Queen of the Pavement

From Spokane, Washington.

[Monday, March 05, 2007] [Yes, two years ago]

I am sitting here in Spokane, Washington, waiting for my turn to bathe. I haven’t actually been to Seattle yet, with the exception of Sea-Tac airport, which doesn’t really count. We (me and Logan Sayles – long time bud who I met at design camp a few years ago) flew out from North Carolina at about 6 a.m. eastern time Friday morning.. arrived in Seattle around 12:30 p.m. western time. Logan’s friend Julian picked us up and drove us another 4-5 hours straight to Spokane. I don’t remember any of it. I remained in a coma in the backseat, since I had been up for about 36 hours straight at that point.

So they tell me that eastern Washington is dramatically different from western Washington. The east side is not very green. It’s mostly desert and rolling hills, and vintage furniture warehouses and chinese restaurants. Different. We are here visiting Logan’s best friend, Noren (Stephanie Noren), who goes to a little 3500-student catholic university here in Spokane. Today is her birthday. The weekend has consisted mainly of adventures around Spokane and Pullman, another college town about 2 hours away from here. I should also mention that the trees are SO different here. I seem to be the only one fascinated by it though. I’ll be sure to take some pictures.

Also – I have eaten at three different restaurants for the first time this weekend: Denny’s, Red Robin (where Noren works), and Jack In The Box. I probably could have gotten the Denny’s/Red Robin experience out of the way in NC, but I never really felt compelled to do so. All three are pretty gross.

So tomorrow, Logan, Julian, and I head back to Seattle, where Julian will drop us off until Thursday or Friday, when he comes back to fetch us and take us to Bellingham and Vancouver for some more adventure.

 

 

 

 

 

From the Green Tortoise.

[Tuesday, March 06, 2007 ]

So I’m currently sitting in the Green Tortoise Hostel in downtown Seattle. Julian drove me and Log a good 4-some hours back to the west side this afternoon.. from flat desert to rolling hills back to flat desert to waterbodies to rocky mountains to snowcaps to green to city. Quite a ride.. I didn’t take any pictures though, surprisingly. By the way, I forgot the cord that connects my camera to the computer. Sucks.

So Julian drops us off right behind the hostel, where we see a guy smoking crack. He eventually comes up as we are unpacking the car, spits some hot rhymes for us, and walks us to the hostel. I’m sure we’ll see him again.

The hostel is amazing! The beds are nice (there are six to a room, we haven’t met our flatmates yet), there is wireless internet AND a computer lab if I happen to need it, nice bathrooms and whatnot. But even better, we are on the same block as the Pike Place fish market AND the Showbox, one of Seattle’s best concert venue. Robert Randolph & the Family Band are going to be there on the 7th, so we’ll be checking that out. Starbuck’s shops are on every freaking corner. Apparently, they are a completely different ball game here. I suppose they would be though, since Starbuck’s began in Seattle. You can order your coffee to the ideal degree temperature. I wouldn’t really know what to say.

Logan has a fever. He started feeling sick yesterday, and now he’s just a mess. He’s been a good sport though. He napped while I stole music from his Ipod for a few hours this evening, then we walked around a few blocks surrounding the hostel, ate at a tasty Brazilian restaurant, and then walked to Eckerd’s so Logan could buy lots of drugs and I could buy hairspray. Logan’s been asleep since about 9, and I’ve been playing in the public lounge area full of tables and televisions and computers. Interesting crowd.. I haven’t spoken to anyone yet, but I’m sure I’ll have about 6 new compadres before the night’s over.

Tomorrow the real adventure begins, assuming Logan survives the night. I’ll keep you posted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts on bodies, etc.

[Wednesday, March 07, 2007]

 

Today was my first full day in Seattle. I just want to let you know that it is 38 degrees in NC. It is 67 degrees here. AND it is not raining. What the heck.

It’s been a busy day. This morning, we walked a whopping 30 feet to Pike Place Market, snapped some photos, then ate some quiche lorraine and a marionberry croissant at a neat coffee shop down the street. I had never heard of marionberry before I came to this part of the earth. It’s really no different from anything I had tasted before.. it just tasted like berry. After that, we went to the waterfront and checked out the aquarium. Lovely.

Logan is still sickly, but we realized that coffee has an amazingly positive effect on his symptoms. We’ve been making a lot of coffee runs. Fortunately, there are about 18 coffee shops per block, so this is a sinch.

I guess I should explain our room situation. There are three sets of
bunk beds in our room, and so we could be grouped with anyone on a particular night. Last night we had a couple in our room, but they were in bed asleep by the time I got back to the room, and they left before I woke up. Logan thinks that he pissed them off somehow, because he woke up with their dirty linens on the foot of his bed. Now, we have two new roomies.. a couple that is not very friendly at all. I managed to get enough out of them to know that the man’s name is Sonny. That is all. I figure they’ll be gone by tomorrow too.. can’t wait to see who roommate set #3 is.

Logan and I just finished up a 2-ish-hour hike around the city. We
trekked about 30 minutes to the Space Needle and the Experience Music Project, one of the nuttiest buildings I have ever seen. I happened to notice a large mountain, what I would consider a mountainous mass, anyway.. in the distance, and Logan explained to me that it was Queen Anne’s Hill, one of the seven hills of Seattle. We decided we should hike to the top of it. So an hour later, we’re pretty far up the hill.. it’s covered in houses with the best view of the skyline you could possibly fathom. Walking up super-steep slopes for 30-some minutes was certainly a reminder of how awesomely unathletic we are. I forgot to wear socks in my eskimo boots, so we retreated early and I managed to hobble back and now I’m trying to nurse my feet back to health.. by sitting here barefoot in the lounge. Seriously though, you guys would not believe the view these houses had.. not something I could justify on film. Tomorrow, we’ll head back and check everything out again in daylight. Hopefully this ridiculous weather will continue.

 
 

Ok. So there is this exhibit currently going on up the street called “bodies.”

Just take a gander. I refuse to go past the first screen, but you’re welcome to. — http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/

So this exhibit.. it’s a sort of art display made entirely of human cadavors. Parts of them, whatever. You should know by now that anything related to human anatomy creeps the living hell out of me. I get by each day only by convincing myself that we are composed entirely of solid homogeneous blobs of human. Anything pertaining to parts of the human body will send me into a seizure. Not really, but I might faint on you. Anyway.. I’ve agreed to check out this exhibit. I have a feeling this is going to be a disaster. Logan has heard my warnings, and we’ve agreed that if I can’t handle things when I step into the door, I will wait outside for an hour while Logan gets his fix of corpse-art. Speaking of corpses, I saw two mummified humans today.. AND shrunken heads… like six of them. I love being a tourist.

I guess I should mention that I’m obsessed with this city and I am tempted to stay here forever. A lot of it reminds me of Norway, which is nice. There are so many great things about it.. it’s quite clean and fairly safe.. we were completely comfortable walking around the streets tonight. You have hills and mountains and water and skyline and coffee. I need nothing more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday in Seattle

[Thursday, March 08, 2007 ]

 

So I’m doing a lot these days..

I actually decided to go to “Bodies” this morning. I was a bit nervous, and a little dizzy going into things, but the whole experience actually turned out to be kind of cool. I realized that I’m not quite as creeped out by stationary displays. On the other hand, whenever Logan really wanted to talk about some cool procedure he saw done when he was job shadowing surgeons in high school I had to stop him to prevent myself from passing out. For instance, we saw a display of some sort of vein valves, which I was actually content with. Then, Logan got excited and tried to show me how it works on his own hand, and I left him immediately. I can’t really explain it. Anyway, there were a million different organs and pieces and parts of humans on display, which sounds awful, but it really wasn’t at all. Kudos to Becca, who has already seen it and gave me the good word.

Speaking of body parts, I had a dream last night that my left bicep was twitching out of control. I woke up, and it was still twitching, and it still hasn’t stopped. It’s not a little twitch either.. my bicep is literally bouncing and it’s really awkward looking. Perhaps the fact that I’m not completely sedentary (which is normally the case) is doing crazy things to my body. It doesn’t quite know what to do with itself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked back to the Experience Music Project building today, and actually went inside to check it out. It was a very cool exhibit. Today’s focus was on the history of hip-hop, northwestern bands (Kurt Cobain actually lived about five blocks down from where Logan grew up in Aberdeen, WA), and Hendrix. There were so many fantastic posters and records all over the place, so I expected the store to have plenty of prints for me to waste my cash on, but I was really disappointed to find only a few decent posters among ones for Destiny’s Child and Usher.. not many good books either. I suppose it’s better that I not blow more money on things that I could buy just as easily in North Carolina.

Also – Raleigh needs a sushi restaurant that serves its sushi on a conveyor belt. It makes so much sense. Little plates that are color-coded according to value circle around a bar, you pick the plates you want, and chow. No waiting 2 hours for your grub. The sushi here is cheap too… close to half the price of NC. You don’t really have to tip, since the waitresses only gave you drinks and gave you checks composed of tally marks for colored plates, but I over-tipped, as usual. I guess I was just excited.

Also – Coffee shop employees are so much nicer here than on the east side. I don’t know how many of you frequent coffee shops like I do.. no, none of you, but baristas in Raleigh just aren’t that friendly. They like to give off the vibe of.. I may come off as cold and mysterious, but little do you know, I am the most interesting person ON EARTH. No. There are plenty of people in the world that are both interesting and friendly. I don’t need to display my deeply-seeded teen angst to win the hearts of baristas over here. They are fabulous. I talked a while to one this morning who looked almost identical to the emo son in “Little Miss Sunshine.” I wanted to tell him so bad, but I figured we weren’t really that close yet, so I
refrained. Maybe I’ll tell him tomorrow.

Logan feels a lot better, by the way. It’s nice to have him alive again.

So we’re here warming up a bit after walking around town for the past 7 hours.. then I suppose we’re going to find somewhere fabulous to eat our last dinner in Seattle. After that, off to the Showbox to check out Robert Randolph and the Family Band. We’re going to try and find a way to get his attention and bond with him through our southern connections. Hopefully we’ll be out on the town with him and the family later.. I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bellingham.

[Friday, March 09, 2007 ]

 

Well, I didn’t end up going out with Robert Randolph and the Family after all. They are from New Jersey!!! Disappointing.. who would have thought they weren’t southern folk. Their concert was amazing though. The bulk of the show was actually snippets of southern classic rock that they ended up crafting 15-minute original improvs out of. The bassist, a teeny hairless ghetto black fellow with missing teeth and abnormally long fingers was the next-best bassist I’ve ever seen, second to Flea. Sorry if some of you didn’t follow any of that. The Showbox was a beautiful venue.. very big, perfect acoustics, non-smoking AND no drinks on the floor.. vintage lighting and chandeliers.. I was pleased. AND it was only a 30-second walk back to the hostel after the show. Great 25 bucks spent! 

Today was a random day. As opposed to yesterday, spending way too much cash on museums and cadaver displays and concerts, today we managed to spend money on nothing but coffee. This morning we hiked back out to the other side of Seattle to pay a visit to KEXP, a fabulous radio station in Seattle. Their podcast was #1 at one point or another. Anyway, our new friend Amy gave us a tour of the building and whatnot. It was the first time I felt like a really corny tourist, but it’s okay, because we were in KEXP.

Anyway, when we were done with that, we wanted to find Jones Soda Co.. as their headquarters is in Seattle. We just didn’t quite know where it was. Logan texted Noren, who gave us completely bogus directions. We ended up strolling through a sort of warehouse district, and smelled doughnuts as we walked by an odd cream colored building. We saw some guys hauling cardboard boxes out of the building, and stopped to talk to them. They explained to us that we were in fact outside the official Hostess manufacturing plant and offered to go inside and fetch us whatever Hostess product we wanted. I’m personally am not a fan of mass-produced baked goods, so I’ve never actually tried Hostess products, but then they offered me blackberry pies and I just couldn’t say no. So me and Logan left the Hostess plant having made new friends, Mike and Frank, and four semi-fresh blackberry pies.

We ate lunch at a random deli between warehouses and the owner happened to know the correct location of Jones Soda, so we finally made our way out and found the building. We went in and, knowing that they don’t actually have a bottling plant or offer tours, asked for a tour of the bottling plant. Jason, the guy who worked at the front desk, just led us into a room full of free Jones Soda and merchandise.

He also explained to us several times that since Jones Soda just went public TODAY, we should invest immediately, because Jones is “going to be the next Google… just wait.” Thanks Jason. So we were exhausted after all of this random cost-free adventuring, and hobbled back home in cold Seattle rain with my purse now full of blackberry pies, half a deli sandwich, four Jones Sodas and a bunch of other random merchandise. Julian arrived in Seattle around 3pm, and we left the city for good. Sad. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So now we are in Bellingingham, hometown of Death Cab For Cutie and Western Washington University. It’s BEAUTIFUL OUT HERE. It’s right on the sound, and everything is very green. Mountains everywhere. I love it. Julian bought 31 different individual beers to prepare for out visit, and tomorrow evening we will all sit down for a beer tasting. It should take a while, since most of it will consist of Julian and Logan waiting for me to finish my drink, because I tend to be a very, very slow beer drinker. Saturday we’re off to Vancouver (we’re currently a whopping 18 miles from the Canadian border), and then preparing to head back to the east side on Sunday. I’m not ready to come home!!!!! No offense people. 

Okay, that’s about it for now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost home.

[Sunday, March 11, 2007]

 

Hello! This is the last bit of writing from the west coast. I rececntly just got back from rummaging around the bars and pubs in downtown Vancouver. Our trip to Canadia almost did not happen, since Julian left his birth certificate on his microwave last week, lost it, and forgot to search for it until 1:00 this afternoon. After a couple of hours, he finally found it, and we made it over to B.C. It was very rainy, but by about 9:00 or so it cleared up enough to wander around and remain relatively dry. Canada is neat, but.. it’s just like America. People honk a little more, and green lights blink, and I am a legitimate customer in a bar, but other than that, same old thing. I had a good bit of fun.

Bellingham has been great. It’s absolutely beautiful here. Perhaps I
have already mentioned that, but I feel that you should be reminded. Did I mention that this is the most Norwegian place ever? Julian lives in the Norsemen apartments, for christ’s sake. My air mattress in his living room has been surprisingly comfortable. It’s been a nice break from my four days of extreme city life.

So tomorrow we leave the west coast. I am not ready to come home. We fly out of Seattle around 1pm western time, stop in St. Louis for a bit, then arrive back on the east side late tomorrow (Sunday) night. Back to reality.. actually checking to see if I had any assignments to do over break, then frantically finishing all of my scholarly crap before I get myself into some real trouble. Ah.. home. I’m sorry that you guys can’t live vicariously through me anymore, but at least you can see my face and experience my fabulous life in person again. I hope you can live with that. Love, hp

 

 

 

 

END!