I have been truly terrible at keeping up with my blog this month! I was doing so well for awhile there, and then NaNoWriMo just crashed its way in and wrecked my whole flow – and then, well,  December just sort of speaks for itself in terms of getting off schedule. The holidays are in FULL SWING, and the road trip I was on since Monday didn’t help at all.

But that’s not to say the trip wasn’t totally amazing. I will walk you through a few of the highlights, right now.

Joe and I hit the road early Monday morning but it wasn’t until about midday that we hit snow for the first time. I was a bit worried about getting my Fiesta through the snowy mountainy part of the drive, but it was never really an issue.

I am a rather seasoned road-trip connoisseur, so I filled Joe in on the art of finding good places to eat when you have no idea where you are. All you have to do is look for diner names on the “Food at this Exit” signs, bearing a couple of rules in mind. First of all, you never pick a place you already know. You’re out exploring the open road! Subway can wait! No, when you’re on a road trip, you should always find new places to discover. The best way to pick them (when in reality you have absolutely nothing to go on) is to make sure they match one of two criteria. Rule #1 is to find a restaurant with an actual person’s name (like Rudy’s, or a Glenn’s, or Tracy’s). If the name sounds friendly, the food will probably be delicious. The friendlier, the more delicious. It’s direct variation, folks. Second is to pick a sign that’s written in cursive (or some other cute font). The cuter the font, the more adorable (and subsequently, delicious) the restaurant will be. For example, here’s one of the places we ended up eating at by following this standard set of rules:

Cutest font! And it was delicious! And they had amazing blackberry cobbler!

On the first day of our trip, we made it all the way from Seattle to Redding, California. It was a pretty intense day of driving, but it was made much easier by the beautiful sights as well as the massive amounts of Nightvale Radio we listened to. Joe and I learned you should probably only listen to 3-4 episodes of Nightvale Radio in one sitting. We learned this by listening to at least 12.

The next day we were back on the road where we made a stop-off outside of Sacremento to visit the offices of Wyrd, the makers of Jetpack Unicorn. Which is now available on Amazon, by the way. Our next stop was San Jose, but that may need to wait for its own blog post. I may or may not have accomplished a bucket list item there.

Thanks for sticking with me while I’ve been so crazy busy! There will be many more updates on this blog in the coming days, and in the mean time, please go catch up on my YouTube channel and gaming channel! We just started playing the Adventure Time game and it’s a lot of fun, so don’t miss it.

How’s your December going? Tell me one fun thing you’ve done this month in the comments, and I’ll be back with another post tomorrow.

For 7 years now, I have dedicated my Novembers to pounding out novel after novel, fighting against the odds to prove that I CAN do anything I set my mind to. And for nearly as long, other Wrimos across the country have gathered in San Francisco for one night of that month to experience this challenge together, with food, drink, and merriment.

When I started NaNoWriMo, I was in college. So not only was I writing an obscene amount of words in a month, I was doing it amidst homework! Amidst tests and class periods and my part time job! And each year I thought, “Maybe I’ll make it down to San Francisco this year,” but each year threw new obstacles in my way, and traveling for the sake of writing never fit into my crazy schedule.

But on this, my eighth year of reckless novel abandon, my friend and writing cohort Liz and I decided THIS. This was our year.

I have many blog posts already about the road trip, so for this, let’s focus on the event itself. This is also my very first bucket list post! If you want to see the other things on my (still growing) bucket list, you can check that out here.

Anyway, Liz and I got dressed up (the theme was Noir) and arrived at the ballroom via Lyft. Let me just tell you, this ballroom was gorgeous. It was located in the Merchant Exchange building right in the middle of the city, and the view was fabulous. There were tables everywhere, a little podium up front for speakers, and raffle prizes along the wall.

The open bar had fun novelty drinks such as the Noveltini, Cosmonovelton and GimLit. The Noveltini was my favorite. There was also a candy bar, where writers could refill a little white bag with enough sugar as they would need to get them through the write-a-thon. Dinner was fabulous and consisted of too many delicious things for me to even remember, and of course, throughout the night, they also served us donut holes and had a late night milk & cookie bar. The food was by far one of the best parts of the evening.

As far as activities went, sometimes it felt like there was almost too much to do! There was food to eat (as I mentioned), writers to mingle with, staff to meet, booze to drink, and a professional “author portrait” studio set up in back. Anyone attending the gala could get their photo snapped for use on our NaNo author pages, potential book jackets someday, who knows! That was a lot of fun. There were also timed writing sprints over the course of the night, as well as table wars, which encouraged the different tables of writers to get as many words written as they could so as not to let down your other table mates. It was a good motivator.

I was too excited about everything going on to take many pictures, so instead of seeing the gala itself, you get this selfie.

Let me talk about the tables for a second. It was a beautiful sight. The people running this event clearly know what they’re doing, as every single table in that ballroom had a powerstrip beneath it for attendees to plug their laptops into. Just try and imagine a gorgeous banquet room filled with people dressed to the nines with their laptops in a circle around their fancy tables. It was a sight to behold; especially when laptops were favored over other items and no one knew where to put their plates, wine glasses or candy bags. It was a juggling act, but made for great conversation. And, as far as I know, nothing was spilled on anyone’s computer.

After the food, another big highlight for me was getting to finally meet the people behind NaNoWriMo. This event has literally helped shape the last eight years of my life, and so much of that time was spent alone in my room, fingers poised above a laptop. Getting to not only meet and hug the people who created this crazy project, but to be in a room of 250 others who so completely understand what this project means to me was overwhelming. I might have gotten a little emotional.

I first met Shelby Gibbs and Tim Kim back at LeakyCon this summer, and they are the ones who convinced Liz and I to make the trip to San Francisco for the event. It was so lovely to see them again, and to get to meet Chris Angotti, the Director of Programs, Grant Faulkner, the Executive Director, Tavia Stewart-Streit, the Deputy Director, and so many others! And everyone knew who I was! Writing that NaNoWriMo song was one of the best decisions I ever made, and I had a lot of people come up to me and tell me they listen to it every year to get pumped to start writing. That meant more than anyone could ever imagine.

I also got to announce the second table war, as well as saying who won when it was over. I had a blast, especially because it meant I got the microphone for a small amount of time. Of course I used that opportunity to ask for a show of hands for who pronounces it my way, “na-no-wree-mo”. I lost, overwhelmingly, but hey! There were at least twenty or so people who raised their hands!

Getting to attend this event was something Liz and I have only ever dreamed of doing. We both managed to write about 2,500 words over the course the evening, made friends with our tablemates, stuffed ourselves with food and drink and went home exhausted but so, so happy. The crazy long road trip we took to get there was completely worth it. I am extremely happy with my very first bucket list item, and if everything on that list is as fun as this first one, then I highly look forward to starting to cross them off over the rest of my life.

There’s still 8 days left of NaNoWriMo! Who’s still in? How much would you like to be able to attend an event like this, dedicated solely to writing and to raising money to help empower others to write books? It was a dream come true, for me. Thanks for reading, and hopefully my next bucket list item won’t be too far off.

Despite being in San Francisco for specific writing marathon purposes, Liz and I managed to fit a whole lot of sight-seeing into our weekend there. Among these were probably two of the most opposite extremes: landmarks for the family friendly Full House, and a tour through the most notorious Federal Prison in all US history.

First we checked out the actual house used at the Tanner residence. It’s just a house that random people live in now, with a “No Tresspassing” sign out front. Clearly they aren’t fans, since they also chose to recently paint the iconic homestead a dark, jarring blue. Without knowing the address of this famed location, you’d hardly recognize it anymore. Whatever happened to predictability, am I right?

The Painted Ladies, however, are a San Francisco staple. These lovely houses sit along the ridge of a hill next to a bustling and beautiful park, and can be seen in the intro/theme to Full House, when they’re all having that picnic. Fun fact; apparently aside from an episode when Comet goes missing and they search the streets of SF for him, pretty much every other scene in the show was actually shot in LA.

Next stop was Alcatraz. I visited “The Rock” as a pre-teen, but Liz had never been there. My memories of the place were fuzzy, so I was more than happy to go back.

It was just as I remembered. Cold, creepy, and full of fascinating tidbits. The audio tour is narrated by actual ex-guards and inmates, which just makes the whole experience that much more surreal and spooky. We had such a great time exploring the island, soaking up the history, and learning the lesser known details and uses of this crazy island along the. Sure the place is heavily inflated by bad Hollywood movies, but that doesn’t make it any less of a worthwhile place to visit.

Homey, isn’t it? I can’t imagine spending any amount of time here let alone the numerous years most inmates endured. What a strange place. What a massive amount of history locked within the icy grip of the bay. I highly recommend you take the tour if you ever get the chance.

Next post will be my Night of Writing Dangerously wrap-up, which is also my very first bucket list item! I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts on the event with you all.

The outfit of the day portion of this blog post is coming, I promise. It’s a journey we’ll take together, this time.

So last week Thursday, my good friend and roommate Liz Leo and I set out on the most ambitious roadtrip we’ve ever taken, just the two of us. The trip was for NaNoWriMo and the Night of Writing Dangerously, which we’ve each done successfully for the past 8 years (7 for Liz) but never been to the huge write-a-thon party held in San Francisco each year. We powered down to Springfield, OR, stayed the night, then made our way all the way to Stockton on Friday. There was a lot of music listening, switching off who’s driving and who’s writing (we’re hardcore), appreciating how beautiful our corner of the country is, and hunting down the best roadside places to eat.

Then finally, on Saturday… we made it!! San Francisco is a crazy place, and man it feels good driving across the Bay bridge and knowing you earned being there, after 2 straight days in the car. Traffic or no traffic, we had arrived at our destination.

Of course the first thing Liz and I agreed to do was go to the Walt Disney Family Museum. I really didn’t know much about it, and we thought we’d just stop by and poke around for an hour or so… What really ended up happening was over three hours whizzing by without us even realizing it. The museum is FANTASTIC. I really enjoyed myself and I’m so glad we remembered to check it out.

The weather was beautiful in the city that day; sunny and clear but crisp in temperature, perfect for sweaters without jackets. I wore my brand new floral sweater and black skirt from Forever21, my red ankle boots from ModCloth, and coral colored socks I got from a cute little independent shop on the Ave by UW. It was a perfect outfit for traveling – comfortable enough for a long ride in the car, but fun enough for tourist pictures! I also bought myself some goodies in the museum gift shop, including a few gifts for people, so I wont be sharing those quite yet. If you ever get a chance to check this museum out, please do! It was wonderful.

I was so dedicated to not falling behind in word count on my trip to New York, but I came home exhausted and about 2,300 behind anyway. I was disappointed, but, by some crazy force of madness within me, I managed to write something like 6,000 words in 2 days and hit 20,000 right on time last night in an hour long word sprint I hosted on Twitter. It’s been a crazy couple of days, guys.

And it’s only about to get crazier.

I’m heading down to San Francisco tomorrow on a road trip to finally, finally attend the Night of Writing Dangerously, a party/write-a-thon for donors to the Office of Letters and Light. It’s a time to dress up fancy (I hear the theme is Noir) and raise a glass (and a pen) to the organization that tirelessly brings us NaNoWriMo, year after year. I couldn’t be more pumped.

I have always wanted to go, but it’s never been practical before to figure out a trip to San Francisco amidst the already crazy time-management of writing 50,000 words in a month. However, this summer I had the pleasure of meeting NaNo staff at LeakyCon, and combined with the perfect storm of also still having my Ford Fiesta, my main writing buddy Liz and I knew this year was the year. We’re taking turns driving (and, subsequently, writing) as we embark on the trip of a lifetime. What should I wear? I haven’t even started packing!!

I’ve been running a funding page for the event I’d like to point you in the direction of – the amount you need to raise for the event is $250, but this program has done so much for me that I am really trying to raise double that. My goal is $500 and ultimately this project will be the video I make for the Project 4 Awesome this year, so I really would love if people could check it out. Donating to my page sends the money to the same place as if you donated it directly to the Office of Letters and Light. Helping them reach their funding goals ensures we have NaNoWriMo for years to come!

On that note, who’s on track with 20,000 words today? How crazy is it that we’re nearly at the halfway point? This November is flying by, and I’m happy to report I am still enjoying my story this year. But then again, I haven’t hit the 30,000 blues yet…. that should happen right on schedule around the time of the Write-a-Thon this Sunday, so hopefully being in a room full of insane writers (I mean that in the kindest way possible; I’m one of them) will help drive me through that.

Let me know your mid-month NaNo thoughts in the comments below, and I’ll be sure to report all of the fun goings-on at the event this weekend.

The rest of my New York trip was even more fun that the first day – plus I realized I needed to start dressing warmer, which immediately upped the quality of my trip. This was my outfit on Friday; with a brand new sweater from Forever21, one of my favorite patterned scarves (also from Forever21), a mustard yellow basic tank and matching yellow backpack (the backpack is an old favorite from Urban Outfitters), black leggings, grey knee socks and my same bronze Cathy Jean boots. But the important part of this outfit, as I’m sure you noticed, are the gloves and earmuffs.

I always keep a pair of gloves handy – I have a pair in my purse, in my car, in various coat pockets… I never want to be caught un-gloved! But the earmuffs were a new purchase. I saw them at one of those seasonal outdoor booths in NY and I just instantly knew I had to have them. My travel buddies teased me a bit, but let me tell you – my ears were toasty warm. No regrets. I plan to wear them all winter, regardless of what anyone thinks.

Moving on from clothing – one of the highlights of the second day of my trip was visiting the giant Nintendo Store!

Not only did I get to totally geek out over all the Pokémon stuff they have out right now, I also got SO MANY STREET PASSES. It was glorious. Also, when I was purchasing a gift for my fellow Team Hypercube channel members, the person working at the register told me, “this is our phone number at the top of your receipt here; call us if you need anything. Even if you’re just stuck in a game. We can help.”

What! So awesome! I had a great time perusing the store and knowing everyone around me totally understood the fangirl tendencies coming out.

My favorite part of the store was that upstairs there’s this exhibit area that changes based on what game just released a new version… obviously the exhibit was Pokémon themed for my visit, and walking through the “Pokémon Through The Ages” and getting to both reminisce and also be slightly embarrassed by just how many Pokémon things I’ve owned since I was 11 was just brilliant.

I also got to eat at a whole bunch of great restaurants and meander through Central Park and finally experience Alice’s Tea Cup first hand. And to top it off, we closed out our trip by seeing “Once” with Arthur Darvill and not only were our “partial view” seats ridiculously amazing and close to the stage, the show was simply perfect. I enjoyed myself so much.

It was five whirlwind days of a trip I will never forget, one I desperately needed. I adore cons and shows and business trips but I think people really need a true vacation every now and then, and this one lived up to my every expectation. I can’t wait to go back.

Disclosure

This past week I had the pleasure of visiting New York City purely for fun – usually my trips to this bustling metropolis involve work of some kind (whether that be playing a concert, attending a convention, etc.) but this trip granted me three full days of unplanned, unscheduled exploration of a place I never seen to have enough time in.

My dear friend Eia Waltzer accompanied me on this trip, a friend I’ve traveled to many places with (including Rome, Paris, the Bahamas, and more). I think a good travel buddy is an important thing to find in life, truly. Eia and I have very similar priorities when it comes to exploring new places, which is a key element in traveling with the right person.

This first day of our trip was rainy, which didn’t lend itself very well to the outfit you see above. I wore a lacy pink dress from Papaya, magenta patterned tights from Nordstrom Rack, peach Volcom socks and a gold bow necklace. Paired with a black peacoat and my bronze boots from Cathy Jean, I felt stylish but not particularly warm. I had no idea how cold and windy NYC can be in November, so the follies of this outfit influenced how I dressed for the rest of the trip.

On our first day we ate at Chevy’s (because it was the nearest place with a roof and a happy hour once it started raining), did a fair amount of shopping and then saw Matilda on Broadway. I adored the show; the songs are catchy and fun, the lyrics are brilliant, the dancing was masterful and the kids were just utterly adorable and amazing. It was a fantastic first day to an already exceptional adventure of a trip. More to come in tomorrow’s post – be sure to check back!

I know I’m one of the many people who experience this fall frenzy, but I go absolutely nuts in October. Everything about it makes me happy – parties, decorating, dressing up, food, outdoor activities while it’s still slightly warm enough. I can’t even totally place a finger on it… I think it’s this shifting of priorities as we feel that sting of nostalgia as Summer wanes to an end. But! Then we’re met with three months of pure holiday filled excitement, and it makes the switch to Winter so much more bearable. One of the things at the very top of that list for me is corn mazes.

I don’t know if corn mazes are popular everywhere, but you only have to drive about forty minutes out of Seattle to find good ones here in the Pacific Northwest. My friends and I attended Bob’s Corn Maze this past weekend (as well as renting our own private fire pit!), and I think everyone was surprised by how much we enjoyed ourselves.

When you arrive at Bob’s, you first check in and leave all of your campfire supplies with them in these plastic tubs. They don’t want you to have to lug it all through the maze! Then a giant tractor takes you over to the maze on a bumpy hayride, and before you know it you’re sent into the entrance where you’re immediately turned around and walking in circles. The maze was huge. Even in a group of nine intellectual college graduates – we didn’t know where the heck we were going. Finally we found ourselves in a big circle we recognized had to be a specific part of that map and were able to navigate ourselves out with a bit less trouble.

The halfway point has a couple of giant campfires and a little store that sold s’mores fixin’s and drinks, but we had our own campfire. We walked around the corner to one of the many smaller pits, where our tub was waiting for us (filled with hotdogs, marshmallows and roasting sticks). We had one hour at the fire pit, which was more than enough to make some delicious food and recuperate enough to start round two.

We had even more trouble finding our way back out of the maze – but wandering around with only the moonlight to guide you, making Goblet of Fire 3rd task jokes, trying not to get smacked in the face by rogue corn stalks… it was definitely a night to remember.

Have you ever been to a corn maze? Do you remember what any of the shapes in yours made up? Ours was a series of very confusing loops with a giant bee in the middle, and it was so confusing! And if you haven’t been to a corn maze… are there any near you? Go check them out! Let me know your thoughts on October activities in the comments!

This past weekend I had the pleasure of taking a brief but enjoyable trip to the wondrous New York City, with the purpose of attending New York Comic Con.

While I’ve been to New York on a number of occasions, I’d never attended their Comic Con. I think if you’ve been to at least one comic con you probably at least have a pretty good idea of what others are going to be like, but it’s always a treat to get to walk around and explore the expo halls of a con you’ve never been to before. I didn’t get quite as much time to just meander as I would have liked, but I was there on a mission for the Ford #FiestaMovement, and they made sure to keep us agents busy.

Friday I arrived quite late in the evening, but I arrived at the same time as fellow agent Deena Marie, who was lovely and strolled around Times Square with me (neither of us wanted to go to bed right when we finally got to the city, even though we both regretted it when our alarms went off bright and early the next morning). We gazed at the glowing signs advertising broadway shows, found a cute deli that sold adorable little macarons, and I tempted fate by ordering a Brie Sandwich. I don’t know what I was expected, aside from a sandwich filled entirely with brie cheese, but my stomach wasn’t too happy with me that evening.

It was worth it.

The next day began with a trip to “Burgers and Cupcakes” for breakfast, where I order neither a burger nor a cupcake and opted instead for a breakfast sandwich.  Then two of the team headed off to Comic Con to begin their challenges and my team was sent around on a scavenger hunt tour of the city. This is what eventually led me here, a place I can never fully describe to anyone who wasn’t there with us:

No joke, this place was a tiny little comedy club… and the only audience members were dolls. The dolls were places on chairs with little tables with varying degrees of sobriety – some were prim and proper dolls and others were slouched over next to empty glasses and only half clothed.

But that’s not even the weirdest part.

A woman was running the place, and asked us if we wanted to tell any jokes to the dolls. Deena was delighted, but told the woman she didn’t have any jokes. “Not a problem!” we were informed. “There are jokes hanging up there for you!”

Which is why, in the fall of October 2013, I had my standup debut in front of a bunch of skeptic dolls that didn’t like my jokes. The woman in charge had a laptop and would play an audio track of the babies cooing or laughing if they were enjoying your set. They were a tough crowd.

It didn’t cost us any money, there wasn’t a donation box anywhere – we had no idea what the point of this place was or how we had even stumbled onto it. The entire room was maybe twenty square feet, total, and the women seemed so, so pleased we stopped by and participated.

Just a strange live art installation, I guess. Guess I can cross “tell jokes to dolls” off my bucket list, or maybe “fulfill some women’s crazy fantasy”. Jury’s still out on that one.

Anyway, Saturday night in the city was a blast; then Sunday was our team’s turn at the con! We started the day taking photos for Gawker, but then got to wander out on our own. I bought some fun nerdy things I’m sure you’ll see soon in an outfit of the day post, as well as a few early Christmas presents for friends (started shopping early this year!) and ran into a couple of friends. My biggest regret of the weekend was not getting into R. L. Stine’s panel (UGH) but… next time, I suppose. It still stings. Let’s not talk about it.

It was such a short, crazy trip – but I had a great time meeting some of the other Fiesta Agents I hadn’t known before, catching up with the ones I did know, and spending a bit of time in a city I just don’t know all that well yet. Thanks for sending me, Fiesta Movement!

Portland is just a hop, skip and a jump away from Seattle – so when Joe asked if I would drive down with him for an audition he got, I really couldn’t say no. It’s always a pleasure to spend a day in a funky city like Portland, so off we went. Portland is the city of weird, so I decided not to try too hard with my outfit. Comfy driving clothes, sunglasses to help against those final traces of sun, and a scarf and jacket combo for the bite of the cool autumn air. Tan boots, mauve tank and maroon jacket are all from Forever 21. Floral scarf is from ModCloth, and the sunglasses are a pair I picked up at a street vendor at a fair. Leggings are standard black ones I got a looong, long time ago at a shop in London.

I worked in a coffee shop while Joe auditioned, and afterward, we decided to check out Portland’s famed food trucks. I’m a huge fan of foodtrucks, so rather than picking just one and ordering a full meal, we grabbed a few different items here and there to make the rounds and try multiple trucks.

The favorite of ours by far was Brunchbox, where we ordered a Cheeseasaurus Rex:
The guy working the truck said we could make them battle. It made me smile. This truck also had a breakfast sandwich called the “OMG” that consisted of fried egg, bacon, ham and spam. I will return and try it one day, just wait. I dream of that day.

The day also consisted of a short lap around Powell’s, shopping in various vintage clothing and toy shops, and dinner at a phenomenal German place we were still too full from food trucks to really enjoy. But on the plus side, we brought home GREAT leftovers.

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