The Train

I love the train.

I wish I could say I took the train all the time, but I don't. Yet I probably take it more than many. Most often I take it to Seattle for the afternoon. For about $40 round-trip I have enough time to meet friends for lunch and do some shopping. It takes longer than the drive, but it is more relaxing, the view is better, and I don't have to deal with parking.

When they say the train runs right along the water, they mean it.

Twice I have taken the train to Portland. The trip is a little more than six hours--it's four by car, if there are no major traffic issues in Seattle. Despite the extra time, I prefer the train.

But, yeah, I love it. Everything about it. I love standing around in our little train station listening to the incredibly exasperated station attendant explaining over and over that baggage closes 30 minutes before the train leaves, that you have to sign your ticket, and that you don't need to get a seat assignment (in Seattle and Portland you do need to get a seat assignment). I love seeing the train pull into the station. I like the car attendants in their uniforms helping everyone on the car. It's laid back and borderline romantic.

The train pulling into the station

I grab a cup of coffee, some breakfast, and hop on the train. If I'm going to be on the train for a while, I eventually grab a beer and watch the scenery. One of my favorite things to do is to stand in the vestibule and drink a beer. I have a view out both windows. I am usually by myself, and I can get lost in both the scenery and my own thoughts.

Coach car, taken from the vestibule.

Some things I noticed this time:

• They now have a vegan food option. They have always had a vegetarian item, but it was nice to see a vegan choice. I usually take my own food (Trader Joe's Spicy Lentil Wrap has yet to let me down), but it's good to know they have something if I can't bring my own food.
• I've read that ridership is up something like 20%. I know ridership at our station is up, but ridership is up nationwide. This has become evident over the last few months, because the cars are often filled. Around here, a lot of that is due to having extended service to Vancouver, BC. They did it because of the Winter Olympics, but looking at how full the train cars are, I doubt they will get rid of the extended service.
• Amtrak shows some decent movies. I saw most of Up in the Air on a trip back from Seattle in March. This time they showed Sherlock Holmes and Young Victoria. I didn't watch Sherlock Holmes but I listened to Young Victoria.
• The attendants on the train are incredibly amusing and self-deprecating. They make the trip a lot of fun. I'm beginning to recognize their voices and accents (at least one of them in French Canadian).

Taking the train really makes me realize how lucky I am to live here. First, I have the option to take the train, it has a decent schedule, and it's convenient. Second, it reminds me how amazingly beautiful the Pacific Northwest is. My one complaint: I wish we had a commuter train to Seattle. Given the terrain, I doubt we ever will. Vancouver would be nice, though. Real nice.

Images From the Last Few Weeks

The Boys.

A rainbow. We were having the normal spring misty rain when I noticed it was cloudy on one side of the building and sunny on the other. I knew that meant there would be a rainbow. I took this with my iPhone so it doesn't capture the brightness of it.

Today was the opening day of the farmers market. What did I find? Vegan baked goods. I was going to eat this right then and there, but even with the help of a friend, I couldn't walk, drink my coffee, carry my vegetables, and eat this all at the same time. And at that moment, the coffee was more important. It got a little dinged up on the way home, but it was damn good.

The two pictures above show a storm moving across the bay. This is something I love to do--watch weather fronts move across the open water. We've been having some crazy weather the last few days. We've been getting wind and rain storms that are more normal for fall than spring. Yesterday we had fairly regular 40 mph winds with 60 mph gusts. The winds picks up like this when a big front moves through and it came through late last night with little fanfare. This morning another big storm moved through while I was at the market. The wind picked up and it felt like the temp dropped ten degrees in about 30 seconds. And then it rained. It didn't mist, it rained. And then the rain congealed, and then it hailed. The pictures above were taken after the hail.

Putter-cation

We're on intersession in the Pacific Northwest. Most places call it Spring Break, but since we're on the quarter system and we just ended Winter Quarter, it's the intersession. I'm still not used to it, but it's not as foreign as it was last year.

Last break I took some time off and went to Portland. This year I took half the week off with plans to not do much of anything. I wanted three days where I could do whatever I wanted. I could be productive or lazy. I could make some day trips or I could park my ass on the couch. I wanted to putter. It's a putter-cation.

So... I spent Monday afternoon In Seattle. Most of my time in Seattle has been centered around downtown since it is easy to get to from the train station. But my iPhone makes it really easy to use Seattle's mass transit system, so I ventured out to the U-District for the afternoon. I was going to do some yarn shopping and meet K for lunch. I did make it to the yarn shop, but I cut my time short to catch up with K at Flowers and then met another friend for coffee at Cafe Allegro. This isn't a bad thing--I didn't need to spend the money, I like food and coffee, and I like catching up with people.

My next stop was the Public Market. I like the Market. Some Seattle folks avoid it because it is such a tourist destination, but on a Monday afternoon it is pretty low key. I didn't get there until almost 5:00 so some areas were already closed down. I tend to hit three places in the Public Market: Cinnamon Works (for vegan cookies), the Piroshky Bakery, and the fruit stand on the corner.

Cinnamon Works was closed. Too bad. They have these monster-sized cookies. Last time I was there I had a vegan snickerdoodle that was sooooo good. The Piroshky place was open but they were out of what I wanted: the apple cinnamon piroshkies. The woman in front of me bought the last two. I've been told that the apple cinnamon ones are vegan (if you eat honey, that is). This is one of those times I am going to take their word for it because the apple cinnamon piroshky I had last year was one of the best things I have ever eaten in my life. I don't go out of my way to eat honey. I don't buy it. And if I have two items--one with honey and one without, I go for the one without. But when I eat out, I will allow the honey. I know... It probably doesn't make me a true vegan in the eyes of some, but it's my life and my diet. Anyway.... I made it to the fruit stand, bought a tangerine and apple for the train ride home and headed down to King Station early so I could swing by Uwajimaya before the train.

At Uwajimaya I grabbed what turned out to be a damn good Vietnamese rice noodle and tofu dish from the food court. Seriously.... so good. It was simple: rice noodles, shredded tofu, a few veggies, and soy sauce on the side. I can't stop thinking about it. It was a dry, cool noodle dish. It was easier to take with me on the train than the soup version because I didn't have to worry about it getting cold, spilling it, etc. And, as I was clomping my way to King Station, I tripped on a crack in the sidewalk and fell on my ass. Well, technically, I fell on my side. I scraped up my calf pretty good. It was über embarrassing, but at least no one I knew saw me.

The last two days have been lazy. The weather has been amazingly gorgeous. I took care of a lot of things I have been meaning to: oil change, getting blood drawn for annual blood test, etc. I had an odd noise checked out on my car. Turns out it wasn't that odd; It was a normal sound that I didn't notice until now. And my blood test results were fine except that my vitamin D is so low I need to take prescription strength vitamin D for the next three months. Yippee.

So... I should be sitting out in the sun for my health, but today has been lazy: the gym, a few errands, a little spring cleaning.... Just stuff.

I left the flash drive with all the work stuff on it in my office. I rarely checked my work email and only responded to maybe three work-related emails. My putter-cation has been a rousing success. I need to do this more often.

Moving On

I'm moving. Yes I am. Moving. I'm leaving the South and heading back up North.

When I started looking for a job my goal was to be within one day's drive of my family. Currently, I am one day's drive, but it's a nine-hour drive (and a drive I will be making in a few weeks--with two cats). But instead of going due north back to the Midwest, I will be going northwest. I'm moving to the state of Washington. I'll be in an academic library in the Pacific Northwest.

Ahhh... the Pacific Northwest. Oregon, Washington... Areas I have been obsessed with for a long time. I think it started when I found out several of my high school friends ended up in either Seattle, Washington or Eugene, Oregon. I didn't know why. Looking back, I know now it was probably the music. This was before Nirvana hit the big-time--this was when Seattle was still just a dreary, wet town in the Northwest. But my friends knew to head out there.

Then there was Twin Peaks. What an awesome show. My obsession may have started in earnest with that show. Odd that a show about a murder and the odd characters in a small town would make me want to move somewhere. If you knew me, maybe it probably wouldn't seem so odd.

As time went on, I still held this romanticized view of the Northwest. My former boss interviewed for a job in Seattle. She wanted to buy me a snowglobe, but couldn't because she couldn't tell me she'd interviewed. A couple years later, our summer intern gave everyone a present when he left. Everyone except me. He told me to wait, he had something special. A few weeks later I received a box containing two snowglobes: one from Wall Drug and one from the Corn Palace (both in South Dakota). His family drove to Seattle that summer and he bought them for me on the way. His intention was to buy me a Seattle snowglobe, but he liked these better (they are awesome). So began my obsession with Seattle snowglobes (now I have two).

When I graduated from library school I wanted to move to either Seattle or Portland. Well, me and everyone else I knew wanted to move to either Seattle or Portland. I had one friend who quit his job, rented an SUV, packed up his apartment and cat and drove to Seattle. And then spent a year looking for a job. I thought about doing the same thing, but I am one of those people who needs a plan and a back-up plan and possibly a safety net if the other plans don't work... Going someplace without income, etc., was something I could not do. But in the back of my mind, I figured someday... Yet, I hadn't even visited the area.

In the last four years I have been to the Pacific Northwest four times. Each time reinforced my idea that this was the place for me. So, finally, finally, after four and a half years in the deep south and pretty hardcore job search, I landed a job in the Pacific Northwest. And I'm psyched. I'm also freaked out, terrified, worried, and all those other things. But I know the next five weeks of hand wringing (not to mention the previous three weeks of hand wringing) will all be worth it. I will trade in my rented townhouse for a rented apartment that will probably be the size of a shoebox. But it will be a cool shoebox. In a place I think I am going to really like.

A couple of people asked me if I was going to change the title of my blog. I don't think so. A friend of mine here (Sweet Pickles) called me "that Yankee Librarian" for the first six months I lived here. It didn't really stick, so to speak. He stopped calling me that and no one else picked it up, but it still fit. And as he said to me once, "You are the Yankee-ist Yankee I have ever met." And, you know, I am. So, the name stays.