summer in the city

I took this photo of the stoop across the street from my window at about 3 a.m.. The stoop of focus occasionally has lingering characters, and I think only the top floor is used as a studio for painting, with the building generally vacant, so it gets some lingerers. This evening had a particularly good character. There are a few things of interest-

1. neighbor is in his underwear, resting in a jaunty position in the doorframe.
2. neighbor is wearing business-like black socks, pulled up, in ninety degree humid heat, to accent said underwear.
3. neighbor has hand deep into underwear.

now playing: Grizzly Bear, who sounds like Jeff Buckley at times, especially the first track (of their recent Veckamist), but the current track sounds a lot like the Beach Boys.

birthday

I am still of the mindset/age where I somewhat enjoy celebrating my birthday. As I said in an email to friends, it is a good excuse to lure people into social situations with me.

So, free Yeasayer concert playing Hudson River Park tomorrow on the pier. Yes please. Amend this to include drinking on the ship anchored beside it. Ahoy!

Gaggle of friends barhopping in the Village Friday. Yes please.

Jersey shore Sunday, yes please.

see you there

Independence Day 2009

aka A Multicultural Celebration of the USA And All Her Alcoholic Beverage Varieties
aka Happy Birthday America!

11:40: finish tube of toothpaste. happy birthday america!
(note: colgate packaging is poignantly red, white and blue)

11:50: don picnic-table plaid red and white halter dress with full marilyn-monroe-esque skirt. my attempt at stylish patriotism and the only thing in my closet remotely patriotic-hued.

13:30: brunch with seattle friends in town (slightly hung over from giant $3 vats of bud light in williamsburg the night before) - espresso followed by brazilian omelettes and mimosas. happy birthday america!

15:45: purchase large bottles of water from woman wearing patriotic twin towers and american flag tee back in brooklyn at williamsburg convenience store. we ask for paper bags. she also offers to sell us red party cups. we are clearly in the right place. happy birthday america!

16:00: barbecue efforts thwarted, team settles for hipster-spotting with case of bud light at mccarren park. themes include fedoras, pale, faded, and/or see-through cotton on top, tight, faded, torn and/or acidwash denim below; bulldogs, oversized sunglasses, showy and or ridiculous bicycle flaunting, and clothing old enough to look outdated but not nearly old enough to be called "vintage". notable moments include a couple guys in fluorescent spandex on bicycles, and a six year old boy wiping out dramatically in a giant mud puddle. white girl gets mild inaugural sunburn.

(17:15: must use restroom of previous-night's bar gathering; spot local in large-print american-flag-and-aggressive-eagle theme polo)

18:00: margaritas at friends' in fort greene. feel very "american dream" in ogling the couple's large, clean apartment. happy birthday america!

19:00: mojitos, cuban food at habana outpost patio, brooklyn. nothing says patriotism like cuba. happy birthday america!

21:00: take mojitos in subway back to manhattan for fireworks over hudson from friend of friend of friends' rooftop in west village/meatpacking /chelsea.

21:22: must-pee-so-bad. miss firework beginning in elevator and restroom.



21:29: enjoy fireworks with other drunk, young and attractive, and significant portion of gay freedom-revellers. view from 20th floor of fireworks over hudson, those beyond over jersey and the horizon, a moon-drenched lower manhattan, and jeweled glowing taillights illuminating 8th avenue is intoxicating. also intoxicating is the vodka and likely red bull that the host kindly makes for himself and I. nothing says classic americana like overdoing it with vodka-redbull with a male model, the wind catching your lightweight dress repeatedly, up and over your head to expose your under-areas to many. secure dress in oversized-80's-teeshirt style on the side with hair tie. happy birthday america!!!!!

22:30: party moves to apartment downstairs. long island click of girls posing for eachother on host's bed leaves something to be desired in party atmosphere.

23:00: someone uses smooth moves to get us in cover-free, line-free into beautiful but, well, clubby club in meatpacking district. club features striped wallpaper, chandeliers, and a bed we spill our drinks on. random aspiring actor gives female friend and I his card, does hit of coke while talking to us. happy birthday america.

0:30: crew meets up with others in more suitable west village bar; request for water turns into water followed by another g&t, some of someone's whiskey, and a bottle of beer. michael jackson mixed with a few 80's standards all night long. intoxication tipping point documented through photography, when I attempt to ruin photos with ridiculous faces per usual.

2:50: chelsea apartment

3:20: flatiron apartment

3:45: realization that any more intoxication of any sort would be nail in coffin. leave friends and weed agenda for home.

4:05: skewed decision-making decides current budget is too tight for cab. walk to subway.

4:20 R to 8th street. attempt to use internet at home. realize this is futile when one eye must be closed to do so.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA

the city life

did I write this? transposed from my mind by others-

from the NYT

hello world

I'm re-acquainting myself with the world as it is at five a.m. It's been since design school all-nighters since we were at all familiar with eachother. It's like I'm being (unpleasantly) reborn into the early morning world, as a function of this foreign concept called insomnia, and the disorienting nightmares that accompany the associated restlessness.

We had our third round of layoffs at work today. I have been very head-in-the-sand until recently, about all of it, being very fatalistic and optimistic, as I had no control and little knowledge or understanding of our office situation. Our new leadership has now improved the lines of communication and brought us all into the know about why everything has hit our office so hard, and now I'm losing sleep.

It's early Saturday morning and I'm literally losing sleep- me, the girl who can easily sleep eleven hours a night and relishes her weekend mornings for this. Maybe thinking it through here will help me and I'll be able to take myself back up to the loft and get a few hours of sleep to enjoy what's supposed to be the nicest day yet (75 degrees!).

But for now, I'm stuck down here in front of the screen stressing about work. We lost a few more people today, which brings our total layoffs up to something like 26, and now we are down to the mid to low forties in our office. It's especially frustrating to see people who you'd consider to be highly valuable lost, while others you might not choose to keep working with still remain. I lost a coworker/friend I work with closely, and now I'll have to take her work on (I saw her cad files today, oy vey, there's a lot to do that was supposed to be done a week ago). We found out that with corporate restructuring, we're also losing our compensation pay (comp time) as of next month, which totally blows in a field where overworking is seemingly ingrained in the culture. I volunteered to participate in a design competition in the office, and that always proves to be difficult since it's generally a clash of egos and styles in competitions, especially as it's unpaid time. I'm not sure what I was thinking, volunteering for that. Stupid idealist/pleaser. On top of that I'll be out for a week beginning mid-week next week, and have to juggle project work and the conclusion to my participation in the competition.

I have been so looking forward to going back to Seattle, words cannot describe. Right now it's giving me a little heartburn as it adds a layer of complication, but I do need this break. I miss my friends and the culture there. I love it here, and New York is the right place for me now, but I need a breather, and a return to social familiarity (if only a brief one). At this point, I'm hoping that my trip back allows me a little peace of mind, and potentially a little raucous scandal.

New York's supposed to be the setting for scandal, right? What's all this talk of stress and work when you live one of the most fabulous places in the world? Good question. I'm working on it... and that's not to say there haven't been some fabulous and scandalous times- but I tend to be a deliberate and careful individual, which causes me to do more thinking and internalizing and doing things out of my perception of duty. This can serve me well at sometimes, sure. I still have a job; and my role there is actually looking very good despite everything. But I'm looking to inject a little balance in my life- a little time and state of mind for rest. The company policy formally supports this, but the office culture does not. It's a very New York thing to be a slave to professional success and duty, but it's unfortunately at its worst in the design/architecture arena.

The sun has risen; it's six thirty and I've been awake since at least four. I'm going to haul myself back up the ladder and see if I can get a few hours of sleep in before I get up to greet the beautiful day which I theoretically should be spending in the office making diagrams for a competition.

We'll see about that.

this is your block on drugs

I was just coming back from going out with friends- we discovered a few of us happen to live within three blocks of eachother, and I walked home with a new comrade who just lives one block down from me. Halfway between my place and his, thirty yards before my place just after passing the square in front of the church, I hear footsteps behind me, shuffly ones. That doesn't surprise me initially, as my neighborhood is crazy busy until the bars close, it's a neighborhood very popular with the young folks.

But sadly, my lovely block, the one I profess to be the most picturesque in the east village with its stately brownstones, is also connected to St Marks Place, a cool historic church that has a public square that tends to attract people needing a place to sleep to its benches. So every once in a while my quiet street becomes a bit of a resting point for unusual characters. Really, I guess you could say that about any place in Manhattan.

Anyway, the shuffly steps quicken, and then all of a sudden someone grabs my arm. As I turn and look, there is the creepiest quiet, hissy "heey" that drips forth from this SUPER SCARY addicted-to-I-don't know-what-but-likely-just-about-everything creature. I would not described this individual as even a person, it was so sad and scary. Sallow-eyed, sores all over the mouth, thin lips and hunched over... she was like a creature out of one of Dante's circles of hell, or one of Ursula's screaming little shriveled worms in The Little Mermaid. Scared the living daylights out of me, I can't believe I didn't do anything but quicken my pace. The weird thing is that she kept following me as I fumbled for my keys... and did not find them. So I kept walking past my door... and so did she. I should have ducked in with the doorman next door, but was thinking I'd find them quickly... then I thought I'd duck in the late-night grocery, but it was already closed... so I ended up doing a full walk around the block, and it was only after getting halfway back around that I heard loud shrieking of "hey" a few times and no more shuffling. I crossed the trickle of a man peeing on the inside side of the sidewalk, turned the corner back around St Marks square with the few bench-sleepers, and made sure I had my key out well in advance the second time around.

I can say I did feel bad, like it was some Dickens-esque scene, me being like ew, don't touch my white coat, you scary underworld creature. I'm sure this woman just really needed help and was so incredibly out of it she couldn't have hurt me. Her tone seemed to convey that she thought I'd be her friend. But still... it was a scary sight. If that doesn't scare you into never doing drugs, I'm not sure what would.

Guess that's what you get for bragging about how safe and lovely and perfect your neighborhood is over late-night meat pies at Tuck Shop, you smug jerk.

they were the best of times

I am doing what I really want to be doing with my life right now. That's pretty awesome. A year ago I didn't have too much of an idea what I wanted to be doing. I was a bit at a loss.

I would say I'm a pretty passionate/opinionated person about things that are important to me, and one of those things is doing good things with one's energy. I think it's our duty, especially those of us with decent educations, to use our faculties to make a positive impact.


I became a landscape architect because I wanted to make great places, for people and for the world. When I started working, I began to learn how ideology crossed with pragmatism in everyone's life in different ways, and started trying to figure out how to simultaneously live for my own well-being and happiness as well as do right by the world.

Situational difficulties and distractions took precedence for a year or two, and I found myself asking where I really wanted to be, as I was struggling to feel passionate about what I was doing with life.

I wouldn't have been able to predict that where I'd eventually take myself would be so great for me both personally and professionally. I made a gamble based on a social/cultural instinct, and it's turning out to be wonderful for me with regard to my life's efforts and personal/professional focus. I'm designing for environmental education in urban environments as I've been aiming to do since my research grant on environmental learning.

My current project work has me designing public schoolyards in Brooklyn: completely barren asphalt yards to be turned into proper playgrounds through contracts from New York Department of Parks. It is so rewarding to be working with students and communities in designing better learning and community spaces, and helping people learn and grow to value their environments by providing them with good ones.

I have been going through series of meetings and design charettes with school staff, community members, and young students themselves. Working with them directly is such an important and tangible reminder as to why I do what I do every day. There were days when I'd be at work in Seattle and question whether I was doing what I really what I found valuable with my 9 hours every day. So I made a change, and the opportunity waiting for me turned out to be wonderful.

Oddly enough, I'm working for the same firm, and the office environment and culture can be more stressful and difficult by far than my old office. Granted, I'm still getting accustomed, and don't have the luxury of experience or comfort in the big, new, New York office. But I enjoy it because I love what I'm working on, and it's a challenge. I can't imagine using my brain and finite time on earth to do something like trade stocks or sell ads or take photos of famous people or fly charter jets, no matter how capable I was, or how financially rewarding it was. I spent some time teaching myself how to balance personal benefit with that of others in life and work, but I still believe passionately that we owe it to eachother to do right by our communities. We have responsibilities in concentric rings: from within -ourselves- to those close to us, radiating outward to our outermost communities of global proportions. Call your mother, send a card to remind her you love her. Travel less, consume less to remind your fellow global citizens you love them, too.

So here's to you, PS 170. Even if the economy was great, I can't imagine myself taking a resort-design position to make more money and receive the immediate gratification of travel. Your kids are awesome and I feel honored to be given the opportunity to do right by all of you.

up in my hood

banksy sighting



a few blocks from my place in soho (you can actually see my building, light grey at far right, midway up) is this great brasserie, Lucky Strike. Walk past it on Grand, and look back toward the firewall adjoining the parking lot, and wham! three stories of Banksy rat. He's wearing an iconic tee and making his own urban art.

places to dream about, or someday dream inside

I spend a lot of time thinking about my environment, as a designer (and your environment, and everyone else's). Over time, and after many living arrangements, however, I've lessened the reigns, per se, of my obsession with my living space. My first apartment definitely got more aesthetic attention than my later ones. You begin to run out of steam after moving every year or two.



I'm not, however, completely cured of my craigslist or redfin browsing, which I go through periodic bouts of... homes on the market up the street at Highland Drive or charming homes in France or New York, I'm guilty of fantasizing about potential alternate habitats. I love the light, airy, wall-of-windows modern lofts. I love the exposed-brick manhattan apartments. J'adore the Parisian ones with their tall, skinny windows that open up to wrought-iron juliet balconies with thin, scrolled handles. I have fond feelings for the standard Seattle 1920's wood-floored, brick construction one-bedrooms with hexagonal tiles in the bathroom, and turqouise-trimmed tilework in the kitchen.

I like to go for walks on Queen Anne and look at the lovely homes and wonder what life inside them is like. Dusk is the best time for it, when the lights are beginning to turn on and you can see the fireplaces, paint colors, and any ceiling detail. I have an incurable weakness for good ceilings. I love coffered ones, exposed beams, coved ones, you name it (my favorite might be coffered, or anything with good, unpainted woodwork.). I love the ceilings in old and elegant European cities' buildings that have intricate moulding, or tin panels.


I was reading the New York Times today online and flipped through the real estate slide shows (as I do fairly regularly, I'm addicted to nyt slideshows) when I came across a great apartment in Berlin. I love the simple quality of the space... light and bright, simple and modern, with heavy historical details in the walls and ceiling mouldings. An ideal city digs. The dark, modern finishes in the kitchen, replete with chandelier, and the simple, clean walls... I'd totally hit that. Of course, I'd have to add a garden gnome somewhere, and sprinkle a few other ridiculous pieces around.

With the killer balcony, I'd have the perfect location for a flamingo or two, as well...

I've relegated myself to potentially having to live in a shoebox in new york. I don't expect my own Sex In The City apartment in The Village, or anything like this flat, but a girl can dream... someday, maybe, a little moulding or coffers, or scroll-ey handles.

some full moon

My life for the past week. notably the past few days, has been so hectic and full of stuff (more about that later) that I am completely relishing zoning out in my dark bedroom in some mundane pleasures. I'm listening to the new Stereolab album in my pajamas under the light of the full moon and the glow of my laptop screen, and I'm enjoying the guilt-free simplicity of music, internet, soft bed, and full moon.

I have a kind of cool view out of my giant bedroom picture window. It looks to the east through a screen of large rhododendrons that screen the traffic on the street. I like being able to see through the backsides of the shrubs- because plants grow angled toward the light, it's like looking from underneath petticoats- the undersides of an umbrella of leaves supported on long, thin twigs. Its a rare view, really, when you think of it. We're not often under bushes like that, and especially not regularly like I am in my bed. The view is also cool because on the uphill side I have a lovely vine maple, which is turning lovely flamey hues right now, and on the downhill side, behind an apartment building, I can see the top of the Space Needle, which makes me happy. When the streetlight is on above my building, the light filters through the leaves in a lovely glow-ey way, and when it flickers out, as it regularly does, I enjoy the city lights more. Tonight, there is a lovely full moon, which was absolutely giant when it rose this evening in the east, but is steadily making its way up to its zenith and is now nearly out of view (from my pillow).

I'm recovering from the past week which found me scrambling to get a ridiculous pile of things done at the same time. I spent the weekend finishing a bunch of restoration planting plans to present at a meeting today, and in the week leading up to this weekend and in the wee hours of last night I found myself pulling together my portfolio to submit to the New York office in the transfer effort so I can start talking with them tomorrow. I ended up facilitating an office childhood photo contest and happy hour event thursday which absorbed way too much time, and I may be presenting at California's APA (American Planning Association) conference in LA next week... it's all feeling a little ridiculous and I'm just a bit worn out.


I was able to take a couple hours out yesterday and go enjoy the warm weather (whose days are quite numbered) and sunset at the viewpoint at the southwest of Upper Queen Anne yesterday evening. I had planned on reading on my blanket, but the sunset was so beautiful the entire time I was there that I ended up staying plugged in to good music and just laying on my blanket in the grass, overlooking the sound and Olympic Mountains as the sky morphed through various sorbet-hued renditions of itself. As excited as I am to make this move, I was really... well, moved at the sight of the Northwest like that. There are great things here I'll miss a lot. This really is an unusually beautiful place, and a little Sigur Ros piped in behind nice weather might make you cry, too, even if you're perfectly content.

I've got to get some sleep.

here goes...

I sat down with my superiors yesterday at work to tell them about my desire to move to New York. They were very supportive.

It's like getting on one of those ridiculously frightening fair rides, or on a waterslide, or what more adventurous individuals might attest skydiving is like. You get all full of anticipation in the time leading up to it (oftentimes anxiety in my case, as I am the constant worrier), but then you come to a point where you have to finally make the decision to jump. It was scary right before, but then you just have to take a deep breath and do it, or say it, as the case may be. And after making the decision, the jump, it's exhilarating. I took my coworker I work with most directly out to coffee and told him, and although the first minute was a little awkward, it's so great to have it out there, to have someone I'm close to on board with the plan, and not have to be cagey or unsure about anything.

Of course right now I'm just in that very first few seconds of freefall, which are all glory and excitement, the thrill of getting used to the idea that it's actually happening after all. It's not any logistics or work at this point. I'm waiting to start coordinating the scheduling and details of the transfer, but I'm really excited about the move. ...Of course, this is all contingent upon the office really truly wanting me after all.... I recently found out that the NYC office is very progressive in addition to being successful, and there are many more senior designers, and some very cool policies in effect there. So I'm hoping that the moving arrangements, and the salary adjustment will also be a good deal, and it will all be clearly the right move.

Of course it's hard, especially for me, to leave so much behind. To acknowledge that you are choosing to leave is a big deal. And though my friends, family, and coworkers have expressed that they'll miss me, everyone has been so supportive in agreeing it's a great opportunity. I think they have to counter my guilt in "abandoning" things. My concern was in leaving my project work, and closest colleague, behind. And though he acknowledged that it will take some finessing to transition my projects out (I serve a kind of unique role in a few of them), he expressed a lot of support as well, and it is such a relief to have that over with. I'll miss some of the privileges I've had in our small Seattle office, and definitely the great people, but I am very excited for the opportunities that await me.

Onward and upward! Yay!

Now I just have to get the NYC office to respond to me in a timely manner. They're pretty hard to track down, I've found.

Hopefully, to use the jumping-off analogy, I won't smack into anything on the way or toward the end. Should be a decent process, given the policy of the firm supporting movement between offices, and paying for moving expenses. And hopefully, unlike a slide, I won't end up at the other side with a wedgie.

déménager

Well, I've been somewhat vague about it for months and it's getting to a point where it feels silly anymore to not be completely clear.



I'm leaving; it's time for a change. I really love Seattle, and I'll come back, but things feel a bit stagnant. I will miss everyone here very much- I have a lot of great people I'll be leaving; but life in Seattle the past couple years hasn't been fabulous (though I'm not intimating that there haven't some great times), so I'm turning over a new leaf.

This sounds kind of like a breakup letter to Seattle.

Seattle, we're not breaking up, we're just on A Break. And I will always, always be faithful to you. I will never, ever believe that any other city has more intelligent, humorous, though down-t0-earth citizens. I will never praise any other town's espresso over yours (well, american towns- we didn't invent it in the US, after all). I will never be convinced that there is any other city that has as stunning natural surroundings, and so close to the metropolitan area. If I do, you can write me off at that point; I am not deserving of you. But I won't, so don't give my seat away.

If you've not heard me belabor the point already, you may ask... where? What place, what city, what locale are you embarking on this affair with?

Good question- I'm not entirely positive. I'm not sure which is my better option, but it's looking like New York City. Paris is still in the running, but my options might be better in NYC. Not only do I have a good job assured there, but I have some very good, close friends in the city who would be my instant support circle.

However, anyone who knows me knows my longstanding love affair with France, especially Paris. It's my goal to get myself there at least once again to spend a significant amount of time in the city of lights and cheese and love and Amelie, and I'm not getting any younger. New York might be a stepping stone to Paris, really, if I end up there first, so why not go straight there if I can? I've found a couple of very interesting firms in Paris.

There are a lot of reasons to go either way, really. My friends aren't going to be in NYC forever. Having a guaranteed job in NYC, and likely my moving expenses paid for, is an opportunity that is good as well and won't be around forever. After all of the difficulties of the past couple years, I'm hesitant to isolate myself in a new career/culture/language so far from my support circle and what I'm familiar with. However, I do want to settle down and get married/have children someday, and I kind of view the moving and the long-term international as something that will slow down if not end when that time comes, so I can't stretch this out forever. I'd like to eventually raise my own children here, and as much as I am impressed by those who have children later in life, I don't want to have my kids past thirty-five. I argue with myself about what I need at this point- how cautious, how exciting, how independent, how brave do I want to be in this move?

(If you're coming Friday, feel free to give your thoughts.)

In all respects, I'll be leaving in October. Yes, cats and all...I might be leaving the left coast, I might be leaving the country. It's very exciting. Turn On The Bright Lights.



At some point I'm going to have to tell my bosses and coworkers this. Which isn't an exciting thought.

happy birthday, sub pop

...you're almost legal.

Sub Pop, Seattle's very own indie-but-kind-of-a-big-deal record label celebrated it's 20th this weekend with a festival out at Marymoor. I was sad that I didn't get tickets as I'd anticipated climbing Rainier, esp. since Flight of the Conchords was playing.


C'est La Vie.

But I did hit up the Seattle Center today to celebrate Bastille Day (en actualite, c'est demain, le 14 Juillet) at the festival there. Hot as can be, but a good time replete with patisseries, wine, accordians, leetle Frahnch flags, all done in style. I'm crossing my fingers to win the raffle for the AirFrance tickets. :)

I Saw U

most amusing ones, of late, in The Stranger:

My favorite Bug
We curled in bed all weekend, taking bong rips, watching Rainbow Bright and baiting each other.I've never had a friend so true, or boyfriend so hung. You make me happy.
When: Sunday, June 29, 2008 Where: My bed I saw a: Man I am a: Woman Date posted: Monday, June 30, 2008

Krista. Register 12. Fred Meyer.
I was already taken by your smile; then you went and discounted my dumbbells out of the kindness of your heart despite my keeping your express line from its expressness. Would love to spend my savings on coffee sometime.
When: Sunday, June 29, 2008 Where: Ballard Fred Meyer I saw a: Woman I am a: Man Date posted: Sunday, June 29, 2008

Sleepy bicyclist on the 11
You were dozing off, helmet still donned on your head. I wanted to kiss the corners of your mouth.
When: Saturday, June 28, 2008 Where: Metro 11 I saw a: Man I am a: Woman Date posted: Sunday, June 29, 2008

PCC grape dilemma
You; mixed Eurasian cute woman shopping for fruit
Me; mixed Eurasian bald guy shopping for vegetables
Sorry I wasn't that much help but I was too surprised and smitten to think straight. I know you may have thought that my handler was experimenting with my independence in the real world but I'm really not that developmentally disabled. I would love another chance to prove this to you on a date.
When: Monday, June 23, 2008 Where: Greenlake PCC I saw a: Woman I am a: Man Date posted: Thursday, June 26, 2008

on a clear day

I live on a pretty sweet street.

Lines, Needle, Rainier

holy summer, batman

It has arrived!

It's eighty degrees here today, and is supposed to be almost ninety this weekend. This is the Seattle Payoff. The sky is so blue and clear and lovely, I just want to drink it up. Though I certainly am not relishing all this time at my desk, looking at the lovely day from behind sealed windows in an over-air-conditioned office. I can see that the Olympics are conspicuously less snowy (between viaduct columns)... and I like it.


Counting the hours until I head out for dinner and drinks at Agua Verde... yum. Could be a near-perfect evening.

For now, I'm going to escape from my desk into the warm concrete jungle for my lunch break. Maybe Elliot Bay Books. Maybe falafel. The world is my oyster. A warm oyster. Mmm.

the commute

I catch the bus every morning at the bottom of the hill, at Queen Anne Avenue and Mercer Street, which is the center of Lower Queen Anne and is a major transfer point for the area. I tend to sleep until the last minute possible, and hit the street during the last-minute commuter rush.

And I really like the experience associated with doing so; it feels like being a part of something great, a mass pilgrimage. I like the communal gravitation toward the node, a small swarm of us pouring down the hill like groggy robots and quietly converging on the bus stop in a line (also like robots) along the building facade.

And I also secretly like it when the bus arrives, and it's crowded enough to make the dozen people getting on at Mercer turn it into standing-room only, with people packed all the way up to the driver. It doesn't matter if it's a long, accordion bus or a shorter one. The 18 and 15, coming from Ballard, are popular enough to be packed regularly.

I like being crammed between a bunch of people while in my own world, plugged into headphones; it's like being on the metro, but with a better view. The route goes along First avenue, and I love riding through Belltown, looking out the west-facing windows to the Sound as the views between the buildings open up and give way to water and distant landscape as the grade falls away. As the bus approaches Broad, I always get to see Calder's red Eagle, framed between buildings, and I love the filmstrip of an experience it's a part of as each view corridor reveals a slightly different glimpse... water, railroad, Calder, cruise ship terminal, freighter, ferry, water, water and Alki, Pike Place Market, Market sign... then it gives way to viaduct and then shortly my bus stop at work, and that sixteen minute ride is just right to put me in the right place to start the day.

Unless, of course, I know the day's gonna suck. (Then I just enjoy my non-work moments while I've got 'em.)

Aside: There is a short, two-block-long street just before Broad that gives the view of Calder's Eagle sculpture at the year-old Olympic Sculpture Park. Its name- Eagle Street. Odd... the street name came before the sculpture was placed there. Serendipitous?

observation

I have made the connection between sawdust in the planter outside my window and the lack of leaves outside my bedroom window now that spring has come. The Norway Maple lost its life to the work on the sewer line running to my building a couple months ago. Positives: year-round Space Needle view from bed, view of Lower Queen Anne and Dick's sign (actually reads as "icks" from my place). Negatives: one less tree in the world. Associated negatives include less privacy and arboreal beauty, less birds outside, and those who do come must resort to the utility pole.

:(

new york i love you

(you aren't bringing me down)

When I came to this town for the first time last September, I had little to no preconceived notions or concrete expectations for what New York City would be. For all the opinions and impressions you hear from others of the city, it takes going to a place to understand it. I'm not sure if this makes more or less sense that I would become enamored, but that's how it played out.

Compared to other cities, New York is a constant festival of anything goes; of peoples of all cultures and colors, and backgrounds. The sheer variety of people, and the density with which they're at, is fascinating and lovely. On top of that, the setting is pretty cool; every imaginable type of urban neighborhood and architecture, connected by the subway network. And I'm not sure if it's the weak dollar and the cheap american goods, but there are French people EVERYWHERE right now, which was overstimulation for a francophile like me. At first it was exciting, and then it was just bizarre, having French seem equal to the background of constant English noise in Manhattan. Sure, I was hearing some Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and German, as well, but nothing like the onset of the French on the town. Love the diversity.

I started this post when I was there last week, and now things are a little blurred, unfortunately, and living as a fuzzy glow in a repository of memories. It was a wonderful break; meeting up with old and newer friends in the context of such a dynamic, lovely place. The weather was mostly beautiful, with the flowering cherries, redbuds, and apples in bloom in Central Park, and the whole world out promenading to see them and eachother. Apparently the weather had just turned in the week before my arrival, and the Northeast had just come out of hibernation. It certainly brought me out of hibernation.

I was lucky to leave a rainy Seattle and land in a warm and sunny New York, and leave in a torrential downpour to land in a clear, beautiful Seattle. The good times were following me. As it always should be...

have you wondered...

Or are you even aware...Queen Anne Mafia

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/359354_needle17.html

I've seen these little mysterious flyers around...and I like it. This is my type of people... don't take life, yourself, or your property values too seriously.

(What's also hilarious are the comments people made in response to the article...)