice creamy-ness to it.

And then we topped it off by stuffing our faces with Shiro's sushi. Always delicious. While we were talking we discussed all the things owning a house would let us do (more on that in the next post) like painting and running wires through walls rather than around them (although we decided that might be a project we tackle later). 

A great low key anniversary. 

a man with a bag

Yesterday on the bus I saw a guy taht was at least six feet tall, gym-rat muscles, and a white t-shirt to show them off, carrying a this bag. And my first thought was "well those two images don't compute" and my second thought was "man I hope that's a rip off bc that bag has to be mega expensive." And now that I looked up the bag to find the picture, I see that it is crazy expensive.

Last week, I went some ladies to a "Totally 90s Sing-a-Long" and it was great fun. It was at one of those theaters that usually plays movies and you can order food and drinks. But instead of watching a movie, it was a full theater of people doing karaoke to music videos - and then about halfway through we added dancing to the mix. And the breadth of songs was awesome - Marky Mark (he is still hawt to this day), the Titanic song (made me want to rewatch this movie), Achy Breaky Heart (made me text Meghan and reminisce about 1st grade), Destiny's Child when there was still 4 of them, TLC (best breakup song ever), and even a little Gin and Juice thrown in there. But my goal of the evening was to sing Britney and I wasn't disappointed and enjoyed a round of Hit Me Baby One More Time. All in all it was a great show and dancing and singing with a bunch of slightly drunk 27-35 year olds who definitely had to work in the morning but didn't care was awesome.

And then another night last week (I did all my socializing last week during the week and watched TV all weekend to recuperate bc of it) I went to a job fair that was bust, but while there I met this lady who was AWESOME. So we ditched out and went and had drinks and then started talking to the guys who were sitting at the table next to us and it was an awesome three hours of conversation. And I kept having to remind one of the guys that I was married - always nice to know I still got it :] All in all it was a crazy adventure of an evening.

Guilt Cycle

You know how when you don't do something for a really long time, and then you feel guilty about not doing it for a long time but it's now been so long that it seems weird and you feel more guilty and it's a vicious cycle? Yeah, that's how I feel about journaling right now. When we got back from CA (more on that in a minute) I wanted to write a big old thing about it because I had a great time and it was exciting....and then I never did it.

So anyway, no more guilt. Let's talk about CA! We went down for Brittany's wedding and made a thing of it (and no I have no pictures bc our camera ate our SD card and I'm very angry about it) We stayed in Koreatown in LA (we did an airb'n'b - so we had a whole apartment - this one: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2540292) - which was really fun. I obviously haven't been down there since I was younger and I never really went into LA. So it was a whole new experience. So anyway, we ate tons of mexican food (Jeff was all "why do you want mexican so much?" and then I fed it to him and he got on the bandwagon), went to the Observatory, and of course Disneyland. Now here's what I learned - when goign to Disneyland, take a gimpy person with you. Jeff got us a cut-in-front-of-line pass for the whole day. Now this was helpful since we had to stop and take a 30 minute rest about three times and halfway through the day we were taking twice as long to walk between rides. But we did get to do a lot of rides. We did Space Mountain five times - but in our defense Matterhorn was closed for "sprint cleaning." Actually about halfway through the day we realized we should have done the park-hopper pass, but it was a great day. I got Jeff to stop and watch the little bits that they do around the park and we sat and watched the whole parade. The parade really got us talking. We sat next to a very cute girl who was about five and dressed head to toe in Belle and she got SO excited at everything and when Belle noticed her and waved, she freaked out. So the discussion Jeff and I were having is when do you bring your kids to Disneyland. Do you take them when they're five and still super excited about imagination and the Disney spirit but most likely wont remember, or wait until they're eight so they remember but they're more excited about Space Mountain than the imagination side of things? I'm for taking them early and Jeff is more for taking them later. Then there was a discussion about Disneyland young, Disney World later.

So the wedding was amazing. We got to see everyone and Jeff and I got complexes about being short. Even Joel - who is 11! - is taller than me. It was great to see everyone and Kristen was having a very entertaining mind-being-blown moments throughout the night. Anytime she caught me swearing or drinking or when we compared tattoos, she would say "You can't do that. You're ten!" But it was great to see everyone. I kept making everyone tell me their favorite things about life and most exciting things about life. My favorite pictures are below - family ho-ho (seriously, everyone is taller than me, but i am crouching slightly in that photo, but judge based on Jeff), my new favorite "this is our relationship in a photo", and my favorite candid from the night. 

So since CA, I've gotten back into sewing for real. Nani turned me onto watching a specific lady on PBS - Fit 2 Stitch - and she's all about making patterns fit exactly for you and how to make patterns out of existing clothes and using a french curve. So I have a favorite pair of sweats that I've had for ten years and are falling apart, so I tried to make a pattern. And it worked! And then I made an Easter shirt. And I'm in love. I love that I used the fabric to wrap the pattern around and then the arms match. I love it. Jeff thinks it "makes a statement" which is perfectly fine by me :]

Anyway, that's the latest going ons in my life. And I'll try to update the blog now that I'm over my guilt cycle. :]

SCRUM Mastery

The past two days I've been in a training session to get my SCRUM Master Certification for work and I learned a ton. I actually went into it not excited because my job was forcing me to do. But it was a lot more informative and fun than I expected. The instructor is actually a pretty big name in the SCRUM field so he had great stories and examples and was really good at teaching the stuff. We played games and got up and did things in different groups so we met everyone and heard everyone's story. In fact I enjoyed it so much I'm seriously thinking about going and getting the next level certification at some point just because.

I always find it interesting what kind of people you get in this kind of situation. For example I met a few people who I like a lot and felt like real peers - those people I got their names and connected with them on Linked In and will reach out and have lunch with them at some point. Others...not so much.

Also question of the day: why is conference food so good and so plentiful?

Beyonce Thighs!

I have lost a bunch of fat. I haven’t actually lost an weight but I’m much skinnier. Ex: I bought this epic 70s dress from a thrift store and knew I would need the proper underwear for it. So I brought it home, put on said underwear and the dress and was bummed bc I looked the same. Jeff was like “you need your spanxs” and i was like “i’m wearing them!!” all girl-defensive mode. Took me two hours to realize that the spanxs weren’t doing their job bc they were too big! And when I finally figured it out, I was super excited. And the best part is we haven’t even been trying hard. We’re doing 3-4 days a week and it’s just a half hour of either cardio or doing weights - but nothing mega intense. We don’t come home dripping or anything. I’ve lost a ton around my rib cage (I can feel my ribs again), thighs (Beyonce thighs here I come!) but my little tummy pooch are still there. I’m not super worried or obsessing over it and I’m not giving up my cocktails anytime soon so I’m just accepting that it probably won’t ever go away and moving on with life. But new problem - I’m basically to the point where I have to make my own pants (which I’m starting to try).

Once the proper underwear is acquired, this will be awesome!

Feeling sick-o

So I got whatever is going around. I have no idea how since I rarely go places, but there you go. It's been one of those colds where everyday brings you a new and interesting facet. Saturday - sore throat; Sunday - sore throat got so bad it moved to my ears too; Monday - snot added itself to the equation; today - stomach cramps. We'll see where tomorrow takes us. Oh, and it's one of those colds that isn't completely debilitating. When you sit on the couch for three hours, you feel fine; but the second you stand up to make meatballs, your body say "um, e'scuse me? where do you think you're going?"

Bookclub #2

So I met for the first time with the other book club I joined, called "Booze, Books, and [insert name of book here]. We met at a bar and it was awesome. There were only four of us and we spent more time gossiping about our lives than talking about the book, which was just fine. We read Not That Kind of Girl, which I hated. Seriously, I've seen Lena Dunham a few times on tv being interviewed and always thought "wow, that girl really speaks her mind. go her!" but after reading this book my opinion changed to "dude, maybe you should filter yourself just a little bit." And I now have absolutely no desire to watch Girls at all.

But again, very fun book club and I'll definitely be going back.

Australian Open

It's happening and Jeff was very sad when 'the Fed' (that's what I call Roger Federer) got defeated in the second round. I think we're about to see a huge change in the top eight this year because there are a lot of young players starting to come into their own. This idea was solidified more when Nadal was knocked out by a younger guy. One of Jeff's life goals is to see the Fed play in person, and we're pretty sure that means we have to sometime this year, so I'm now haunting the internet for signs of him saying he's going to the US Open in August. My original idea was to go to this Australian Open - until I looked up plane ticket prices and discovered getting there would be about six grand. So that didn't happen.

Super Bowl Par-tay

We have been invited to a Super Bowl party with some new friends and I am very excited. I've started feeling gloomy about friends again in the past few days because we drove Sean, our only friend we have made all on our own, to the airport so he could move back to Connecticut because he broke up with his girlfriend and wanted to move back to be with his family. It was very sad.

Mentoring is awesome

So the project I talked about a few weeks ago where I was kicking ass and taking name - this project is becoming a huge learning experience for me on multiple levels.
1. The first level is financial acumen. I'm working really closely with our COO right now because the sales guy on the project vastly underbid the project (by about three-fold) and we're having to develop our presentation of the bad new. But I'm learning a lot about how to do that from an expert (up until now I just had to wing it).
2. Mentoring - the designer on the project is right out of school and consequently has never done this type of project (let alone one of it's magnitude) and has little experience interacting with clients on a daily basis in a business setting. So I'm spending a lot of time mentoring him and it's great fun. He's really eager to learn and I'm finding how much I've grown just in the past year as a PM. Today I was coaching him on how to write emails to clients, and it was amazing to me how easy it was flowing from my fingers. One of the principles I've always had, but am really flexing in this scenario of telecommuting, is empowering my team. So watching him learn how to interact and deal with the client - and be a part of that learning process - is awesome.

Awesome things I've seen in the past week

SpaceX Dragon

Sean told us that we needed to hightail it over to the Museum of Flight last weekend because the SpaceX Dragon was going to be there. So we did. And it was awesome. The first thing I thought of when I saw it was "Wow. It looks exactly how I would imagine the Millennium Falcon looks like up close"...which Sean said was a compliment for the Star Wars props department more than anything. Anyway, it was so cool. It's been to space - recently!

It's been to space - recently!!

Up close it looked like styrofoam

My new desk chair (and the house it came from)

So Jeff and I have been having a problem. When we are both working at the same time, someone gets to sit in the nice Herman Miller Embody chair and the other person is stuck with the 1970s orange office chair I got from the basement of the Whitworth print shop that is completely broken and squeaky. As much as I love this chair for it's sentimental value, it was not a good long term solution. So Jeff really wanted to get a Herman Miller Aeron chair, but I told him buying two big office chairs wasn't necessary, especially since the goal is having Jeff being the only one working from home as soon as possible. So I dug around craigslist and found an awesome 1970s orange Herman Miller Aeron chair (or the equivalent) for a hundred bucks. So I told Jeff to contact the guy, and we went to check it out. And when we got to this guy's house, I wanted it all. He had a beautiful collection of mid-century furniture - multiple sideboards, a gorgeous bar cart, a low slung couch. It was amazing. I wanted it all. But I settled for the chair.

We now have two Herman Miller chairs :]

My unicorn lamp lives!!

After taking the picture of my new chair, I realized I was being dumb. I have a dedicated work desk but none of my work desk accessories set up. So I had to rectify that. And I'm excited to say my unicorn lamp still lives.

IT'S OFFICIAL

Eyebrows are important

I finally went and got my eyebrows done. It's taken me a week and a half to get there and having wax rip hair off my face made me feel more amazing this afternoon than it should have.

The reason it's taken me this long is because in the city getting your eyebrows waxed is an experience. In Spokane, Jewel, my fabulous hairdresser since I was 14 has always done them during my hair appointment. But in the city, it's different. I go to a place that does nothing but slather hot wax on various parts of your body and then rip it off. They serve wine, have stacks of US Weekly, dainty handmade jewelry for sale, and relaxing music. And they have happy hour. Everyday from 1-3 in the afternoon, eyebrows are half off. And you can't make appointments in advance.

So for the past week and a half I've been trying to make it to happy hour. And due to work, I haven't made it. And it was getting to the point where I had one eyebrow instead of two. My loving (and fashion-impaired) husband told me I still looked beautiful and "no one can tell," but I was becoming obsessed with them. I wanted them fixed and I wanted it to happen now (at happy hour prices of course). So at 1245 today, my 2 hour design meeting ended early and I had an hour before my next meeting. So, instead of doing my end-of-meeting wrapup email to myself and anyone else who needed it, I said "fuck it" and left. And I went and read US Weekly for 15 minutes and then chatted with the nice lady about the Seahawks while she applied lovely smelling wax on my face and ripped it off. And it was glorious. Such a tiny thing, that in all reality, no one has noticed. But I felt like a new woman as I walked out. And that's what's important.

Kicking ass and taking names

Today I was proud myself on a career level:

On one of my project, they told us from the beginning that they had another design firm on retainer and they wanted them to do the UI and us to do the UX. so we met with the guy from that company, Tom*, today and we started talking and he said that even if our designer did wireframes they would redo them so they were “sexy.” so i asked if they would be using bootstrap, bc you know coding. tom instantly went on guard and informed us that he had never used bootstrap and that “i don’t like responsive design” and “i can’t control the design if it moves around.” at this point he tried to move the conversation away from that and i was like ‘oh hells no’ so i stopped the convo and went back to that and basically was like “[client], if Tom redoes the wireframes and then adds UI but doesn’t do responsive that will be a waste of time.” so then the client cut the meeting in a nice way and we got back on the phone with her after and she was instantly apologetic and knew that Tom was out of line and not a good fit, so we came up with a solution where they are just providing us with the style guide and we’re doing the rest.

I was really proud of how I handled this guy who basically came into the call super cocky and instead of rising my hackles in a way that made me come across unyielding or non-compromising, I instead stuck to my guns of protecting my team (which is always my number one goal) and was able to show the client that using this guy in the way she originally foresaw would not be beneficial, but we could "definitely still use his input on UI elements."

*name changed

weekend thoughts

Book Club
The Yes Please book club met on Saturday and I loved it. It was at a lady's house in West Seattle, and I told Jeff when I got home if there was more than one stinking bridge connecting West Seattle to the rest of Seattle (and we had a million dollars) I would say we should move over there. But anyway, the food everyone brought was amazing and I, as usual, was the person getting 3rds while all the fit Seattle people talked about their fitbit wristbands and how many steps they walked that day (one girl said her usual is 5 miles a day. 5 miles?!?!? these healthy seattle people are crazy sometimes).

But the best part was of course discussing the book. I was in love to hear that everyone thought she came off slightly bitchy, but in a "i am woman, hear me roar" way. And then I brought up the point about how I felt she really wrote from her specific place in life (40s, 2 kids, middle of career) and one of the ladies who was there said that made her relate to it more. So it was really interesting to see where we agreed and disagreed on things.

All in all. Excellent book club. I'm definitely going back.

Foodista Outing
One of the other meetup groups I belong to had a brunch on Sunday and it was fun. I go to these specific meetups with the mindset "I'm most likely never going to see this woman again, so lets have deep chats" and we always do and it's great fun. It's like speed-friending. We went to Percy's and Co and my drink was delicious. the food was ok.

I am Malala
I finished reading I am Malala this weekend (while watching the Golden Globes - talk about your juxtaposition) and then called Nani and had a long discussion about it. And I came to the conclusion that this book really shows how different the world is in different areas and how un-relatable her story is to my life. She is fighting for things that we totally take for granted to the point where we complain about. She was having to hide and risk her life to go to school. The other thing I took away from it was her innocence. Remember when she wrote the book she was 15, so every once in awhile she would make a comment like "I just didnt understand why X and Y were happening and the government should do something about it." Even with all her experience going and speaking around her country and meeting all these people, she's still a kid. Even now, with a Nobel Peace Prize, she's only 17.

A more selfish thing I took away from the book was being proud at myself for knowing things about politics. She mentions in the book meeting Richard Holbrooke, whose name I recognized because I read Hilary Clinton's memoir from when she was Secretary of State (ok ok I read 2/3 of it, but that was farther than I thought I was going to get). But I felt smart because I recognized something about politics.

Job update

ok, so I didn’t get the job. but she said the ONLY reason i didn’t get it was because the Lead Dev came back with a curve ball and said for the first time ever “i want a more tech based PM.” But she said that everyone really liked me and my energy and my “obvious passion for what you do” and they are currently looking for the Lead Dev for a whole new team (they want to split off membership into it’s own team) and once she has the Lead Dev in place she would like to reach out to me again and see if I’m a good fit with him/her. so I feel like I lost the job on a technicality and she totally made my day by saying “basically as soon as we have another team, we want you”

A letter to Grandma Marty

Work sucks. I can literally feel myself wilting away from it. My extrovert-ness is very upset right now. However, I am waiting to hear back from a company I did a second interview for last week. That actually looks like it has a lot of potential and I'm expecting to hear good things. The company is a tech company and I would be working on one team with six other devs who are in charge of the billing system for one of their websites, which has a lot of business intelligence stuff around it, which I find fascinating. 

I haven't gotten my diploma yet but since the semester just ended, I wasn't expecting anything yet. If I haven't received anything by the end of Feb then I'll start creating a fuss :] And I haven't been waiting for the diploma. If people ask I say I am finished, and I have yet to run into anyone who says "prove it!"

In the meantime, I just started doing this small certificate program through John Hopkins on data science. One of the other PMs that I'm working with (who has become a mentor/good friend) and I are doing it together. https://www.coursera.org/specialization/jhudatascience/1?utm_medium=dashboard 

I've also been doing a lot of reading lately. Just finished Yes Please by Amy Poehler, and I must say, Tina Fey's Bossypants (both books are along the same lines) is way better. But I think if I was ten years older with two small children, I would relate to Amy's book better. But at the same time, I love Amy's dont-take-shit-from-anyone attitude towards everything, which I feel like I possess as well - which sometimes comes across as bitchy, but I'm getting better as owning it and surrounding myself with people who dont see it that way and still love me when my bossy pants come out.

I read Yes Please for a book club I joined. I joined two girl-power book clubs and this is the first month I'm meeting with them. One is a potluck at someone's house and the other meets at a bar, so two very different settings and will probably attract different women, but I'm excited to meet the women in both.

And I read http://www.amazon.com/Ceiling-Walls-leadership-career-start-corporate/dp/0967312922 which was a serious learning book but a really good read about how women aren't usually mentored regarding business and financial acumen (bc leadership workshops are built around men and men usually fall down on the communication side, which is where we women excel in) and how that makes it so we are passed up on things and how to "force" people to mentor you about these things. 

I'm still feeling very disconnected but I think a lot of this has to do with the lack of routine in my life. I've always thrived on routine so not having one for this extended period of time, combined with the lack of work (I'm back down to working 20 hours again), makes me very bored and I end up just watching tv. Half the time the only reason I leave the house is bc I force myself to. Once I have a job outside of work it'll get better and I'll be interacting with more people. 

I looked fuckin' hawt today

So one of the many reasons I hate working at home is that I rarely get dressed. And what's the point in living in a city and not being able to do fashion? Literally one of the things I was excited about to move here was the fashion. My mom's words were "oh man. Jeff is going to discover your shoe hoarding ability." Which he has! And hates. But shoes are my girl obsession and I my argument is at least they're practical (ya gotta wear shoes) and I don't own 30 purses or 80 shades of brown eyeshadow.

So anyway, today I woke up and decided I was going to get out of the house. So I got dressed. And the outfit I put together was AWE-some. This is the first time I feel like I actually pulled off a nerdy-fashion Heather look. Jeans, tshirt, and cons are a perfectly acceptable fashion statement both in Spokane and the industry I work in. But I love me some cute shoes, so I've always had a battle of keeping it casual while still wearing 5 inch heels. And today I did it! Also, I'm really into slacks right now.

Here's what I love about this outfit:
- bitchin' shoes (Jessica Simpson makes the BEST heels in my opinion)
- Kardashian pants - casual yet sophisticated (yay for pants for women with big butts)
- nerd shirt - yeah that's a shirt that references the Voyager spacecraft
- sweater that seriously only I would wear, bc look at that awesome (most people use the word "70's" and then shudder) color palette
- also, ignore the hair. I was dumb and went to bed with it wet and reaped the consequences)