A Seattle Day

I woke up early this morning and actually got out of bed and got into the shower and ate breakfast before nine a.m. I sat around texting D., reading books, drinking tea and attempting to make a packing list for Italy for a couple of hours (“Uh, I don’t know, pants? Should I bring pants?”) and then Jen rolled up in her minivan with her adorable baby and we went to do a little shopping.. At first I was just wearing jeans and a t-shirt but when I saw that Jen was wearing a cute outfit I decided I wanted to wear a cute outfit too so while she nursed the baby for a couple of minutes I ran inside and put on this new fabulous skirt I got at the Ballard Market on Sunday when I went there with Anna and Sean. When we got to Capitol Hill I wondered aloud if people would think we were a hip lesbian couple, as we trundled the Graco past the various construction projects off Pike (or was it Pine? I can never remember) but Jen said that she thought a hip lesbian couple would have a cooler stroller. I felt like a rockstar anyway because everyone loved the baby and wanted to talk to the baby and comment on the baby’s exuberant hair and it was all very social and fun and people were extra nice to us.

We had lunch at the glorious Than Brothers, which I have been craving for almost exactly two years (although in my opinion the Ballard restaurant is vastly superior to the one in Capitol Hill) and talked about the book club we used to go to. I was expecting a phone call from Wellington at 2:30 so I wanted to get home fairly quickly but I also wanted to get some delectable treats so we stopped off at the Green Lake Whole Foods and got stuck in the produce section for a minute there, where we debated having an entirely new lunch comprised chiefly of plums and strawberries. The woman at the checkout cooed over the baby and gave her a turtle sticker; I saw that on her sticker pad or whatever there was an octopus too, which I think would have been better, but I didn’t say anything because it was too late by then and anyway turtles are lovely too.

My call came half an hour early so Jen and the baby got Starbucks and went to Bartell’s while I sat in the minivan and talked about community initiatives and health promotion perspectives for a couple of minutes. It was really nice to hear a Kiwi accent again and made me miss Wellington very much, although I was not so sorry to be in Seattle on such a gorgeous day when apparently it’s very cold in Welly at the moment. I am quite enjoying my second summer this year, thank you. Jen took me home and I sat around for a while, thinking about packing but not actually packing until it was time to walk over to my haircut appointment.

It was about fifteen blocks to the salon (which was very nice and had a monkey theme that I enjoyed) and I was wearing these shoes I am considering using to walk around in Rome but by the time I got there I had some wee blisters so I may have to reconsider that consideration. This nice girl Eunice cut my hair and didn’t overwhelm me with product and charged me a very reasonable fee and I listened to music all the way back to the Blue House because for some reason my iTunes is not allowing me to download all the learn-Italian-in-eight-seconds podcasts I should be listening to twenty-four hours a day. I showed Ian and Katie my new hair and had a cup of tea and then Melissa called asking if we could all meet at Carta De Oaxaca instead of the Capitol Club and I said that was fine with me. I put on another pair of shoes I am considering wearing in Rome but by the time I got down to Market Street I had a whole new set of blisters so I really don’t know what to do about this whole shoe situation I have going on here.

I got a message from Anne-Carolyn but had to text my reply because Melissa was waiting outside the restaurant for me and Rohini rocked up five minutes later and we got caught up on the past two years as I inhaled my beloved banana-leaf-wrapped mole tamale. Everyone has changed but everyone is the same and by the time we moved over to Cupcake Royale we were talking about sex and our old ridiculous boss and medical school and trips we want to take as if we were at lunch out behind the hospital again, as if no time had passed at all.

We all agreed that we’d see each other again before Melissa goes to do her first rotation in Montana and then by the time we got to her car we noticed that someone was trying to open her passenger door. It was this older guy with very large shorts on and he seemed really confused–we couldn’t tell if he was drunk or sick or what. Melissa offered to get him a cab but he said he was fine and wandered off; a lady walking a weiner dog stopped and asked what was going on and then said that she wished there was “some sort of patrol” in the neighborhood because things were just getting out of hand, with all the drunks everywhere all the time. We were not quite sure how to respond to that.

I got home and took off the underwire (always the best moment of the day) and checked email and decided to put off packing until tomorrow because I don’t have anything to do, really, before I go, other than to go visit Calin in the morning. I texted my cousin to ask if I can sleep at his house tomorrow because it’s right near the airport and he said that not only could I sleep there, that he’d give me a ride (at four in the morning) to boot, thereby cementing his role as best cousin in the entire world. No, seriously, you think your cousin is good? Sorry, dude. Not as good as my cousin.
While I was on the phone with this very excellent cousin, Ed saw me on Facebook and IMed for a while–he’s coming up next weekend for a wedding but of course I won’t get to see him–and then Ilan, whom I went to middle and high school with and whom I have not spoken to since the 90s, also said hello. I did the thing to him that I am doing lately, which is telling very ambitious and high-achieving people to quit their lucrative jobs and just hang out for a while, man, just go to New Zealand or something. I am pretty sure I had him convinced by the end of the chat; whether this is due to my extraordinary persuasive powers or New Zealand’s extraordinary awesomeness is, as of this writing, unclear.

Now I’m going to brush my teeth and wash my face and get into bed so I can get up early tomorrow (why?) and get packed up for real. I’ll just make the call about the shoes then, I guess. I’m going to spend another night in a borrowed bed before I get on yet another plane, get another stamp in my passport, take another step with the good gorgeous person who will be waiting there at Malpensa for me.

It can’t last much longer, this low-key, no-responsibility life I’ve been living for so long now, since, what, February? The gears are finally beginning to turn–slowly, cautiously, but sure enough, there they grind and twist. It’s the middle of the year, now, and soon it will be the end of the year and if I’m very lucky, it will go the way I want it to go, I’ll get back to Wellington, I’ll settle down for a while, I’ll finally have a place to call my own again. It’s getting to be time to work. It’s getting to be time to plan.

But that time isn’t now, isn’t yet. I’d like to think that I am getting better, as I get older, at having the sense to appreciate where I am and what I’m doing, when I’m actually doing it. Here I am, having a Seattle day, trying to soak it all up while I can.