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4月30日 Transit ComplaintI forgot that I wanted to complain about the bus system. Why is there no bus that just runs all the way down 148th or all the way down 156th? It must be impossible to live on the Eastside without a car.
Yesterday, I tried to take a bus from my office to Peter's. His office is literally 4 or 5 miles down the street. I was willing to walk to get to any number of arterials and expand my available options. Even so, Metro Online kept presenting with options that include no fewer than two transfers and stops at various transit centers. What the hell?? In the end, it was easier and faster just to ride either the bus or The Connector home rather than try to carpool with my husband. 4月2日 What, Me Worry About Public Schools?I've been feeling pretty sad about this whole debacle at Madrona School. Although we don't have kids, we'd be assigned to Madrona School if we did. The three-ring circus that's described in that article makes me anxious and worried. Even Peter asked me if we need to go ahead and join the PTA next year. Who knew, but there are people who joined the PTA at Madrona long before they even had kids in anticipation of one day sending their kids there! Talk about pro-active...
I always figured I would send my kids to public school. At the same time, I'm not sure how I feel about knowingly subjecting kids to an education that can't, by any account, be described as well-rounded. I attended public schools my entire education, though, and I don't feel like I was shortchanged in any way. Then again, I'm not sure my schools were ever in as sad a situation, at least not while I attended them.
I will admit that I've been biased against private schools for a long time. Since eighth grade to be exact. Ever since my eighth grade social studies teacher told our class that private schools aren't held accountable to anybody outside each school, I've been biased against them. You might argue this is a good thing, especially in light of all the problems public schools are having in being held accountable to the federal government. My concern is this: all schools have an agenda. Although the body to which any private school is held accountable is smaller than that of most public schools, should the need arise I would be even more powerless to effect any change in an environment where the size of your wallet absolutely matters. And are smaller bodies any easier to govern? Not where there are big bucks thrown around, they aren't. There are other reasons too. Most private schools are parochial and, again, the school's agenda becomes a concern. Also, the snooty air of entitlement that I always sensed from kids who went to private schools is not something I want to instill or see in my kids.
Unfortunately, I feel pretty sure that in this country we've set up our public school system so that it can only fail. I don't understand why everyone's so eager to give up on the system. I don't know exactly what would drastically improve our public schools, but giving up on them surely isn't the answer. I also have a sneaking suspicion that adequate resources (a.k.a. "money") and a major paradigm shift in the way we think about education might help.
Seattle Public Schools in particular seems to be having acute fiscal trouble. Amid major controversy, they closed a bunch of schools last fall. I feel a little sensitive about what's going on in Seattle Public Schools, I guess, because in the two biggest stories racism has been the primary topic of discussion. I'm aware of the demographic that these inner-city public schools serve, primarily low-income minorities, because two of the schools that were/are embroiled in these affairs are within walking distance of my house--King Elementary School and Madrona K-8. I guess I'm a little baffled because the racism isn't even of the variety I'd expect it to be. Instead of being between students or between students and teachers, it's between parents and the administration (be it the school administrators or the school board).
I went to public schools all my life. My K-12 education took place at public schools that had student populations that were about 80% minorities (mostly Hispanic and Asian) when I attended them and are now 92% to 98% non-white. I remembered teachers fretting about overcrowding in the classrooms starting from, oh, the 2nd grade. Every year, the numbers went up. From 25 kids to 28 kids to 32 per classroom. At one point, my parents got me and my sisters transferred to a better elementary school in the district. I was about to enter the fifth grade by then and I remember thinking that my education wasn't so bad and not understanding why we had to be uprooted. My old school had art, music, and physical education programs. We had spelling bees and math bees. I learned to play the recorder and the violin and to sing. I went to the computer lab and learned BASIC, LOGO, and how to type like the dickens. I learned songs and dances for school recitals and bought tons of books at the book fairs. I adored my teachers and had made as many friends as a shy know-it-all kid possibly could.
At my new school, there were small differences: a student council, Outdoor School for fifth-graders (a sleepaway nature education program or something like that...), a bigger playground and an annual musical put on by students in the GATE kids from every grade. I got a lead in the school play, but the other differences didn't affect my life much. I will admit that my junior high experience might have been augmented because of my school having been designated a "nationally distinguished" school. For what, I don't remember. We did really well in inter-school academic competitions at the county level, especially when compared to some others in the district. I can't explain the reasons for it except that maybe we had better coaches or at least ones with more experience. I remember being really proud of our school's performance at the academic pentathlon, but I always figured I would have gotten my individual awards regardless of where I went to school because I chalked up all my success to my own caliber and mental acuity.
High school was much the same as junior high. I think I lost some of my verve for it, but I still participated in EVERY SINGLE NERD EXTRACURRICULAR that was offered (except one). I kid you not. It's how I got into college. But it wasn't until I got to college that I found out all that we hadn't been offered. It seems to be mostly AP classes that kids at poor inner city public schools miss out on. Also, adequate preparation for those AP tests. (I honestly thought that 4 and 5 scores were mythical because that's what they were made out to be. Our teachers warned us it would be tough to even get a 3 to pass. Imagine how depressed I was when I found out that plenty of people get 4s and 5s.) I'm still pleased with the variety of extracurriculars we had available to us and with the teachers who took the no doubt unpaid time to coach us kids.
I don't know what the situation is like at Madrona School, but I find it hard to believe there is no art or music instruction. Seriously?? That's what I seem to be reading. Are there art or music programs at Lowell Elementary, the one school in Seattle Public Schools that has a gifted program? Or are they just spending their time preparing for the WASL in their own ways? Is the WASL like the CTBS (California Test of Basic Skills) tests? If so, what is so wrong with our schools that kids aren't passing?? As far as I can tell, the kids in Washington mostly don't even have English as a second language to contend with. I think everyone I knew was getting the highest possible score on the CTBS by the fourth grade. By the sixth, we were all already so jaded that everyone grumbled and rolled their eyes at each other as we passed the Scantrons down the row. The tests were just a waste of time and we knew it. I understand that there are kids who'd be graduating from high school without having ever learned how to read if it weren't for standardized tests. I know, I know. But am I off-base in thinking that these tests and the education we're supposedly trying to give these kids isn't working if kids are still dropping out and still struggling to pass these tests?
What happens in the public high schools in Seattle? Do kids still get extracurriculars? I mean, kids at Madrona don't even get recess! When I first moved here, I heard a lot about the rivalry between the jazz bands at Garfield and Franklin on NPR and thought, "How cool is that??" And then there are the big-time basketball programs. Even girls' basketball makes headlines around here.
What's happening at Madrona School makes me sad. Why can't the money the PTA raised be used to teach the kids Spanish or to teach them gardening? Who's to say that those programs couldn't be designed to help the kids learn other subjects better? I'm hoping the situation improves before I find myself having to make a tough choice between public school, homeschooling, and private schools. I think kids actually end up doing most of their learning from their parents anyway and that they'll absorb everything they can from schools based on the way their parents raised them. My hope is that the political situation at Madrona gets better because, yeah, I'd like my kids to be able to walk to school and to attend a school with a diverse population.
This article actually made me fret so much about public schools versus private schools that I got to wondering how much it costs to send kids to private school. I looked up one of the private schools that's within walking distance (and which is coincidentally right next door to one of the public elementary schools that was closed down last year). So...yeah. Unless one of us wins the lottery or happens to find a couple big bags of money, I don't think little Chloeter or Poe (pronounced poh-ee) is going to be attending The Bush School... We had walked by on Saturday and marveled at the flags outside the school that celebrated the 40-odd people who donated tens of millions to the school this year and thought, "Huh. That can't be right." What kind of racket have they got going at those bake sales? Oh, well. It seems like one of those schools where you need to apply while little Chloeter/Poe is still in utero anyway. I'm a cheerleader for public schools, but I still drool when I walk past The Bush School. Sadly, I'd never get my ass in gear to apply until our kid was potty-trained. 12月15日 The Four HorsemenThe past month's weather has undoubtedly been a harbinger of the coming Apocalypse. Freak snowstorms, windstorms, and flooding. I expect to see the four horsemen of the Apocalypse riding up our street any day now.
The 520 bridge was still closed this morning because of last night's 63 mph winds, so anyone heading in to work from Seattle was re-routed to I-90. Those who braved the traffic found themselves on campus with no power and, therefore, no ability to power up their computers. Us? We slept in especially late because there was no alarm issuing from the clock in our bedroom and not nearly enough sunlight coming through the skylights to rouse us. We finally got up and moseyed over to a new tea bar on Capitol Hill to check email. We left the dogs at home to keep looters away.
We've now been at Remedy Teas almost two hours, drinking up pots of tea and devouring cheese and pastries while we check for updates on the news. A woman in our neighborhood was trapped in a flash flood in her basement and died from drowning. It was really scary and hit close to home. Our neighborhood had major flooding issues last winter, although we didn't suffer hardly at all from it. Last night, though, we had to empty the ShopVac seven times. It was weird to shuffle around in ice-cold water on our new floors, but it seems we're mostly dry down there now. After hearing about the woman who drowned, I'm thankful for the glass panels in our doors down there because it means we can always break the glass to escape from any room should we ever really be in trouble.
It's bitter cold outside and we're being told to conserve our hot water because it might be days before we get power back. I wish I'd showered last night. I guess it'll probably be awhile before we get our phone back up too. The phones lines are currently lying in our driveway. Today feels like it would be a good day for baking, but unfortunately, our ovens are electric. I knew I should have tried to make some cookies last night. The best I can do now is fire up the stove and try to use the food in the fridge and freezers before it all goes bad. Things could be worse, but it kind of sucks as is. 11月28日 School's OutCampus is closed today! Well, not quite. This morning, facilities sent mail with a subject line indicating that campus was closed due to snow and icy roads. No cafeteria service. No receptionists. No shuttles. No mail service. Even calls to the operator would be left to the robots. Then, an hour and a half later, they decided to send out the same mail again with a new subject line indicating that campus was "open with limited services". No matter because everyone had already sent their, "No food in the cafeterias? I'm working from home" mails.
When Peter and I saw last night that it had started snowing again, we turned on the local news for some amusement. Sure enough, there were numerous shots of long chains of brakes lights, people wandering like zombies across the roadways and many, many cars pulled over to the side of the road. My favorite images were of cars and trucks stopped dead in their tracks across all four lanes. What do the big rig drivers do when they have to drive across Colorado?? I actually don't mind driving in the snow. I know that I know what to do when things get a little hairy, but I'm not about to get on the road with those guys.
My first winter in Seattle, I was driving home on I-90 because 520 was so backed up because of the snow. I had barely made it through the Mercer Island tunnel when some guy in front of me braked all of a sudden (the shock of the snow flurries hitting his windshield, no doubt). His car immediately did something I thought you only ever saw in the movies and spun in a full 360. It was pretty freaky, but I was never in danger, so I kept my cool and eased out from behind him and then carefully, but quickly, drove past should he decide to do something else crazy. The next day, when Peter and I decided to drive in to work together, we were shocked to see how many cars had been abandoned along the side (and sometimes in the right lane) of 520. What happened to all these people? Did they really walk home?? Apparently, last night, lots of people had to do just that because bus service downtown was canceled and commutes that normally take half an hour took up to four hours.
Just before seven last night, we decided to run some errands. As we were picking up dog food and driving up the hill to the Safeway, we came across a minivan driver with chains on. No joke. That fool was headed down the hill and we were going up, but did he give us the right of way? No, of course not. It's funny how seriously people are taking a little bit of snowfall, but as long as it allows me to work from the comfort of my bed instead of at my desk, I'm happy to play along. 9月19日 DisenfranchisedWhat is it with Seattle fast food franchises? With our itinerant lifestyle, all our stuff boxed up god-only-knows-where, and all our money spent on the house, Peter and I have been eating at fast food restaurants a lot. Almost all the time, actually. And with that, I've noticed that there are some serious supply chain issues going on with local franchises.
First, there was the Taco Bell that seemed to be out of standard issue napkins. One dispenser had Zee-type napkins in them. The other had those brown paper towels that you find in public restrooms. The paper towels had been unfolded from their original tri-fold configuration and had been refolded into squares.
Then, there was the Burger King that was out of onion rings. Out of onion rings?? I think I asked three different ways just to confirm. Yes, they had actually run out of onion rings. I've never been denied anything that was on the menu at a fast food place before. It was unsettling.
Next thing you know, I'm going to walk into a McDonald's and find that they're out of fries.
All this makes me think of that story from 2005 about the Quizno's where the owners up and left and the manager kept the store open by buying lunchmeat and cheese at the grocery store and paying employees out of the till. That happened in Seattle, too. We seem to be on the verge of a crisis here. Apparently, Washington state breeds bad franchise owners. And serial killers. We seem to have a problem with serial killers, too. Do you think there's possibly a link that criminologists have overlooked? 9月15日 Today, I care.It's Friday afternoon and I'm ready for bed. I spent all morning and the early part of the afternoon at the Community Lunch on Capitol Hill. One day a year, my company sponsors a Day of Caring where lots of teams get together and donate their time to a non-profit organization or a charity project. There are lots of jokes about how the rest of the year, we don't care...
Last year, I did some landscaping at Stevens Elementary on Capitol Hill and had lots of fun, although I didn't really get the sense that Stevens needed the help as much as maybe some other schools. T.T. Minor, for example. This year, I was happier to be preparing and serving lunch to the homeless and low-income folks on Capitol Hill.
Most organizations who enlist our help on the Day of Caring prepare a huge list of chores that they can't do or rarely do the rest of the year because they don't have enough manpower. There were 32 of us today and we collectively cleaned the entire main hall, basement, refrigerator/walk-in freezer, and kitchen. There was even a crew on "gum duty", scraping gum from the chairs and tables. I personally spent the day scrubbing counters, cupboards, shelves, even the church stage, with bleach. I also washed carrots and chopped pounds of donated carrots and what appeared to be an entire rosemary bush. Then, I worked the room during lunch hour, talking to people and bringing them seconds and thirds from the kitchen.
Lunch is served only from 12-1 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, leaving me to wonder what these people do the rest of the time. I saw one guy load up a stack of tupperwares with the chicken pot pie, biscuits, and roasted potatoes, so I know what he'll be eating tonight, but lots of people just had one plate and then took off. Surprisingly, there were only 160 or so people who showed up. I expected lots more, but I guess that's typical. I wonder if there are other soup kitchens in the area because I can only imagine there are lots more homeless in the area.
By the time we were done cleaning up, it was 3 o'clock and I'd been on my feet since 8 (save for the fifteen minutes when I sat down to eat the same lunch that we served to the community). It didn't seem like that long a day and I was only a little bit sweaty running around in the hot church kitchen, but the moment I stopped to stand still mid-way through the lunch hour, I felt woozy and realized I hadn't had anything to eat or drink. I guzzled a bottle of water right then and another huge glass when I got home, but my shoulders, back, legs, and feet are all achy now. I feel like I could sleep through the night, starting right now.
The walk home was pleasant. I stopped in at the Madison/Capitol Hill Farmer's Market along the way and saw the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers, but prudently remembered that I have no idea where our vases are right now. I thought I might ask Peter if he wanted to walk back up to the market with me, but now that I've taken off my shoes, I have no desire to put them back on.
I'm thinking a trip to the spa would do me right. But first, a nap. 3月7日 Assembly RoomTurns out I'm serving jury duty at a different courthouse from where I've served the past two times. The jury assembly room here at the Municipal Court of Seattle is great! Two walls of floor-to-ceiling windows, TVs with DVD players, new and comfortable seating, kitchen with coffee and tea, outdoor area with a sod roof, jigsaw puzzles, magazines... The view is unbelievable. I'll see if I can post pictures of it later. 1月3日 UmbrellasSeattleites don't use umbrellas and I love that about them. It was one of the first things I noticed about this place and it makes me smile whenever I think of it. So quietly defiant.
I don't even know where my first grown-up umbrella from college is. It was green and had a repeating pattern of flying mallards on it. It was one of those long, non-collapsible umbrellas. I liked it because everyone else seemed to carry the flimsy collapsible ones and I preferred to clack mine against the sidewalk or swing it around like a cane rather than tuck it away in my backpack or purse.
(I only seem to blog when I've got something negative to say. That says something about my outlook, I guess. So, I wrote this hoping to counterbalance my cranky post from earlier today... Some other time, I'll write about how much I hate the way Washingtonians drive. Or have I done that already?) Museum crowdsI am not big on crowds, especially not at museums. It's so inappropriate that you should ever have to negotiate throngs of people at a museum. I think of museums as quiet places that encourage contemplation. A crowd is, by its very nature, at cross-purposes to that, isn't it?
Today, I went to the Louis Comfort Tiffany exhibit at the SAM as part of a morale event with my co-workers. The exhibit ends tomorrow at midnight, so the place was crazy busy. Groups were admitted on an hourly basis, but whatever the max capacity per hour was, it was too high. It was like a circus inside the exhibit.
There was, at all times, a group directly in front of me hogging the viewing space, a person breathing down my neck from the side, someone stepping up from behind because they thought I didn't want to get a closer look myself, and a number of people pushing from either direction to pass on through the exhibit. I found myself checking and rechecking the zipper on my purse, as though one of the seniors was going to snatch my money. After awhile, I got impatient about having to view everything from off to side or pressed up against the wall and proceeded to morph into (less egregious) variations on each of the museum-going types that so annoyed me in the first place.
In the end, I left the exhibit way too early because I felt like I wasn't able to give it my full attention. Shooting invisible daggers at the back of people's heads is distracting work... I'm not even one of those people who reads every word of text and listens to every audio clip. I mostly just want to lay my eyes on every piece in the exhibit. I don't think that's too much to ask. If a piece doesn't stir anything inside of me in the first few moments I look at it, I move on so I can spend more time admiring the stuff that I do like. I managed to see every piece in the exhibit, I think, but I only craned my neck or stood on my tiptoes for a heartbeat or two on some of them.
Of course, I now feel all remorseful because I didn't expect to appreciate Tiffany as much as I did. He crafted some amazing glass vessels, windows, paintings, jewelry, and pieces of furniture that bear little to no resemblance to the dragonfly lamp that reproduction factories can't seem to make enough of. There were actually very few lamps in the show. My favorites were: the two cameo glass vases that seemed to glow from within, a green glass gourd that looked ceramic, the footed bowls with glass sea creatures embedded in the stem, all the windows (especially the portrait of the woman in red and the one with the apple tree), and a painting of an imagined desert scene inspired by Egyptian ruins.
It occurs to me that the only times I have really enjoyed the SAM have been when I was there for private parties hosted by work, when we had the whole place to ourselves and could wander at a leisurely pace. The museum is just too small to be as popular as it is. Luckily, it's finally undergoing a big renovation and expansion. You have until midnight tomorrow to bid it farewell until 2007, if you can stand the crowds... It's snowing!You can hardly tell, but it's been coming down for almost an hour now! I was waiting for the flakes to get nice and fat, which they are, before taking a picture. Alas, nothing is sticking yet, not even in the trees.
Anyway, this is the view from my office. My desk faces the door, but I'm very tempted to actually put my laptop in my lap and work facing the view. 11月9日 You win some, you lose someNever before have so many people that I voted for not win the election. It's got me scratching my head. I don't think my values have really changed, so I either didn't think carefully enough about my choices or the political climate in King County has changed.
I'm relieved that the smoking ban passed, but it's only cold comfort, what with the monorail's death. I didn't see it coming. I really didn't. Four times it was up for a vote and four times it was resoundingly approved. I read something that said that denizens of Ballard had been staunch supporters until the latest plans didn't include them in the first stage of construction. Hell, the CD wasn't going to get hooked up until phase 4 or the year 2018 or something ridiculous like that, but I still voted for the monorail! They say it's unlikely another grassroots movement will grow around a future monorail initiative, but I'm going to start it. I want a monorail from Seattle to Redmond. With the number of Seattleites who commute to the Eastside, it makes so much sense. I don't see how the project could possibly fail...
I suppose the smoking ban will really only be a coup if it turns out The Twilight, our usual bar haunt, abides by it. Seems to me like it's one of those places where the signs will go up, but no one will give a crap if you do light up inside. Too bad. I like to smoke as much as the next drunk, but the combination of booze in my stomach and secondhand smoke in my lungs seems to be a lethal combination. Surprisingly more nauseating than actually smoking. 11月2日 Election Day - November 8, 2005!Voting is a privilege that's conferred to Americans when they turn 18. When I turned 16, I earned the right to drive. When I turned 21, I earned the right to drink. In that time in between, I earned the right to vote. I take voting as seriously as I do those other privileges. On the rare occasion that I don't make it to the polls, I beat myself up about it. I wail things like, "When they say only 30% of registered voters turned out, I'm part of that scummy 70% that didn't!" (I suspect my on-the-spot figure of 30% turnout is probably optimistically high...)
As much importance as I place on voting, I'm as disorganized* about it as I am about everything else. It's always the same story in the days leading up to it. They send the voter's pamphlet WAY too early in advance. I set it aside to read, but then manage to lose it at some point in the following weeks. Inevitably, I end up on the King County website the day before or the day of, frantically reading position statements, counterpoints, and counter-counterpoints, and jotting down my votes on some scrap of paper.
In years past, the most frustrating thing about reading the pamphlet online was that you got the full list of measures and offices and not just the ones for your district or precinct. This meant I was always playing it safe and reading everything just so I could make a decision in every possible case. It didn't matter that half the county commissioner names I wrote down never even showed up on my actual ballot. Now, everything's changed! As of October 18th, King County offers a customized online voter pamphlet. This is for people just like me! Type your name and birthdate or street address into a form, and voila! (The paranoid part of me wants to ask why you can supply just a street address to get this information, but the nosy part of me gets to find out which of my neighbors is registered to vote!)
Anyhow, use the form and get:
Beyond that, it's actually kind of terrible. It's difficult to use because your information isn't cached and the custom pamphlet doesn't persist in any apparent way. So, you have to re-enter your information every time you click Back or click the Back to Previous Page link. There's no link back to the main page of the custom voter pamphlet. It's not a perfect solution, but it's better than having to read every page of the voter pamphlet, having no voter pamphlet, and most certainly better than not voting!! * P.S. The reason I'm writing about this today is because up until a few minutes ago, I thought today was election day. First Tuesday of November, right? It's not even Tuesday... 8月29日 Daddy, I want an Oompa Loompa!Providing more than enough support for Peter's assertion that children should only be dressed in costume, the Oompa Loompas in Uncle Willy's Chocolate Factory stole the show and my heart. I was squealing so much, you'd think the littlest Oompa Loompa was my kid. Watching seven-year-olds do the Cabbage Patch and seriously get down with other hip hop dance moves was the reason we came to the show. We'd seen them perform in the Central Area Community Festival a few weeks prior and were amped to see more dancing and to support a local youth program.
Some of my favorite quotes from the program:
All in all, it was not a waste of an evening! It was also totally crackin'! 4月23日 I heart Seattle.Two days this past week, I served jury duty at the King County Courthouse. It was the second time in two years that I was called to serve, but I was thrilled to do it. I'm waiting for the day I get to see a real trial in action, but even more than that, I really love walking around downtown Seattle. When I first moved to Seattle five years ago, I had no job lined up. I spent several months doing temp work and every single one of my temp jobs was downtown. If it weren't for the extreme feelings of resentment and self-loathing I felt at these jobs, I would have loved temping. I'm great at menial tasks. Give me a tasks with very little scope and plenty of tedium and I'm there. It's very satisfying to me that perfection is always within reach with those kinds of jobs. But temping threatened my will to live everyday. At temp jobs, I always finished my duties long before my boss ever expected me to. No matter how much I tried to drag things out, I'd find myself standing before a flustered person and asking them, "What now?" One person didn't like that I had so much leisure time that she eventually set me to dusting and vacuuming the place. I hated that woman for thinking she could make me her maid. Then, there's the fact that no one ever talks to the temp. I don't blame them. Why bother pretending to make friends with someone who you'll never see again once their two weeks are up? Finally, the worst temp experience I ever had was when I went to a job placement agency and the woman flat out told me there was no way I could ever expect to make thirty thousand dollars a year and especially not in my first job out of college. When we had talked on the phone, she had been very enthusiastic and supportive about working with me. She knew the general outline of my work and educational history before I went in to see her, but I think she changed her mind when she saw me in person. I argued an articulate case, pointing out that I had prestigious credentials and that I had, in fact, had that kind of salary at the last job I held during college. She was adamant, though, and told me I didn't have enough experience in any one area to get a real job. I left that place in tears, but was thoroughly vindicated when the next job I interviewed for and GOT was my full-time gig as a software tester. Despite the gloom and doom that was temping and job-hunting, I was able to take pleasure in downtown Seattle. Getting to spend my days in downtown Seattle was a big part of what made it all bearable. Sometimes I worked in Pioneer Square in the really cool, original brick buildings. Other times, I was in high-rises. Always, I had lunch breaks to myself when I would race all over town on foot. I quickly discovered that you can pretty much travel the length downtown and back in an hour. That doesn't leave much time for dawdling, but it's very do-able. I would use lunch breaks to go to the library and check out books. Sometimes, I'd explore Pike Place Market and try to hang out where there was a view of the water. Other times, I would just shop or try to find new places to grab lunch. No matter what I was doing, I got a rush from being a working girl in the city. I really loved just walking around and seeing everyone out and about. Jury duty was even better for walking. So long as I'm not in a rush to get somewhere, walking is my preferred mode of transportation. After I was dismissed from court each day, I had plenty of time to walk around. Ours is a little city, so we don't have as many problems in the way of traffic and crazies on the street that places like New York or San Francisco do, but you can still get a taste of that city flavor from time to time. Being on jury duty reminded me that I'm in love with Seattle, so it didn't matter at all who I was standing with at the crosswalk. Whether they were in stiff suits, four layers of dirty flannel, or optimistic shorts and t-shirts, I was pleased as punch to be with "my people", the people I like to imagine love the city as much as I do because they also call it home or because they came from afar to see it. P.S. It didn't hurt that the weather has been insanely gorgeous and I was totally pumped up to be outside in it instead of looking out at it longingly from my window! 4月1日 Promise me my car won't get broken into.So, when I spoke with Pete on the phone a few days after they left our place, I thanked him and Trudy for coming to see us. I tried to lay a guilt trip on him and said that I hoped they would come again soon. His response, "Well, only if you promise me my car won't get broken into." It would have been better to not have it happen at all, but I'm glad the break-in at Seward Park was the only damper on the weekend. Well, that and the constant downpour (which was a literal damper). I learned a couple things from the window-breaking incident:
Just kidding about that last one, of course. Though, I did offer to let them keep their car in the relative safety of the hotel garage by being the designated chauffeur next time. 2月22日 Do you know where Deano's is?Yes, I do. But... you, in your hipster clothes and your hipster car, are already more than six blocks too far east. You're not actually going to Deano's, are you? I sure hope you're looking for the Twilight. But I'm sure the customers at Deano's would love to entertain a polite, young, interracial couple for an evening of cold beverages and scintillating conversation. You can't possibly think you're going to find Deano's tucked away between condos and professional buildings on a block that's this deserted at 8:30pm. If you do, you're in for a surprise. You've got to be looking for the Twilight. Call me crazy, but isn't it a little weird that people who don't already know where Deano's is would actually want to go to Deano's? "Yeah. It's that way on Madison." |
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