Arden

I've lived in Seattle for many years now. Part of it as a student at the UW, the rest working. Mainly at the Seattle Public Library (SPL). I've worked in most of the branches at SPL but the main one I spend time in is the Central Branch. It's this big glass monstrosity of a thing. Quite fantastic. It's a job I like most of the time. I'm not a librarian, you need a master's degree. I work in circulation. Reading is one of my favorite hobbies but not part of my job sadly. I do contribute to the SPL blog, which is thrilling for me. I'd love to run my own blog but I never set aside the time to actually work on it. So it's my own fault that I don't do it, as with many other hobbies.

Outside of work and reading, I feel like I barely leave myself time to relax. I volunteer (when possible) with an animal shelter and at many of the local theaters. I enjoy the older plays, like Shakespeare or Oscar Wilde. I specifically volunteer at Cat City, a branch of PAWS which is based out of Lynnwood. I usher for the theaters and in exchange get to see plays for free. My favorite part of 'ushering' is running the concessions booth.

I've been taking aerial classes for a few years now. I'm pathetically weak and still stuck in the beginner classes. I still enjoy it. I'm doing silks, rope, and trapeze. My favorite is rope but it's also the most painful. It has the best performances. I try to exercise outside of the class to help increase my strength but I fail to be consistent. I use a wii 'game' that's about exercises and I love that it's different every time. I also have a pull-up bar... Which I should put back up. I'm stuck on the eight pound weights. Hopefully, I'll eventually move up.

I host a lot of movie nights for my friends. I have a monthly movie night. I'll choose a theme and everyone will bring movies according to the theme. Then we'll vote. Seldom is it a good movie. Sometimes we'll go very extravagant. We did a Hook movie night where everyone was encouraged to dress as a pirate or lost boy. We had a marshmallow 'food' fight and watched the movie. We turned the living room into a blanket fort. I had multiple changes of clothes. I started as Peter the lawyer and with a quick clothing change was Peter Pan. We were finding marshmallows for months after that! I've also do a Saturday morning cartoon sleepover, Miyazaki movie night (we created a tunnel people had to climb through to get into the living room) and a Gilmore Girls marathon when the new shows came out. There was a lot of coffee for that one and I hate coffee but one must suffer for one's theme.

I do other parties as well. I write my own murder mysteries and occasionally get lazy and do a box one. I love dressing up for them. (I sometimes dress up for my monthly movie party themes.) I have a few friends that do murder mysteries as well and I love to attend those. I've tried other styles of parties like a choose your own adventure party. That was interesting and I'll have to give it another go sometime.

I love baking and often bring the results to work. I'm a fan of unusual recipes. I like cookbooks with really good pictures. I keep my favorite recipes in a hand written recipe book. I try making my food and avoid eating out but that is difficult. It's easier to eat out. Like I do lunch with a friend and we love going to this cafe/catering place called Harried and Hungry. My favorite restaurant was Pasta Freska on South Lake Union because it's unusual. You sit down, the chef comes to your table, asks you what you can't eat, and just starts bringing you dishes! The owner retired, so it's no more and I haven't found a new one.

I'm a fan of tea & books. Any tea, any book. I have cat! Beowulf. He's 13 and gorgeous.