you mean we have to wait for this?

jessica and i took angela out to dinner the other night to celebrate her birthday (happy birthday ang!). Let me tell you, it was an experience. "ang, you choose...wherever you want to go...it's your birthday...your night." when i heard jessica say these words i knew...we were going to sushi. not just any sushi, "conveyor belt" sushi. i have to admit i've always been slightly curious, although i knew that i most likely wouldn't like it. unlike most northwesterners, coming from the seafood capital of the world, i have an aversion to fish or anything fish like. webster's online dictionary defines such an aversion as "a feeling of repugnance toward something with a desire to avoid or turn from it," which, i think, perfectly describes my feelings toward all things seafood. specifically, the word "avoid" would describe my feelings towards sushi up until this point.

so, as we set out on our "adventure" i began to give myself a pep talk. "it's alright beckie, you can do this. you've been to foreign countries, eaten stranger things, you can do this. it's just the fear of the unknown." this positive self talk kind of worked until we walked in the door and the unknown became the known. now, "conveyor belt" sushi (my term, Sushiland is the actual name) is definitely a unique experience. basically, you sit at a counter and watch food go by you on a conveyor belt, while you choose what you want to eat, by matching what you see on the menu in front of you. california rolls, shrimp tempura, fried bean curd are all terms that i'm now intimately familiar with. to make a long story short...too late...i survived and i can now say that i've experienced it, but it's been confirmed that i definitely don't like sushi. i mean, i can understand the worlds obsession with it...the idea of it is very cool and its extremely healthy, but...

after sushi we went to bubble tea. bubble tea, or pearl tea, is a milk tea with tapioca balls or jellies in the bottom and you drink it through a big fat straw. jessica says she likes it because "you don't often get the chance to drink and chew gum at the same time." that description doesn't make it sound very appetizing, but angela has recently become obsessed with it and since it was her birthday...we went. i thought that i really liked bubble tea. however, recently i found out that what i was drinking, and considered bubble tea, is actually a strawberry slushy with pineapple jellies in the bottom (yum!) and the actual bubble tea, well, i don't like it. so, what i've learned from angela's very asian birthday is this...what i consider to be adventurous and daring is just plain and boring to everyone else. and...i'm extremely ok with that.

party like it's 1999...er...make that 2007!

"i'm fifty, and i can kick..." if you recognize that quote as being said by molly shannon in a sketch on saturday night live, than you probably are not, in fact, fifty. (if you didn't recognize it, then please just excuse my random knowledge of useless pop-culture trivia.) as my father would now say, "what does all this have to do with the price of tea in China." to which i will answer...patience, i'm getting there.

so, my office loves to party. no matter what the occasion, or lack there of, they will find a way to celebrate. i know what you're thinking..."cake, free food, how very southern baptist of you." and i won't argue. plus, it gives you a free out from work for at least 30 minutes. today, during the 50th birthday celebration of a co-worker, i had some observations that i would love to share.

epiphany #1: i am currently in a place in my life where i find myself celebrating more 50th birthdays than any other number. i only find this odd because people around me used to be turning 21, 25, even 30, not 50. i know that this is only the case because i work in a place where i'm the second youngest person and the third is older than me by at least ten years. it's not necessarily a bad thing, just an observation.

epiphany #2: while people were teasing the "birthday boy" about being over the hill, going blind, etc...i found myself thinking...50's not old, wait, when did I get to the place in life where i'm thinking that 50 isn't that old. again, it's all about perspective...in that room, 50 wasn't old, it's the median age.

epiphany #3: birthday cards making fun of age are really not that funny. for example: "remember when...cell phones were the things you used to make your one phone call from jail...surfing was done on a board in the ocean...and airbags were people who talked too much."

and on that note...if you've followed me this far, then you might now be wishing that i hadn't shared my observations. what can i say...i love to share my random thoughts.

fight, fight, fight, for washington state...

washington state university's Butch T. Cougar...capital one mascot of the year!

a few of my favorite things...

friends....
last week i went to kansas for the wedding of a close friend. i had forgotten how good it feels to be around people that really know me, know my stories, laugh at shared jokes. it's easy, comfortable, no first impresssions.

work...
one of the things i love most about my job is lunch time. i'm not sure what i thought a lunchroom in the "real world" would look like, but i never imagined this. lunch in my building consists of crowding as many adults as possible around a table and then telling stories and laughing for an hour. (today there were 9 of us) i thought days like this had passed me by when i graduated from college, but i'm glad to say that i was wrong. i love when you walk into the room and see the full table, there's a brief glimmer of doubt, perhaps you'll have to sit at the other table alone, and then someone sees you and says, "don't worry, there's room for one more." and everyone scoots to fit you in. i'm almost convinced that no matter how many people came in that door, they would get squeezed in too.

things that make me laugh...