Jocelyn's theory of Seattle

A reputable reference source such as Wikipedia will tell you that Seattle is a city with more than 3 million people in the metropolitan area, and covering 142 square miles. AND YET! I visit Seattle often (my parents live in Tacoma) and there is no evidence that it is actually big. Every place I have ever needed to go in Seattle, including my mother's work, a client's office where James went on our last trip, the theatre where we saw Flight of the Conchords, the jeweler who is making our wedding rings, etc., has been within an area of about 15 square blocks. Some people might say that this makes sense, because this area is "downtown." But I think it is more logical that Seattle is a partly-imagined community, with about 10 actual tall buildings, a few streets, and then some tricksy mirrors around it. This would also explain why you have to go through so many tunnels to get there. THINK ABOUT IT.

Also, on an unrelated note: Diet Dr. Pepper ≠ Win.

goodnight, seattle

I'm back home, and as I write this Emma is asleep in her little Emma-sized bed and James is working in his James-sized chair across from me. We had a lovely trip, with a play and a movie and a concert--a perfectly balanced triptych of entertainment!--plus some outlet shopping and fresh seafood and two art museums and some lovely books waiting for my at my parents' house. Still, I have found that I love coming home a lot more now that I have a giant bed to come home to. Not to mention a dog.

Emma is the weirdest dog I have ever met. She uses her front paws like hands, for grabbing things like toys. She scratches--not on purpose I think, but just as a way of getting attention, the way other dogs will stick their head under your hand when they want to be petted. James and I call her the lick ninja because she will sit quite quietly in your lap, and then suddenly lunge at your face with her long tongue extended. It's hard to avoid her--she has won more than one round of this game of make-out chicken. She is surprisingly good at certain things, like riding in the car (she sits quietly in the back seat) or getting her paws dried off (she stands quite complacently and doesn't fidget). Getting an adult dog is weird for this reason, I guess: they arrive in your life fully formed and inexplicable.

Weird phenomenon: I am kind of looking forward to returning to work tomorrow after 5 days off. Undoubtedly this is partly because of the cute purple coat I am going to wear tomorrow, and the cute purple arm warmers that go with it. But it's more than that. I am ready to start the next set of things.

More extended entry on MFK Fisher to come, as she is my new obsession--and it doesn't hurt that on the cover of the edition of How To Cook A Wolf that I have, she glows like an ingenue.

Write it in a martial hand

I'm home. It's late, so I shall make this brief.

I went to Seattle! And Tacoma! And Portland! I went to Powell's Books, which was, as advertised, big. (In fact, it uses its own internal numeric book organization system. I got very excited when I thought I had found a bookstore organized according to the Dewey Decimal System, and was then appropriately broken-hearted when I realized it wasn't Dewey, but an arbitrary system. Sad face.) I also went to Elliott Bay Books in Seattle. At these bookstores, I bought 5 books, 1 of which (Neil Gaiman's M is for Magic) I have already completed.

I went to the Seattle Repertory Theatre's version of Twelfth Night, which was excellent. I went to a very dramatic documentary about competitive arcade gaming, King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, which was also excellent. I stayed at my parents' new house in Tacoma, which (as James pointed out) is oddly cabin-like, so we are going to make an effort from now on to refer to it as "the cabin."

I went to Fred Meyer, where I bought some little ceramic dishes with plastic snap-on lids, of the type I have been searching for for many moons.

I was disappointed in my inability to use my debit card in the US. Like, get with the program, FreedomLand!

I was happy to come home, and update my blog, and stop being such a lazy-bones. That's right, I said lazy-bones.

Seattle photos

These are the stairs that lead to the ocean and then, directly, to Asia.

My favourite thing about Seattle is the cherry trees. It doesn't seem fair that other people get to live in places with pink trees, while the rest of us are stuck with brown and green.

My dog, Toby and I bonded very early in our relationship over our shared affinity for sloth. Here we are lying in bed, thinking about cheese. Also, we are both very cute.

west coast update

I saw the play MacHomer last night, which is MacBeth (more or less) performed using exclusively voices from The Simpsons, by one guy. It was pretty intense, as even that brief description probably suggests. It also made a surprising amount of sense. Mr. Burns was King Duncan, of course. Marge as Lady MacBeth didn't disturb me as much as I expected. And Grandpa Simpson, Otto, and Apu as the three murderers was downright hilarious. (Apu, of course, being the only one with even the remotest murdering competence.) Rick Miller, the guy who wrote and performed it, is hilarious, so it you get a chance to see any of his plays I highly recommend it.

Today I get to go to the 826 Seattle space store, Fred Meyer (my parents' favourite American store for some reason), and to the beach near my parents' house. I shall search for some kind of airplane postcard to send to my friend Caleb. It has been raining here nonstop since I arrived in Vancouver. It took us an hour to get through American customs on Saturday, presumably because they are being extra vigilant about terrorists on weekends.

Things you can's buy at the grocery store in Seattle: sesame bagels
Things you can buy at the grocery store in Seattle: booze

It is nice to see my dog again, but he seems older and wiser now. He has lost a bit of his previous goofy charm. I am here by myself right now (parents at work), and he flops down on the floor nearby wherever I am, and then gets up and follows me if I move around, as if he feels he needs to warily keep an eye on me. The experience of my parents moving away and all his people being split up has obviously been very hard on him. And no, I am not doing that thing dog-owners do where they project their own problems onto their pets. Not at all.

Ahem.