Thanksgiving Goings On

There is a lot going on here in Seattle over the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday weekend:

 the annual Turkey Trot on Thursday; Macy's Holiday Parade and Westlake Tree Lighting on Friday; the Seattle 5K Run and Kids' Marathon in the Seattle Center and downtown Seattle areas on Saturday, and the Seattle Marathon on Sunday.

I think I may check out the parade and tree lighting. Fact: I never attended the NYC Macy's Parade or the Rockefeller Center tree lighting. 

Bald Eagles!

Near La Conner, WA

They are large birds. 

Morning Car Accident

I was hit by a car this morning while walking to work. It was dark and rainy when it happened at 6am. There was a red light so I began to cross the street when a car turned right on red without looking in my direction. When the car hit me I rolled up over the hood and went flying onto the road. The impact was on my right shoulder and hip. I was able to stand up and walk, but I was definitely in a daze because I was worried about being late to work. There has been a "pins and needles" tingling sensation in my hand since it happened. 

Yes, I got his insurance information.

No, I didn't call the police. 

Yes, I sought medical attention.

No broken bones or obvious external injuries. 

Yes, the right side of my body is sore and will probably bruise.

Yes, I may have nerve damage. 

No, I didn't go to work. I did run off to catch the bus before a coworker I spoke with said that I should turn around and go see a doctor. 

The doctor said that I may have PTSD and I am definitely feeling uneasy about crossing streets now. I do not trust the cars. Why can't this city have a law preventing right on red turns?!

Bourbon

It took me a really long time to find a liquor store. Yes, there is beer and wine all over the place, but apparently spirits are only at special stores. 

Crisp Morning in Seattle-- from 11/11

It is a crisp 39 degrees today! But it is sunny. And I have a warm cinnamon cardamom braid from Piroshki Piroshki and a latte from Bedlam. Plus a nice view of the Puget Sound. Oh and there is no pay street parking today. Huzzah!

(And yes, that is green grass.)

Cinerama

The new Cinerama looks awesome! I was a bit nervous about the orange and blue thing, but the artists pulled it off. Really good mural design, albeit a little too "man's perspective" with regard to the content. Very high quality design and I am pretty sure this renovation was financed by Paul Allen or one of those guys. The Cinerama is a block away from me and has a grand reopening later this week :) I'm excited to check it out and feast on milk duds!

Cute Box

Cute box with the littlest white chocolate coconut cream pie!

Why I Will Never Drive in Upper Queen Anne Again

Upper Queen Anne is like its own universe.  Driving through it was a nightmare. Most of the streets are one-lane, but two-way. Cars are parked along both sides, which only leaves room for one lane of traffic. This is pretty scary when you are driving and are half-way down the block and another car approaches. It is briefly something of a standoff. One car will have to back up to the previous street or park if there is a spot. I had two of these situations and luckily for me, the approaching car backed up. To make matters more complicated, not only do cars park on both sides of the street, they sometimes park on the opposite side of the street. That makes it tricky to tell if there are one-way streets. Now throw in some steep hills and a ton of leaves littering the streets. Madness! Utter madness! 

Four words: Alternate side street parking.

Best Pizza in Portland

The fennel sausage onion pizza at Pizza Maria in Portland. Very tasty. I'll certainly be back :)

Wrong Turn

Last night I was driving back from Portland and I stopped for gas. I made a wrong turn out of Love's and ended up in the Port of Tacoma. We're talking totally desolate and dark. No other cars. Stacks of shipping containers everywhere. Oh and the signs had american flags on them like I was entering a different country. So I made a probably illegal U-turn and got the hell out of there. 

Powell's

Powell's Books is a dangerous, dangerous place. I could easily spend 12 hours perusing that place. 

Peppers, Anyone?

They pack and ship!

Found Rocco's Cousin

The salt shaker.

Rocco in the Dog Park

Not into the big dogs. But didn't run away from the French bulldogs! He mostly just swept up leaves with his tail.

The Sun

This afternoon the clouds faded away and it became sunny. I felt disappointed when I walked outside and was blindsided by the brightness. It got me thinking about why I prefer gray, overcast days. So I asked myself, When is the sun good?

My mind immediately went to images of sunny meadows with yellow flowers and wild grass along with the buzzing sound of crickets. Key detail: no people or buildings. 

I wonder if I associate urban environments with cloudy skies and country settings with sunny skies? What would a therapist say?

Getting Real On the Bus

These two guys from West Seattle--who got on at my stop--started getting really loud on the bus. The bus had to make a short detour so one of the guys yelled to the driver to open the back door. When the driver did not, the guy started yelling that he was "not playin." The door still didn't open so the guy screamed that he needed to get out and was going to open the emergency window. Since he wasn't playin, this guy actually reached over the head of another passenger and pulled that red handle to push the window out. The window didn't fall out. Instead, it was on a hinge to swing open like a doggie door. I have always kind of wondered how those windows worked.

Eventually the bus stopped and the guy got off. 

Another fun bus incident! This guy in the back, right behind wherein was sitting, kept spitting these gross globs right onto the floor of the bus. He must have done this at least 10 times. I could not wait for him to get off. He was wearing Converse...thug disguise? It's pretty gross back here right now. 

A few minutes later the bus pulled over and the driver walked back to deal with the flapping, open window. Pulling the red handle back doesn't close it. Apparently what you have to do is give it a hard push so it swings back to close. Then you can pull the handle back down. 

Okay, now back to Words with friends with Shane and Shawn.

More FitBit

I like how the data tells a story. 6-6:15am very intense .59 miles. That was me rushing to Westlake to catch the bus! 

That Buzzfeed List

So a few days ago I read a Buzzfeed article that popped up on my newsfeed because it is titled something like "110 reasons not to leave NYC." Since I just left NYC, I was curious to know what could change my mind. While reading I kept thinking, ok this is one perspective from one person who is probably 22 and lives in Murray Hill. Many of the reasons were redundant. Some were just not true... Streetcart coffee? $1 pizza? And several just served to highlight the reasons why you should, in fact, leave NYC... The pretty snowfall before it gets brown and gross, the crazy people on the train, etc.

Someone over at Brooklyn Magazine felt similarly and actually put together a rebuttal list. Hahahahah.

http://www.bkmag.com/2014/10/20/110-reasons-you-should-probably-definitely-leave-new-york-city-a-point-by-point-takedown-of-a-buzzfeed-list/

Walking

My daily commute+workday comes out to 4 miles. Thank you, FitBit. Makes me not feel so bad about that chowder :)

German Food Store

I found a really good German food store called Bavarian Meats near pike place market. They have everything from Prince cookies to sauce packets to frozen pretzel bread to beer to bloodwurst to curry ketchup to Haribo everything to dumplings to rouladen. No gingerbread cookies in yet, but you can count me in for several boxes :) They should be getting in Black Forest ham soon, too.