effie's journal

[effiesjournal]

Went to a nice park in Bellevue on the 4th, sat in the grass and ate Poke bowls. It was a few hours before a whole event with lots of vendors and a firework show at night, so we saw the vendors setting up their spots.

It was a nice park with a cool view of the high-rise buildings downtown.

There were signs saying not to feed the ducks but there must be lots of people doing it anyway because their entire family rushed over to us when we stopped to look. The babies were extremely cute. The moment pictured is after they realized we didn't have anything for them and started leaving, disappointed.

When we got back home to Portland, there were WAY more fireworks than last year and Pumpkin had a hard time 😢 so next year we might plan a trip. Ugh!!

[effiesjournal]

Room service and goofy murder mysteries 🤩

[effiesjournal]

Love my new SpongeBob vans 😍

[effiesjournal]

My mom texted me this:

And I was literally scared for a second??

Well she meant "movie", with no period, because I had told her I was worried 28 years later would be too scary. But omg what an unfortunate typo 😭

We saw it at Bagdad theater which was very cute.

I honestly didn't like the movie very much, except for the suspenseful part at the beginning and the interesting imagery and sound design in the first half. But it kind of lost me after that. Aaron didn't love my disturbing theory that the baby was actually fathered by the doctor 👀

[effiesjournal]

The Brothers Karamazov

I wanted to try Russian literature, and specifically Dostoyevsky again after enjoying Crime and Punishment years ago, and I saw that a long list of people have named this "the best book ever written." It really piqued my interest and I had to find out what the heck was prompting that kind of reaction.

Well, if you ask me, the recipe for actually writing a great book is NOT relying on the income from publishing one chapter at a time, without having written the whole thing first, especially not what's supposed to be at least in part a comprehensible murder mystery. I really could have cut out the vast majority of the book and ended up with something that still has some thoughtful but much more concise thoughts about religion and ethics, and then a little murder mystery that's actually readable. Obviously my taste isn't shared by everyone but Tolstoy had the same take apparently lol.

I actually like the weird "realism" of the conversations and behavior of people, but it's SUCH a long book and everything is so extremely drawn out, that when I discovered that was the financial situation throughout the writing it made a lot more sense.

The imagined promise of an interesting conclusion (and for a very long while the promise of a murder happening at all) is the only thing that really kept me going, and actually the end and solving the mystery was the best part, so I'm not too mad, but wow.

[effiesjournal]

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

By Stuart Turton

I enjoyed this book. It's a surreal murder mystery, a lot like Agatha Christie but with body swapping, time travel, and memory wiping in hell, I think? I agree with the common sentiment that the ending gets too convoluted and hard to keep straight, but I at least kept track sufficiently to enjoy the main twists.

[effiesjournal]

Workshop notes

I found this old example of my absolutely unhinged note taking technique for a workshop on clinical supervision for social workers

[effiesjournal]

weight loss so far

2022 (but also after high dose steroids which may have made my face even bigger?) vs 2025

2024 vs 2025

[effiesjournal]

Olympia beach Airbnb

I actually didn't realize our Airbnb was within walking distance to the beach until we were on our way there. It was a cute neighborhood and there was a pedestrian path through the woods down to the beach with a warning to "use at your own risk"

Not sure why that pic above looks like daytime, but the sun was setting, and the drop off to the left started to get steeper and steeper, and then it started to look more and more like a horror movie as it got pitch black in there and I was just using my phone flashlight.

This is where the trail let out to the beach. This photo also totally misrepresenting the light level of the sky, it was definitely darker, but even so you can see how dark the trail is in there.

Still got a little bit of the pretty sunset.

On our way back we spotted this "little dog library" with a basket of driftwood for your dog. Pumpkin isn't much of a stick dog... when he was a puppy he'd mostly hide rocks in his mouth during walks lol

[effiesjournal]

Tacoma trip

Spotted this car in Tacoma, "Keep Tacoma Feared" and remnants of an "eat the rich" sticker, both of which I really appreciate.

got a photo of Bob's Java Jive, a giant coffee pot building built in 1927

We stayed at the Ramada in Olympia. There was clearly a lot of construction going on, but the lobby was nice. But then we got into the elevator and got a little concerned....

But then our actual room was pretty great, which was a relief!

I think it was probably just updated in all the construction, maybe? And the bathroom had something I've never seen but absolutely love- the controls on the CORRECT side of the shower when it's one of those glass things, so you don't have to lean in the water zone to turn it on!

On the way back to pick up pumpkin in Tacoma, we also spotted this absolutely hideous tree. What are you, and what have they done?! D:

[effiesjournal]

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone

By Benjamin Stevenson

I have an issue with cozy mysteries that really ruins them, which is skimming over the horror and gravity of murder in a weirdly creepily callous way, but I do otherwise really like media that mixes humor/lightheartedness with dark themes, like horror comedy. This book had a more humorous lighthearted tone, but still felt serious enough when appropriate, so I really enjoyed it.

It was also an actual logical mystery that felt enough like a puzzle to be satisfying. I was glad to see it was part of a series, and I recommend it!

[effiesjournal]

Elks Temple - June trip

We got the very highest room, it was on the top floor, and then another half flight up from the other rooms on the floor. I wonder if it's the nicest, then?

We could see the water from our room

The 7th floor has a window that overlooks the 6th floor which is pretty wacky.

We had to go back to the Tiki bar, despite the ridiculous prices. I got one of their non-alcoholic drinks which was supposed to have coconut stuff, but it mostly tasted like the bitters they used... not my favorite but interesting? We got "steak bites" and were warned "it's only like 5 bites." Definitely an important warning since they weren't kidding, and I feel like we paid for a whole steak lol.

Still glad we went since it's such a fun place to see.

We also took a walk around the area

[effiesjournal]

Hotel Theodore in Seattle

Cute room, nice view right from the bed

Outfits and room service

Boba (taro with Oreo, amazing) at South Center and beach at Dash Point with cute pigeons

[effiesjournal]

New living room layout, nice and simple and comfy ☺️

[effiesjournal]

furniture delivery

I connected with someone on a local facebook no-buy group to give away our bed frame (that we were using as legs for a giant coffee table... turned out to be kind of unnecessary but I stand by the fact that it was a cool idea). The lady was super nice but wow the apartment building was so busted :(

[effiesjournal]

Salt and straw

Went to Salt and Straw in Lake Oswego (this photo from google)

It was actually evening and we walked around to find this terrifying sculpture near the lake?!

I got the pear and blue cheese which was kind of disappointing. It kind of just tasted like nothing/vanilla mostly, except for hints of blue cheese which was fun, but just seemed random.

Aaron got the strawberry honey balsamic and really didn't like it, but I loved it!! The description said they use the balsamic to bring out the strawberry flavor- it worked on me, and it tasted like more strawberry than strawberry without reading as balsamic at all. It didn't work on Aaron though, it just tasted intensely like balsamic to him. Interesting!

[effiesjournal]

Friendship movie

First, Korean chicken from Chimcking. We got it with some kind of cheese powder and it was great

Then to the Hollywood theater right next door (image actually from when we walked by in March). Absolutely incredible building.

There's a pizza place right next door, so you can order it from inside Hollywood theater through the "pie hole"

Friendship was a super weird movie! I really prefer the Tim Robinson character in the much more lighthearted context of the show Detroiters. I think for balance it needs him to also be sweet and insane in a more endearing way. It also didn't go far enough with the creepy side to really be a thriller or horror movie like I expected, especially from A24, just kind of stayed only mildly creepy at times? But still some really funny moments and glad we went!