Tag Archives: seattle

Snappy Dragon

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Second post of the night, I know. I’m waiting for an immortal meeting to start, so I thought I’d write up my thoughts on dinner. I’d heard good things about the Snappy Dragon, a small chinese restaurant just up the hill from my apartment. It’s small, in what looks and feels like a converted house, which makes for a nice, cozy ambiance. Staff was young and pleasant, and I was seated pretty quickly (the benefit of eating early and alone… by the time I left, there was a pretty respectable line). The menu was respectable in length and reasonably descriptive in what each dish contained. I was initially a little disappointed to see a relatively small vegetarian list (while I’m not vegetarian, several friends are, so I’ve taken to keeping an eye out for places that would be reasonable to take them), until I noticed at the top of that section: “Please ask a server for our complete vegetarian menu.” Hah!

Since it was my first time at the restaurant, I figured I’d try one of the dishes that you find everywhere, so I’d have a basis for comparison. I opted for Moo Goo Gai Pan, and a cup of wonton soup. The soup first: it’s pretty normal to run into relatively bland wonton soup, with a soggy wonton in an inconsequential broth. This wonton soup was markedly better than that. While it still remained only wontons in broth, the wontons tasted pretty fresh, and the broth was a hearty and flavorful, based on either a pork or beef stock, and the whole thing was rounded out with a pinch of fresh scallions on top.

The Moo Goo Gai Pan came out and was a respectable portion. Their particular incarnation of this standard is comprised of chicken, snow peas, and three different types of mushrooms in a light sauce. I found the chicken to taste a little dry, but not unreasonably so, and the rest of the dish was excellent: none of the flavors were particularly overpowering, and the sauce served to augment, rather than replace the flavors of the mushrooms and snow peas.

The total meal was very reasonably priced for dinner prices, and I got out of there for $16 after a very respectable tip. I definitely plan on heading back there (especially since it’s so near my house!), and already have an eye on a chef’s special that I want to try: the asparagus in black bean sauce with chicken.

Beware the Posts of March

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We’re not at the Ides yet, but it seemed appropriate. Things march forward in life, in generally pleasant ways. I’ve been puttering around getting various tasks done, and in general really wishing I had, say, furniture in my apartment. I’ve been sleeping on a camp mat and using my camp chair to sit in, but it makes it hard to get some computer projects I’d like to do done. Considering it’ll be another week until my things start to arrive (things are being shipped shortly, and the storage unit gets delivered on the 13th)… hrm, I may need to find a solution. As it stands, I spend most of my days in coffee shops, slurping chai and making eyes at the baristas (always more delightful when they make eyes back…). I had dinner with Mickey last night, which was really nice, and hopefully we won’t let quite as much time slip between get togethers now that I’m local again. Honestly, the only major concerns I have right now is job hunting and a strange noise my car has started making. I’m keeping an eye on it, and actually swung down to the service center this morning to make sure (in classic fashion, it wouldn’t make the noise while the mechanic was there). He suspected a loose belt, which makes sense, but it’s not immediately pressing, so it should be able to safely wait until I get my car serviced again. Still, frustrating, and I worry for my poor car. She has 130,000 miles in her already, and I really hope to double that.

As some of you know, Ayyam-i-ha just passed, and my parents were great and sent me some gift cards to help me out with this move. I picked up some frivolity via Amazon (some portable games and preordered Twin Peaks Season 2), and replenished my wardrobe at JC Penney. I’m pretty happy with what I managed to pick out (nothing out of the ordinary, just some nice slacks and button-down shirts suitable for a potential office environment). I do still need to do something about my shoes (my current Keens are beginning to disintegrate), but I think I may be able to just recover a prior pair of shoes by doing something about the insoles. You know me… shopping maven… if by maven you mean decides what he wants, goes in, finds what he wants, buys it, leaves. (Except bookstores… I can spend freakin’ hours in them.)

It’s hard to imagine that it’s already March. Here’s to the coming spring!

Tuesday Drips By

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As a follow up to last post, I did indeed procure and install a shower head and pillow (well, the pillow doesn’t really need installing per se, but the gist I think is made). Life is better, though I’m still looking forward to something more resembling a bed. I’ve gotten a few other errands out of the way, and my Scrivener review is now up, if you care to read it.

Today I woke up to a bright, blue sky, which is always fantastic. Spent the morning reading and puttering around the apartment waiting to meet with my landlady and for a package from my parents to arrive (got it, and it’s all very much appreciated! Happy Ayyam-i-ha!). The meeting with the landlady went well, so now I’m officially the leaseholder and I’ve paid my rent and all that. I’ve got to say, it’s really nice renting from someone who is willing to work with their tenants: I was able to move in on a relatively small deposit and without the lease officially signed, and all a week before the apartment was originally supposed to come due. Big, hearty thumbs up on that. We also briefly discussed my doing some computer related work for her other business, and she asked me to give her a rate to set up a VPN. I’ll need to think on that and get back to her: not too worried about setting up the VPN (she has pretty minimal needs, we’re not talking some enterprise level solution here), just trying to think of what to charge — I could certainly use the money.

When I was down in Portland, I swung by Powell’s, and ended up picking up Harry G. Frankfurt’s On Bullshit and On Truth, both of which are delightful short reads (I started and finished On Truth this morning waiting for my appointment). Definitely some interesting things to think on, and I’ve already started taking some notes (via Scrivener!) for an essay I’ve been thinking about writing.

I’m currently in Zoka, downing a pot of Jasmine while waiting for for their wireless connection issues to sort themselves out (system crashed and had to be rebooted, and now appears to be flaking out again… unfortunate). I’ve been here most of the afternoon, wrapping up a project for AvatarMUD and mailing it out to the rest of the staff. While I think I did some good work with it and that it would on the whole benefit the game, I’m not exactly holding my breath on seeing it actually implemented. Perhaps I’m getting cynical in my near-decade on the MUD, but seems like big changes tend not to go through unless they’re championed by someone in a position to implement the change themselves… which this isn’t. Sorry I can’t be more specific about what I’m talking about. It’s good to have it out of the way, at least. I’ve been working on it since August.

The weather has progressively become wetter as the day has marched on, with it currently wavering between drizzling rain and simply looking sullenly damp. I’m fine with this. I kind of like the semi-rain Seattle tends to get. It evokes a partcular mood that is a little hard to describe: the closest I can come to a short definition would be “indie aloofness”, only without the smug pretentiousness. You’re walking around or driving around and there’s a good groove going on the radio or on your iPod and you’re feeling good about the solitude. It is all good.

Insomnia

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I’m sure it’s exacerbated by the fact that I’m sleeping on the floor with a sleeping pad, but I’ve had little to no sleep the past two nights. Last night I got roughly 20 minutes of sleep… I say roughly because I remember checking my watch and seeing that it was 6am, and then actually waking up at 6:30 when my alarm went off (had a job interview at 8… I’m hoping it went well, but I’m not sitting around waiting for it, either). The rest of the night I can remember in excruciating detail. Got up, went to my interview, then went over to Zoka to leech bandwidth and get some juice and a chai. Their network is a little overly locked down, in my opinion: most of the ports are locked down, which means that I can’t check my email securely, or even log into Avatar (found a nice little workaround for that… the standard ssh port IS open, so I ssh into the host and then telnet remotely from there). Interestingly, even the Gtalk port is locked down, though none of the other IM services appear to be.

Something I meant to sent to Lichen last week but forgot: are you aware of the library and literacy initiative in Portland, OR? It was remarkably refreshing to see billboards promoting reading nights not only at the local libraries, but at cafe’s, sponsored by libraries. I think that’s a fantastic marriage. Coffee and books have already been wedded together for years thanks to the prevalence of cafes in every Barnes and Noble and Borders (to name a few), so why not leverage that link for libraries as well?

Today, I think I need to buy a shower head and a pillow… I gave the shower head that’s in there a fair shot, but a) it sprays everywhere, b) it’s too low (I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have to practice yoga to wash my hair), and c) the water pressure out of specific parts of the nozzle could cut diamonds. The desire for a pillow I imagine should go without saying.

Updating in the Rain

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Just updating in the rain… (apologies to Gene Kelly)

I’m currently in the Apple Store in University Village, making use of the wireless to find some information I need, since I don’t have an internet connection at the apartment yet (nor furniture, though I did make a trip to a Fred Meyer for basics like a trash can and shower curtain). There are 9 wireless networks in range of my apartment, 8 of which are WEP or WPA encrypted, and the 9th appears to be a honeypot. Interestingly, the networks are all piled on top of each other, either on 6, 9, or 11… but none on channels 1-5, which means I’ve got plenty of room for my own network when I get connectivity.

The mall is something of a yuppie-land, full of upscale mall-stores and plenty of well dressed but still vapid-looking people walking around, but there are worse things, I suppose. I may end up working here (interview tomorrow morning), we’ll see how it goes (my biggest concern is that I’ll just be signing my checks over to the store… you know how I am about geekery, and employee discounts are hard to pass up). It’d be an easy commute (straight down 20 to 65, 65 to 25, turn into mall… 10 minutes in traffic, tops. Same route will also take me to the 520 bridge without having to get on the interstate), and assuming it has some basic benefits like healthcare, should pay enough to live on.

Having no connectivity at home has made me realize just how much I rely on an internet connection. It’s my primary mode of communication (email, im, audio/video chat, blogging), it’s my encyclopedia whenever I have a random question, it’s how I find stores and restaurants in a new neighborhood, how I find phone numbers of same, how I check my bank and credit card balances, the games I play are primarily online, the articles and news I read are all via websites. Just… well, damn. I know I’d adjust if the internet suddenly went away, but it really is pretty remarkable how “wired” you can end up without realizing it.

I downloaded a new application the other day to try out… it shows a lot of promise, but I just haven’t had much of a chance to play with it yet. It’s a WRITING app called Scrivener, and has been developed by a writer, with the quirks of writing in mind. Plenty of note taking and organizing capabilities, collecting snippets of story and anything else… so, it’s not necessarily meant to replace the ubiquitousness of, say, Yojimbo, or DevonTHINK, but does have a lot of a similar functionality for given projects. Anyway, I’m going to play with it and write up a full review for my Applegeeks column, and probably link to it here.

No Werewolves, but…

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To quickly sum up the past few days, the fruits of my apartment hunting turned out to be rotten (they decided they wanted a cosigner, which isn’t acceptable to me on a number of levels… I’m sorry, but I have issues with arbitrarily attaching someone else’s livelihood to my own to get an apartment. You’re not renting to them, you’re renting to me, so either yay or nay based on MY qualifications, or I don’t want to do business with you). I’m getting my deposit mailed back to me, and I spent Tuesday night and Wednesday morning doing more apartment hunting. I found a place in northern Ravenna that looks very promising, and checked it out yesterday, liked it, and have put down a deposit (again). The tentative move-in date is March 1st, but they’re going to talk to the current tenant (who is already moved out barring his bed frame, and needs to still clean) about getting me in sooner than later. I like the fact that they’re trying to accommodate my needs, and the fact that as long as I can pay the rent and my rental references and credit check are good, they don’t mind that I’m not currently employed. I should hear back from them sometime soonish with a concrete on when I can actually move in. The bright side is that this is actually a better laid out, larger space than the previous place, with better light and hardwood floors. Smaller kitchen, but it’s still workable. The theory discussed when I toured the apartment was that I could potentially move in as soon as next week, which would be good — I like traveling more than most, but this hotel-hopping holding pattern is starting to wear on me.

I’m back in Portland while I wait, because it really is significantly cheaper (if the current apartment hunting had fallen through, I may have ended up moving to Portland instead… comparing via Craigslist, what gets you a small studio in Seattle will get you a 2br flat or townhouse in Portland). I’m currently down at The Fresh Pot again, again drinking delightful Pixie chai, after eating a fantastic lunch at The Cup and Saucer just down the street. (Start with good coffee, then a side salad with buttermilk ranch, then a cup of zucchini and rice soup, followed by a spiral pasta with creamy pesto sauce, tomatoes, spinach, and mushrooms… did I mention that pretty much everywhere I’ve eaten in Portland has a ton of vegetarian and vegan options, but without forcing it down your throat?) All in all, life is pretty damned good, I’d say.

Last night back in Seattle, I found a theater that was playing Pan’s Labyrinth, and made a point to go see it. What a remarkable film. I really enjoyed it, on all levels. I found myself thoroughly engaged from the beginning, and felt that the story was strong, the acting was excellent, and the visuals stunning. I would happily go see it again, and look forward to owning it on DVD. I can’t encourage others enough to go see it while they can. (It is unfortunately a limited release, so some of you might have trouble finding it near you.) Fair warning: it’s dark, both visually and in nature. It’s also subtitled from Spanish. On a personal note, the actress who plays Ofelia (the main character) reminds me very much of Jamie Staudt from the last time I saw her, which was when I was 12 (crikey…). I’ve got something of a quirky memory like that.

Returning again to the topic of The Fresh Pot… the guy behind the bar is apparently one of the co-owners… and is selling his half of the coffeeshop to go traveling with his daughter. I just wanted to say kudos and congrats to them, I hope they have a really fantastic good time. We chatted a bit about travel and how invaluable it is. I think it’s really wonderful that he’s taking this opportunity to instill a love of travel in his daughter while she’s still young.

This is no longer a placeholder

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[Original Post:I’m in Missoula, Montana, and it’s 3:30am. Will turn this into a real post when I wake up! 02/04/2007]

Hah, sorry it took so long for me to get back to this. The past week has been a little scattered, and other than apartment hunting, I’ve been pretty useless. Plenty of things to talk about, too. To briefly catch up on the last legs of my trip, wandering through South Dakota and Wyoming and into Montana proved to be an interesting journey because of the snow I hit in Wyoming: there were so few cars that there was more than one occasion in that 200 mile stretch of I-90 that I wondered if the road had been closed I’d somehow missed the gates. The roads themselves weren’t too bad, but rivers of snow flowed across the road like floodwaters, egged on by high winds from across the plains. The sun was setting during the snowstorm, an orange orb illuminating the snow as it fell, and I thought about stopping to take a photograph as it created a silhouette of a tree on a hilltop. I thought about it, and then let the urge pass. Not only was it unsafe to stop, but I decided that the moment was for me to experience, not to capture… sometimes knowing when not to pick up the camera is as important as knowing when you should.

The snow cleared up by Billings, which made for pretty clear sailing through most of Montana, before finally stopping in Missoula, where it promptly started snowing again. I was grateful for the snow-reprieve, and the full moon I was driving under made the Montana leg something special. I’ll admit it, I howled at the moon, but under the circumstances, it seemed the appropriate thing to do.

Missoula to Seattle was largely uneventful, but by the end of it I was starting to feel a little road-weary, exacerbated by going from the empty roads of the midwest to the traffic of Seattle in such a short time. I ended up grabbing a hotel for probably more than I should have spent (but decidedly not as bad as I could have), simply because it was there and had a gated parking garage (please bear in mind that my car is FULL of stuff I brought with me, so this IS a consideration). I got myself situated, and spent the next few days apartment hunting, using a combination of Craigslist and driving around and stopping anywhere that had a “for rent” or “apartments for lease” sign in front of it. Two things I gleaned from this experience: 1) just because a place has office hours, doesn’t mean anyone is actually there during that time, let alone answering phones or emails; 2) I really missed KEXP (the local radio station I listen to) — where else can you find commercial free radio that plays bands like Vetiver, Of Montreal, and The Bastard Fairies (to name only a very very few). KEXP definitely made the driving around the city a lot more enjoyable.

The trip was roughly 3400 miles and 690 songs, White River Junction to Seattle, by way of Washington DC. I can dig out specific mileage if people are really curious, but yeah, that’s the gist. None too shabby, I’d say!

Now then, Seattle: it’s good to be back. The traffic still sucks, it’s doing that grey and misting thing it does during the winter, and I don’t really know anyone, but it’s still good to be back. I can deal with grey, especially when it’s 50-55 degrees vs the 10 degrees it is back in Vermont. I can deal with the traffic, because at least they’re generally polite (it’s just a lot of them). And as for getting to know new people… well, we’ll see what I do about that. I’m a bit of an introvert (as has been discussed before, strongly typed INFP, with the I being the weakest typing), so it’s going to take a little concerted effort to step up to the plate with this, but I have some good ideas about that, and the apartment complex I’m theoretically moving into is apparently full of people my age, so hopefully that’ll help with making inroads.

Speaking of theoretical apartments: I’m saying theoretical because I’m waiting for the background/credit check to clear, but considering my credit and background are both good, it should be fine. Since I’m not currently employed, I’ll probably need to pay first AND last month’s rent AND the security deposit, rather than just security and first month, but that’s fine. I’ve put down the security deposit, and theoretically should be able to move in as soon as Wednesday. While I’m waiting, I opted to head south to Portland, where hotels are MARKEDLY cheaper. I spent most of today holed up in my room doing very little that could be considered useful, but it was nice to just chill for a bit. Finally left the room around 7pm local and wandered downtown… ate at The Roxy, and then swung through Powell’s… which as ever was a mistake. Shelves that go up and up and up… piles and piles of books, one of the best sci-fi selections I’ve ever seen… I was good though, and only picked up a few things… the complete scripts for Monty Python’s Flying Circus (it was $6!), On Bullshit and On Truth, and a photo-theory book by Berger that looked appealing. I opted NOT to buy several volumes of collected Heinlein short stories, nor the illuminated Notebooks of Lazarus Long, nor a copy of Watership Down, nor Four Screenplays by William Goldman (Marathon Man, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Princess Bride, and Misery collected in one volume), nor the David Lynch book on creation and meditation. I saw several books that I know several people would have loved to own that I thought about buying as gifts (like, say, the screenplay for Wilde including an introduction by Stephen Fry, or the Art of Walt Disney compendium), but given current circumstances, I opted not to get those, either. That basically brings us up to date.

Seattle, Montpelier, and Me

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I’m in Seattle again, this time having flown out to help Uri pack and to collect some things out of my storage unit. Every time I come out here I’m reminded why I moved out here in the first place, how appealing the feel of the place is to me. I still hate the traffic, though. Uri has shared a similar sentiment, yet he’s also moving out of Seattle… he and I are renting a house in Montpelier, Vermont, with our friends Andy and Kate. In fact, we officially moved in about a week ago.

This might seem rather abrupt to some of you… that’s because it IS abrupt. Uri has spent the past month living in Brooklyn with Andy, and while there, the idea of moving to Montpelier just sort of got tossed into the air. They looked into it briefly, and managed to find an awesome old house just off Vermont College campus, and so they decided to go for it. I found out about all this when they happened to swing through town on their way up to check it out, and ended up volunteering to go in on it, which made it financially more feasible for everyone (splitting the rent four ways is much better than splitting it in thirds). The whole thing just sort of happened all in the course of about a week and a half.

While naturally I’m a little nervous about it all, and was enjoying the free rent at my parents’ house, I think this will prove to be a beneficial move. I’ll be splitting my time (most of my time in Montpelier, a few days at my parents, playing with the dog and such — Freya is staying with them, more room to play, more stable routine), which I think will help me organize my time for my upcoming (final!) semester. Also, I’ll have broadband in Montpelier, and will be setting up my game systems, which should prove useful given the topic of my semester (game design).

I’m getting back from Seattle on Tuesday morning, and then will be heading down to UberCon VI the following weekend. I was really waffling about going or not, as I think it might be nice to catch up with some of the folks down there, and can just go to enjoy myself since I’m not attending as staff. Any help I end up offering will be entirely at my choosing (which, knowing me, will be quite a bit… that’s not the point, though), so I think it’ll be a lot more fun. The final deciding factor was that my friend Tiffany was interested in attending as well, so this gives me that last bit of an excuse. I’ve only told one or two people that I’m attending, and I don’t think any of the usual UCers read my blog with any regularity, so I’m hoping to surprise them.

I’m hoping to get back into the groove on blogging regularly, but I’m not going to hold my breath… if it happens, awesome. I think it would be good for me, though. Once I get the computers and broadband hooked up at the house, I think that process will be a bit easier. Time will tell.

Back and Forth

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I’m currently in Seattle, and will be for the next few days; the court date for the divorce is Monday at 1:30pm. This is a pretty stressful time, and I’m trying to keep things low key. I’m sitting at Caffe Coccinella, drinking white velvets (it’s a white chocolate mocha latte), and in theory will be having dinner with Mickey this evening. I’m planning to head down to Portland tomorrow to hang out with Dano, and then seeing Mickey again on Sunday. Monday, we deal with the last few things we needed to deal with, and then have the court date (my car is also getting serviced, but we can drop it off anytime, and collect it after the divorce, since we’ll be down in that area anyway). Monday night is anyone’s guess, and then Tuesday I head back east.

God, I wish this was over…

The Time for Pain has Passed; Now it is Time for Healing

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Sitting around at the coffee shop in Bellevue, killing time until I need to go to the airport. The sun is out, it’s 65 degrees, a light breeze is keeping the air fresh, and the leaves on the tree outside are wafting in the wind in a general state of being alive. All in all, not a bad final day in Seattle. It was weird this morning, leaving my keys to the house and Mickey’s car on the kitchen table, and realizing — REALLY realizing — that this was most probably the last time I would be in that house. Our house, the house we bought, the house we owned, the house we lived in. I am a sentimentalist, and perhaps that is why leaving has made such an impact. In either case, it’s left a definite weird vibe this morning.

I was thinking about it all on the drive up to town to drop off the rental car. That’s where the title of this post came from. Whether or not others feel I’ve let all the angst and anguish out, I feel like it’s done, and continuing that path would simply lead to [self]destruction. The time for pain has passed; now it is time for healing. It is time to embrace my feelings, to embrace my memories — the good and the bad, and appreciate each and every moment I can for what it is: an experience unutterably unique and inextricably linked to all other moments in my, or anyone’s life.

I’ve been trying to understand the world around me, and how I fit into it, what my role in the Grand Scheme of Things™ is. I still don’t know. I know that I do not wish to be a cog. I do not want the 9 to 5 life. I don’t want the fucking suburbs. I know that if I’m going to get what I want, I need to get out of my own damn way. I have carried myself as far as introspection can go, and now it’s time to burst out of my shell and take the steps that I have been afraid to make. It is time to truly grok myself.