Area Happenings

I have been here for about two weeks or so, and adjusting nicely. Actually, so nicely that people keep asking me for directions. And, oddly, I've been glad to provide accurate instruction.

I've been going to Jazz in the sculpture garden. My cousin has a group friends who go to this and I've been tagging along. It's still quite warm in the evenings, but it's fun to go hang out with everyone. It is on friday nights, with live jazz, and you can bring your own picnic type things. We pretty much bring wine, cheese and bread to share, which is really fun, and a little surreal when you think of being in a public park in a major city.

I went to a whole foods to pick up some cheese for the jazz night, and as I was checking out, I noticed that the magazine rack at the check out stand only had two magazines filling all of the spaces. The Washingtonian, about Washington DC happenings and goings on, and Psychology Today. I thought that was the weirdest combination!!

The other day we were in our back yard when we heard a voice from over the fence. It was a very inquisitive sounding older guy, calling out "neighbor..?"
We went closer to the fence to start talking to this unseen neighbor, and he sounded like he had been drinking so he could work up the nerve to talk to us. He was requesting that we would work on our front yard. It DOES need weeds, and is horrible for mosquitos, so I agreed. However, as we are just renting, and have a tiny patch of lawn (maybe 10 x 10 feet) we don't really have the tools to take care of it. We did tell the guy we would see what we could do to take care of some of the bigger weeds (they may have been taller than me...).
That night we took out the trash, and while we were out, decided to just pull some of the bigger weeds. As we were doing this, the neighborhood transient-weird-guy came up and started talking to us, and telling us how better to pull the weeds. He was quite insistent about helping us, and we felt like we couldn't get away. AND, all of this was happening at 11:00 at night! What we meant as quick weed pulling while we took out the trash ended up as meet and greet with a weird neighbor.

There is a cool neighborhood coffee shop up the street. It has a lot of arty things going on, and lots of interesting people seem to hang out there (or, they could be posers, trying to look cool, hanging out at such a neat place, much like myself. Except I don't hang out there, just visit). I stopped in for an iced coffee, and noticed they did not have any straws. Well, more than noticed, because I distinctly felt the lack. Since I just moved here, and still have a lot of unpacking to do, I decided I had a solution for these coffee people. The next time I came back, I brought a pack of my green striped straws for them. AND, I got free coffee in return!

New Town

I have been in my new town since Wednesday. Nearly six days, and it still doesn't quite feel like I live here. I'm guessing that once I finally get a job and have my stuff in better order, it will feel a little closer to a home.

It has been an entirely different heat than I'm used to. Even when I lived in California it wasn't like this. This seems to take my body and warm it and make it long for cold water. This reminds me of my first few weeks in Zim when I hadn't adjusted to the heat.

My mom has been in town the last few days, too. She and her husband are on their vacation, so I've been visiting with them and doing some tour guide stints with them. It has been great fun, despite my mom spraining her ankle on Saturday. I've pushed her in a wheelchair through a few museums and really enjoyed her company. She is so funny, I love hanging out with her!

Tomorrow I'll do some follow up on jobs (I will have to do that every day) and I have kickball at night. Hopefully this weekend I will go camping with my cousin and his friends to this island with wild horses. Should be a good time, and I'm surprised that my free time is already filling up.

A Going Away

Last night I had a going away party with most of the work peeps. It was so nice to visit with and talk to each of them outside the boundaries of work.
At a little pause in the festivities, I was given a card with a brazillian signatures and an envelope with some cash in it. $700!!!! And then another coworker gave me a card with another $100 in it. Another friend who always gives me the BEST books ever gave me two great guides to my new city. I'm SO looking forward to exploring them, and the city.
Today is my last day of work, and the company picnic (great day for a last day!!), and tonight my closer coworkers are going Skating and Bowling with me. It should be great, silly fun.
A closing of an era is no small thing, but it's also not always awful. I'm so delighted for this next leg!

rambling

Today was my second to last day at work, and my six year anniversary. I felt like I had a huge smile all day long. It was really nice. I'm looking forward to moving so much that my nerves and worries aren't very amplified yet. I'm near to being packed, yet not terribly so, yet I'm it's not a concern just now. It's a nice calm...

On the bus home I talked to a four year old. It was weird because his mom seemed very disinterested in him, and hardly looked at him while I was talking to him. I wasn't sure if it was because I kept talking to him, or if she just didn't want to. It was really funny, and I enjoyed the things he had to say. Of course, in his small world, he wanted to invite me to his friend's birthday, and thought maybe I lived next door to his friend Lynn. I wondered if the other people on the bus minded that I was talking to him, because like most kids, he didn't really have control of his volume. It didn't bother me, and he wasn't yelling, just asking loud questions. This guy in a suit got on the bus and the boy asked if he was the president.

My friend came over to take my foodstuffs. It was interesting hanging out with him because he recently discovered the "third culture kid" term, and has some interesting ideas about life in general. He wants to be a youth pastor in Germany, or some such thing, and was talking about some of the talks he has with kids. It brought me back to the times when I was a very young youth pastor-type of sorts. I think about those days every once in a while, and wonder about the kids I used to talk to.

I have a going away party tomorrow night. I don't know how I'm going to last... I am used to leaving those parties early if I need to, and this is one I won't be able to slip out of. I also have ANOTHER one on friday night... I'm making my friends go to this roller rink/bowling alley place north of seattle. I'm more looking forward to that one. It should be awesome! It's pretty silly, but I really like rollerskating. In my favorite moving there is a scene where the girl is talking about rollerskating and running into a seven foot tall black man wearing a green jump suit. He told her, "Little lady, let your mind go and your body will follow."

Mosquitos and Brains

Last night I hung out with my cousins for a going away party. We were at my uncle's house in West Seattle, having desserts and catching up before I head out of town. We were outside, gathered around a chiminea and chatting, enjoying each others company. It was so awesome, and I had the opportunity to spend time with all of them. Afterwards, we came back to my house, and I gave them a bunch of my stuff, which was great. I would rather they have it if they want then just sell it or take it to a thrift shop.
Today, I noticed two huge mosquito bites forming their own appendages on my ankle. I am dying to scratch 'em, but I know I ought to hold off. How do they know to bite me??

This morning I was talking with my boss about a few things, and she told me that she missed my brain in this training session that I'm not attending. I'm not attending because I'm moving, which is awesome. It was awesome to hear her say that, and I am pleased that she appreciates the ideas I have.

Hit the Road

I'm moving in a week and a half. It's pretty exciting, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Actually, I'm moving across the country, so I decided to get rid of nearly everything, limiting myself to a suitcase, a box and then two boxes to store at my mom's house. Since I'm a week out, I'm trying to get homes for everything. Earlier, my friend and I discovered my orange vinyl chair doesn't fit in her Chevy Malibu. Yesterday, someone came and picked up two chairs.

I was at the grocery store picking up some dinner earlier, and ran into someone I used to go to church with, but still spoke with on a random basis. I told him I was moving a couple months ago, which was great, so I gave him the one week update, and asked if he needed anything from my mostly unpacked house.

He came over to pick up some dishes and spoons, and as we were talking, the told me (as I've found more and more lately) that because I was leaving, he felt he had nothing to lose by telling me he had a little "thing" for me. This has been about the fourth time I've gotten this, which is really weird and unsettling. I'm trying to determine how to quit whatever vibe I give out. I mean, I guess it's a little flattering, but really, all this attention is awful.

So, now I'm out a buncha dishes that I don't have to worry about, and I'm even more excited to leave town, where there will be no more guys with confessions about whatever they think would possibly have happened. Yoy!

In other news... I consolidated and packed up the two boxes of things to leave at my mom's house. It was great to get rid of all that junk, and just have it in the two boxes, instead of the trails of pictures and other memorbilia throughout the house.

So, the chore for later in the week is packing, more packing, and cleaning. I am hanging out with my friend next weekend, and we will come back to pack and clean before I head out. It's a bit crazy to think of how different my house will be in a week or so... and also quite exciting.