Filed under: Seattle | Tags: early morning, essential market, Green Lake, running
You don’t listen, do you?
It was a good day at work today, as this is all that can be expected of them now that I’m full time. I came in, reviewed my notes, and set to work. The day went quickly, even though I had come in an hour early. Deciding that today would be the day to push it, I got up earlier and caught the early bus, which spit me out onto the streets of downtown at 7:45.
For me, the thrill of the morning in a city is only compounded when it’s earlier. Everything looks clean, fresh, and new. Venders begin to open, everyone walks purposefully, well dressed and ready to meet the day. It’s so full of potential, of life. I love this city.
Since I’ll be making the trek across the country in a few days, my groceries are running a bit low. I could have bought food for the next 3 days, but decided that the mile-and-a-half round tip journey to the store just wasn’t worth it if I was going to do it piecemeal. Plus, it gave me an excuse to eat out.
This doesn’t help in the mornings, because all things made to eat in the morning are horrible pastries from the bottom of a grease trap somewhere, which does not appeal to me. The coffee addiction is enough to deal with. I don’t need another monkey.
Filed under: Seattle | Tags: bathroom etiquette, procrastination, Seattle, work bathrooms
Work is a little monotonous, so one of the few enjoyments I get is watching people who get off on my floor. I’ve come to know some of these people, and I’m practically friends with half of them in my mind. We pass each other in the kitchen, when we’re heading out for lunch, so, most usually, in the men’s room.
One such character is a tiny old man with white hair who walks around seemly defying all logic. He should not be able to walk. Shriveled, old, and fragile-looking, I wonder what purpose he serves here. Liver spotted and slow-moving, I can’t imagine him being a whiz on computers. He must be an owner-a partner or something.
Filed under: Seattle | Tags: architecture, book publshing, Downtown Seattle Public Library, Seattle, Seattle Public Library, The Writers' Room, Willy Wonka
Today I found a place of wonder: the Seattle Public Library.
After work I decided that my nervous system couldn’t take much more caffeine and walked to he library instead. I had been inside it briefly last week with Mick, but that was only on the first two floors, and apparently there are 10.
The first attempts to find the other floors fail. While I’m sure it’s a very organized place, the SPL, on first glance, it about as straight forward as a rubix cube, which makes it all the more intriguing. The entire building is encased in a glass shell that looks out at the skyscrapers of downtown Seattle. Floors one and two are mainly general books, gift shops, and even a little coffee café, but venture on and things get weird.
My first attempt at reaching the upper levels was stymied in the third floor computer lab, where I came to a dead end and could not locate stairs or escalator to get me any higher (it turns out they were right in front of me). Dropping down to the lower level, I consulted a map, which indicated that the floors and stacks themselves were in a spiral system, which meant that all one had to do was walk the floor and the gradual incline would bring patrons up to the next level. Whoa.
Level 5 brought the Willy Wonka effect into full swing. Most of the library has a strange modern/abstract feel to it, but level 5 really takes it home. Ascending the fluorescent yellow escalators that service the entire building, I find myself on at the foot of an orange stairwell, which I climb to an orange floor. This orange is not a delicate color scheme; it saturates the floor. The walls and floor are both painted in a shiny, plastic-like orange paint, and if that weren’t enough, the walls themselves feature swirls an curves like something out of a Tim Burton film. There is nothing on the walls with the exception of a few directional signs, which makes me wonder is this is just an instance of architectural humor. “What should we do with this space here?” asks one architect. “I’ve got it”, says another “let’s make it swirly and weird and paint it orange. It’ll be so out there that no one will criticize it lest they be labeled a provincial!”
Filed under: Seattle | Tags: asphyxiation, Aurora Ave, dehydration, Google, google engineers, Google Maps, GoogleEarth, green lake loop, Green Lake running, It's ALway, long distance running, Lucky Charms, nalgene, rehydration, running dehydration, water fountains, woodland park, woodland park zoo
The entire premise of learning from history is that we should not repeat the same mistakes. This is an area in which I’m horribly ill-equipped, and today I repeated a remarkably stupid mistake.
After procrastinating and finding every other possible chore to do beforehand, I delayed my 8am 12-mile run until 1:45pm. The process generally goes in a cycle of eating something, making sure it’s digested, procrastinating, getting hungry again, then eating again, and then waiting. It keeps going in this cycle, so after my noontime bagel, I decided that I was going for it, and a mere hour and a half later, I was off on my run.
First, the good. As I ran today I felt good. I quickly fell into a pace and trotted along the lake not breaking any speed records, but enjoying the feeing of being in complete control. My stride was strong and consistent, and with the exception of a tender hamstring from a few days ago, I was feeling pretty good. The plan was to run half of the Green Lake inner loop, then veer off into Woodland Park for some trail running, make my way over to the Woodland Park Zoo, do a few loops, and then run back to Green Lake for another outer loop. There would be a few additional twists and turns, but after mapping it out, I found that I’d be able to get my 12 miles with little difficulty. Planning difficulty, that is.
As I ran off the trail around Green Lake I was immediately struck by something I had not considered. Unlike maps, the real world is not flat. Also, the real world comes in more than 4 colors. This being the case, I was immediately confused and did my best to reconstruct the map in my head as I unceremoniously tripped over a root and fell on my face. With that out of the way, I picked myself up and continued in the direction of Woodland Park. Daunted by the task of running and estimating scale, I decided that the best course of action was to simply run until something looked familiar, a tactic that I’ve used more than once in my life, each time with disastrous results. Surely this would be different.
Filed under: Seattle | Tags: alopecia x, Belgian beer, CT DMV, Department of Motor Vehicles, DMV, Downtown Seattle DMV Office, Freeway Park, Mac and Cheese, Pabst Blue Ribbon, PBRs, Peanut M&Ms, roid rage, Seattle DMV, Snoqualmie Spring Fever, Whethersfield DMV
Today I have missions after work. The top mission is to get a license, which is an interesting one since I don’t have a car. Should the need arise, I will be prepared.
The license office is downtown, and shocks me. After wandering into several buildings looking confused and eventually being asked what I was doing there, I came to the Seattle licensing office, which is one of the nicest offices I have ever seen. Rather than the masses of angry people, long lines, and screaming children of the CT DMV, the Seattle DMV was a breath of fresh air. The lines are short, there are chairs, and it’s so quiet that I can read. When I’m called, the person taking care of me is courteous and polite, with nary a hint of the flagrant dickishness that abounds at the Wethersfield, CT DMV. I healthy fuck you to the Wethersfield, CT DMV, by the way.
To make it even better, the guy that works with me is genuinely funny, or at least making a fair attempt. “Male or female?” He asks. Depends on the time of day, I say. He doesn’t break character. “Guess you should pick one.” Male, I say, not wanting to take this too far.
Filed under: Seattle | Tags: bully, coworker, Harlem Gospel Choir, hepatits C, Jesus, office mates, officemate, Seattle Public Library, Snoqualmie Spring Fever, Soup kitchen, Soup Nazi, Whole Foods
Praise Jesus! This would be the resounding theme of the day, but such narrative hooks are best explained later in the game. The most prominent aspect of my morning this fine day was the fact that, since my phone is a piece of crap, it’s easy to press “dismiss” instead of “snooze” when it starts going off at 6am. When this happens, you wake up at 7 instead of 6. Fortunately, if you’re like me, keep a bit of your brain completely dedicated to bus schedules, and instead of rolling into work absurdly late, you hop an excessively crowded bus downtown and make it in time for work.
Work is going well. I continue to plug away, and everyone continues to give me good feedback. An odd development has been the continual asking of “how I’m doing”, which is a topic broached only when the inquisitor has braced herself (I work with almost all women) for what is expected to be a verbal onslaught from me. It seems to be the consensus around the office that I am in danger of being bullied by Dana. “How’s the office sharing going?” they ask, tentatively. Fine, I tell them. “Really? Because if there are any problems or you feel uncomfortable…” and so it goes.
Filed under: Seattle | Tags: 26, 316, corporate, coworker, Green Lake, office supplies, officemate, Seattle Metro, work
I can only hope that it’s the lack of sleep and not the suffocating corporate culture that makes me think I have nothing to write about at night. Recounting the humorous things that have happened in the course of the day is one thing; finding things humorous because they happen to be in your day is another. I fear that at some point I’ll start talking about the hilarity of someone incorrectly filing a TPS report, at which point I will have to either quit my job, or launch myself out of the 35th story window.
