Made it!

Hello folks! I've officially arrived in the Dominican Republic! Got in yesterday and spent an evening chillaxing with the fambily. Joan has scored a kick-ass apartment that overlooks the big swath of water that starts with a C and pirates sailed on it in a movie with Johnny Depp. I'm using a MAC and I don't know how to work the spell check so I don't know how to spell it. I'm also cranky because I'm a little hungry. But we're going to a party, a fiesta, if you will, at the Ambassador's house in a little while so I'm saving my belly for that. But in the meantime I'm cranky. Using... er... trying to use a mac is making me crankier.

The lowdown - the flights were terribly uneventful, and as I'm used to traveling to Asia, the 12 hour travel time seemed like a walk in the park in comparison. The driver who was supposed to pick me up at the airport didn't actually write my name down on the board he had, he just help up the board with the company name on it, so I waited around for 15 minutes or so before calling my sister and figuring it all out. Once that was all sorted, I was driven to my sister's apartment and just hung out here for the evening. Eventually she and her family (including me) will move into a house in a more residential area, but for now we're in the apartment, which is vast and had 4 bathrooms. There was much chatting and laughing and then Joan and Dave and I ate nachos.

Oh and the rum and coke's here are really good.

Too good.

Drunk texts = FUN!

So I have to share with you this drunk text conversation between Lerin and I on the night of my Super Sendoff party. Lerin and I had hung out before the party, and she was unsure if she'd make it to the actually party. By 11:45 she hadn't shown up yet, and my friends Patty mentioned this fact, which prompted the conversation as documented below -

Me - "Patty andi r so sadu didnt show up. asad . SAD? YES? Sad.

Lerin replied back that she was in a bit of a funk and wasn't going to make it, and accused me of being drunk, to which I replied

Me - "Girl! yes i is DRUNK! WITH PATTY! we are EPIC. I heart you . your funk sucks. i might barf. forget that. i heart you. This = best text ever!"

Beware the dangers of tequila, kids!

Al's Good Riddance Party!

Last night was my Super Sendoff Shingdig! Many a friend came out to join me in merriment. The evening began with drinks at Toulouse Petite with Chelsea, Lerin and Danielle. I had a very tasty cocktail and shared spicy shrimp with Chelsea. There were pictures taken, but I can't seem to find my battery charger for my camera. Really hoping I find it before I leave... anyway, the photos below were taken with Uriah's awesome phone. So after Toulouse, Chelsea and I went to The Paragon for a shot of tequila and a shot of Crown Royale (guess which one of us drank what!) and then headed over to The Hilltop Ale House. We kicked it at the Ale House for about 3 hours. I ate half of a steak sandwich, Uriah also had a steak sandwich but was disappointed that it had cilantro all over it. JHo brought his own cashews. There was much beer. Hannah had Spice Girl's lyrics written on her hand. Shea left me the cutest, saddest voice message ever. I arm wrestled
Hannah and she won the first two times but then I was victorious on the third. George gave me a cool little book, I think I'll write song lyrics in it. Patty gave me a card that plays music and encourages me to dance. Jumana and Jason came even though they are getting married in just over a week and undoubtedly have loads of things to do. Sandy and the Jensen girls came and they ALL wore skirts! I didn't get to chat with Nick, Jordan, Lacey or Charlie nearly as long as I would have liked. Z and Aliki are champs and I wished they lived next door and not in Northgate so I could see them more often. Benny took the number 4 bus. Mass was there too. I'm so lucky and grateful to have such amazing friends!

Wow. I'm almost all packed up. And by almost I mean not nearly as close as I'd like to be. Due to the massive quantity of alcohol imbibed last night, today was not as productive as I would have liked it to have been. It was a day-long battle of comfy bed vs. anything other than the comfy bed. The bed won a lot.

So I leave tomorrow. Gotta get up, go to work until 6ish, get the rats over to Benny's, make sure the apartment is in good order for Josh, the subletter, and get me and my over-packed luggage to the aeroport for the excitement of a red-eye to Dallas. From Dallas to Miami. From Miami to Santo Domingo. There will be a driver waiting for me with a sign that says my name. Cool! I'm gonna feel like a movie star!


Why hello there...
Me and Patty and a breadstick
Mass and I
My darling Monte!
I'm so cute sometimes I could barf
When you have very little hair, it's fun to play with other people's hair
Fun with hair!
Smashing evening! And by that I mean I was totally smashed when this picture was taken
Hotcha!

One week to go!

I'm one week, one hour and 40 minutes away from liftoff. Things are progressing well. Baked some cookies tonight with the bag of chocolate chips I was trying to use up in the pantry. My friend is hosting a neat monthly food club thingy and basically this month the theme is Mexican-ish, and really you're supposed to bring a variation of the basic recipe that is sent out, but if you feel inspired you can make something to accompany it. So in an effort to not add more things to the food supply in my house and, in fact, use up the stuff I currently have, I lamely altered the chocolate chip cookie recipe to produce "Super Mexi-choco Space Wizard Shazam Cookies!" How can my friend not be swayed by that great name! Plus the deliciousness of said cookies is scrumptiously astronautical! Heck yeah!



Is it the surface of some distant planet - NO! It is Space Cookies that are out of this WORLD!

Sad news comes to the Rat City

While my morning tea is steeping I thought I'd take a moment to deliver the sad news on the home front. One of my fuzzy babies, B.U. Phinnaeus died last Saturday night. It was particularly tragic as apparently she choked on something. And, yes, I did actually try the rat Heimlich maneuver - there is such a thing! - and when she stopped breathing I attempted CPR but to no avail. As I always try to look to the good in bad situations, I figure that she was a little sickly and I was worried that she's die when I was in the DR. So at least this way I could be present for passing and take a lovely walk through Discovery Park with Benny where we saw many happily abandoned pet rabbits and several zippy hummingbirds before finding a particularly horrid spot for digging (sorry Benny!) for Phin's final resting spot.

She is survived by her sister, H.T. Vanderrat and her special friend Umlaut.

She will be missed terribly.

Gettin' Close

Subletter person guy - CHECK!

Sold my scooter - CHECK!

Travel insurance - CHECK!

Fluency in Spanish - Not so much

Packing up the apartment - Not even started

So I'm mostly on the ball with all this. A little more than two weeks out and it still isn't particularly real to me. My sister and her family left the US today. How strange it's got to be knowing that your whole life will change so completely. For me it's not so big; theoretically I'm coming back to Seattle and all my comfortable things and people. It's hard even for me to imagine starting a new life in a city I've never even visited before. Still though, I guess with the right job offer and the right amount of money I'd go just about anywhere... maybe.