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Holy.
Shit.
I’m not sure where June went, but I’m pretty sure I skipped right though it. I can’t believe that the 4th of July is in two weeks, which in Tonia time, pretty much means it’s tomorrow.
I feel like I haven’t had enough time to myself, and worse yet, that I’ve been abandoning all my friends. The few days I do have, I try to take to myself or I play catch up on the side projects I’m working on.
Although I do a pretty good job at balancing my life, and I wouldn’t want any less chaos, I do think I need to do a better job in keeping touch with all my friends. I think part of the issue is lack of time and hating phone calls. *sigh* Twitter and text are my best friends.
I can’t say thank you enough to my dear friend CJ for being willing to start a karaoke adventure with me after #evfn last night, which I actually attended without Jessica having to text me and drag me out of my coma state. I chatted with CJ while I was in the airport on Thursday and mentioned we should do karaoke and it was born, tweeted, and facebooked. Not only did the expected crew of CJ and Debbie come, but Steph, Jessica, and two new people I just met that night showed up also. I ended up being coaxed into closing the bar down. It was fantastic.
I think I’m going to plan a dinner/game night as soon as I find a definite free day. What are everyone’s plans next Saturday?
I ended up having a more eventful weekend than I had planned. I think I will share it all in pictures.
Friday I went to East Valley Friday Nights (#evfn) which was at Whole Foods in Chandler again. It started off pretty slow as I didn’t know too many people there and I was a little tired to begin with. However, I soon started chatting it away with a few old friends along with some new. It was at this event that I first heard about the Slap Chop which is how I ended up finding this Rap Chop on You Tube:
While at Whole Foods we were in the bar area which is separated from the Olive Bar by boxes of wine. I was sitting at a table near the Olive Bar most of the night. This sign was hanging from the wine right next to my table.
I found it a little amusing. The sign was directed towards the Olive Bar, thus indicating you had to be 21 to enter the Olive Bar. Additionally, no one could get through anyway because there was no path, just boxes of wine.
Saturday, I had scheduled to meet Matt and Tracie at Sweet Republic, which is easily the best ice cream EVA! Typically I go in and get ice cream to go, but staying I had several fun treats. We were able to try a few new samples as we came in and after ordering our ice cream we were surprised with a special treat of peaches, peach ice cream and molasses spice cookie. It was phenomenal.
Along with Frank Lloyd Wright fun today, I made it to Joe’s Farm Grill for the first time. Best scenic restaurant I’ve been to in Phoenix. I had a fontina burger and garlic friends and loved sitting outside in a countryesque setting. I definitely want to come back some morning for breakfast. And not just because I love breakfast. Well okay that’s a pretty important part of it. And, as I suspected the bathrooms were a sheer masterpiece. Team America FTW!
Additionally, my breakfast idea finally got off the ground with Matt and Tracie backing it. So, if you’re in the Phoenix area and love breakfast, you’ll have to attend smunch. It’s breakfast. It’s lunch. It’s saturday. It’s smunch!
I never really had a chance to enjoy the relaxation week I had planned the end of March, and I think it finally caught up with me. I spent most of this week falling asleep a few hours earlier than I normally do, but waking up every morning extremely refreshed and ready to start the day. I was able to get a lot accomplished at work, but then crashed and burned at home.
Last night, I was planning on going home and crashing on the couch, possibly having some friends over to chill with some movies and gelato. However, it was not long before I was swayed by my friend Jessica to head to the local East Valley gathering which was at O’Sullivan’s last night. I haven’t been to a gathering in weeks due to other plans with friends and visitors coming into town, and I think everyone thought I was dead. I’m glad I showed up and proved my existence.
I have to admit I was a little loopy and out of it from a long week and the longing for another long night of sleep, ended up walking past Jessica and sitting with some other “regulars” and an out of towner that I had the pleasure of meeting.
After hanging out at O’Sullivans for awhile I headed to Kirk’s for some well needed karaoke with CJ, Dan, Debbie, Scott the out of towner, and two other new people I had never met before! It was a fantastic night. I was thrilled they actually had my Erykah Badu song. Some guy in the bar came up after I finished singing Tyrone (my signature song) and told me I had a very pretty voice and I sang the song well. Awwww.
I had such a blast and it was a shame that I was way too tired to have after karaoke rock band. The drive home was filled with cops as well as rain that prevented me from opening my moonroof. However, it did not prevent the awesome 90s rap that filled my car on the way home
I want to thank Jessica for dragging me out, all my awesome Phoenix friends I have met, and my new friend Scott… oh and another special call out to Debbie for the great commentary on my night last night!
Last night, East Valley Friday Nights (#evfn) was at Studio 5C in Tempe. It is three flights up on a building on the corner of 5th and College and has a gorgeous view of the skyline and the mountains. The artwork was fantastic and it was sponsored so we had free beverages and snacks (yay).
I hung out with my typical crowd and met some more people too (always fun). After viewing the art and chatting it up for awhile, I was convinced to head to Rula Bula after being told they had Strongbow on tap. Chaos soon began of course, and I believe I was quoted on twitter several times (and there were probably a dozen more that didn’t make the cut). We chatted, sang, I probably danced, and I got to try the most amazing ice cream I’ve ever had!!!! Well it’s definitely in the top five at least.
Afterwards, a few of us came back to my house to play Rock Band and it was fantastic.
This morning I had about 7 twitter friend follow requests. Yay
I’ve had a great first week back in Phoenix. I previously mentioned that on Tuesday I went to Cibo for a birthday dinner.
On Wednesday,I attended the 24 Hour Film contest screening which is sponsored by the Independent Feature Project – Phoenix Four of my friends created a film a few weeks back for the contest and ended up doing phenomenal.They won for best use of a prop as well as won 2nd place overall and therefore qualify for the Phoenix Film Festival in March. See their awesome thriller on You Tube.
Thursday I was supposed to catch up on everything I hadn’t accomplished since I left for Vancouver. However, I got in this mood to buy a macbook. After work, I went with Bob to the Apple store at the Biltmore. I found a great one and once I figure out what my tax return is going to be, it is game on! On the way home, I saw a fire a few blocks away from my house. As I was coming back from running errands, it was so bad that I could hear the helicopters over my stereo and the entire surrounding area was blocked off. It was a long alternate route home.
Friday I made my return to East Valley Friday Nights (#evfn), which was held closer to me (finally) at Four Peaks Brewery. I chatted with some old friends as well as met some new and enjoyed a nice pint of Kiltlifter after being away. I was hungry, but not starving so I ordered their spinach artichoke dip. It was amazingly good, but I barely put a dent in it. I then employed the help of others to finish the bowl and with five people chowing down, it only ended up half way gone. I think the bowl was magically refilling itself. While at Four Peaks, I met a woman that was in town exploring job opportunities. She happened to be a Kent State grad that lives in Cleveland. It was awesome having another KSU alumni to chat with. We went to an exotic arts festival that was recommended afterwards, which was fun, but not as good as expected. I was able to get home early enough to *finally* get more than 5 hours of sleep for the fist time in two weeks.
Yep, I think I am back to my regular schedule of crazy.
Briefing of my week to come. I cannot believe that I am not even back a full day and already have my week entirely planned.
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
T’s Month of Fun is getting off to a FANTABULOUS start!
I crossed something off my list last night – going out by myself. One thing that is so great about Phoenix is all the things that go on and how there is such a sense of small community in such a large metropolitan area. Every Friday there is a gathering after work in the East Valley called EVFN. This week I decided to go and see what happened. It started out at the Blue Adobe Grille in Mesa, which ended up being a disaster. We retreated for another bar shortly later, which ended up having karaoke. I also was able to put faces to some twitter folk, never a bad thing!
I planned two things for Friday night so I had to leave early to head back to Tempe to go to Last Exit. I was headed there to meet another twitter gal. Her boyfriend’s band, Sawcello was playing, and I love live music and we both have realized we are going to be BFF’s soon… and we were right. The band was great but I was tired by the time the night was over.
I’m sure part of this will sound odd. Especially since although I am very much very involved in new and emerging technology and social media blah blah blah, I am not one to do the friends online that I don’t really know thing. With that being said, Twitter has become a great networking tool since I’ve moved and it’s really helped me connect, find things to do, and find others in the area with common interests. Yay to twitter helping the transplant.
