I have a really good feeling about Seattle and it's getting better by the moment. I went on a shopping spree at IKEA today and bought a bunch of furniture and stuff we'll need at the new apartment till our shipping container arrives from Denmark. I love IKEA. Cecilie sent me a shopping list and the staff at the Renton store was able to translate that into an itemized pick list for the US equivalents.
So now I'm at the new apartment going through the assembly process, listening to some good mixes, hopped up on energy drinks. Whatever they put in that Red Bull, I like it a lot.
I'm having the greatest time! I love driving around in my new little car, and I think this apartment has a lot of promise, once I get everything put together and hooked up. There's a certain angle in the living room where you get an awesome view of the downtown skyscrapers (though not as good as the temp housing they've had me at). I'll put the sofa at that angle so we can see it while watching telly.
The moon is low and swollen over the Seattle skyline right now, buildings lit up like a distant dream. That sight puts a feeling in my chest I cannot describe in words. God it's good to live in a city again.
And I love this neighborhood - I was at IKEA all day and forgot that I hadn't eaten anything, so by the time I got back to Seattle around 6pm I was fading out with hunger. Turns out there's a burrito place downstairs, maybe a five meter walk from my front door.
Mmmmm, good blazing veggie burrito, radiating in the infrared from all the hot sauce I asked them to put in. This is a proper burrito - the thing's the size of my head, more than a brother can eat (which is as it should be). Reminds me of my local burrito joint in San Francisco. The comically mispelled menus ("Chicken Beast") and the homeless guy that always sat out front. I used to give him a buck or sometimes I'd get a nice carne asada burrito for him. I figured he needed the protein.
But a lot about this town reminds me of San Francisco, and therein lies the rub.
This is also killing me a little bit because after what happened in San Francisco, whenever I sense things starting to go really well, I get hit with this overwhelming instinct to just curl into a ball and go completely fetal, to try to protect myself from whatever as-yet-unseen horror that's waiting to blow me off the street when I least expect it. And I'm definitely feeling that now. I've found that allowing one's self to fall into complacency is usually followed fairly closely by having one's head suddenly and unexpectedly kicked in.
But so far so good. We push forward. We hope for the best.
Posted by case at September 23, 2007 12:40 AM