Birthday Week(s)

My birthday was over a week ago but I feel like it just ended after 12 days of non-stop action.  There’s too much to go over it all so I’ll just touch on the highlights.

Two weekends ago I checked out the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.  I can hardly remember the last time I went to a zoo, but it was a nice fall day and (more importantly) I had free tickets from work.  I was actually really impressed with how it was set-up and organized by theme (African Savannah, Tropical Rain Forrest, Australian Outback, etc.) and they had a lot of animals.  Did you know that some snakes give birth to live young?  I didn’t believe the sign and had to google it later, but it true.



So Cute!!!

We’ve been having Seattle Restaurant week for the past 2 weeks; pre-fixe menus at various upscale places around town.  Coincidently, I think it’s also restaurant week back in the RVA.  It must be some sort of nationwide restaurateur conspiracy (although at least in Richmond, some of the money goes to charity).  Anyhow, it was great timing because I had family visiting last week.  My first cousin, once removed and her husband (they’re kind of like my aunt and uncle) had driven all the way across the country following the Oregon Trail (just like the video game from elementary school).  Their final destination was supposed to be Portland, but it didn’t take too much to convince them that as long as they’d driven 3000 miles, what was another 200 miles to come up to Seattle?  Yay!  I hadn’t seen them in about a year so it was great to catch up again.  It didn’t hurt that it was warm enough (with the help of outdoor heaters) to eat on the restaurant’s patio on top of Pike Place Market, overlooking the Puget Sound at sunset.  I try to show my visitors a good time J

The next night was my actual birthday.  I think I’m getting a little old (this is my last year of my 20’s!!!!) to do anything too crazy, but I still wanted to celebrate.  So, my friends and I checked out a show at the CanCan.  It’s this little tucked away, speakeasy-looking club underneath Pike Place Market.  On the weekends I think they do a big, elaborate burlesque show ($$$), but during the week they have WTF Wednesdays for $12.  WTF is probably an accurate description of the show, but I’ll try to explain a little better; it’s a cabaret/burlesque/variety show/lounge act.  They had lots of dance numbers, some sexy, some funny, some just strange (like the guy doing push-ups with a giant furry monkey mask over his head) and also some skits and audience participation bits.  Thankfully, despite my friend’s urging, I did not get pulled up on stage.  Whatever it was, it was certainly $12 worth of entertainment and a great way to spend my birthday.

The next night, the girls and I had won free tickets to the play, “Humor Abuse”, a pretty good autobiographical one-man show about growing up in the circus.  It was an interesting mix of dramatic monologs and juggling…

The next night was supposed to be movie night with the boy.  There are several interesting one-screen theaters in town so we checked out what was playing; Purple Rain?  No thanks.  Moneyball?  He’d already seen it. 

Boy:  Ben-Hur?

Me:  Like from the 60’s with the chariot racing?

Boy:  Yeah, it’s a classic and I’ve never seen it.  I think its on the AFI top 100.

Then I did a little googling…

Me:  Yes, it’s on the AFI top 100, but it’s dead last at #100 and its 3.5 hours long and the full title is Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.  Wouldn’t you rather go see something else???

Boy:  Uh, I think this would be interesting…

So I caved and we went to see Ben-Hur.  It was playing at the renovated Cinerama which I’d never been to before.  The place is HUGE, the screen is HUGE, they have balcony seating in the theater, and the concession stand sells chocolate popcorn!  I have to admit that the chariot-racing scene was pretty cool, but the other 190 minutes of the movie… not so much.  Also, watching a movie about Jesus is not what I’d call a romantic date.  This boy needs to step up his game a little.

The next day was a pre-Halloween (wear your 2^nd best costume) pub crawl.  Evidently themed pub crawls are a popular thing in Seattle, but this was my very first one.  I was talking about Halloween costumes with my supervisor and he told me his 7-year old daughter was dressing up as Little Red Riding Hood.  What a coincidence, that was my costume for the pub crawl!  He just shook his head and walked away.  Hahaha, I don’t think he appreciated the mental image of both me and his little girl dressed up in the same costume.  The crawl ended up being a super-fun, crazy night, but pretty exhausting too.  There’s another one scheduled for this Saturday (with your #1 costume) so I’m sure I’ll have more great pictures.

Sunday night I went to an acrobatic, ninja show.  Again, I’m not quite sure how to describe it, but it was a stage performance of four guys doing martial arts, acrobatics, and juggling.  The basic storyline involved the quest for a magical jacket that gave its wearer special powers.  The whole thing was almost like a cartoon and was absolutely hilarious.

Finally Monday and Tuesday of this week I had a much needed break and both nights I was in bed by 8:30!