Brewskis, beaches and bargains

So, the big event of last weekend was a barbecue that Seyeon and I hosted for her co-workers at Gregg's Cycle. A bunch of them rolled up to the house on two wheels throughout the evening for burgers and brewskis and bike talk - it was neat to meet all of them and enjoy good food and great summer night weather.


The past week has been a lot more of the job searching business (again, scared to jinx things by blogging about specifics - but hopefully soon I'll have something for sure to show for all this agonizing waiting?), learning my way around more, getting together with Lucinda (yay!) from high school, doing a couple writing assignments for the magazine and house/dogsitting for a wonderful flat-coated retriever named Xochi who's quickly become my best doggy friend in this city...


We've taken to going swimming together in the mornings or evenings in Lake Washington - a beautiful, tiny rock beach tucked away in a residential neighborhood nearby. He's a great swimmer and takes immense joy in paddling around me in tight circles with his tennis ball. I've also gotten to know many of the neighbors with dogs at the local park, and had some nice talks with locals and other Seattle transplants who, like me, visited here once upon a time and were convinced they wanted to live here. Anyway, the swimming hole is beautiful, with great views of the mountains and downtown Bellevue - hopefully I can post some pictures soon!

In other sporty news, Seyeon and her mom and their 86-year-old neighbor Millie and I all went kayaking on Monday. We paddled for several hours, riding the wakes of passing tugboats and stopping in the shade to snack on Rainier cherries - hands down, the tastiest cherries I've ever eaten! It was a blast.

Lastly, this morning, I got together with a guy named Kam whom I met at the Oberlin alumni picnic last week. He graduated back in the eighties and we'd had a great time comparing notes on Oberlin and exchanging stories at the picnic - so today, he took me around in his fantastic little '86 Fiat convertible to cruise yard sales all morning in Seattle's different neighborhoods.


I passed on the 1-dollar bra box...


...but for $8.50, (Mama, again, are you reading this? Alan told me I had to write about all this on my blog because he knew it would make my mother proud!) I procured the following: a set of brand new, adorable espresso cups and saucers, an unopened Cranium game, an unopened 1,000-piece puzzle, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, a beautiful ornate candle holder, three bottles of bubbles and bubble-blowing paraphernalia, three bars of French soap, a package of incense from India, and probably the most exciting useless purchase of all: a set of holographic-cat-and-dog playing cards. + A Saturday morning well spent with a new friend, cruising sunny, tree-lined Seattle with the roof down and the wind in my hair!


Days in Seattle with no rain yet: 17