Change Things

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I just read Eli’s most recent post, and for someone who generally prefers short posts, he’s got a lot to say. I know I should be working on my essay, but I’m feeling the need to respond.

In his posting, he comments that he feels like he’s no longer in control of his life, that his life has turned itself on its ear through no action of his own. This hit me like a sack of potatos (not quite as heavy or hard as bricks, but heaven forfend if any of the potatos are rotten). I know the feeling, and am nervous as hell about all the changes that are happening. I’m moving across the country to a city where I don’t ACTUALLY know anybody (merely through association), with neither Mickey nor I having even one job lined up, into an area that’s been economically depressed since the tech boom went bust. (This has had a negative effect on the theater scene as well. Who did you THINK helped fund all those theaters?) I’ve been drifting apart from a lot of my friends, through no desire to do so of my own. It’s just the way it’s been.
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Seattle, Explained

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We’ve been getting a lot of questions lately from people who are wondering “Why Seattle?” Which is also sometimes followed up by “Why not <some other place>?”

Well, a few reasons, really. The big one is that both Mickey and I like the Seattle area. Then comes the issue of work: Mickey is a scenic artist, and as such needs a city that actually has regular professional theatrical work. I’m a student at a school that is off campus for all but two weeks out of the year, so I can live anywhere. I’m also looking for an internship with a game company (or possibly even a real job, though I’m not thinking my qualifications are there yet), and there is certainly a large quantity of that in the Seattle area.

Then there is the geography issue: Mickey grew up just outside of Chicago, and has done the city thing for her whole life (with the exception of these past two months in Vermont). She wants the accessibility and activities that cities provide. I, on the other hand, want nothing to do with most cities. I find them stressful, rushed, and irritating to a point that FAR outweighs the activities that reside therein. That said, the relaxed mood of Seattle and relatively happy coexistence with nature that exists there leaves me with a happy medium.

So to sum up, it’s a matter of work, combined with shared personal preference. Seattle really is the ultimate compromise location by the criteria I listed.

I hope this answers any questions any of you might have.

Sorry for the sporadic posting lately, as you can understand, things have been pretty busy.

I’m posting because I CAN

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Some days, you don’t really want to talk, or write, or communicate in any way. This would be one of those days. I’m a little bitter about how my involvement in certain things turned out, and feel a little daunted about the next year or two, wondering how and where I fit into things anymore.

Mickey is currently picking apart my essay to date, her editorial nature getting the better of her. It’s helpful, and I do appreciate it, I’m just not up for getting my picks nitted right now.

I listed a computer on eBay today, first time I’ve ever listed something. I hope it sells, as we could use the money.

We did much running around today, and frankly I’m bushed. Time to hit the sack.. hopefully tomorrow I’ll finish chapter two of the essay.

Rain Down On Me

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I really ought to just merge “musings” and “general” since they do tend to overlap so much. Before I get to rambling about the rain and such, a few things.

Shortly after finishing my first chapter last night, I spent many hours futzing with my website. It all started out fairly simple: change my archive lists into pulldowns. That way I don’t have to worry about space as much, and I can open up methods of navigation more. I’ve implemented this on the gallery and my written section.

Never one to leave things well enough alone, it occured to me that by using the pulldown technique, I could finally add navigation to my image gallery. Not to be satisfied with just a quick pulldown of “Home”, “Return to Gallery”, and possibly a “next image” and “previous image”, I opted to list all images in a given category in the category section, and all images in a given month in the individual section. After posting on the MT Forum for help, I finally got it working.

Of course now, I’m beginning to think that I should rethink the whole damn thing. Keep the pulldowns, yes, but change what is in them… again. Meh, maybe after I finish this next chapter (it’s a doozy).
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If You’ve Been Waiting…

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If you’ve been waiting for me to post more images in my gallery, sorry for the delay. I have a very large writing project I’m in the middle of, and simply don’t have the time right now to post more. Hopefully I’ll post another smattering before I pack everything up and move across the country.

In the meantime, a fellow forumer has a gallery up at his website that is well worth the time to go visit.

Okay, back to the essay! (Yes, it WILL be in the written section of the website once I’m done.)

On Seattle

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Okay, everyone else has finally left, so I’m going to write a quick entry before heading home myself.

I’m back in the Upper Valley after being in Seattle for a week. Seattle was great, full of interesting things, and the weather couldn’t have been better (this all ties into the “visitor curse:” When visiting Seattle, the weather is idyllic and beautiful. When you actually move there, it becomes cold and rainy all the time). As I’ve commented already, we were out apartment hunting, and have managed to find a pretty decent place out in Bellevue, right near access to both I-405 and 520, giving us two of the major arteries for the city. We are still in the screening process for the apartment, but we’re sure that it’ll be fine: despite my being a full time student and Mickey being a freelancer, we do have a pretty rock solid application. The real question will be whether we qualify for the two bedroom or the three bedroom (we’re hoping for the three, so we can have separate offices instead of sharing one).

I was pretty happy to be going home, but I don’t really feel “home” yet. I think it is partially because my mind is already starting to make the connection that we’re moving elsewhere, but it is still pretty strange. I mean, Vermont has ALWAYS been home. To a certain extent it always will be. It just feels a bit more foreign at the moment, while at the same time very familiar.
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Bento Box

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First, an expansion of my response to Eli on his blog: my trips to Hanover most evenings really IS an institution to me. I’ve been doing it since the fall of my Junior year in High School, with brief interludes of not cropping up as I travelled or moved. Even when I was living in Burlington, I would come down relatively often to hang out. There is something I crave that is (at least somewhat) satisfied by the experience, and I’m not sure what it is. I could say social interaction, but I do enjoy myself even when alone (though not as much). I think it might be better defined by the term “social experience”. Social interaction absorbed through osmosis by merely being out in the middle of things.

Why social experience, instead of social observation? Social observation is too abstracted a term, too much like removing yourself from the environment and viewing from the outside, which is not the case. You DO have an effect on the environment, on who sits where, who talks to whom, the mood and types of interaction occuring. Passive participation, which is different than observation. Whether you like it or not, no man is an island, and pretending you are is foolish.

I’m just rambling, though. Ultimately, I enjoy hanging out in Hanover, I enjoy hanging out with my friends in Hanover, I find that it is important to me. Thinking about all this has left me with a realization: Seattle feels like one long Hanover hangout session. We’ve wandered all over the region (more on that below), and the feeling remains the same: the same feeling I gain from hanging out in Hanover.
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Eating Cookies in Seattle

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Okay, so I’m currently in Seattle, eating some tasty chewy cookies, in our friend Arik’s house. He’s got this really amazing place (the image above is from his rooftop deck, looking out over downtown and the sound. [Larger Image]), but we can’t really afford a place like this… As much as it would be nice.

Maybe later.

The past few days have been delightful fun, wandering around Seattle and mysteriously innately understanding the general lay of the land (useful, since I’ve been playing the role of navigator). I think it comes down to the fact that I wandered around the area kind of willy-nilly when I was last here two years ago, and a lot of it stuck with me.
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Weeklong Absence

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Some general site updates:
1. The individual entry archives for the image gallery now has a “First” and “Last” (ie, most recent) link in the navigation menu, allowing you to go to the first image uploaded and browse forward if that suits you (requested by my wife).
2. I’ll be uploading my last five prepared images shortly. My next “project” will be redacting this winter’s trip to Hawaii, and getting some images up from that.
3. I’m taking a semi-vacation this coming week. I’ll be in Seattle looking at apartments, and I’m not sure what sort of connectivity I’ll have, so no new posts from me for a whole week! (Well, unless it turns out I have reams of wireless access everywhere I go, and free time to post.)

Hope both of my readers have a great week!

Frazzle

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Today has been “one of those days,” starting bright and early at 3:30 in the morning. The smoke alarm went off, you see. But just once, just long enough to wake us up and startle the hell out of us. We got up and wandered the apartment, checking each smoke alarm, checking each room, even checked outside the door to see (and smell) if anything was amiss. Nothing. Just random alarms going off. (Batteries checked out fine, by the way.)

Woke up late, stumbled out and signed all sorts of papers that Mickey put in front of me, all concerning moving stuff, I am assured by her. I read my mail, read my fourms, and then tried to figure out whether or not I hallucinated an email that I thought I’d received the day before when I’d checked my mail at my parents’ house, but now apparently was nowhere to be found, nor even registering in the email logs as ever existing. I am, to say the least, disconcerted.

This all left me very scattered, as we drove north to mail and fax what we needed to mail and fax (on the bright side, we are now fully committed to the move and have lined up movers fully, contracts signed and all). We finally ate some food around 5 over at Ramunto’s, and then came over to Collis, where we have sat since, reading and chatting with Eli, Megan, and Megan’s friend Ernie (whom is in from Iowa).
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