Enter your email address:
Delivered by FeedBurner
I had a pretty lucky week this week. Aside from winning tickets to the Taste of the Nation this past Saturday, I scored tickets to Stomp at ASU’s Gammage. I haven’t seen Stomp in probably almost 8 years at least, and I was excited to see it again. I was hoping it would be a new experience. The lovely Light Rail Blogger escorted me to the event. I’m not sure if it was the light rail or him, but arrived late and had to miss the first 12 minutes of the show.
It was my first time at the Gammage and it was a great locale to see a show. It wasn’t too small, but not too big. We were stage right a little behind the middle on the floor but still had a perfect view. What a great cute little place and it’s only a few minutes from my house.
The show was fantastic. They added more and changed parts to it as well as started interacting with the audience more and playing off of each other somewhat like a storyline rather than a straight musical performance. It was truly incredible. They received two standing ovations.
I highly recommend going to see Stomp, even if you’ve seen it before. I will definitely go again soon.
Well today I decided to take a day off and relax a bit before the bustle of the holiday. I don’t have much to blog about but decided I would let all my East Coast friends know my holiday plans.
Today I am planning on catching up on house stuff (laundry, hanging pictures, organizing), but since I am also battling a bit of a cold, I might more realistically just get some of that done.
Tomorrow I will be celebrating Christmas with some friends.
On the Friday after Christmas, I am planning on checking out the ASU Art Museum and doing some exploring around downtown Phoenix. I will also have my eyes open for a New Years Eve dress. I am thinking, hot pink (duh)!
Saturday I am hoping to do the rest of the things I don’t get done today as well as go to the Light Rail opening celebration in Tempe and possibly check out the Phoenix one as well.
Sunday I will be volunteering at the LDRC.
Next Monday I am hoping to do some work from home, as well as on Tuesday. Tuesday night my friend Colleen should be here to help kick off 2009.
Wednesday of course is New Years Eve. If I haven’t found a dress by then, I will be doing that on Wednesday as well as relaxing and getting ready for a big night out in my new city. Me along with two of my other friends will be heading to downtown Phoenix to celebrate New Years Eve in style, the way it was meant to be done. I’m sure there will be plenty of photo ops to post after that adventure.
I don’t yet have plans for New Years Day or the days after that but will probably be doing some more remote work and hopefully checking out a karaoke bar or chilling with some friends.
What are your plans? I miss you all!
Thanksgiving was such a blessing this year. It didn’t end up as I had originally planned, and I was graced with some additional guests, but then again, what is the fun in that?
My brother and Alex arrived around 9am that morning with their two other travelers. I set up the futon for them to take a nap and put out the air mattress as well, but Billy and Alex were not tired. Billy and I then started preparing the turkey and the sweet potatoes I was to make. I made a glaze loosely based on a recipe on my roaster oven box, which used olive oil, pepper, and dry white wine, but I added my own touches as well and pretty much just used every spice in my cabinet. Since we had until about 4pm or so, we set it on very low.
My brother took a passing at recreating my grandmother’s gravy made from flour, pepper, a little water, and the turkey parts no one likes to talk about. I have to say, it was a damn close comparison to my grandmother’s.
Two of my other friends who were joining us for dinner came over around 1:30 to prepare what they were making. They brought asparagus, salad, cheesy potatoes, and cherry crisp. We had some wine and played some rock band, watched some football, and enjoyed a new Cranium game I picked up last week at Starbucks.
Dinner time started getting closer, and it appeared as if the turkey was never going to finish. Around 4:15 we turned it up all the way and in 5 minutes the steamer thermometer popped and it was ready to go.
My brother’s two traveling friends had plans that ended up falling through and were going to head out and venture on Thanksgiving. We all decided they should stay as we had enough for them as well and Thanksgiving is not the time to be wandering a new city. It was a great night, but we were all worn out by the time midnight rolled around.
Luckily for me, they all decided to stay another day as well and I got to spend Friday with Billy and Alex. They joined me in my venture to check up on Jack and Jill, cats of friends of mine, and then took me to a restaurant I had never been to before for breakfast, First Watch. Not bad. Afterwards we headed to Old Town Scottsdale for the afternoon, discovering a winery on the way, toured Tempe and ASU, and then relaxed and bought some items to cook for dinner. Billy and Alex made me an amazing fettuccine Alfredo with homemade Alfredo sauce and broiled chicken and sautéed vegetables. It was delicious.
Another visitor joined the slumber party at my house Friday night and also brought me back a Riesling having heard that I like sweeter wines. It was such a good time, and I made some great new friends. I think everyone enjoyed their time here and I enjoyed playing hostess.
I have determined that I need to start scheduling visits from friends and family. This is probably the best form of motivation for me to get my house in tip top shape.
So, if anyone would like to visit, realistically I can start accepting visitors the week before Thanksgiving. Let me know, and get your dates in now. I have a nice warm place and am expecting (and hoping) it becomes the new vacation spot for my crew
Need some enticing?
Tonight I decided since I was all by my lonesome, actually not tired, and still without most of the luxuries of home, I would attempt to go out tonight. I have to admit I was pretty nervous about this since one of my fears is doing things by myself that are typically not solo events such as movies, shows, and well, bars. I have a fear of being “that single girl.”
I found a listing of bars and narrowed it down to two I was fairly interested in… got ready and headed out the door somewhere around 10pm. The Mill Street District is only a few miles away from me. Last time I was in that area it took me somewhere around 7 minutes to get there. This time, that was an understatement.
After being stuck in traffic the last mile or so that lasted about 25 minutes (no, I am not exaggerating), I found a metered spot on the road and hopped over to it. It was then I discovered that in Tempe, a quarter gets you 10 minutes. It was shortly after that I discovered that not only would a taxi probably be a better option in order to combat traffic and the cost of parking, but there are bike taxis as well that I definitely need to look into.
I ended up not wanting to sit in a crowded line and probably never even get a beer since I only had enough change to cover 28 minutes so I ended up driving around and learning the area.
ASU kids really like to party, though it could’ve been that they won today.. I should probably look at the football schedule. Typically I am not the bar hopper type, but I found myself really wanting to take a night and a taxi and see what there is. There seem to be a lot of cute trendy bars, Irish pubs, dueling pianos, and of course your typical college skank bars. Unfortunately, my bar hopping buddies are still back in the midwest and so I am not sure I want to do a whole bar hopping fiesta by myself.
So, in the end, I got all dressed up tonight (and damn did I look cute I have to admit) and was even debating sparking up a conversation with a man that probably wouldn’t have ended up being the future Mr. Bartz. I didn’t get that far, but I am trying to look on the bright side. I know now what to watch out for when I attempt that again, and at least I got one step closer to defeating the fear of going out alone.
