The Purest Sushi

So my friend Dr. Brad (he is kinda working on the PhD thing, and it's hard to not get him and my brother mixed up, so we call him that) hadn't hung out in quite a while, so today we went to lunch. At PURE sushi. Now for those of you who missed this in my last post (or several others for that matter), if you click on colored words in my post, it links to things. Like J.Crew pictures. Or the PURE website.
Anyways, this restaurant is so sweet. It's all white. The white leather booths. The white chairs. The hot pink and white menus. And it's very new, so we had it mostly to ourselves. And our booth was D5. Which, if you're wondering, is the best one. Our server, Jessa, was so sweet. She loves the place as much as we did. It started with edamame and VOSS water. Dr. Brad had never experienced VOSS and was so excited about the bottle. Turns out, though, it was $7, and we could have gone through 3 or 4, so she offered to refill it for us with regular water, which wasn't quite as tasty but was quite hilarious. And appreciated.
The sushi rolls were the freshest I have ever had. Even the wasabi, which I usually don't like, was tasty. And we had some noodles with pink ginger.
Oh. Oh. Oh. And on the movie Prime, which I've referenced before and probably will keep referencing, so you should just go rent it, they eat quail egg, which Uma Thurman says is totally orgasmic, and they had them, so of course we ordered them. Funny thing, our server had just had them for the first time for the same reason. I guess I'm not the only one who orders things because of movies. (Skip to minute 2:25 for the quail egg scene. No words. Sorry!)

And we had mango rice ice cream for dessert that had vanilla pear syrup under it. So delish!

And I even talked our server into a pen. Which I love. And she said she might get us into the VIP lounge when it's finished. yay! This may become a regular hangout.
Good good times.

Go Cardinals!!

So although I have yet to see a game, I'm wishing my AZ Cardinals the best in the Superbowl. They're even selling cookies at work!! Look at me and my true red Arizonian spirit!

Proof that JVizz cares about my Heart

Yesterday I woke up to a present from John. Apparently he heard the news about my cholesterol.

Legend...ary

John and I went and saw John Legend a week ago today. I know, it is shockingly terrible that I could have neglected to mention such a phenomenal event. John knows most everything that is going on around here due to working at a resort, or I would never have even known about this concert. So even though we both worked a lot, I ran down the day of the concert to the box office (turns out these tickets were not any kind of a good deal on craigslist!) and got the last two floor seats together to the concert. They were great seats. John Legend is sooo sexy. And it was a sexy sexy concert. I have one of his CD's, but not the latest (until amazon.com delivers it to me in a few days), and I was shocked at how incredible this last album was. I may have gotten a little emotional during it (hello, it's a love concert), but sometimes that's a good thing. It was such a diverse and fun crowd. It was packed, and everybody was so happy. John V. and I danced a little bit and sang along. Estelle ('American Boy') opened and she was very entertaining and so fun.
Oh, what an excellent experience.
And I can cross 2 fun concerts off my 101 things list

I Work Nights in the Brownest State in America

ok, so I haven't verified the brownest state part, but I'm dying here. It rained today. I need sun. I need some green stuff. I need some water. I need a VACATION.
I know you may be thinking, um, Christin, I think you had vacation in September. And October. And you went to the Grand Canyon last weekend. Yes. I know this.
I just need Christin happy time. Again.
See this picture? here?
The first one? The one where she's kissing his cheek? I love this picture. This is a happy day. These are spring flowers. This is sunshine. I can feel the sun on my face and the love of my friends in this picture and I want it be here. (And in case you're wondering, no, it does not have anything to do with the wedding and everything to do with the flowers, the smiles, the friends, and the weather. Also, I know those people are probably all jerks and don't even like each other. I'm just saying that J.Crew did an excellent job of capturing a mood.)
Exhibit 2:
This is the Bahamas.

I can stay here for 4 nights with airfare for about $938. This sounds divine, actually. I also considered Tahiti, but apparently leaving on Saturday for there would put me back $2388. My supervisor Bridget has already said if I need a vacation, just go. I just don't know where to yet. hmmm.
p.s. yes, I am well aware that January is a gorgeous month to live in Arizona. But if I'm here, I feel obligated to go to work, and then it doesn't really feel like vacation. Plus, nobody makes my bed.
Do I sound a little pissy in this post? Do I sound like a need a vacation?

Dodging Lasers, Exploring My America, and Attempting to Sing. With Brad.

This was a sweet weekend. And not at all what I had anticipated. My to do list looked a little like this:
Work Friday
Go to Target
Workout
Buy Hair Stuff
Work Sunday.

This is what happened instead: I got called off of work on Friday night. I wasn't actually scheduled for tonight. So Friday night, Brad's friend Marie, who is very cool and just got engaged, threw a laser tag b-day party for her fiancee. It had been about a decade since I played laser tag (over Spring Break in Kerrville, TX)! But it was way fun. I shot 42 people. And got shot 38 times. Perfect. I was 12th out of 36th. Because, you know, your rank in Laser tag means everything.

Then we went and played The Office board game, which was actually very fun.
Then.... off to Big Bang, a bar here where there are 2 grand pianos and they play any song you want by request. It was very fun. John and I went and hung out with Bridget and her new boy.


We got home around 2 and then John went home....he had to work in the morning. :-( . And Brad announced to me that we were going to the Grand Canyon at 7. So on 3 hours of sleep, I crawled into the car. Me, Brad, Tyler, and Ariana, and her brother Anders, who we picked up in Flagstaff.

The Grand Canyon was very cool. It definitely is a lot of rock. I know that seems silly, but lots of AZ is brown, and this Canyon is no exception, although I know there are several geologists who would be appalled at my lack of appreciation of the subtle color variations. It was pretty, and I am looking forward to a future overnight backcountry hiking trip. It's going to be sweet. If we can get the permit. And decide when to do it.
The coolest part may have been when Brad and I decided to climb onto this cliff. It looked about 85 percent safe, so we both decided to climb on out. It made for the sweetest pictures of the trip.


Next to this one of Ariana.



We got home tired, but the weekend wasn't over yet. Brad's friend from NJ was in town with her fiancee (yep, there's a lot of engagements around here lately) and she was in the mood to Karaoke. Now, those of you who know Brad and I know that we are not known for our singing, and granted, I wasn't about to ruin everyone's evening with a solo. But John sang John Legend's Ordinary People, Brad and i totally rocked Garth Brooks' Rodeo, Ariana and John did Promiscuous Girl, and Brad and John basically made everyone's night with Warren G and Nate Dogg Regulators. Awesomeness. The night ended with a group rendition of "What's Love Got to Do With It." Perfection.
We all stayed up late and Brad and I went to church on about 3 hours of sleep. And then we came home and took 5 hour naps.
Work hard.
Play hard.
Rest hard.
:-)

Orphans

Nobody on earth should have 8 orphan socks. Really? EIGHT? My house isn't exactly 7000 square feet. I can look everywhere pretty quickly. They aren't lying around. Did they fall out of my backpack biking home from work? I mean, really, where could they go? This is nuts. This has not happened previously in my life. Not this bad. Oh, and Candice. You know my brand new lucy Christmas socks? Is there one at mom's house? Are there other orphan socks at mom's house? My whole house seems so in order except for these ridiculous socks!