The people that we meet,

are the people we are ready to meet.

bedtime

so what's the difference between the couch and the bed?

i always seem to pass out on the couch before bed and then follow it up with a restless period before i'm able to fall asleep again. sometimes i even have to sleep with my head at the foot of the bed or sideways. i wonder if i need a nice matress topper made of dense, moldable foam. yummy.

Goodnight.

Abroad

Does anyone else agree that everything feels more magical abroad?

Why is it?

I believe it's simply the architecture of the buildings.

What do you think?

I HEART

I HATE

driving in the afternoon. People are so unpredictable. The road is one of those places where it's best to predict what people will do. Believe it or not, 7-8am and 5-7pm are the best times to drive. In order to go 60-70mph the majority of the way home, I just stay to the left until I get to about 80th and then move further to the right near Westlake. Before I know it, I'm off at James...

and home preventing/fighting a fever.

When Spring Comes I Will

All Day

All in the Wind

My favorite moment in life these days is one sweet left turn from Fremont Ave N to N Richmond Beach Road.

Every time the light turns to a green arrow and I hit the gas, it seems like the heat in my car holds still and I just move through it.

My 3 Things

3 names I go by:

Leslie

Les

Lesserlie

3 jobs I have had in my life:

Admissions & Marketing Director @ Richmond Beach Rehab

Hospice Volunteer Coordinator @ Swedish Home Care Services

Server Extraordinaire / Bartender @ Bleu Bistro

3 Places I have lived:

Portland [Troutdale], OR

Seattle, WA

Sapporo, Japan

or maybe

Queen Anne

Greenwood

First Hill

3 Favorite Drinks:

Maker's Mark & ginger

Red Wine

Milk

3 TV Shows that I Watch:

Lost

House

30 Rock

3 Places I Have Been:

Tokyo, Sapporo, Osaka & Kyoto, Japan

Geneva & Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

D to the C

3 People that Email me Regularly:

My Boss

Travis

Washington Lottery

3 Things I am Looking Forward to:

Springtime

Lost Season 5 Episode 9

Gyro Night [Wednesdays @ Gyro World]

More Time

There is so much good to fit into the weekend. It's so easy not to care about the time. Yesterday, I got to jaunt downtown to get a couple pieces of my work wardrobe altered so I will actually wear them. Then I stopped by the Clinique counter to stock up on some goodies. Then I picked up a second bath towel from Anthropologie.

But the best part of my day was stopping at the store for a few eggs and mimosa fixings so I could make brunch and watch 30 Rock and Religulous. Mimosas right up to bed time, which was about 8:30pm. Lovely.

This morning I had the urge to clean up the house. So, I vacuumed everything and organized and then made breakfast again with smoothies. I watched Rambo for the first time and then followed it up with Son of Rambow. It's a pretty cute British movie. Then I'll clean myself up and go to Travis' parents for dindin.

This is my weekend full of time.

The problem is that during the week there's not enough time. So, I'm going to have to get up earlier, I guess.

Grrr

If it snows

ONE MORE TIME...

I am going to

FLIP OUT!

Good Books Gone Bad

Made my way to the library a week or two ago and I stumbled across a couple books on tape that I've been meaning to read.

First, I listened to Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland. Thanks, Lee, for the recommendation. I finished that one easy.

Then I attempted to listen to The Great Gatsby, but the reader's voice was too low to hear while driving on the freeway to work. So disappointing.

And now I am in the middle of Ender's Shadow - the sequel to Ender's Game. It's about Bean - the smartest kid in battle school. I've enjoyed hearing about his past and how the IF thought of him when he was a child, but I'm most excited to hear how he plays into the future.

A book I love reading every now and then, because it allows you to do so, is One Taste by Ken Wilber. He writes a year's work of memoirs about Integral Spirituality. He has a good sense of humor. Here's a story that made me laugh for days.

"When Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, his first words were, 'One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.' The next thing he said was, 'Good luck, Mr. Gorsky.' The little-known story behind those words: When Armstrong was a young boy, he overheard a heated argument coming from the neighbor's bedroom window. Mrs. Gorsky screamed at Mr. Gorsky, 'You'll get oral sex when that little boy next door walks on the moon.'"

Love it.

The book sitting underneath One Taste on my night stand is A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. A lovely present from my roommate.

Then there's the book I got about food. It has been a wealth of information, and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in what's in what they eat.

And of course those books that I will read for work.

And No, I haven't finished American Psycho.

Are there support groups out there for people like me?

RETIREMENT

There's nothing I enjoy thinking about more than RETIREMENT. What a lovely concept. And thanks to my job and John Hancock, I am learning what it means to save for retirement. The first step is picturing what you want your retirement lifestyle to be. When I imagine my retirement, I think of:

Room Service

No more

Retail Therapy

More Shopping because I want to

Partying with the besties

Me & Mine

[and our estates in

Ballard

Austria

Japan

and possibly

somewhere tropical]

Who doesn't want to be filthy rich when they retire? We will of course have to love our parents, siblings, children and grandchildren & contribute to our communities. So, now is the time to save and plan.

The second step is determining how much you need to contribute each month. This is for real. If I want to live the high life in retirement, I'm going to have to set money aside now. No big deal, right?

Step three calls for more knowledge than I have. One must understand the "risk/return relationship." Investments. Bleh. I guess now is the best time to be doing that, because the economy can only get better over the next 5 years.

So, here's to my future. I welcome you all to join me.

Cooking with Love

It's been a while since I baked something. But as I stood mixing the batter for cupcakes, I felt stress and tension in my shoulders [partly contributed to by this stupid cat named Puma who lives with us]. And then I discovered that I hadn't even added all of the ingredients into the batch.

So, I began again after a nice workout at the gym. But this time I was even more frustrated and sad. On the way home from the gym Travis and I were almost killed by a "sudden stopper" on Broadway. I felt blamed for the situation, but it really frightened me.

Now thoughts of how frustrated I've been all day are popping into my head, and I'm sorry, Allie, that the cupcakes weren't made with an overall feeling of love [although I love you]. But maybe this is a lesson I need to learn.

If everything were a cupcake, would it be filled with my love?