On a Break

We're on spring break right now. Or intersession. Whatever. We're on a break. I don't automatically get the time off, but I usually take a chunk of time off during the week. This year I took Monday through Wednesday (today) off. Of course, today I keep thinking, "Why didn't I take the whole week off?"

I had planned on getting some stuff done at home. I am in a declutter kind of mood. Usually when I have these plans I end up spending my free time napping, reading, knitting, watching, TV... you know, that kind of stuff. This time was different--I actually got stuff done.

I did some soul searching a few weeks ago. I'm not going to go into details why, but I made myself sit down and sort out what I really wanted. After doing that, I felt energized about me and my life. And part of that energy needed to be put into cleaning, decluttering, and settling. I've been in my place almost four years and I still feel like I've never really moved in. So... I'm doing some of those things I had planned on doing right after I moved in.

I bagged up four bags of crap and took them to Goodwill. I reorganized a few things. I hung curtains. Not curtains aver a window, but curtains over a ten-foot long door-less closet. I'm tired of looking at my crap. This involved four trips to a big-name home improvement store (twice to buy things, twice to return things) and a lot of swearing. And the actually putting up of cafe rods (it took three total) was not difficult, but I spent a good thirty minutes trying to screw in the brackets with my electric screwdriver set on unscrew. Me equals idiot. But I hung a total of five curtains and it looks great. Instead of looking at a wall of my crap, I look at a wall of drapery.

I did some walking. The weather over the last few weeks has been an up-and-down mix of rains, hail, snow, and sporadic sun. Today we had solid and constant sun. After making the last two of my fours trips to the hardware store, I made a beeline to the waterfront. A few hours outside my face turned a little pink and I feel refreshed. It's spring.

While wandering around I stumbled on the Solar Queen.
I, of course, texted this to Sweet Pickles, who immediately responded that he
needed one. And he does. Put the Solar Queen on the windowsill and she
waves when the sun hits her. 

In the middle of my break I went to Seattle with a friend. We took the train, of course. First up was a trip to the University District for some vegan comfort food at Wayward Vegan Cafe. As we were wandering down the street I picked up a rejuvinated vintage purse, and I found some vegan Dansko rainboots for 50% off.

Dixie Fried from Wayward Vegan Cafe. Country friend "chiggen" with  gravy, greens, and broccoli slaw. The fried thing on the left is a fried biscuit. This was good, but considering how good the gravy  was, the next time I will just get the biscuits and gravy. I could've eaten a bowl of the gravy. 

Rebecca got the cranberry pancakes and they were huge and stupendous. 

This was followed by a few hours in downtown Seattle where we hit up Lush and Sephora, went wedding dress shopping (for her, not me), and hit up the Market for baked goods and fruit. One of the best things I like about taking the train to Seattle is that Uwajimaya is right next to the King Street Station. And this means picking up Vietnamese noodles for the train ride home. Seattle, as always, was a fun trip and made me remind myself I need to get down there much more often. Once or twice a year isn't enough.

Shredded tofu on rice noodles with marinated veggies from food
 court in Uwajimaya.