Category Archives: Me Me Me!

This is all about me. Posts in these categories are personal reflections, updates, narcissistic ramblings, and whatever else I choose to be self-centered about. So there!

A 2010 Retrospective…Lamenting the Passing of the Best Year Ever!

Posted in Accomplishments, Friends and Family, Home Life, Me Me Me!, Updates by

Happy new year, everyone! It is with great sadness that I say goodbye to 2010, the Best Year Ever. Behold 2010, a year that sidled into my life without presumption or pretense, and now a year that has slipped away like grains of sand through an hourglass…these are the days of our lives…Wait – haven’t I heard that somewhere before? Dang, and I don’t even watch soaps!

But in all *seriousness* (because we all know how Serious I am), 2010 was a fantastic year. I’m left wondering how 2011 could possibly be any better, seeing as how so many crazy-rad things happened in the past 12 months. Like what, you ask? Well, how about the following:

So, can you now understand why I might be sad to say farewell to 2010? Yes? Oh, I know…your response is that 2011 will probably be even better. How is that even possible? Well, I’ll keep you posted on how that works out – be sure to check back soon!

P.S. – Did you notice how I kept last year’s resolution? I totally maintained this blog! I posted way more than in 2009…let’s see if I can keep it up in 2011!

Zoom Zoom!

Posted in Home Life, Me Me Me! by

I must say, I had an excellent year, and an excellent Christmas. The day after, even though I received many nice gifts from my loved ones, I bought myself a fancy-pants krimmis present. It’s a velocity red 2010 Mazda 3 grand touring s – woo hoo!!! Never been used, although it was driven to the McMinnville dealership and back (hence the 215 miles on the odometer). It’s got all the fancy bells and whistles, too! I’ve never bought a new car before, and I don’t know if I ever will again, but the old Subie has been thinking about retirement for a while now so I figured I’d give her a break.

A Perfect Day

Posted in Day Trips, Friends and Family, Me Me Me!, Travel by

Hello, fair readers! Merry Christmas, and soon-to-be happy new year! Before I write about any holiday goings-on, you might recall that a couple of weeks ago I wrote a post that was labeled “The mooshiest post you’ll ever see me write”, or some such tag. Well, apologies to you, but today’s post might just supersede my previous level of mush…so be forewarned!

You’re probably wondering about what A Perfect Day includes. There are three main elements, which include but are not limited to:

1. Harry Potter
2. Getting engaged
3. An incredible Bela Fleck show

Surprising, huh? I would’ve never guessed that these three things would be the ingredients in my perfect day, but there you have them.

Last Thursday evening, Chris and I drove up to Seattle to enjoy a nice little getaway to commemorate the occasion of our first anniversary (our first date was Dec. 6, 2009). We checked in at the Hotel Monaco where Chris reserved a huge room complete with a two-person spa, which we took advantage of whilst sipping room-service ordered champagne. Fancy, huh? It was a nice way to end a day of work and driving up to the city; I highly recommend it!

On Friday, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Sazerac (banana’s foster french toast…yummy…), then walked over to the downtown mall and hopped on the Monorail. We sped off to Seattle Center and headed over to the Pacific Science Center where Harry Potter: The Exhibition is making its last U.S. stop.

Riding the Monorail to Seattle Center
The Space Needle

Since we were there on a weekday, there weren’t that many people – we were let right in, just the two of us, and sorted into Gryffindor house (surprise, surprise) right away (although the attendant said that he thought that Chris belonged in Hufflepuff and I might fit better in Ravenclaw…go figure). The exhibit was actually really cool, and well worth the money, I thought – tons of actual props and costumes that were used in all of the movies, along with an audio guide. It took us about 90 minutes to go through the whole thing, but a big Harry Potter fan could’ve easily spent half a day or longer in there…I just didn’t want to torture Chris any longer than was necessary! And actually, even though Chris is not a huge fan, he did indulge me in watching all the movies, and I think he enjoyed the exhibit as well.

We weren’t allowed to take photos, so this was grabbed off the website. But it gives you an idea of the sets they had – pretty cool, huh?

After the Harry Potter portion of our morning, we went to the butterfly garden at the science center and ate lunch in the food court. We got to listen to a middle school band perform some holiday songs – they were really good – and Chris introduced himself to the director after the show. We hopped back on the Monorail and returned downtown, back to our hotel.

Chris and me hitchin’ a ride on a caterpillar… 

Zebra longwing

We had dinner reservations and tickets to see Bela Fleck at Jazz Alley that evening, and we decided to get all fancied up for the show. As I was getting ready, Chris asked me a couple of times if I was nearly done, and I noticed that he was repeating the same song on his iPhone. Weird, huh? When I got out of the bathroom, Chris said he had something for me, a small token of his affection for me, and he pulled out a small box with a beautiful diamond/palladium ring. It took me a minute to realize what was going on, and even then, I wasn’t sure until he said he would be the happiest man ever if I would marry him. My reply was that I would, of course, marry him…such a surprise! It turns out that the hotel was having their happy hour in the lobby so we went downstairs and got a couple of glasses of champagne, quietly celebrating our moment in the middle of a crowd of people who weren’t in on the reason for our grins. We played a couple of rounds of Guitar Hero with Bailey (on vacation from Australia with his parents), then took a cab over to Jazz Alley.

Chris picked out this ring all by himself – it’s quite gorgeous!
Our first photo together as an engaged couple :oP

Once we got to Jazz Alley, we ordered a nice bottle of wine along with dinner, which we consumed during the Bela Fleck show. He and the Flecktones played nearly their entire holiday album (Jingle all the Way), and it was a FANTASTIC show. Bela Fleck is an amazing banjo player, and along with the others (Futureman, Jeff Coffin, and Victor Wooten), the resulting music was fun, dynamic, and in some cases, unbelievable (e.g., the entire “12 days of Christmas”, with each day sung in a different key and time). They were accompanied by Alash, a group of Tuvan throat singers, and were equally amazing. Really, it was one of the best shows I’ve seen in a long time.

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, with Alash in the back.

A kindly older couple volunteered to drive us back to our hotel when they overheard us inquiring about calling a cab, which was a pleasant treat at the end of our night. We had to get back down to Vancouver the following morning, but it was a day in Seattle that I’m sure I will remember for a very long time. You can see more pictures of our trip by viewing the slideshow to the right, or by clicking here. I’m so lucky to have been able to share that day – a perfect day – with the man I love so much!

For those of you without a Facebook addiction problem:

Posted in Friends and Family, Me Me Me!, Updates by
Happy announcement made Friday from Seattle on Facebook:
More details to come soon!
Marci and Chris at Seattle Center, Dec. 10, 2010

Happy Anniversary, My Love!

Posted in Friends and Family, Me Me Me! by

Christopher, you are the BEST (and the worst), and I am so happy to have you in my life. I hope we share many more anniversaries in the years to come!

Marci and Chris, July 2010

Met my blog quota…

Posted in Blogging, Friends and Family, Me Me Me! by

What up, peeps? You may have noticed that I’ve been “slacking” on the old blog posts recently. Well, I could give you a number of “reasons” or “excuses” for this such as:

1. I’ve been sick
2. I’ve been busy
3. It’s none of your business

However, the real reason is that, according to my records, I’ve met my blog quota for the year. Yep, that’s right – as of this writing, I’ll have posted 34 blog entries, which far exceeds the 12 I had for the entirety of last year. So, I think I can just pat myself on the back, say I did a good job, and take an easy month and a half off until the new year begins. No?

Heh heh – I’m just kidding around. Actually, I *have* been sick, *have* been busy, and it’s only your business if you want it to be. In the past month I moved into Chris’ place, attempted (somewhat lamely) to unpack a few things, hosted my mom when she visited up here, and slogged through the majority of my days whilst sitting in front of a computer at work. This upcoming month shows no signs of slowing, either, with more relatives coming to visit for Thanksgiving, Chris and my one-year anniversary (yay!), and Christmas on the way. Whew! So with that, I’ll leave you with just a few photos taken within the past couple of weeks:

Me and my brand-spankin’ new niece, Nora Paige
Me and The Mommy
Me, Jesse, and Chris (the furry one – hee hee!)

That’s it???

Posted in Career, Me Me Me! by

Happy Halloween, y’all! Because I’ve been super busy this month with moving and everything, I didn’t have time to get a costume together or my residence decorated. And it’s a real shame, because I had a great costume all designed – I was actually standing in JoAnn’s with bolts of fabric in my arms, but I abandoned the plan last minute because I’m just too busy. So, you’ll have to see my costume next year.

Anywhooooo…I did manage to slowly transform my office into a spooktacular spider lair during the month of October. My costume would’ve played into that. Yes, I was the only one at work who decorated their office…I don’t care though! As far as I’m concerned, Halloween should be every month. Candy and costumes? It doesn’t get much better than that in terms of holidays!

A Visit to the Pumpkin Patch with the Little Punks

Posted in Friends and Family, Me Me Me! by

A couple of weekends ago we took advantage of the fantastic fall weather (it was sunny!) and went out to the pumpkin patch on Sauvie Island. Chris had bought groupons for the Oregon-heart shaped corn “maize” (get it???) so we invited my brother and his family, and Chris’ brother’s family. We got there around 9:30 and the crowds started to quickly gather…we checked out the animal barn, the kids took a tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch to pick a few pumpkins, and then we did the short half of the maize. By noon there were a ton of people there – cars were lined up for about a mile just waiting to get on the bridge to Sauvie Island. I’m glad we got there early and got to hang out in relative low crowd-chaos! Considering my busy month, I’m just happy that I got to experience some sort of autumn-related festivities…ah, why can’t Halloween be year-round?

Nothing says autumn romance like rusty farm equipment. And porta-potties.
Chris’ brother, nephew, niece, and sister-in-law.
The newest member of the Koski family, Nora Paige. Just over a week old! She’s hard core.
What a handsome family of four! And they’re all smiling – oh wait, I think Nora just has gas…

Wait a minute – that’s MY caramel apple!!!

Getting lost in the corn maize was quite the cornundrum! Get it? CORNundrum!!! Snort ha ha giggle snort!!! :oP

A Loverly Weekend in Waldport

Posted in Friends and Family, Me Me Me!, Travel, Vacations by

I know it’s getting to be a little late, but I wanted to tell you about the splendid weekend that Chris and I had together in the beginning of September. My friend Julie, from grad school, invited us to her wedding so we took the opportunity to make a weekend of it and enjoy another little town on the Oregon coast.

Saturday, September 4, we wished Abbey a very happy first birthday (ok, Jesse only grudgingly wished her a happy birthday, but he got some wet food out of the deal so he wasn’t entirely unhappy about it) and headed west. We drove through Newburg, Dundee, and Newport, reminiscing about the excellent times we had there during previous long weekends and spring break. Ahhh, the memories! We arrived at the Cliff House B&B in Waldport and found it most remarkable…a fantastic view of the ocean and bay, along with friendly dogs and an incredible assortment of lace doilies covering most horizontal surfaces. Chris reserved the suite for us, which included vaulted ceilings, a private balcony overlooking the ocean, and a ginormous bathroom (complete with hot tub) that had mirrors covering EVERY surface except for the toilet seat cover. You might not believe it, but there are some angles that you might not prefer to view yourself from, and I discovered several of them that weekend!

We ate dinner at the Drift Inn in Yachats, under a ceiling of decorative umbrellas while listening to the modern Hawaiian-polka fusion stylings of two men armed with a Casio keyboard and a microphone. After dinner we went back to the B&B and practiced our putting skills (yes, for real, not a metaphor) while the sun set over the ocean. But that’s where I’ll stop for now…

On Sunday, Chris and I enjoyed an amazing breakfast (cooked by Sharon, the prioprietress of the Cliff House) consisting of smoked salmon quiche and home-fries, home-made muffins and scones. In the early afternoon we drove east out to Tidewater Falls Resort where Julie and Perry had their wedding – it looked like many people camped, and that the party had been going for at least a couple of days. I met up with several other friends from grad school whom I hadn’t seen in many years, including Jill, Audrey, and Andie, who came with her partner Rob. He cracked our shit up, and definitely sufficed for the evening’s entertainment in my book. And, if I can say so, I think that he became Chris’ new idol of sorts. Even Julie’s old dog Metzli was there – skulking in her familiar border collie way that I recognized from Colorado. The wedding was a simple and beautiful ceremony that took place under paper lanterns and a mirrored disco ball (I would expect nothing less), and was followed by hula hooping (how does Jill manage to defy gravity in such a nonchalant kind of way???), salmon, and wine wine wine by the bonfire. Congrats, Julie and Perry – we had an awesome time at your wedding!

Monday was Labor Day, so we had the day off. We enjoyed another delicious Cliff House breakfast, this time of cheese blintzes and more baked goods (at 8:30 sharp! don’t be late!). After packing up and waiting until the last possible moment to leave (there might have been another quick soak in the hot tub), we said our goodbyes and commenced our drive north. We stopped for lunch at Pelican Brew Pub on Cape Kiwanda, sharing fish tacos and humongous onion rings by the sea.

For an added bonus to our trip, as we drove north we stopped in Tillamook and toured the World Famous Tillamook Cheese Factory! I milked a plastic cow, and Chris bought me a magnet that said “Easy Rider”.

Which I guess just about sums up my role as the passenger on our weekend adventure!

I think my hands *still* hurt!

Posted in Home Life, Me Me Me! by

Chris and I have been taking advantage of deals in Portland and Vancouver through Groupon and Living Social, which in my opinion, are Awe-Some. First of all, you get ideas for fun things to do or places to visit that you might not’ve otherwise known about. Second, you get to do/buy these things at a pretty good price. So yippee! If you haven’t checked them out, I highly recommend Groupon and Living Social.

And yes, I’m still working for the Fish and Wildlife Service – I’ve not (yet) decided to change careers and enter into the social media advertising realm, in case you were wondering.

Anyway, I bought a Living Social deal good for four passes at a local bouldering gym. It has been easily over a year (maybe 2?) since I last put on my climbing shoes and tied a chalk bag around my waist. Bouldering was fun, but I still enjoy being tied into a rope and climbing up up up instead of climbing sideways, up until you realize it’s no longer safe without a rope, and then down again. The kids wall was the best because when you got to the top you could take the slide down. The only bad part about the kids wall was all the kids that were in our way. Dang kids!

I’ve got my concentration face on…


And I think I can still smell the rental shoes there. The whole place smelled like someone tried to smoke a cigar that contained rolled up sweaty feet.

What’s next, you ask? This Sunday, Chris and I will be taking a 5.5 hour scenic wine-tasting tour of Willamette Valley via limousine with a couple of friends. Only $40 per person, through Living Social!