The Space Needle, Office Dinners, Hot Dogs, Country and Western Bars, and St. Lucia's Day: A post that is officially all over the place.
I've had a pretty nice past few days. This week has been awesomely great mostly because I don't have a whole lot going on besides a few appointments and trying to wade my way through more Geology assignments (this is proving to be the longest class in the history of time, solely by my own doing).

Every day this week, Lauren, Hillary, Megan, Laura and I have been getting together; each time doing a little celebration of our *graduation.* Today, Megan and Laura had us over to their place to celebrate St. Lucia's Day, which I understand to be the Swedish version of Christmas. Correct? Megan told us that St. Lucia was killed and had her eyes gouged out. I'm pretty sure that there was more the story, but that's the part that stuck with me. Yesterday we met for lunch at Hot Dougs, which was surprisingly crowded for a Tuesday afternoon. No reindeer hot dogs on the menu that day.

This past week I finished up with my exam, papers, last client sessions, and also went out for Hillary's birthday last Wednesday. That was great since it ended up being an extremely flavorful tour of the Northside. We started with dinner at Pho 777 in Argyle and then ended the night at Carol's Pub, which is this dimly lit country and western bar on the fringes of Andersonville. There were about three people in the place besides us and the live band. Two of the people were a newly minted married couple who informed us that they had met in the bar a year ago, and proposed in the bar as well (we were the only people who didn't know since everyone else attended the wedding that past weekend). The groom looked like a character out of Bloom County with the cigarettes rolled up in his t-shirt sleeve and aviators that didn't come off of his face. The bride was extremely warm and she sent Hillary a birthday drink across the bar. The country and western band also organized a birthday singalong and accepted a birthday request from Hillary. Friendliest bar ever.

Thursday night I went with Todd to his company's holiday dinner. Fancy affair! Steak! Fancy dessert! Open bar! I love company holiday parties.

This past weekend, we took a whirlwind trip to Seattle. Kiley had done us the favor of bringing us back maps, magazines, and bus schedules from her recent trip, as well as a list of places to visit. This had stupendous worth since we visited every place she recommended. Our hotel was in the downtown area (2 blocks from the space needle; believe it.) so we walked much, more, and a lot all weekend. Todd was excited to see the reunion of Juno on Saturday and Sunday nights, we got to see Don, and we got to try lots and lots of coffee places. Kiley named one place (Vivace) as the best place in Seattle, so we found it and I will wholeheartedly agree that it is mah-velous. Some things that struck me about Seattle:
- It smells so fresh! Definitely compared to Chicago, which can often smell like exhaust and urine.
-The buses operate on hybrid-electric! Very impressive and progressive.
-Seattle is a lot more hilly than I recollected. Good to get the exercise, but I couldn't park a car on some of those inclines. Or ride a bike up them.

Again, I have pictures. I just have to figure out how to download them onto my computer.