Twilight Martini Lounge, Belltown

I was wearing my pajamas the first time I experienced a bit of Twilight Martini Lounge's hip-hop flavor. It was 1 AM and I was heading to bed when a girlfriend called from said bar and yelled, "Listen!" as I soon as I answered. She then held her phone up to a speaker for several seconds so that I could hear the song she was dancing to. It was "Loungin'" by LL Cool J, and...

Cafe Wannabee, University District

It would be easy for any woman to quickly develop a schoolgirl crush on Wally, proprietor of the University District's latest and greatest new coffeehouse. In my first twenty-minute meeting with him, I learned that the man is dedicated (it took him a year and a half to get the cafe up and running as his fulltime construction gig only allowed him an hour or two at night to work on building his business), that...

Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park

In 1989 Ray Oldenburg wrote a book entitled The Great Good Place in which he wrote that there are three essential places that all people must have in order to feel centered in life. The first is a home, the second is a school or workplace, and the third is a community space where a person can gather with others to meet, to laugh, to discuss, to banter, to unwind, to simply hang out and...

Ski Conditioning, Sound Mind and Body Gym, Fremont

It is hard to say whether the ski conditioning class at Sound Mind and Body Gym makes me feel like a professional athlete partaking in a regular training session or like an elementary school student participating in PE class (albeit a very advanced elementary school PE class). Either way, I love this class. Ski Conditioning takes place twice a week in Sound Mind and Body's huge basketball gymnasium. The class can draw up to one-hundred...

Mercer, University Village

Be forewarned: Mercer is a dangerous place. It is not the type of store that you enter, stroll around leaving unaffected, rather it is the type of store guaranteed to dangle some piece of clothing in your face and ask, "Don't you just love this?" In response your heart will pound a little harder. Your eyes will widen. It will be true. The store will be correct. You will love it. This is the problem...

Royal India, Juanita

Forgive me food gods, for I have sinned! I am ashamed to admit it, but I must come clean: I have been driving past Royal India since it first opened with my lips pursed, my brow furrowed, my nose stuck up in true "I am too good for that restaurant" food snob fashion. For years I have been saying aloud, "I will never eat there." I have been a foolish girl. A wicked girl! I...