Ennui-less in Seattle

What a week so far. I haven't stopped going since Monday morning...not sure how much longer my caffeine resistance is going to hold out. Especially now that I've officially gone off the deep end by accepting a fourth job that will get me out of the house by 4:45 a.m. a few mornings a week.

But! So far, so good, despite my ostensible foolhardiness on the job front. However, multiple jobs lead to good things, like
- money
- feelings of purpose and accomplishment
- gratitude, especially in this economy
- many new friends


And those things lead to fabulous adventures like last Sunday night! REI hosted a staff beach party on Alki Beach - miles of actual beach (not just a strip of gravel and rocks that the city of Seattle seems to think can be referred to as a "beach"), with sand you can dig your toes into and everything. It's located in West Seattle, which means that, like the photo posted several entries ago taken from Gasworks Park, it affords a stunning view of the downtown skyline from across the waters of Puget Sound (Elliott Bay, in the case of Alki; Lake Union, in the case of Gasworks.)


I got off work at 7:30 on Sunday, swung by my coworker Zanna's houseboat on Lake Union to give her a ride to the beach bash, swung by home to pick up Seyeon, and the three of us trekked across the West Seattle Bridge with a mission - make it to beach before the bonfire was out and all the marshmallows roasted. We pulled it off!


We stayed late with a couple of other REIsters (apparently that's the lingo for us; I'm learning) around the bonfire, watching it go down, talking about life, trying to find the perfect placement in relation to the fire to keep from either burning up or freezing our butts off in the September nighttime chill.

In other magical nights in Seattle, I got together with fellow Oberlin alum (!) Zoe, who hails from Portland originally but is going to grad school up here. We missed connections a lot throughout our years at Oberlin, despite having been in touch (via the now ancient blogging website, Xanga) the summer before college even began. It was great to finally get to know one another a bit more, and in the context of the city. We went out for great Mexican grub on Broadway, then off to Gasworks Park for a lovely sunset, the longest falling shooting star either of us had ever seen (it started directly overhead and fell, over the course of many slow, beautiful seconds, to the horizon before finally burning out), and a long night lying on the grassy side of a hill overlooking the sparkling skyline.


Final other highlights of the week, in spite of the 60+ hours of labor:
- Seeing a really stirring, well-orchestrated performance of Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking" at the Intiman Theater with Lu
- 8, 12, and 16 mile runs along Lake Washington Boulevard, with clear and stunning views of both Mount Rainier and Mount Baker
- Fabulous, killer cycling class earlier today
- Lots and lots of cookies and cupcakes, courtesy of Seyeon's spectacular baking skills
- The usual awe and wonder: mountains, sunrises, sunsets, Space Needle, I-love-Seattle, blah blah blah...


:)

Ode to coffee and overcast skies

Well, the rain has finally arrived. A couple overcast days in a row here - still comfortably in the sixties, but brisk, a little wind coming off the water, and the drizzly faucet of the Seattle sky let loose. It's funny how much different kinds of weather affect different people. Seyeon's mom, Andrea, and I both thrive in this kind of climate - cold enough to drink tea and wear fleece around the house. It's heat and humidity that suck energy out of me - if it's hot, I tend to think, Well damn, I'm uncomfortable; what can I possibly do today but sit still in front of my fan and be miserable? But the cold makes me feel alive. It gets me moving, if for nothing else but to keep myself warm, my blood moving. My mind is more alert.

And the overcast sky! It's obviously far too early in the game to lay claim to total enjoyment of it, but for now, I don't mind it at all. It's an enabling condition for two of my favorite activities: writing and running.

WRITING

Often times, if I stay inside to write, I feel guilty for not doing all the other things I could be doing with my day, outside in the sunshine like normal people. Staying in with a laptop feels antisocial. But not here. It's no surprise to me that so many of the great business leaders, computer programmers, writers and artists have thrived in Seattle. With a host of coffeeshops to hole up in during the long, gray days and work away at, it's easy to slog away and get things done here. I have taken on the challenge of building myself a rockin website from scratch, and despite the tedium of teaching myself code and implementing it, it's been a blast to get swept up in the nose-to-the-grindstone-but-in-a-creative-way vibe of Seattle's coffeeshops.

I told myself I wasn't going to repeat any cafes for at least my first few months here. There are so many to explore, there's really no excuse to repeat. Each place has its own ambience and vibe...its own aromas, couches, freshly baked pastries, artwork on the exposed brick walls, script on the chalkboard menus. Nevertheless, I've failed miserably, having discovered a small local place that I absolutely adore, and can't seem to break out of the habit of frequenting in the mornings to write, work on my website and conduct my job search.


Cappuccino: the price of productivity.

RUNNING

Cool, overcast weather is absolutely ideal running weather to me. Again, the sun drains me - so with it safely behind the clouds, I feel like I can run forever. There's an entire blog entry in my discovering the joys of urban running, but for now, suffice to say that I've had several amazing runs around the city - exploring residential and commercial districts alike (though the two are often deeply intertwined in Seattle), getting lost here and there (I actually ran several days ago with a printed Mapquest map clenched in my hand; the ink wound up getting wet from sweat, leaking all over my palm and dissolving into complete illegibility by the end of my run), but thus learning how all the neighborhoods connect. It seems near impossible to run more than ten minutes in any direction before running into a huge, sprawling park with trees and trails and solitude - before emerging again on city streets, and running across bridges over scenic stretches of the bay, with stunning views of the mountains, the Space Needle, the downtown skyline and all the lush, green hills that surround it. Beautiful! I did 13.1 miles yesterday, running from my doorstep through Interlaken Park, across the University Bridge, along the Burke-Gilman Trail, to Gas Works Park, then up a 2-mile stretch of gradual uphill to arrive at Seattle's runners' paradise: Green Lake! And then back home again to stretch out my unbelievably tight calf muscles!

And finally, bonus of the weekend: Zephyr calling me with an extra ticket to go see Othello at the Intiman Theater near the Seattle Center - an absolutely fabulous performance.