Thursday, September 22, 2011

No Direction Home, Part 2: Seattle

Oh crap! I'm three months overdue on this thing. Better get crackin'.

On my way back from Idaho, I had some great views out the plane window.

Clouds tucked into mountains

The first tiny Seattle leg of the trip began with getting some play time in with the nieces.

 In the "car" on the way to a picnic.

 Elsie and Delia at Tony's Market.

Emma cruisin' two-wheel style.

I got to see Lonnie, Kris and the nieces quite a bit while I was there, which was nice. I also stayed with Charlie's sister, Emily, in our old house, so I got in plenty of family time.

Next I went to see my good old college friend (and feline foster mother), Casey, and her new little guy, Fynn. On my way there, I encountered what usually pisses me off in Seattle when I'm on my way somewhere, but this time I thought it was neat: the 1st Ave drawbridge!

 It still made me late... damn thing.

First, we started out with a hearty American breakfast at a little greasy spoon diner in North Seattle.

Breakfast with a baby!

After breakfast we went for a little outdoor time at a nearby beach (don't ask me which one, but there's a train that runs through it).

Little man get his vitamin D.

This really got me remembering how much I love Seattle.


After the beach adventure we went back to Casey's house so that I could get in a little time with my own babies, the cats. If you have ever met my cats, you know they are the weirdest people in the world. They have adjusted surprisingly well to their life at Casey's house, even with a dog and a baby!

 Princess Minerva presents her back.

Fynn is excited about the kitty.

Handful of fur (don't worry, she likes the attention)

That evening I went out with a couple of my former co-workers for some hilarious girl time.

 Kellie being classy with her personal-sized bottle of Sutter Home.

Keeping my nephew (Kellie's dog), Baxter, warm.

Time for some public shenanigans. 

Kristi in bliss: Interesting evenings always start with alcohol in a beach bucket.

Okay, the evening didn't get too wild. We just had dinner and then went back to Kristi's where we spent some time with her family and her daughter and I played piano.

Having access to a piano for the first time in a year was just one of the reasons it was great to stay with Charlie's sister at our old place. Besides that, it was nice to spend some time with her and get to know her girlfriend, Paige. It was also great to sleep in a proper bed in a quiet house and just to have a lot of space to move around. We have adjusted pretty well to our 300-square feet in a gorgeous Parisian neighborhood, but we really do miss that charming old house.

When Emily and Paige were off at work, their children became my entourage.

Georgia gnaws in the background while Townsend begs for attention.

Posing puppy

A couple days later, I went to see our old friends Suzanne and Travis Allbee and their little girls, Adyson and Miranda. Suzanne and I became friends on the bus commuting from downtown to West Seattle. We used to sit together every day and I would help her keep Adyson entertained during the ride. Later, Charlie and I became regular babysitters for them.

We started the day with breakfast at Luna Park Cafe, which was one of the first places Charlie and I ran into the Allbees around town when Adyson was very little. We used to have breakfast with them often.

Luna Park has an old Batmobile for kids to ride in that makes a lot of noise and just sort of lurches back and forth. Adyson loved it, while Miranda was clearly perturbed by being in a car with Batman.

As soon as it was over she scrambled out as fast as she could.

Adyson is painting "Charlie and Marie getting married"

Family fun

Hide and seek under the sink

For the next couple of days I helped my friend, Colin, move to a new apartment and shop for furniture and in turn he fed me hamburgers. I would have taken pictures, but my hands were full. Also, we were probably just making heavy-lifting faces the whole time.

My trip was rapidly nearing its end so the last couple of days I spent busily trying to tie up loose ends and shop for the things that cannot be got abroad (or that are just too expensive).

Fortunately for me, my brother-in-law Lonnie is a really nice guy and agreed to drive me to the airport before sunrise. We said goodbye and I was again on my way to saying bonjour to Paris.

I'll leave you with this final picture taken somewhere in the midwest.

Where the mountains end the people begin.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Home I'll Never Be: Idaho

I have never felt particularly strong ties to the country or specific state or town where I was born. I have always seen this as a mere coincidence. A single variation in the trajectory of events leading up to my birth could have caused me to be born elsewhere or not at all. Therefore, I can't say I have ever felt pride about where I am from. I realize I could have been born somewhere far shittier– Afghanistan, for instance– but I also know that many other places have far more to offer me than the U.S. in the terms of safety, security and opportunity. However, I've come to realize that the happiness part is all on me.

In the past when I have travelled I have struggled with culture shock upon re-entry to the U.S. This usually starts with my first encounters with TSA, customs and border control. There's nothing quite like being made to feel like a criminal for leaving your very own land of the free and the brave. I mean, why on earth would anyone think of voyaging beyond those borders to see what else is out there? In the last ten years I have been subjected to unauthorized luggage searches, intrusive questions (Charlie was even asked his religion upon re-entry once) and now have to submit to having a nude picture taken of me followed by a good, solid groping. If I was a pervert, I would work for TSA. Anyway, aside from being made to remove my shoes, a practice which is nonexistent in Europe, and having a zealous TSA officer question me after suspecting that I was traveling with a couple of shady Russians who I happened to be standing near in line, things went as smoothly as could be expected.

My only reason for going back to the U.S. was to sell my car, which I did manage, essentially breaking even for the cost of the trip. As has been the pattern in the past for me, I was expecting to encounter the usual depression that arises when coming into contact with places and people that I associate with times in my life when I was very unhappy. On the contrary, I had a great time. I spent half of my trip in Seattle and half of it in Idaho, getting some quality time in with family and friends and their babies who have been born during my absence.

Less than 48 hours after my initial arrival in Seattle, I collected my car from its babysitter and set out on a day-long road trip across Washington, through Eastern Oregon, finally hitting Nampa around dinner time.

I stayed with my dad, Ruben, and step-mom, Debbie, whose rustic house in the boonies is like a little piece of heaven. My first few days there, thanks to jet-lag, I was up before dawn.

A blood-red sun rising through forest fire haze.

While I waited for the world to wake up, I looked at old pictures.

 I have the cutest little brother ever.





Then, I headed over to my cousin Mindy's house to visit her and her kiddos.

 Connor had grown a lot since I saw him last.

Sissy and big brother.

This was my first time meeting Cheyanne.

Then it was off to lunch with my friends Brenda and Hayley (mother and daughter) and Hayley's new little guy, Owen.

 Give that boy some beans!

Cuddle buddy

The next morning I spent a few hours with my brother and his roommate at their zoo. Their housepets include a cat, a rabbit, a bird and a snake: a complete food chain, basically.

 Manny, pouting about wearing his cone.

 Eddie and Taylor

The pirate and the parrot

After hanging with those two a while, we all went to lunch with my Mom and Michael at Idaho Pizza, one of my favorite places in town, where I had a couple killer slices of pepperoni.

That evening my dad and Debbie were kind enough to throw me a BBQ so that I could see a good portion of all the people I needed to see in one go. Much to my surprise, it also served as an impromptu, (very) early 30th birthday party for me, complete with cheesecake.

 Prep time: Debbie takes over my corn-shucking job. I take a picture.

 Leetle Brahther and Honorary Leetle Brahther, Tom.

 Michael, Mom and Tom's baby, Nevaeh.

 Probably being smart-asses, as usual.

 My classy uncle, Milo (with his beer sling), chats with Aunt Yolanda. Taylor looks perturbed in the background.

 Feedin' the baby

 Feedin' the adults

 Dad and me

 Los Garcia

 Dad playing lifeguard. The children were thoroughly amused.

We spent the majority of the following day lounging on the back patio like this:


Looking out at this:

 Dad and his buddy, Willy.

We did take a brief break from utter sloth to go visit my grandma, who is adorably demented. She was joyfully eating a bag of Cheetos and watching the military channel when we walked in. Several times during our visit she made fun of the facial features of the men appearing on TV, making special mention of Hitler's funny little mustache. She also asked my brother "¿Tienes gerfriend?" and when he said "no" she commented that it would be difficult for him to find one because of his "big earrings". Then she told us about the recent conflicts between she and her monolingual English roommate, who allegedly parks her wheelchair in front of the door and sticks her leg out to block it so that my grandmother cannot enter the room. The nursing home is a tough place!

 Once upon a time

Once upon a later time

 Aunt Yolanda, Dad and Dad's cool hair

On the way back, I made note of several Idaho-ish features that I hadn't seen in a while.

Wide open space

Lake Lowell

I have no idea what this is called, but it's for moving hay bales.

Cattle chute

Praying mantis!!!

That evening I went to have dinner with my wonderful friend and former co-worker, Pamela. While there she fed me a BLT and then showed me her impressive garden and her fantastic yarn room. Her giant cat also showed me his vast, fuzzy belly.

She spins her own!

The next morning, I had breakfast with Brenda, Hayley and Owen again and then the sweet little mister took a nap on my shoulder.


In the afternoon I went out to see my maternal great-grandmother, who is in her 90s, and then began a long and unsuccessful attempt to rent a car to drive back to Seattle (because I had sold the one I drove to Idaho). Thanks to some stupid-ass golf tournament that had just arrived in town, all cars between Nampa and Portland had been rented out for the next several days. This derailed my plans for stopping in Portland to visit my nephews and squeeze in some tax-free shopping. I ended up just booking a plane ticket back to Seattle for the next day. We spent my final evening in Nampa having some family gardening time at my dad's place.

 Dad shows Taylor a giant peach.

 Tay digs up horseradish.

Zucchini is serious business.

 Picking raspberries

 Raspberries galore

 Big sky sunset

 The fruits of our labor... on ice cream.

I spent most of the following day running around town with my brother and Eddie and then they drove me to the airport. I bought a postcard of Lizard Butte at the Idaho-themed store in the airport, intending to send it to Charlie (but never did), and was on my way.