things around the new neighborhood (north seattle)

I know I am nowhere near as convincing as Amazon when it comes to the nicer things in life for a Seattlite, but we just signed a couple year lease at our new place and I thought I'd share a couple reasons why:

Richmond Beach Park has beautiful trails and beach
access... but barely a close second to Lincoln Park

There are lots of close parks and walking paths
to chose from

There are so many interesting trees and plants
growing in the neighborhood -- I like to snap
pictures while out for a walk 

A school in the neighborhood has this tree whose
branches are obscenely burdened by thousands of
itsy-bitsy tiny apples. 

Found this guy outside the window of our
workroom one Fall morning.

quick catch up for the last 8 months

A lot has changed since I last posted. I'll try to summarize.

We weren't able to settle things to our liking at the old
house, so we moved to a bigger place in North Seattle,
where I can actually have an office. This picture shows
my niece covering our front walkway with roses as
a housewarming gift. But it's Seattle, so even though it
was June, it rained 4 hours later and -poof- it was gone. :( 

There's a big sun-room that used to be a front porch, which
John filled with plants. I got a grape vine that's grown the length
of the sun-room, and then some, in just the first few months.

There's a large covered back porch, something we've missed
so much since we left our house in Reseda, CA.

There's a big old man Willow tree right smack in the middle
of the private back yard. 

My new manager role has required a lot more travel than
I'm used to -- flights to the East Coast have been required
every other month since April. Little discovery: FL not
my favorite state ever.

We have a new addition to our family. Looks like a rat,
yet named after an angel -- the one and only angel --
Castiel (from Supernatural). 

Despite being one of the cutest things you've ever seen, he
exploded on the scene bearing fart-bombs (running into
the room, farting and dashing back out) and herpes (he's a
shelter baby). 

Lucifurr was NOT AMUSED.

*Little note: I'm totally downplaying the chaos and mayhem.

Our little girl has grown up and decided to move out on her own,
At 38 years old, my nest is half empty. 'Nuff said.

However, we all try to "keep it real" and not take life too seriously.

Cuz. Yeah.

a beautiful moment, worth recording

I've walked through my share of foggy mornings. Let me tell you! As a Seattleite, nothing could be more prevalent. But this morning had a semi-unique kind of fog, following our week of achingly beautiful, summer-like weather.

Have you ever noticed the kind of fog that is like walking through raindrops so tiny and fine that they aren't falling to the ground? It's "heavy", yet it's not thick. And every once in a while, a drop has condensed enough mass that you'll feel a little 'ping!' sensation on your skin as you walk heedlessly into it? This morning was full of 'pings!'

Not too chilly, just calm and surreal, with unexpected little sensations as I stroll toward the bus stop for my morning commute.

an email from my brother in law

My family,

A few days ago, [my brother] told me a story about how he was driving in his neighborhood, and was pulled over for driving 30 mph in a 25 mph zone.  Not content to give him a ticket and send him on his way, the officer took him out of the car, handcuffed him, and made him wait in the back of his squad car until he was satisfied he could not arrest him for anything.  [He] was not charged with anything, but he was given a ticket for speeding.  As a means to protest this treatment, [he] went to court to fight the ticket.  The docket ahead of him was very full, and [he] noticed something striking:  Almost everyone ahead of him was black.

Racism in criminal prosecution is not a new thing.  It has been part of the fabric of America since the beginning, and it is a significant contributor to generational poverty in the black community.  When we were growing up, Mom and Dad were always very aware of police while we were driving.  If my mom would see a police car, she would utter a coded message to my dad and he would do his best to blend in and be inconspicuous.  The fact he was arrested multiple times for "Driving While Black" probably had a lot to do with it.

I-502 seeks to decriminalize marijuana sales, and I am prepared to agree that it will not improve society to make marijuana more widely available.  In fact, I think it will be bad for society to encourage more drug use.  

But here are the facts:

• Seattle has one of the highest rates of racial disparity in drug arrests in the United States.  Blacks drug arrest rate is 13 times higher, even though there are more white drug users in Washington State than there are black people in Washington State.
• On drug offenses alone, 3.5 times as many blacks are imprisoned as whites in Washington State.
• Prosecutors are 75% less likely to recommend alternative sentences for black defendants than for similarly situated white defendants.
• Black drivers are 2.5 times more likely to be searched than white drivers.

When you are arrested and convicted, your future prospects and potential income are dramatically reduced for the rest of your life.  A recent Princeton study found that the chances of getting a job as a black person with a criminal record are vanishingly small, although they found that if you are a white person with a criminal record, you have a better chance of getting a job than a black person without one.  This is borne out in the black unemployment rate, which has been double white unemployment for decades, and today is 14.4%.

I think every one of us would agree we want to end generational poverty and institutional racism.  I think we are also concerned about problem drug use.

The question is - Will the potential, theoretical problems of increased drug liberalization be so much worse than the problem the black community faces right now, and has lived with for generations?

I urge you - Support I-502, and take advantage of a rare opportunity to apply a potent corrective to a horrible social problem, and the terrible injustice of unequal law enforcement.  Please feel free to forward this to anyone and everyone, and please be sure to vote.  Also, if you want to know more about racial inequality in law enforcement in Washington State, this report is very well-researched, and comprehensive:  http://www.law.washington.edu/About/RaceTaskForce/preliminary_report_race_criminal_justice_030111.pdf

Love you all,

Bro

new frontiers

Pretty neat

It has been fairly calm, snow-wise, here in Seattle during the winter of 2011.  With one notable exception, we had just a few short snowfalls that resulted in less-than-impressive coverage, as pictured here.  A month or more ago, walking the half-mile home to the new house after spending a day cleaning the old one we'd just vacated, John took this picture because he thought the blue shadow was pretty neat.

But this post is about the notable exception. 

~ * ~

Late February, I had to travel from Seattle to Portland, Oregon for a big meeting at a client.  Having flown from Seattle to Portland previously, my -0- positive memories about this experience, coupled with the newly minted threat of TSA jokes, cemented my belief that the 3 hours it would take to drive it had to be a better choice.  After all, it would take just as long to fly down as to drive it, if you take into account the time wasted at the airport, the unpleasant experience of rising to altitude only to spend 5 minutes there prior to the nausea-inducing decline, followed by another airport...  Driving was the clear choice for this seasoned, corporate traveler.

Of course, it happened that we were supposed to get the snowstorm of the year -- of several years -- the night I drove down. 

This is a dramatization based on true events, captured by real people
that are not me, and are not actors.  Please do not sue me.

Just so it's out there, not going was not an option.  I'm not suicidal, just... employment during recessions is a good thing. 

John, worried that I might get stuck somewhere alone along the highway, thought it would be a good idea to send Mae, our just-turned-16-year-old daughter, along for the ride.  Perhaps he thought it would be good if I had someone to eat if we got stuck on the side of the highway long enough.  Or vise versa.  Regardless, it was the first road trip Mae and I had ever had alone together, and it sounded kind of fun, so we filled the rental car with Monster energy drink, artery-clogging pastries and nuts (all guaranteed to taste better than skinny teenagers or juicy and tender mothers), and took off.  We listened to some music, had some mother-daughter chats, endured a white-knuckled 10 minutes worth of driving snow in our face, and then coasted in the clear to our hotel in Portland.

I worked late into the night at the hotel, preparing for the meeting the next day while Mae lounged around, watching TV and consuming 250 calories after 725 calories. A typical night. And in the morning, when I realized that the noon hotel check-out would not allow me to leave my teenager wallowing around in her PJed glory while I attended my full day meeting, I had a small melt-down, eventually found her a mall to amuse herself at, and toddled off to work.

As things would have it, Buddha, God and probably a fairy, too, were playing with us. It might have just been the weathermen, but let's be real; when have they ever gotten it right?  I heard it all day long, from every stressed business woman and man I ran into; the big storm, the real storm, the perfect storm, was coming tonight. Not last night.... tonight.  And a new, young co-worker of mine, who had chosen (badly, may I say?) to fly down from Seattle to attend the meeting, apparently decided she didn't want to fly back in the perfect storm, and begged a ride home from me in my wittle bitty rental. 

With my teenage daughter. Who hasn't found a single corporate person that she couldn't shock.

"Hahahahahaha... sure, that'd be fine! Hahahahahaha."  <-- nervous laughter

At 5:15 pm, my co-worker (let's call her Neo) and I drove over to pick Mae up from the mall on our way out of town, stopping only long enough to grab some Venti coffees and energy drinks from the corner Starbucks. I was a little preoccupied with thoughts of Mae saying something really shocking in front of Neo that I wouldn't be able to live down at work (because let's face it, teenagers can always come up with something shocking, and Mae x3) while trying to respond appropriately to Neo's chatter during the first forty-five minutes.  I had developed a new respect for her ability to talk non-stop for those 45 minutes, with barely a pause to sip from her coffee, when she switched momentarily to her cell, releasing me from the polite bondage of corporate connectivity. My respect grew to a fearful awe when it passed the hour and fifteen minute+ mark.  I re-visited the wisdom of actually allowing her to consume energy drinks, and realized that living with the intensely introverted John had mutated me into something of an introvert myself, and if I was really going to be trapped into this car for another two hours, I just might...  at which point I was gratefully distracted by an incoming blizzard. 

It started out much like last night, but quickly went from bad to worse. I couldn't take any pictures because 1.) my cell phone was out of battery, and 2.) I was driving and legitimately afraid to take my hands off the steering wheel, and 3.) Mae's cell was on its laaaaaast itty bitty legs, thanks to her bout at the mall, and I had sternly warned her to keep it off so that when we ran off the road we could call 911, and 4.) Neo was busy wasting her cell battery freaking out to someone about how scary this all was so that when we finally ran off the road, we would only have Mae's itty bitty battery on which to call 911.  However, I have endeavored to steal the following photos as a representation, to attempt to describe the experience for you. Bear with me.

Imagine this:

Lonely road (called I5 north, sure, but it's lonely when you can't see anything on the sides!)

Only it's dark!:

Like this

And it's blizzarding like crazy, so you can barely see a thing, and have to drive 2 miles an hour in a straight line behind the car right in front of you, so you don't accidentally drive right off the road:

Like this, only dark! With driving snow!

Until the crazy truck-drivers who think they are God drive up around you, going a psycho 30-miles an hour and sometimes failing, and you curse and laugh at them. And eventually you realize that there is a huge mass of semis all around you, everywhere, taking over the road and going nowhere. And then you look in your rear view mirror, and watch this big Ford truck, right behind you, just start sliiiiiiiiiding... sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiding sideways, into another car.  And then you slam on the brakes because you were so fascinated with the slow slide of doom in your rear view mirror that you almost managed to run into the car in front of you, going 2 miles an hour. And you sliiiiiiiiiide just a bit, but at 2 miles an hour, you were one of the luckiest bastards on the road, and not only do you not hit the car in front of you, but you also manage to get moving again, which is a goddamn miracle.

Neo, of course, has not stopped talking yet. And she has something really freaked out, but tempered by inbred corporate politeness, to say about that near miss. I blocked it out.

After a short while, it looks like this, only many, many more semis, a lot darker, a little less snow on the road and a lot more snow coming down, faster than you can imagine:

Freaky, huh?!

Then all the coffee and energy drinks Mae just inhaled hit, and she interrupts Neo's monologue to beg me to pull over so she can pee. 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA (I say.) I am very, very sorry to say this, but if I pull over, if I stop, we will never get started again! We are going 2 miles an hour, and if I go 3 miles an hour we'll slide off the road, and if I go 1 mile an hour, I'll either be ruthlessly run over by the truck going 2 miles an hour behind us, or we'll stall, and never get moving again. We'll have to eat whoever dies first to survive until the end of this apocalypse. There are no exits for another hour, at this pace, and even if we were right next to one, I couldn't possibly drive this American-made, generic rental car with no snow chains down the ramp without, again, getting stuck! 

So I'll just piss in this bottle, then (she says.)

WHAM.  There it is, the first shocker. Sadly, she's dead serious so I can't even laugh it off like she's joking.  That's okay, I just have to work with Neo every day, no biggie. I sternly declare her dead if she pisses in the bottle.

Then I'll just roll down the window and pee. No one can see anything! I really have to peeeeeeee!!

oh
my
gawd

If my sister was sitting beside me, this would be funny. In fact, I would be rolling on the ground laughing. But it's not my sister.

Like, just, stick your ass out the window and pee?!!

Yes!

I sternly declare her dead if she touches the window control. More nervous laughter is called for. Ha Ha Ha, those teenagers, where do they get it? (Will she think Mae learned that from me, that I modeled sticking my ass out of a moving car, mooning the freeway and peeing out of a moving car?)

At this point, we've approached the two-hour mark on our supposedly three-hour trip home, and the GPS says we have two more hours ahead of us. At 2 miles an hour, I think it's lying, and even Neo is faltering between breaths.  I finally confess that, since Mae and my cell phones are basically dead, and considering that jack-knifing semi right in front of us, maybe she should conserve her cell phone battery, to save me the ignominy of having to eat her.  She looked horrified, but geez, it's not like I drove off merrily into a blizzard without a working cell phone on purpose.

A little bit like this, only with a LOT more snow,
and no side rails  >.<

Speaking of that jack-knifing semi, it was the most hair-raising moment of the evening.  It was right in front of us when it went into its slow-motion, cringe-inducing kink, twisting sideways across all four lanes of the freeway. The only way around that truck was edging off the road, into the morass of tall, pristine snow climbing higher as we watched. But if I didn't get us around that truck, we would be stuck there on the road all night. Literally, all night, because there was no help coming... stuck in the car, because it was a blizzard out there and too cold to get out... and who knew how long until we were rescued, since we'd already passed dozens of cars and semis run off the road... No. No matter what, I couldn't let that happen. I was a desparate woman. 

Without a pause, I aimed for the side of the freeway, into all that snow.  There were no tire tracks in which to safely follow, and it was not a quick, smooth or pretty trip. I barely scrapped passed the front bumper of the semi, and Neo squealed. Mae... well, it's hard to impress a teenager.

Anyway, I did it. I got us around the semi, blazing the way for all cars stuck behind me, and was now forging a new trail.  There with no other cars ahead of us. It was eerie, and freaky. I was not impressed, especially when another truck driver went flying past at 15 miles an hour, taking everyone's lives into their stupid hands! Craziness, I tell you.

It went on for a long time like that. I eventually made it up to 5, 10 and then finished out the blizzard at around 30 miles an hour.  It was a wild ride... a five hour, wild ride.  Mae finally got her bathroom, two hours after her threat to bare her ass to the snow faeries.  And by then, I too was deeply regretting my two energy drinks. 

Once in Seattle, it was clear except -- of course -- for rain.  At approximately 11 pm, we dropped Neo off at her car and Mae climbed into the front seat. When I looked over at her, her eyes got really wide, and her hand raised, flapping in the universal sign for talking. We both burst into laughter. Neo had managed to find something to talk about for 5 hours straight. It's a gift, and we had never seen the like. We were tired, and in shock.  Since I had to work again the next morning, I pointed my trusty little rental car toward home, with a sigh.

Mother-daughter bonding... everyone need not apply.

disturbing news about those wisconsin republicans, again

BoldProgressives.org:  Last night at 1am, Wisconsin Assembly Republicans held a vote for literally a few seconds in which they rammed through Gov. Walker's radical bill to cut worker benefits and rights. It was a stunning abuse of power.

Now, the only thing keeping this horrible bill from becoming law are state Senate Democrats -- who boldly left the state and are blocking the Senate from voting.

This Saturday in every state across the nation, there will be rallies in solidarity with these senators and Wisconsin workers.

Rally to Save the American Dream

In Wisconsin and around our country, the American Dream is under fierce attack. Instead of creating jobs, Republicans are giving tax breaks to corporations and the very rich—and then cutting funding for education, police, emergency response, and vital human services.

On Saturday, February 26, at noon local time, we are organizing rallies in front of every statehouse and in every major city to stand in solidarity with the people of Wisconsin. We demand an end to the attacks on worker's rights and public services across the country. We demand investment, to create decent jobs for the millions of people who desperately want to work. And we demand that the rich and powerful pay their fair share.

Saturday, 26 Feb 2011, 12:00 PM

South Sound Rally to Save the American Dream
Tivoli Fountain at the Capitol Campus
819 registered participant(s) (10000 maximum)
416 Sid Snyder Avenue SW
Olympia, WA 98504
Directions: We will meet at the Tivoli Fountain at the Capitol Campus. Please dress for the weather and be ready to show the country that Washington stands up for it's rights!

Hosted by Wade No'oy, Sandra VanderVen 

Description This is an event to show solidarity with the union members in Wisconsin as well as to show the importance of collective bargaining rights for all. Come stand with is as we demand an end to the attacks on workers' rights and public services across the country. Demand investment, to create decent jobs for the millions of people who desperately want to work. And demand that the rich and powerful pay their fair share.
 

Share this event on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=190730110949777

Click on this link to find a rally in your area.

better to light a candle...

It's a perfect day to hole up at home and work by candle-light. Watch the winds whip the trees around outside the window, and feel relief that you didn't try to wade out into that this morning. Listen to some Sinatra, and turn it up loud enough to drown out Family Guy in the background.







"Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."
Chinese proverb

stormy pacific northwest

This morning was epic gorgeous. I am not a lover of the cold weather, and dread every fall season I watch creeping up on me. But this morning I felt shockingly cheerful about the coming winter as I walked down the downtown Seattle sidewalk. It was raining yellow and orange maple leaves, all spiked and twirly, in great numbers. There was a stiff breeze, coming up behind me from the water, whipping my skirts about my legs. Since I was snug and cozy (in my thick tights, bloomers, skirt, coat, scarf & gloves and finally--most importantly--my big white fur hat that wraps all around my head and ears and ties under my chin), I felt the strength of the wind without the bite, that exhilarating "I'm lighter than air!" feeling without the usual "Grrrrr, and fucking freezing, too!" So I tripped lightly up the sidewalk, bundled tight and safe, and smiled like a dummy in the face of the advancing Hell that is winter.

I can't feel it swaying, here on the 19th floor, but I can hear the wind in the steady creaking of the ceiling tiles at my office, and in the stiff, subtle shuddering of the windows behind me. The waves behind the Pike Place Market are peaked and choppy. The clouds are racing across the sky, and are never the same color or shape the next time I look back.

I can't wait to go home and light a couple candles on my dinner table. Right before sitting down and diving back into work... :(

global warming makes ninjas of us all

This morning, I slunk down the street to the bus swaddled to the eyes against 17 degree crystal-clear hell. I took a note from my brother T. and executed a Ninja-Arctic-Suspension move, as pictured -->
You can't see me. I am not even here.

In fact, I looked just

like this, nah-ha.

I lived to tell the tale, despite the suspicious looks of bus-riders and building security. I have made it; I am in the building. The weather will determine whether I leave it again this evening or not.

What the hell is with weather in the teens in the Pacific Northwest? This is bullshit. Grr.

Speaking of ninjas and doing good and saving the world, (which we were, yes) check this out. Patrick Rothfuss, author of the wonderful world I like to visit called The Name of the Wind, is offering some really cool prizes to help raise some money for Heifer International. If you are unlike me and have anything to spare after the economy stopped treading on you, check out the amazing things you could win by helping him hit his goal.

And also speaking of ninjas, I am not one. A real ninja would not only have seen that truck coming (which I did), she would have successfully dodged it (which I did not). So I admit freely that I failed it; wanna-be ninj-ette, that's me. The result of which is apparently a spinal lumbar disc injury, which is "incurable", as well as a potential hip labral tear.

All kidding aside, stop reading here if you don't feel like reading protracted whining and complaining.

I thought I was disgruntled about the lumbar disk injury. I mean, the chiropractor says it's incurable, and the best I can hope for is that (with daily exercises and hanging-upside-down-in-strange-traction-thingies, pictured to the left) I will be 'asymptomatic'. But if I fail in doing these daily, time-consuming and vertigo-inducing exercises, then I will be 'symptomatic' and in great pain. By which I mean so much as a cough will send a spasm of significant pain through my lower back. I'm 32! And I walk and sit and sleep like I'm in my 50s or 60s.

But after reading up some on this hip labral tear, I'm upset in a whole new, I-see-needles-and-pain-and squick-in-my-future kinda way. I've been dealing with this worsening pain in my groin area that kept me from rotating my right leg outward or inward. As this article states:

Typical symptoms of a hip labral tear include:

• Groin pain
• Clicking and snapping sensations in the hip
• Limited motion of the hip joint

I got all those, baby. Sprawling in bed is impossible for me--I have to lay very carefully with my legs stretched straight, because though I can lift my leg straight up all I want, the second I let my foot flop outward or inward, or shift as though I'm going to turn right, or try to cross my right leg over my left? yeeee-OUCH! (There's that clicking and snapping sensation.) Trying to tickle my son is increasingly out of the question. So is shifting every day to get out of the bus seat, crossing my legs in a business meeting, leaning down to fetch something from under my desk and last but not least, sleeping. I cannot even search subconsciously for a comfortable position without being jerked awake from a jolt of pain. And the worst part? I've been mentioning this to my chiropractors for months, and they only started taking me seriously about 3 weeks ago... 5 and a half after the accident. And only then because I threatened to go to my regular doctor because I was in so much pain.

But enough of whining. I've reached my tolerance quota for the day. I need distraction.

weekend stroll around the house

Celebrating my 50th post on this blog with the results of a weekend stroll around my house at sunset.

The pinecones are glistening with sap

The beginning of sunset reflected in the garage door window
Roses and rose hips
Brassy glads

Modern day sunset with power lines despoiling the view

I am continually surprised by how much I've come to love living on the Sound, in the short time I've been here. This is something you'll never catch me saying during the 9 months of winter per year. But for 3 months--here I am, loving it.

summertime

It's summer... summer, summer, summer. You won't see much of me during this time of year--I prefer to be out and about in the sun, while I can. My physician diagnosed me as deficient in vitamin D, which is--ha!--a fact of life for pretty much every person in the Pacific Northwest. We simply don't get enough sun. So when we do, I love it.

I am apparently alone in my sun-worship.

Bento box + bonus fan service
We had weather a couple weeks ago ranging between the 80's - 90's, topping off a day or two at 100+ degrees. Stuck in a bus full of people who consider the 80's too hot, without any air-conditioning, and it's too much. Granted. :) But overall, I've loved it.

I keep including pictures of my bento boxes, packed in the morning for me by my husband, because they're pretty, it amuses me and I like to brag about how he spoils me. Because he's good at that. :) But more than his cooking and compulsive nurturing, I love his mind. You can find his insightful political posts here, under "John Lindsey."

As for Obama's "Bold Action" (as pictured above), I have to go on record with my disappointment in the lack thereof just now. The White House's waffling on the subject of a public option is terribly disheartening. Without a viable public option, this is not any kind of "Health care Reform", it's just a waste of every one's time, money and general indignation. Health care is a right, not a privilege. I thought I was done being embarrassed to be an American when Obama was elected, but it's aaaallll coming back to me now.

Can we do something right, something for the people, with this democracy? Just look at the polls. People want health care reform, they want health care, period! Why does the democracy apply only to companies-registered-as-people, and not the people-who-are-people? Where did we go wrong? Because this is wrong. Democracy is fueled by what what the people want, and the people want health care reform, not to protect the insurance company's bankroll. Democracy that actually provides the people with what they're asking for is being incorrectly-and-intentionally mislabeled as socialism by people who don't have your best interests at heart, and they're getting away with it.

How? Why?

shameless fangirl gushing

Yesterday I went to the local summer music/art street festival with my friend Mary. The festival itself was a fairly standard street fair--nothing has eclipsed the Sunset Strip Music festival in my experience yet. However, I got the most delicious shock while wandering the stalls.

We found the stall of one of my absolute favorite artists ever, Jenna Colby, whom Mary and I had been huge fans of since we saw her stuff debut in The Hive art gallery in Los Angeles, about 3 years ago. And she just happened to be there, at the festival--in person. I was so pleased to meet Jenna. I bought the pieces pictured here, and we chatted about some stuff I will post separately--because I don't want to eclipse here how awesome it was to meet Jenna in person. ;)

I already had a couple of her other pieces, purchased in LA and then through an artist collective here where I live in the Pacific Northwest. Am I the only one who finds it ironic that I discovered her stuff during the three years that I lived in Los Angeles, rather than before (or after) when I lived in the same place as she?

I love the atmosphere of her art. Visit her website--poke around, it's fun! She had a very eclectic variety of media, including sculptures and vases.

Some pictures from a walk I took with my son