And I'm off!

Tomorrow I am heading off to LA for my bicycle trip with Toni!!!!!!! I am joining her (and taking over Sarah's spokes) to participate in their project: Sustainable Cycles. You should go to the blog and read about their adventures. They started in Seattle in August, and have made their way all the way to LA. On their bikes. Seriously cool and I am very excited to be part of their adventures, and also a part of their cause: educating women (and men!) about the wonders of menstrual cups and other sustainable products! And for those of you now who are thinking "ewwe" or "TMI" I am going to say this to you now: Relax and get over yourself, it's not a big deal, there is no need to wig out, it's something everybody's got to deal with, so lets deal with it in the best way possible. AKA silicone cups.
Here is the link:
www.sustainablecycles.wordpress.com
Hopefully we will be able to update the sustainable cycles blogs with pictures and narrative along our way...if not, see you in two weeks!
LOVE!

Happy Birthdays!

Hi folks. We've been busy since I last wrote, so it is hard to know what to talk about...
I guess first I should say that Saturday was Lyra the Cat's fourth birthday, so we did a little cat birthday celebrating, yes we did.

Happy Birthday Lyra! Lyra is very excited about turning 4!
Actually she's yawning, but she looks psyched!

We started off the day with a little bit of Fancy Feast salmon and tuna with gravy breakfast for kitty and  ended the day with chocolate cake a la mode QFC chocolate cake for me and Nathan.  I made a birthday hat for kitty. She loved it.

Then yesterday was Nadia (not a cat)'s birthday party, which was a BYOP pumpkin carving party. Helped us get in the holiday mood.

Me imitating my pumpkin

Nathan imitating his pumpkin

A whole bunch of awesome pumpkins

Birthday girl! I made the glittter crown...

I made the tops!

Brushes with FAME

I'm a girl in the big city and I work at a tiny and hip vegan restaurant and so brushes with fame are basically inevitable. Here is the news:

Last friday: Ladida...normal day at work...why bother to shower or comb hair? A private party from 2-4 in the restaurant? Okaydokay. It's 1:30, I wonder what this private party is, OH the MAYOR OF SEATTLE is coming HERE to sign some legislation into city law and they are going to be taking THOUSANDS OF PICTURES so make sure the restaurant LOOKS PERFECT and BY THE WAY YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO STAND BEHIND THE MAYOR AND DIRECTLY IN THE SIGHT LINES OF A THOUSAND CAMERAS. 

It was pretty cool I guess. I got to meet mayor McGinn. It is a bill requiring 5 paid sick days a year. Which is a pretty cool way to not spread diseases, especially if you work in food services. Of course it isn't fool proof because you are most contagious right before you start having symptoms, so how could you know you need a sick day! Viruses are tricky! Also, paid sick days law does not help you get your shift covered, which at least in the case of plum, is the only reason anyone would come to work sick. But the bill is pretty cool for a lot of jobs, and my boss Makini helped make it happen and gave a speech and introduced The Mayor. Then there was a lot of official recognitions and thank yous, and clapping that is required in politics. For those of you who don't know, I dislike politics because I think it's a bunch of empty rhetoric and appeasing people so they'll vote for you/do what you want, but somebody's got to do it and that is how the game is played. Yay for paid sick days and meeting my local government.

Here is a picture!

There I am standing awkwardly with a bunch of people who deserve to be in this photo.  Also the woman on the right came in for dinner the other night and her baby is adorable.

OK, fast forward to this past Friday night and my more recent brush with fame (also Plum related) is with this guy:

It's okay if you don't recognize him. I totally wouldn't have except that he made reservations under MOBY. And if you are of an older generation, you might be thinking he's a whale, but he's not, he's a famous cross-over electric pop music artist. And even though the reservation said MOBY I was still dubious because of the How I met your Mother episode where they see this guy on the street and they say, "Hey that looks like Moby! Moby, come party with us!" (it's new years) but then the guy turns out not to be Moby and actually a crazy guy with a gun. But that was not so in this case, it actually WAS Moby and he was very nice and soft spoken and ordered the Heirloom Tomato Salad, Potato and Olive Pizza, black coffee, green tea, and banana cake with chocolate frosting and coconut flakes. I hope he liked the food. I tried to be very professional and pretend I didn't know who he was, but I did kinda fumble my words a little bit...

So this was a lot of fame two weeks in a row. I don't know that I've met anyone famous before. Oh wait! Not true. I met Merce Cunningham when he was still alive backstage at the Power Center and he told me (and the other dancers I was with in this tiny dressing room) about his dice that he used to choreograph with and how he had to get the store manager to bring down the jar of dice off of a high shelf and he picked out one of every color. I also saw Obama speak at the Michigan graduation, and I met Nancy Stark Smith. She even came to my thesis concert, so that was pretty neat! And I saw Dick Cheney through his car window. I could have seen famous people and not even known it. I'm not very good at remembering faces or celebraties... all for the best probably.