Countdown

I officially begin my Seattle trip in less than 12 hours....10 hours and 40 minutes to be exact. I'm almost packed and most of my chores are done. I just finished laundry, but I still need to do the dishes, take out the trash, and water my plants. I think two out of three will be waiting for tomorrow morning! And for the moment, I don't feel so excited. Or maybe that's not right. I'm just tired I guess and it won't feel like an actual trip until I'm on the plane. So maybe I should say my trip officially begins in 13 hours and 32 minutes. (obviously I'm excited or I wouldn't be counting down).

Monica and I have quite a list of things to do this week. Besides the 3-day music and art festival (see below) we will be hitting all of the famous Seattle spots, like the Fremont Troll, Gas Works Park, EMP, Space Needle, and Pike Place Market. Some lesser known places we will be going are the Underground Tour, Olympic Sculpture Park, Waterfall Park, Woodland Zoo, Ballard Locks, Museum of Glass, and we will of course ride the SLUT (I'll explain with pictures later). On top of THAT, there are a number of parks we are going to go to, like Golden Gardens Park, Magnuson Park, Green Lake, and the Arboretum. And I can't forget our shopping adventure to the cupcake store, the cookie cutter store, and Archie McPhees. Yup, we're actually going to attempt to "DO IT ALL!" We're so serious about this, not only have we made a list, but we've turned that list into a Google Map and then into an excel spreadsheet Itinerary! A few things did have to be left off unfortunately, like riding the Duck and the Pacific Science Center. But, I suppose we should leave something to do for next time...

Anyhow, our little discussion here has pumped me back up again, so I'm going to go finish all my chores as quickly as I can and get to bed so I can begin this adventure! A real vacation! FINALLY!

I'm going to Seattle!!!!!

In a nearly last minute decision, I've decided to go up to Seattle to visit Monica and go to a big three day concert festival. I'm sooo excited! I'm pretty much the only one who hasn't been up to visit her since she moved about a year and a half ago. The best part is, I get to spend a whole week up there! I'm leaving the 27th and returning the 3rd of September, so I'll be there over Labor Day.

And the festival is going to be AWESOME! It's Saturday-Monday at the Seattle Center (where the Space Needle is). There's 20 stages with bands, comedians, and performing arts shows plus visual arts exhibitions. Oh, and a burlesque cabaret. We're going to see Mike Doughty, The Old 97's, Beck, Jakob Dylan, STP, The Offspring, and whoever else sounds good. I think we're also going to check out some comedy shows. I really want to see Zach Galifianakis and "Yoga Bitch". I just can't stop telling you how excited I am!

Check out the website:

Other events in the workings:

• Concours d'Elegance - Helping out Merry on Saturday with signs, get to see LOTS of pretty (EXPENSIVE) cars
• Erika is visiting for a night on Saturday
  
• Camping - Mt. Madonna next weekend with Katie, Patrick, and Kelly
• Santa Cruz Boardwalk - Sometime soon after Seattle with the co-workers
  

Experimenting

I went to the grocery store with a list of ingredients for an old favorite (veggie enchiladas) and a few new dishes (home made pizza, chicken and dill souvlaki, and a pasta dish with peppers and mozzarella). Since the hour was getting late while I shopped, I decided that I wanted to make the pizza first. Trader Joes always has pizza dough ready to roll out and cook, so I went there to shop. But they didn't have any!!! So when I went to Safeway my choices were Pillsbury dough from a can or Boboli...I chose the Boboli. And to my surprise, it's not that bad.

I had almost forgotten that I actually do like making pizzas. I would never go back and do it as a job, that's for sure, but I love crafting my perfect pizza. Tonight I spread some olive oil and chopped garlic on the crust, then covered it with a thin layer of spinach, added a layer of mozzarella, a few crumbles of gorgonzola, chopped up chunks of a medium sized tomato, and then another light sprinkle of mozzarella. So easy and it's pretty tasty! A fresh crust would make it better, of course. I need to find a good home made recipe. Also, the gorgonzola was an experiment that wasn't too bad, but I think I would prefer my old favorite, feta. On the other hand, I'd like to try goat cheese too. I'd also like to try to make my own BBQ chicken pizza. I think that will be my next experiment!

Driving At Sunset

I took a drive out to Monterey to run some errands tonight and the sky was so beautiful that I had to share. The fog from PG was just creeping over the hill and high patchy clouds blanketed the rest of the sky. The gap between the two layers was a crystal clear blue, brighter than anything I've ever seen. The sun sinking low on the horizon made the high clouds glow a color that doesn't even have a name. Somewhere between rose and salmon is the best I can do to describe it. And it really did glow. Like some otherworldly light emitted from the heavens.

As I drove past Lake El Estero, the fading light reflected off the water in the most awesome patterns and colors. I decided to drive home along the ocean instead of taking the freeway. Every wave and ripple caught the light from above and mixed it with the deep darkness of the ocean to make new and fascinating colors in shades or purple and blue and pink. It was so amazing that it was hard to keep my eyes on the road as I followed the curves of the coastline. I wanted to reach Asilomar beach and pull over before the light faded, but no such luck behind a tourist who kept breaking unnecessarily. It faded right as I passed the Point Pinos lighthouse.

At the ending of such a hectic day the spectacle evoked so many emotions and brought to the surface of my mind so many thoughts that I couldn't even focus on one thing. I felt joy and peace and happiness and loneliness and frustration and sadness all at once. I thought about how I live in such a beautiful place but often forget about that in the day to day of life. I thought that even though it can be explained by simple science, every sunset is a gift from God. I felt sad that I couldn't be one of those people walking along the path hand in hand with a loved one or sitting on the sand with any or all of my best friends talking over the day. I thought about my day at work and how I felt confident that handled all the stress and trials that today brought well and accomplished everything I needed to do. I was upset that I didn't have even one of my three cameras with me. I thought about how much fun I had at the party on Saturday and how beautiful I felt in the dress I wore. I felt frustrated that I haven't been able to motivate myself to go back to the gym and that I don't know what to do to fix that. I thought about how lately my life has seemed like really great hours or even days with just whatever in between. Not happiness or sadness, just a sense of going through the motions and not really knowing what to do to fill the space other than the same thing I did the day before. Like I've almost forgotten that there's things I really like to do. I haven't baked or cooked or scrapbooked or hiked or gone to the movies in too long.

As I turned my back on the ocean and drove up the hill to my apartment a few sprinkles from those high clouds fell on my windshield and I resolved that it's again time to break the cycle. One day at a time. Tomorrow the gym and a big yummy dinner. Maybe Thursday I'll make banana bread or some other delicious treat to share with my coworkers. This weekend I will go somewhere with my camera and work on the scrapbook I started for Katie. But for tonight I will remember that I'm lucky to be where I am; in a place that can produce such beautiful sunsets and sunrises as this: