Blerg, pt II

So, apparently, I have been not-sick for about three weeks since January. I'm not joking.

Sunday: Sore throat. Monday morning: Soar throat with headache and slight cough; could be allergies, could be a cold.

It's a cold. And despite going to Seattle for a semi-work-related thing, I was on vacation. Except that by the time I got back from Seattle I had a full-blown raging cold, and it got worse before it began to get better. So my vacation? I spent it NyQuilled up, half asleep on the sofa. I had wanted to spend my time off in the sun.

I did have a chance to try the Mac Daddy from the Wayward in the U-District in Seattle. Not as good as the vegan Big Mac from Doomies. I think I'll stick to breakfast at the Wayward.

Oh... I did watch the second season of Girls. I have mixed feelings. Especially about the ending. Did it bother anyone else that Hannah had to be rescued by Adam? Because it did me, but I'm not sure why it bothered me.

Anyway.... Even though I was sick I had to drive to Tacoma to give a presentation. Now, I've never actually been to Tacoma. I didn't see much of it during this trip other than a LaQuinta sandwiched between I5 with rooms that smelled like laundry detergent and the Tacoma Community College. I did make it to the UW-Tacoma area and it was actually pretty cool in its diversity and general funkiness.

Now, I drove. This is big. I hate to drive in or around Seattle. Hate it. Really, really hate it. I was in a day-long meeting on Thursday but left early hoping to miss rush hour. I don't know if I missed it since I spent an hour barely moving on I5. Was it rush hour or just shitty traffic? Don't know; don't care. Oh, and a lady behind me in an SUV was eating soup from a bowl with a spoon... while driving. People are stoopid.

I gave my presentation and left. I was going to stick around but I needed food and despite listing my diet restrictions when I registered for the conference, there wasn't anything I could eat (I usually don't expect it, but if asked my dietary restrictions, I usually expect an attempt). But, it was okay. It gave me both an excuse to leave early (and miss Friday rush hour) and a reason to head up to Hilltop Quickie Too (which is in the UW-Tacoma area). Owned by Plum Restaurants, I have been to several of their other places yet haven't been to actually go to one of the Hilltop Quickies because they tend to have weird hours. Their service can be slow, but the reputation of their food is stellar (and Plum Bistro is excellent). It's basic comfort/soul food: breakfast, sandwiches, greens, and anything that can be covered in gravy. It took me at least 15 minutes to decide what to order. I had to talk myself out of a milkshake and finally settled on the BBQ "burger" (BBQ tofu with caramelized onions and potato salad on a bun). I'm pretty sure I had BBQ sauce on my face as it was all over my hands, rings, and clothing. I did not care, it was just that good.

BBQ from Hilltop Quickie Too. Sloppy goodness.

(Oh, while grabbing the URL for Plum Bistro site I noticed they have a book due out in April. And I actually exclaimed, out loud to no one: "There's a book?" Because, oh my god, there's a book!)

My cold is going away. I am caught up on Big Projects and Deadlines so now I can begin working on the next Big Projects and their impending deadlines. There was debit-card drama earlier this week that was taken care of quickly and easily thanks to my credit union. The sun is out. So, while this week I have felt very "blerg," for the first time in a long time, I actually feel a teeny bit optimistic.

Okay... This is the deal.

Okay, so I'm not going to spill my guts or anything. I really don't have much to say, but my life has calmed down a bit.

I wish I could say I took a short break because my life had become terribly exciting or something great, but it didn't. Actually, it went the other way. I'm not going to go into major details. And at one point I tried to figure out how to make a post password accessible so only those who asked for the password could read it. But... figuring out how to do that in Blogger proved to take far too much time.

Simply put: I had a shitty summer. I took a week off. I took a week to work from home. I took a short vacation right before classes started. I did this to clear my head. To take a break. But it wasn't enough. Ugh.

So, a recap... I went to Seattle for a few days right before the quarter started. I met up with a friend from Wisconsin and we went to the Packers-Seahawks game at The Clink. You know, the one with the Fail Mary: The game that settled NFL officials lockout. The one where Seahawks coach Pete Once-a-cheater-always-a-cheater Carroll revealed himself to be an even bigger ass than I thought he was. Now, don't get me wrong, for 99.99% of the game, I had a great time. I went with a friend from Wisconsin and a local friend (who is a Seahawks fan). We drank a lot. A lot. We drank before we got there. We drank during the game. We were in the very last row of the stadium, which meant we pretty much just had our own little party up there. And it was fun. There were enough Packer fans there that you could actually hear the "Go Pack Go" chants. There were also enough that you could hear the "Bullshit" chants after the blown calls. My local friend cheered in Spanish and proved to be as passionate about the Seahawks as I am about the Packers. Seriously, it was all around fun. Until the final call.

I was upset, but I didn't completely lose it until I saw the replay on TV. And the next day, while wearing my Packers tshirt in Seattle, I actually had people apologize. It was kind of cool.

Before the Packers game, we went to the Chihuly Garden. I'm not a big fan, but my Wisconsin friend is. We went to the EMP. My Wisconsin friend isn't a big music fan, but I am. I'd been through part of the EMP before, but I had never done the whole thing. We spent an afternoon wandering through the SciFi and horror movie exhibit. We hit the Hendrix exhibit. And Rolling Stone and AC/DC exhibits. But the highlight was the Nirvana exhibit. I almost cried. Not because I think Kurt Cobain was the spokesman of my generation, but because the music--all the music--from that era was so good and it meant so much to me then and now.

The other cool part? Was watching kids who had never seen Michael Jackson's Thriller see it for the first time on the big screen in the EMP. I wanted someone to break out into the Thriller dance. Okay, I wanted to break out into the Thriller dance.

And the day after my trip to Seattle? Classes started. And my life didn't slow down until this week. Why? Because I'm teaching a class that went from an elective to a gen ed and the number of credit hours doubled--as did the teaching time. I'd like to say my normal work schedule was adjusted for this, but it wasn't. And I almost lost my mind. Seriously, I can't remember being this busy since I took two summer classes at the same time while in grad school. I forgot to pay my bills. I haven't cleaned or vacuumed in more than a month. I was working seven days a week and not sleeping well because I dreamt about work. It was pretty much like working 24/7.

It sucked. Big time.

My life has calmed down some. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can begin to imagine this quarter ending. And I may actually survive.

Oh, and then there is this election. I was talking to some colleagues this afternoon who have both accepted that Romney will win. I was all, "What the fuck?" There is part of me that is in denial because I live in a solidly blue area in a solidly blue state, and I pretty much stopped paying attention to campaign details months ago (I couldn't stomach it). There is another part of me that thinks my colleagues are correct. And I want to weep. Now, we survived eight years of George W Bush and the damage done by the fuckwads he had in his cabinet, and we would survive four years of the Mitt Romney Tea Party Asshats. If Romney were as moderate as he was in Massachusetts, I wouldn't be too worried. But he'd start running for a second term as soon as he's elected which means he'll fill his cabinets with ignorant fucks. This is when I go stone cold with fear thinking about what Romney's Tea Party Fucks will do to women's health issues, specifically reproductive rights.

I hope my colleagues are wrong. Very wrong.

But, I did my part. I voted earlier this week. I'm ready to get this thing over with.

Things I've Seen Lately

My my mom was here for a few days. We didn't do much other than what I would normally do if I had some extra days off. We walked by the waterfront. We went to the farmer's market. We did some shopping. We went to Seattle for a few days. These are a few of the things I saw while she was here:

• Racing appliances. A group in town takes old appliances, recycles what they can, rehabs some for those who can't afford appliances and provides training opportunities for those who wouldn't normally have access to education in a trade. As a fund-raiser, once a year they race vehicles made up of old appliances down a very steep hill. Think soap-box derby except with appliances and real people. 

• A dude with dreads carrying a large turtle. I'm pretty sure it was his pet. 

• A woman carrying a toy poodle in one of those Baby Bjorn (or the equivalent) things. 

• King Tut. Okay, not him. But I saw his stuff. And other ancient Egyptian stuff. It was So Very Awesome. I remember when the King Tut exhibit came through in the late-70s. I remember the King Tut-mania from the same time period. So, to see the items in person? Amazing. Now... I know I take a lot of pictures of shit, but when going to an exhibit like this, I want to see the things in person and take a picture of the things that speak to me for whatever reason. I may be in the minority. I saw numerous people walk up to an artifact and only look at it while they were taking a picture of it. 

• A student, as in a former student. I didn't recognize him, but he recognized me. In Seattle. In a random vegan restaurant. He graduated two years ago and still remembers me.

• A woman arguing with her invisible friend/arch enemy in downtown Seattle. 

• A woman tell me I was sitting in her train seat. I wasn't. They ran out of coach seats so they put me in business class. Cool. But they put me next to someone who seemed to think that both seats were hers. I considered challenging her overall bitchiness, but decided it would just be easier to move to the dining car. I could get a window seat, an unobstructed view, and a plug... all to myself. 

• A dude missing the train. Kind of. One passenger sitting in the dining car, who, based on his very loud cell phone conversation, was doing a cross-country train trip and crashing with old friends along the way. The stop before my stop is a quick, two-minutes stop. It isn't one of those, get-off-the-train-and-stretch-your-legs stops. This guy decided to get off at this stop to mail a letter, but it wasn't his stop. The attendent told him not to. She held the train a few minutes longer than she was supposed to. She warned him. He didn't believe her, and the train left without him. One of the attendants called him (he left his pasport along with a beer and half-eaten apple in the dining car) and told him where he could find his stuff and to give him some options. Considering that he got off the train when he wasn't supposed to, I'd say they went above and beyond what they needed to. 

• A few fleeting minutes of the sun. 

On a Break

We're on spring break right now. Or intersession. Whatever. We're on a break. I don't automatically get the time off, but I usually take a chunk of time off during the week. This year I took Monday through Wednesday (today) off. Of course, today I keep thinking, "Why didn't I take the whole week off?"

I had planned on getting some stuff done at home. I am in a declutter kind of mood. Usually when I have these plans I end up spending my free time napping, reading, knitting, watching, TV... you know, that kind of stuff. This time was different--I actually got stuff done.

I did some soul searching a few weeks ago. I'm not going to go into details why, but I made myself sit down and sort out what I really wanted. After doing that, I felt energized about me and my life. And part of that energy needed to be put into cleaning, decluttering, and settling. I've been in my place almost four years and I still feel like I've never really moved in. So... I'm doing some of those things I had planned on doing right after I moved in.

I bagged up four bags of crap and took them to Goodwill. I reorganized a few things. I hung curtains. Not curtains aver a window, but curtains over a ten-foot long door-less closet. I'm tired of looking at my crap. This involved four trips to a big-name home improvement store (twice to buy things, twice to return things) and a lot of swearing. And the actually putting up of cafe rods (it took three total) was not difficult, but I spent a good thirty minutes trying to screw in the brackets with my electric screwdriver set on unscrew. Me equals idiot. But I hung a total of five curtains and it looks great. Instead of looking at a wall of my crap, I look at a wall of drapery.

I did some walking. The weather over the last few weeks has been an up-and-down mix of rains, hail, snow, and sporadic sun. Today we had solid and constant sun. After making the last two of my fours trips to the hardware store, I made a beeline to the waterfront. A few hours outside my face turned a little pink and I feel refreshed. It's spring.

While wandering around I stumbled on the Solar Queen.
I, of course, texted this to Sweet Pickles, who immediately responded that he
needed one. And he does. Put the Solar Queen on the windowsill and she
waves when the sun hits her. 

In the middle of my break I went to Seattle with a friend. We took the train, of course. First up was a trip to the University District for some vegan comfort food at Wayward Vegan Cafe. As we were wandering down the street I picked up a rejuvinated vintage purse, and I found some vegan Dansko rainboots for 50% off.

Dixie Fried from Wayward Vegan Cafe. Country friend "chiggen" with  gravy, greens, and broccoli slaw. The fried thing on the left is a fried biscuit. This was good, but considering how good the gravy  was, the next time I will just get the biscuits and gravy. I could've eaten a bowl of the gravy. 

Rebecca got the cranberry pancakes and they were huge and stupendous. 

This was followed by a few hours in downtown Seattle where we hit up Lush and Sephora, went wedding dress shopping (for her, not me), and hit up the Market for baked goods and fruit. One of the best things I like about taking the train to Seattle is that Uwajimaya is right next to the King Street Station. And this means picking up Vietnamese noodles for the train ride home. Seattle, as always, was a fun trip and made me remind myself I need to get down there much more often. Once or twice a year isn't enough.

Shredded tofu on rice noodles with marinated veggies from food
 court in Uwajimaya. 

Seattle Forecast

This goes for the entire Pacific Northwest.

An Honest Seattle Forecast for the Next Five Days, from Popthomology.

I'm Old

I turned 41 on Monday. Forty-one. I survived the first year of my 40s.

So what did I do?

I took a four-day weekend, because the weekend was going to be all about me.

Friday: I had a spa day thanks to my mom. I had a 90-minute massage, a manicure and pedicure. The massage? Heavenly. Ohmygoditwasamazing. I almost fell asleep. And I don't mean doze off, I mean I almost went from awake and relaxed to deep, deep drooling sleep. I had some downtime between my massage and mani/pedi, so I took my copy of Bossypants, relaxed, and read. When did I actually fall asleep? While getting my manicure.

Saturday: I got my hair cut and colored. Just another way to pamper myself. Then I made Black Bean and Butternut Squash Chili to take to a vegan potluck. The recipe says to make it on the stove, but I made it in my slowcooker... but I forgot the slowcooker tends to enhance flavors and spice. So three tablespoons of chili and a jalapeño? Holy shit it was spicy. I've made it before but I didn't have enough shili powder so I just threw in what I had (which was about one tablespoon).

Sunday: Sunday was awesome. A friend and I drove to Seattle for the day to go vegan shoe and chocolate shopping at Chocolate Shoebox: Seattle's only vegan shoe and chocolate store. And I bought a pair of shoes that are not my normal style (they have sparkly bits), but I love them. And the chocolate? I bought chocolate-covered coconut milk caramel sprinkled with sea salt. We made a trip to Lush and the vegan cookie place in the Public Market. It was an amazingly beautiful day. I mean just incredible.

Mt. Rainier over Qwest Field

Between the shoe store and the Public Market, we went to Plum for lunch. Plum is a vegan bistro in Capital Hill and it was some of the best food I have ever had in my life. After I was done I told my friend I wanted to lick my plate and then order another one. We were in Seattle to see David Sedaris at Benaroya Hall that night. We seriously considered going back to Plum for dinner, it was just that good.

Plum Sangria

Chili-encrusted seitan with mole sauce served over cucumber and plantains with rice and black beans. So good I can still taste it.

As I said, we were there to see David Sedaris. I saw him at ALA about six years ago, but I could only stay for half of his reading, so I was very excited. He did not disappoint. He read one essay about learning another language, specifically German and then veered off into being in Germany and Germans... Being of solid German stock, speaking less than a tad of German, and having been to (West) Germany, I laughed so hard I cried.

David Sedaris from the nose-bleed seats

Monday: I ran some errands, did laundry, sat on the couch, took a nap at 7:00pm, talked to my brother, and then crashed. I was supposed to see the Corin Tucker Band (Corin Tucker, as in 1/3 of Sleater Kinney). I missed Wild Flag (the rest of Sleater Kinney), but, being old, it's hard to go to shows on school nights. Phosphorescent was on a Monday night. I'm glad I went, but I got home at 1:30am. Work was a challenge the next day. I had a ticket for the Corin Tucker band, but when it came down to it, I couldn't find the energy to get out of my PJs. Or off my couch. I half regret not going, but not really.

On a side note: As Sedaris was answering questions at the end of the night, I got out my phone to take a picture and there was a notification on my phone that Osama bin Laden had been killed. This lead to a frantic checking of MSNBC, CNN, and the NY Times mobile sites. My friends and I huddled around my phone, reading the news, looking dumbstruck at each other, and then reading more. Part of me wanted to yell to the crowd listening to Sedaris: That motherfucker is dead. Holy shit, dead! We talked about it on the drive home... Yes, part of my wanted to pump my fists in the air and yell "Fuck you, you motherfucking son of a bitch." It was like an immediate visceral reaction. But at my core, I was just numb. It's been ten years. It feels so long ago. Part of me feels like I should have some teeny bit of compassion because another person was killed and blah blah blah, but I don't. Not one bit. I have zero sympathy for him, for his family, for anyone connected to him. Zilch. I never thought I would be happy that another person was dead, but I kind of am. Now, I am not comfortable with the freaky celebrations. That was just weird and wrong. But, honestly, I do kind of hope when the Navy SEALS confronted bin Laden they said, "Surrender, Motherfucker." 

Vegan at Qwest Field

I'm posting this because before I went to the Packers-Seahawks game I was trying to figure out if there were any vegan food option in Qwest Field. I searched online and came up with a bunch of articles about vegan options now being available at Safeco, but nothing about Qwest.

I know I am not the only football fan who happens to be vegan. I can think of a few more that I know, so someone, somewhere, has probably wondered about vegan food during Seahawks games.

So, this is what I experienced:

I had a veggie sausage from a food cart. Now there are a lot of vegans who wouldn't do that for many reasons. It's cooked on the same grill as meat sausages and the same tools were used. The chances of cross-contamination were 100%. But this is how I see it: I live in the real world. I know much of the food I eat is made on equipment also used to produce milk and fish items. I know when I go out to eat, I am taking the word of the person who prepares my food that it is indeed vegan.

Have I ever ordered a veggie version of something knowing it probably wasn't vegan? Yes. The first thing that comes to mind is the veggie brat I had a Lambeau last year. I am almost certain it was a Boca Brat. It looked like a Boca Brat and tasted like one. Boca Brats are not vegan (milk powder), but I was in a situation where it was the best choice for where I was. (And it looks like it will be the last Boca Brat I will ever have at Lambeau; Boca discontinued them.)

Being vegan is important to me, but I know that it is virtually impossible to leave your home, eat out at a variety of restaurants, and buy prepared food and still be 100% vegan. So, I do the best I can. And sometimes that means looking the other way. Again, to some vegans, that is sacrilege. And if any of them decide to post that I am an animal killer or a bad vegan, I will delete your post. This little blog is my personal domain.

Okay, so I had a veggie sausage from a food cart. I didn't do a lot of investigating or asking of questions, I just jumped in, eyes closed. I saw the package of sausages. The label was gone, so all I saw was plastic, but I could tell they were not Bocas. By the look of the packaging, they were probably Tofurkey sausages, and they are vegan. Was the bun vegan? I don't know. That's part of that whole, "look the other way" thing.

I stopped at the first cart I saw serving veggie sausages because I figured there wouldn't be many. I was wrong. Almost all of them had a veggie sausage, but only one of the carts listed a brand: Field Roast. This makes sense since they are based in Seattle and they are vegan. And damn good.

Another option is to walk over to Uwajimaya. It is just a few blocks from Qwest Field. They have a food court with several vegan options and there is a fully stocked grocery store.

Inside Qwest field? Well, I was out of luck. They have SuperPretzels. According to PeTA, the supermarket freezer version of SuperPretzels are vegan, so I could assume the ballpark version is. PeTA says the same thing about Cracker Jacks and those are plentiful at Qwest. I had some fries and a whole lot of beer.

After the game, I was going to grab a Field Roast sausage for the drive home, but the food cart was out of almost everything. I did grab a bag of kettlecorn. I love kettlecorn and assumed it was made with butter. But after checking the ingredients list, I saw it had no animal products.... So I ate far too much of it in the car.

So, while I may not be the best vegan in the world, I consider myself to be a realistic one. And if you are a vegan and heading to Qwest for a football or soccer game, there are just enough options to get by.

I didn't try carrying in my own food, but another vegan friend told me that she was able to take sushi to a Sounders (soccer) game. The main rule was that it had to be in a container with a clear lid.

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.

It's Time to Start the Music, It's Time to Light the Lights

I love the Muppets. Love.Them. When I say love, I mean an almost unnatural attachment. My world stopped when The Muppet Show was on. I remember where I was when I heard Jim Henson died. I remember I felt like I had been punched in the stomach.

The Muppet Movie Soundtrack was one of the first albums I owned. I remember seeing the move in the theatre. In college, friends and I would watch The Muppet Movie again and again. One of my best friends, Jody, and I would try to convince everyone that the soundtrack was one of the best and most important albums ever made. We kept talking about taking a cross-country roadtrip while driving in some Thelma and Louis style convertible, listening to The Muppet Movie Soundtrack. Even now, thirty years after the movie came out, the soundtrack can still choke me up.

So, imagine how I felt yesterday when I stumbled on the Jim Henson/Muppet Smithsonian exhibit at the EMP.... I was elated. The exhibit featured some of the puppets: Kermit, Bert & Ernie, Rowlf, and some of Henson's pre-Muppet work. There were storyboards, original drawings.... it was amazing. I could have spent all day just standing, looking. I like Rowlf and Bert & Ernie the best. The whole thing was nostalgic, whimsical, emotional, and inspirational. The exhibit is up until mid-August. I am considering going back for one more look before it leaves. I just wish Jody was here to go with me. The whole time I kept thinking about how she would be squealing, clapping, and, I'm sure at some point, crying. If there is one person who loves the Muppets more than me, it's her.

They wouldn't let me take pictures. It was a traveling exhibit so there were copyright issues. A short articles and some picture is available on the EMP web site. But pictures just aren't the same.

I also wandered over to the Sci-Fi part of the museum. I am not a sci-fi person, but there was still some cool stuff, including a replica of Yoda, Planet of the Apes stuff, a display about The Jetsons, and, of course, a small room devoted to Star Trek. But what I got the most excited about? The Star Wars action figures. Pre-library school I edited a few books about action figures. My regular Star Wars action figure contributor lived in Seattle. And guess whose action figures were displayed? My former contributor. I wanted to point and stop everyone who passed by and say, "I know that guy!" But I didn't.

Overheard in Seattle

Guy on bus, talking on cell phone: Did I tell you that dude died? I was going to sell him my computer.

Whirlwind

I took a long weekend to spend some time with LJ, explore the area, visit Seattle, and see the Packers play. We had a good time. I found out that my little bitty place doesn't feel overly small when there are two people in it. I guess my sofa is comfortable to sleep on (or so LJ reported). And sometimes Amtrak doesn't run.

We left for Seattle Saturday morning. We were supposed to go by train. It's the Cascade line--it runs from Vancouver to Portland, Oregon and runs right along the coast. I was pretty excited about it. And then Amtrak called and said the train was broken, so they were shipping us by bus. Bus. BUS. Ugh. But, we got to Seattle earlier than we would have by train, so that was cool.

While waiting for our hotel room, we played tourist. See, when I went to Seattle for ALA Midwinter, I wanted to go to the Space Needle. But Mr. Pants (aka, Kevin) told me that is what tourists did. Uh.... I'm a tourist. So, we took the monorail to the Space Needle. And you know what? There were Packer fans everywhere--all decked out in their green and gold. And when I say everywhere, I mean EVERYwhere.

So, I'm kind of scared of heights. But I still go to the top of tall things as a way to confront my fear. So to the top of the Needle I went. And it was cool.

Space Needle

Downtown Seattle


Mount Baker or Rainer.... I think Baker


Olympic Range

We hit Pike Place Market. Last time I was there it was Saturday morning and very little was open. PantsMan and I had the whole place to ourselves. Not this time. The place was packed from one end to the other.

We ate Greek food. I bought apples. We walked until we were tired... and then we wandered back to the hotel where we pretty much crashed. We eventually had dinner at the Union Square Grill. Very good and yummy.

We had a great view of the city


Seattle at Night

The next day was the Packers game. We put on our jerseys (me, Tauscher, LJ, Driver) and headed out to Qwest Field. We saw lots of Packer fans along the way, we were booed by some Seahawks fans. We wandered Qwest Field a bit and then climbed to the nosebleed section of the upper tier to find our seats. Y'all, I felt like I was sitting on the second to top rung of a ladder. When more people filled the seats, it was better. But when the seats were empty I felt like I was almost vertical.

Warmups

I wasn't sure what it would be like to be part of the opposing side at another game. It wasn't bad. For the most part, the Seahawks fans were cool (unlike Vikings fans). Then there was the fact that there were a crapload of Packers fans there. I mean a crapload. There was a large contingent several sections down from us.

Packers Fans

There were a couple assholes. There were some funny guys--like the guy behind us who would yell "Go Punter Guy" when the Seahawks would punt--usually followed by "You suck Punter Guy."

Players, standing around the field


Actual movement

We sat next to some nice people from Alaska. They were there to watch the game and hang out. The people in front of us stood up for the first quarter of the game. There was some dude wearing his PJs and a stained Packers tshirt who was almost too drunk to function. He mistakenly ended up in our section twice. Each time everyone in our little area were impressed he was able to get back down the stairs without falling.

The game was decent. Both teams were equally mediocre the first half. it was tied 10-10 going into the half. The second half was all Packers. The Seahawks got one touchdown in the fourth quarter. Other than that, all Packers. Two touchdowns and a field goal later, the game was over. After one touchdown I yelled "Brett who?"

First mass exodus after Packers intercepted a Seahawks pass

Empty seats

What I found most interesting was how many Seahawks fans left before the second half. And how many more streamed out of the field when the Packers intercepted a Seahawks pass. By the fourth quarter there were more Packers fan left than Seahawks fans--and we started the Go Pack Go chant and were only mildly booed. And when we left? Groups of Packers fans (drinking, of course) were excited--excited that the Bears had lost to Atlanta. Too bad the Vikings won.

Fru-fru drink at Wild Ginger

By the time we made t back up hill to our hotel room, we were both wiped out. We wandered out for some food at Wild Ginger and called it a night. I was tired and sore.

The next day I had plans to shop and all this stuff, but ended up meeting Mr. Pants for lunch and then parked myself at a coffee shop and read. I was done walking. I can't remember the last time my feet hurt so bad.

I was able to take Amtrak home. On the trip back I got to hear an aging hippie/snowboarder/surfer/professional glass blower give advice to an aspiring hippie/snowboarder/surfer. It was pretty entertaining, really.

So, what did I learn this weekend? I really like Seattle. I mean, I knew that before I moved here, but, seriously. I like Seattle. A whole lot.

Long Weekend

Seattle. Space Needle. Pike Place Market. Good food. Football. Fairweather fans. More good food. Friends. Coffee. Train. Home.

Pictures later.

Hello, Seattle!

This has been a whirlwind of a weekend.

ALA, Library stuff, and vendors.

Good friends, good conversation, good food, good beer, good times, Twin Peaks, cherry pie and a damn good cup of coffee, and the drama that became Japanese candy. Did I mention good friends?

I've been in Seattle since Friday for ALA Midwinter. I attended my meetings, hit the exhibit hall, talked to some reps, picked up a Chaucer bobblehead, and saw some library people I hadn't seen in a while.

When I wasn't doing ALA stuff, I was with Kevin. We drank some beers, saw a band and a half (my absolute exhaustion meant we missed most of the good band; sorry, Kevin.) Had breakfast at Pike Place Market. Ate pizza, met Jewels (the girlfriend) and Phoenix (the daughter). Drank some more beer, talked a lot, and harassed poor Nathan on the phone and via text messages.

Four of us went to North Bend to see some Twin Peaks sites. Ate at Twede's Cafe (aka the Double R Dinner). Saw the Falls and the building used for the Great Northern Inn. Tried to find the entrance to Twin Peaks but after driving up and down the same road, bickering (and being compared to a seventh grader; I stick my tongue out in your general direction, Kevin) -- we gave up. But we did see the "Roadhouse" and probably drove right by Ed's Garage. And what were we listening to while doing this? The soundtrack to Twin Peaks, of course. Why? Because we are complete and total geeks. At least we were all in good company.

A few pictures:

Twin Peaks

The building used for the exterior of The Great Northern Inn;
the interior was shot elsewhere.

The Falls and "The Great Nothern Inn"

Had several driving tours of Seattle. One of them consisted of me saying, "Hey, look, there's the Space Needle" every two minutes. Hit an Asian market in the International Disctrict and bought a Hello Kitty business card case (I'm a dork).

Finally got the Seattle snowglobe I have wanted for so many years. The Space Needle as a ring toss--it's the exact one I wanted. Also picked up a Space Needle Christmas ornament. Because as anyone who knows me knows, if it is tacky and kitchy, I will buy it. But, I did not buy a purse. I looked in Nordtroms, Nodstroms Rack, and Macy's for my Perfect Red Purse, and it was not to be found.

So it's my last night in Seattle, and I am sitting in my hotel room in my PJs. But you know, after going non-stop since Friday... it all finally caught up with me. Jewels and I both fell asleep on the way back from North Bend, and I never completely woke up. Even some potent tea didn't revive me.

So, after too little time, tomorrow I will reluctantly say, "Goodbye, Seattle." I wish I could've spent more time seeing the sites, hanging with friends, drinking beer, and just enjoying myself. Hopefully, I will come back someday.