brief pacific nw visit + bed bugs

last weekend i had the good fortune to travel back to seattle and catch up with lots of family and friends. although it was very brief-- thursday night to monday morning-- i'm glad i was able to see everyone and everything that we (timmy came too) did. in addition to seattle/shoreline, we trekked up to vancouver bc for about 24 hours. i hadn't been there in five or so years, and it was more cosmopolitan and international than i remembered it. i loved how many skyscrapers and coffee shops there were. (i am a big fan of late night coffee shops-- one we visited stayed open until 3:00 am on the weekends!-- because they are a good alternative to bars for those of us who want to meet up with friends or go out but not be in a loud, drunken setting.) my mom, being the travel genius that she is, managed to have the four of us stay for free in a really nice hotel downtown. that in itself was a treat!! back at home it was a pleasure to see familiar faces and new ones too (like my new baby cousin, pictured below). besides timmy's severe allergies and cat-induced asthma attack, it all went very smoothly and made for a memorable, interesting and refreshing time.

vancouver-- gastown



good times and good food in seattle





unfortunately we seemed to have brought the seattle weather with us back to baltimore because it has been 60 and raining since we got back. i didn't mind today because i didn't have classes-- i worked from 9 to 5 and felt justified sitting at my desk all day because the downpour made any other option sound unappetizing. tonight has been very "hygge" (a danish concept/way of life referring to coziness): i lit some candles, made some butterscotch brownies, had a friend over, read a book, etc. my kind of night. school has indeed started so of course there is homework to be had, but i'll get to that on sunday. i am liking all of my classes so far, although it's only been two weeks, and i think my last semester of my undergraduate career will be challenging (in a good way). this semester definitely feels different knowing i am so close to the end, living off campus and commuting (thank goodness for the free baltimore collegetown shuttle!), working half-time, not spending so many hours doing extracurriculars, hanging out with people already in the real world as opposed to only other students wrapped up in the campus bubble...

speaking of the real world, we had quite a "real world" encounter this week as we discovered we have a bed bug infestation. i had been accumulating a crazy amount of mystery bug bites each night this summer and couldn't figure out if it was from gnats, mosquitoes (we ate all of our meals outside this summer...we don't have a dining room or table) or fleas from our lovely stray cat sven. so, when we returned from seattle to find about a dozen flat brown bugs crawling around upstairs it was kind of a relief to know what the problem was. i think they are fairly common in this area. although they are annoying (those bites itch like mad and are pretty unsightly), they don't carry disease and are therefore not really dangerous. we nonetheless spent a good amount of time this week researching, vacuuming, doing laundry on the hottest possible setting, putting all our possessions in plastic bags, putting together a bed frame, moving furniture, searching for bugs with a flash light, tracking down an exterminator, calling our landlord, etc. timmy has been great at all this, thank goodness, so i could focus on my homework. i hope the problem goes away shortly!!

this weekend is packed with exciting goings-on in my neighborhood, so i will certainly be kept busy with one festival or another. and, i must remind myself, more homework!!

rainy days