Road Trip: Part Two

I seem to be mired in school and internship commitments. Today is the first time in a long while that I felt okay with sitting down to blog about my thoughts. How I long for that week in August when my mind was freer to enjoy the open road.

First though, I'll place some pictures from the drive through Oregon. It really was beautiful with the smoke clouding the sky, even though the smell was not as enjoyable.

SO, after wandering around Pike Place for most of the day, my friend and I managed to walk past a bar decorated with very colorful imagery. Since the name of the place was Unicorn, we spent a good five minutes trying to use our phones to figure out if it was a gay bar. It's totally not, but something even more awesome. What sealed the deal were two "hobos" outside the door: a scuffed-up Storm Trooper with a sign reading, "Teenagers blew up the Death Star, every little bit helps" as well as a bloodied Black Knight.

Inside was a neon and darklight carnival that we quickly guessed was set up for geeks in mind, as in the downstairs area there were no fewer than 10 pinball machines, and an adult-themed claw game with such things as dildos, condoms, hemorroid cream, and a giant stuffed unicorn. The upstairs area had a lot of stuffed animal heads and other things on the wall. Seriously, is this not awesome? The drinks menu was in keeping with the theme of "We are crazy, but also cool" as you can see in this picture:

The menu also had awesome things on it. I for instance, had a really nice quinoa salad thing, but as was becoming too much of a habit on this trip, I was neglecting to take any pictures. It also didn't help that everything was under dim lighting and my phone camera didn't have good flash. Coincidentally, we had wandered into Unicorn on a night where a cosplayer club was having an outing. I recall seeing Naruto, a couple of what might have been Pokemon, catwomen, and some sort of other ninja. It was quite fun, and definitely a place I'd love to go to if I lived in the city.

The next day we headed to Ballard to do touristy things. We drove through the neighborhood before going to one of the boat lock parks, and got to see one of them working. I took a couple videos of it, here and here. Then we drove past the Fremont Troll and waved at him before going to lunch at JhanJay Vegetarian Thai over in Wallingford. I certainly will miss how many nice vegetarian restaurants there are when I return to Nevada. Here's my Thai tea as I remembered I had a camera phone:

 

After some excellent spicy tofu, we wandered along the street and found a kid's toy shop where I got Sirenidi a rainbow puzzle toy. Then we went to Gasworks Park where my friend was ecstatic for the two hours we wandered around looking at the machinery and overgrown bushes of blackberries (she's really into industrial post-apocalyptic stuff). 

There was going to be more in this post, but once again I went too picture crazy. Until my next moment of free time!

What's Happening Around Here?

Hey there internet, I haven't forgotten I have a blog! Real life has been busy, so here's some images from the last two months to prove it! If they load oddly, it's because I can't figure out how to edit picture placement in this blog ._.

Halloween saw me wandering downtown Reno as a goth fairy in Reno's Zombie Crawl:

 

It was a night in which I sang karaoke, had an amazing swordfish and tabouli dinner bowl, and had about 3 drinks before I realized how drunk I was. That night was so much fun, and I can't wait to do it again next year! I also discovered there is a beer I like:

I have already requested multiple people to procure me this fine drink as a birthday/holiday gift. Sadly I have only found it online thus far :(

I have also been driving my new car for about a month:

Her name is Rosalinda, a 2008 Pontiac Torrent. She is probably the best car I've ever owned, and some road trips for Spring and/or Summer are in the dreaming stages!

School-wise I have been pretty consumed with baking class:

Left is an Oreo Cream Pie I made at home in order to master the base for making custard pies. Below that is the spread my partner and I made on 17, November: Chocolate Tuile cookies in the shapes of poinsettias and the Batman symbol, Coconut Macaroons, Ciabatta bread, Bavarian Creams, and Creme Brulees. Far right is a zoom-in of my Bavarian Cream decorated with Coconut crisps that resulted from our Macaroons spreading too much. The instructor said I should consider entering the college's Pastry Arts competition in the Spring! I was floored!

One of the bathrooms on campus had sticky notes all over the place one day:

 This kind of positive reinforcement needs to become the next big meme I think :)

This past weekend I was amazingly cultured. I visited the Nevada Museum of Art, which had one Renaissance painting as the main exhibit (a marketing strategy I am still confused by), as well as some cool architectural and photographic displays. Altered Landscape was definitely cool, and I wish I could find some of those works as affordable prints.

I also got to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra on their Winter 2011 Tour! Here are some photos from my seat in the back of the arena:

These ones are from when some of the musicians came forward to play on a raised platform, always a perk of sitting in the back ;)

The only bummer was that it was an early showing, so lots of children and elderly folks packed the audience, who for some reason feel the need to get up EVERY TWO MINUTES. Unfortunately I had an aisle seat right next to a main trafficway, so every single time someone needed to get somewhere (and it happened quite often) I had to deal with their tromping and blocking of my view >:(

Otherwise the show was incredible, I might have been having mild epileptic seizures for a few hours afterwards xD. Also, if anyone wants to get me this shirt (with the phoenix), for any particular reason, I will shower you with much glitter and confetti of gratitude :)

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in America, and I have been put in CHARGE. I will see how much militaristic planning my family will put up with, as I've been taking management notes from Robert Irvine >:)

Hopefully I won't be too exhausted and can remember to post the results of the day's labor :D

Have a safe and fun weekend, folks!