Gun and Bear It

I tried posting this a couple of weeks ago, but Blogger was down so you're getting it now...

Granted, I work in one of the most ghetto commercial districts of Lakewood. We've had cops storm our building to do reconnaissance on the pay-by-the-hour motel next door. We've had pimps drop their ho's out in our parking lot to start their daily walk. We've had thefts of our scrap metal from old furnaces. We've had boxes from blow-up dolls (complete with real life pictures of boobies) just hanging around outside. But somehow I never expected to see this...

Yesterday I started to drive home and suddenly came across a scene you think you'll only see in a movie. Three ordinary cars were pulled to the side of the road and a large man was standing on the sidewalk, casually holding a double barrel shot gun. Two other men were on either side of one of the cars, each pointing a handgun in through the front broken windows. I was beyond shocked at what I was witnessing. I got out of there as quickly as possible due to the proximity of mere feet between me and several guns and the fear of what might happen should I linger. Later on, I found the news story and it turned out that they were bounty hunters who had killed the man in the car. I pieced together the story with what I had seen and realized that I had arrived on the scene mere seconds after the shooting. I love that it was mere blocks from my office. (You can check out news coverage at: http://www.komonews.com/news/19196164.html )

Oh, but that wasn't the end of my excitement. The following day, I was in the parking lot of the Safeway by my house and all of a sudden 6-8 police cars pull up to the espresso stand. About 10 officers get out and draw their weapons. Half had hand guns and the other half had rifles. They started yelling and shouting to some people to get down. It took about 5 minutes, but they eventually got an elderly couple to the ground, cuffed them and put them in a police car. It was a thrilling thing to witness. I can't believe 2 in 2 days!!!!!!! What the heck? (My original email to people immediately after seeing the episode had "what the f**k" in it, but I decided to soften my words since there has been a bit of a time away from the thrill of the situation and my disbelief has lessened somewhat).

Better Seats Than Bill Gates

Sorry friends for taking so long to tell you about the Swell Season concert. I've been busy. And tired. And now sick. As in sneezing, runny nose, sore throat, burning eyes, achey joints, and a fever. My head is about ready to explode, my kidneys are trying to process all of the vitamins & meds I've been taking, and I can't hear out of one ear. My one consolation is that it's raining right now. There is nothing worse than being sick on a nice sunny day. At least with the rain I have an excuse to stay inside on my couch all day, watching the movie that brings me joy every time I feel under the weather: You've Got Mail. I absolutely HAVE to watch it with every cold. The scene where she is sick out of her mind and he comes to bring her daises makes me swoon a little bit each time. Sigh.

Anyway, on to the concert... If you haven't heard of the Swell Season, I urge you to watch the movie Once and fall in love with the music like I did. Then you need to run right out and buy their album. Or see them in concert. They were funny, magical, and brilliant live. All the things you could possibly want from an artist.

After the opening act, we were all standing up and stretching because the chairs at The Moore have got to be the most uncomfortable I have ever sat on. All of a sudden Rachael starts tapping me furiously on the arm. I look around frantically, trying to see what the fuss was. She waits until a man passes by behind us before turning to me and exclaiming that Bill Gates just walked by. Sure enough, it was him and we watched as he had to take the last remaining seats in the very back of the balcony. Our seats sucked, but at least we had the satisfaction of knowing that they were better than the 3rd richest man in the world. Yes, it was a great concert.

P.S. I stole the following pictures from Rachael

Me, Adam, Rachael, Stephen

The Swell Season

Serious Knife Brandishing Skills

As some of you know, I am on vacation in Lincoln City, OR. By myself. I know, I know, I'm either crazy or a hermit-wannabe, right? Nope, none of the above. Just someone who likes a little alone time every so often and decided that the decade-long dream to vacation by herself should not go unfulfilled. Hence, this week.

It all started out peacefully enough, with a trip down I-5. After hitting Portland however, things got a wee bit dicey. I swear by Google (and have been known to claim that I would marry it if it were a man), but it led me astray. A few wrong directions and I was a wee bit off course. Praise Jesus that my savior was the innate sense of direction that never steers me wrong (is that sacrelige to say-- Jesus/savior?). I only stopped once to ask for directions and was informed that if I simply looked out the window, I would see the street I needed. I did feel a little sheepish about that.

One of my more pronounced fears is the one of heights. They make me paralyzed and became the direct cause of another category of Angie hand injuries-- gripping-steering-wheel-itis. This joins the likes of cell-phone-thumb-itis (from constantly being on my work cell phone) & holding-book-one-handed-itis (self explanatory). Driving over mountainous roads going around a bend at 55 mph with a cliff on one side of you while praying, "God, why didn't you make the speed limit lower?" causes one to clutch tightly to the wheel, which in turn causes shooting pain to radiate up one's arms. Yes people, that tightly.

After getting here, it has been all fun and games. I took 4 books with me and debated if it was enough (after all, I've been known to devour 5 books in 3 days before) but quickly came to the conclusion that I wasn't even going to finish one book. I mean really, we don't get tv at home, so I have to stock up on it here. I've been watching a ton of trashy tv, with my favorite being Millionaire Matchmaker. Basically millionaires get matched up with young hot women, which prompted a conversation between me and Jess where we decided that while I wouldn't want to be on that show, I could totally do it because I'm nothing but arm candy. Absorb that people. Arm candy. Me. I really like the way that sounds.

Oh wow, this is getting long so I must get on to the story that prompted the title of this post... In between watching trash & barely reading, I have been walking the beach. On one particular occasion, I was forced to change courses when I happened upon a young man who was yelling obscenities at his friends. As I watched, he pulled out a knife and started threatening them while screaming that one of them just tried to kill him. "F**k you, I can't trust you anymore, you just tried to kill me, did you hear that, he just tried to f**king kill me..." On and on and on he went. It got very tiresome because from my observations of the incident, they had been calmly sitting. No one tried to kill anybody. I'm pretty sure the guy was on a trip of some sort. And I don't mean the vacation variety.

Welp, I leave you with a picture of what I have been able to experience here. You can click on it to see more if you like. It has been wonderful and I will be sad to leave tomorrow!

Carrots and Oranges and Lettuce, Oh My!

Our GLORIOUS produce from our first pick-up at
Take Root Farms:

OOOO 1&2: Dancing & Girls Wrestling

Some of you may be acquainted with Wild and Crazy Day. For those of you not in the know, it is a holiday Jess and I started our freshman year of college on February 25, 2001 when we got a few additional piercings in our ears. Feeling like we were being somewhat rebellious and wild girls (we do realize it is actually pretty tame), we decided that we needed to continue to do it. Thus, Wild and Crazy Day was born. It is the 25th of every month and we have to do something out of the ordinary for it. Doesn't have to necessarily be crazy, just something we normally wouldn't do. Over the years we did things like playing pranks on people, sleeping outside in the middle of winter, and essentially were huge dorks. While we don't officially celebrate the holiday anymore (other than saying "Happy Wild and Crazy Day" to each other), we have birthed an off-shoot of it: Out Of the Ordinary Outings, or OOOO for short.

OOOO 1:
It started last weekend when we went to see Winterfest, which is a dance festival put on by a dance school here in Puyallup. One of the girls in my youth group invited me to go (she was in it), so Jess decided to tag along. Four hours and 65 dances later, our butts were sore but we were in awe of the performances. From the elementary schoolers who shimmied and shook to the high schoolers who's dances were evocative with emotion, we were highly entertained. These kids were astounding!

OOOO 2:
Earlier today Jess and I ended up going to a high school girl's wrestling match. There were guys there as well, but we were there mainly for the females. One of Jess' friends is the coach for Rogers HS, so we went to be spectators for this surprising sport. At first when we got there we really didn't have any idea what was going on. Previously giggling at the sport never left us with much desire to learn its intricacies. However, we quickly surmised that if we were to enjoy this at all, we would have to get a tutorial, and quickly. We turned to our friendly-looking bench neighbor and pleaded for some information. He was able to give us the basics of the sport and answered some of our questions. We were able to then get into the matches and were surprised at the strength of some of these girls. At times we weren't sure if we were watching male or female matches (no offense meant there).

So our OOOO were born, and we hope to continue them. Nothing too drastic, just something we wouldn't normally do-- Out Of the Ordinary Outings.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Jami and Chermaie hosted the raddest party we'd been to in a while! There was delicious cake and beautiful decorations. The highlights of the night were the rounds of M.A.S.H. we played. Praise the Lord that I'm marrying an underwear model! Until then, I can be content with the "Grow A Boyfriend" that I received as a loving gift from Jami. Wasn't that just so thoughtful of her? Katie and I were just so thrilled to be the recipients men that grow in just 72 hours. While initially disappointed that the results would take that of long, Adam pointed out to us that it took him years to grow up. A great thing to keep in perspective. I think my face in the group picture is just so amazing. That was a moment that I am so glad got caught on camera.

Final Late Tuesday Concert

Sadly, the time has come to say goodbye to one of our favorite bands, Late Tuesday. Jess and I trekked up to Bellingham for the final concert and met up with some of our Camano Island friends: Luke, Nate & Andy. It was great to see them again and to catch up on the latest gossip from one of my favorite places.

Luke, Nate, Jess, Me, Andy

The concert was lovely but extremely late, so we didn't leave the venue until nearly midnight. We spent the night at Lucy's house. (Side note: She's one of our best friends and adds to our collection of friends whose real names are Jessica but have been assigned a different moniker to differentiate which person is actually being referred to. In my college career, I lived with 4 Jessicas-- no joke!) After a wonderful Avellino coffee treat thanks to Andy, us girls had lunch with an old roomie, Katie. We had such a relaxing retreat to Bham. As we were driving around the city, Jess and I realized how even though we love the 'Ham, we love where we live more. Bellingham will always have a special place in our hearts, but Puyallup is home.

Jess, Lucy, Me