little black journal

Far too often, I take for granted the fact that we live in the midst of the Pacific Northwest and all its natural glory.  And so yesterday we resolved to embrace the outdoors, as we hopped in the car and headed east for a hike up Little Si (Mount Si’s smaller, less intimidating sister mountain).  I am not much of a hiker, but the 2.3-mile trip to the summit sounded manageable.  This hike wasn’t necessarily the leisurely stroll through the forest that I had imagined – within a few minutes I had broken a sweat and fallen short of breath – but as we pressed on, I fell into a groove and we were soon at the summit.  We found a place to sit on a rock and take in the views of the mountains and valleys and endless blankets of lush green trees all around us.  Well worth the sweat.

We are talking about conquering Mount Si later this summer – now if only there were a Margarita stand at the top…

We spent most of this weekend down in Portland, enjoying some much-needed time with my brother, sister-in-law, and niece.  It had been over 3 months since my last visit, and I was itching to see how Elise had grown and changed.  She is crawling all over the place now, attempting to take her first steps, although the spill that she took a couple of weeks ago, and the subsequent broken ankle and cumbersome cast, have set her back a little bit walking-wise.  She is incredibly good-natured and has many sorts of smiles – after waking up from a nap she will tuck in her chin and look up at you with a bashful little grin; when you lift her up into the air or tickle her stomach she will squeal with unrestrained laughter.  She is also eating all kinds of new things – veggies are clearly not her favorite, but she has recently discovered the joy of spaghetti, in all its glorious messiness:

Such a darling, loving, fun little girl…  And once again, I am left wondering, “When can I see her again?!”

My all-star husband completed his first half-marathon today, with an impressive time of under two hours!  I, on other the hand, sat in a cafe and polished off a latte and raspberry scone in record time.  Seriously, though, I am so proud of Shane.  He had some anxiety going into this race, but when the time came, he manned up, proudly pinned on his race number, and gave it his all.  Trying to connect with him a couple of times along the course was trickier than expected, but I did manage to track him down somewhere around mile 9, where I ran with him for one block (whew!), and then I caught him again at the finish line, happy to see that he was still going strong.  Nice job, honey!  You rock.

It has of course been difficult falling back into the daily grind after our 2-week fairy-tale of a vacation, but I feel like Seattle has been especially good to us since our return.  We’ve enjoyed good times with friends and neighbors, and we’ve had some great opportunities to enjoy Seattle’s multitude of entertainment offerings.

We hit up our first Mariners game of the season a couple of weeks ago and are so looking forward to more visits to the ballpark – I have made it my mission to learn the names of at least 9 Mariners and to seek out the best hot dog that Safeco field has to offer.  A daunting mission, yes, but one that will ultimately earn me the utmost respect of my husband, and so I’m calling it a worthy endeavor.

Last Saturday we enjoyed our first ever Seattle Sounders game at Qwest field.  Our friends had scored four tickets right at the 50-yard line and asked us if we wanted to go with them – um, yes, please!  The excitement over Seattle’s soccer club was almost electric, as people jumped and shouted and hugged after each goal.  Confetti rained from the skies when the team declared their victory – it was quite the athletic event.  It’s a bummer that Seattle had to say good-bye to their NBA team last year, but I am stoked about the buzz our city’s soccer club has generated.

Sunday I officially became part of the Aluminum Siding fan club as I watched my friend D’s dance performance at On the Boards.  She titled her piece “Chemo Confessions”, as it explores the struggle she endured in overcoming cancer a couple of years ago.  I was moved to tears as I watched D use her art to express the fear, the pain, and the ultimate necessity for strength that a battle with cancer entails.  I am in awe of the way she has turned her experience into something so inspirational and so beautiful.  I have a whole new admiration for her, and a whole new excitement about modern dance.

Last night we headed to the theater for a performance of Crime and Punishment at Intiman.  The play was intense and dramatic, and the intimate setting of the theater heightened the whole experience.  I could see the beads of sweat on Raskolnikov’s tormented face, the tears falling from Sonia’s desperate eyes.  I didn’t realize I’d been holding my breath throughout the final scenes until the stage went dark, the play ended, and I found myself needing to deeply inhale.

So, do I miss Europe?  Well, yes.  Duh.  But I am excited about the breadth of experiences that Seattle has to offer.  Looking forward to taking advantage of more of my city’s offerings!

We came back to a Seattle full of vibrant colors – it seems that every day something new blooms in the neighborhood.  I love the new growth that Spring brings, along with the promise of longer days, baseball games at Safeco field, and backyard barbeques with neighbors.  Dare I bring out the flip-flops and pack away my heavy wool coat for the year?

Schizophrenic weather today – a cool drizzly morning, a quick but intense afternoon wind/rainstorm, followed by a glorious sunbreak, and now we’re back to a cold, rainy night.  I guess I’ll keep that wool coat at the front of the closet for awhile longer…  But I’m taking solace in the fact that Spring is just around corner, as proven by my quickly-sprouting daffodils.  I had forgotten that I’d popped these bulbs in the ground last fall, so it was a nice surprise to see these nice little chutes of green growing out front – can’t wait to see what color the flowers end up being!   I expect that when we get back from our trip in mid-April we’ll be greeted by a Seattle full of budding leaves and blooming floors.  I love the changing of seasons – although I wouldn’t dare to complain about the year-round sunshine that I often enjoyed down on California’s central coast, there was monotony in the perpetual warmth.  And so I’ll endure the rain for a couple more months and look forward to another one of those Seattle summers that makes it all worth it.

Today marked the end of another intense cram session and test-taking adventure, so Shane and I headed out to Quinn’s on Capitol Hill this evening to celebrate with dinner and a drink.  I’ve been wanting to visit this place for awhile (see number 6 on the list), and was immediately taken with the urban vibe and the rough-yet-refined interiors.  Deciding what to order was easy – one of their notorious burgers and a glass of red wine, please.  The burger was good, the wine was fantastic, and the chance to sit and leisurely enjoy a meal with my husband was priceless.  I’ve been a bit of a stress mess lately, and so we haven’t had the chance to catch up with each other in awhile.  It was nice to chat, to talk about our upcoming trip, and to just relax.  It also felt good to pull my camera off the shelf and blow the dust off the lens – I’m trying to get back into a picture-taking routine.

Shane and I were in need of a date, and the weather today lent itself perfectly to an outdoor rendez-vous.  Yes, that’s right, the sun shone in Seattle today!  A January miracle…  We thought the west-facing view from Lincoln Park in West Seattle would be ideal for sunset-watching, and so we hopped in the car and made the quick drive over there.  Man, it felt good to be enjoying the outdoors after so many days of being cooped up inside.  Rejuvenating.

Winter has arrived in Seattle, snow and below-freezing temperatures and all.  Around 8:00 last night, what started as a light “drizzle” of snow turned into more of a snow “shower”  – Shane and I came home from a Christmas party around 11 to find our neighborhood covered with a puffy white blanket.  It was lovely.  We stood for a minute on the sidewalk and noted that it was so calm, serene, quiet.  I snuggled into bed last night, looking forward to a Sunday morning with a hot cup of coffee and a chair by the window where I could fully enjoy this winter wonderland.  But our morning turned out to be a little less peaceful than planned, as we woke to the screeching of spinning tires.  A car had gotten stuck on the ice on the hill in front of our house.  Shane, being the good neighbor that he is, threw on jeans and a coat and headed out to help push the car up the road.  Whew.  But then another car got stuck.  And another.  One more.  Shane was quite the stud, coming to the rescue left and right.  I, on the other hand, stayed in my pajamas all day, venturing out of the house just for a moment to snap a couple of quick photos.

Shane and I embarked on our third annual Christmas tree hunt yesterday.  We stayed true to tradition and went to the same tree farm out in the North Bend that we’ve enjoyed so much the past two years.  We bundled up, grabbed a saw, and spent nearly an hour wandering around the farm, in search of that perfect tree.  After examining all of the possibilities and asking each other, “Is that one too tall?  Too short?  Is it full enough?  Too full?  Are all of these starting to look the same to you?”, we settled on a 7-foot tall Douglas Fir.  Shane hacked it down with a few swift strokes of the saw, we paid our bill (while helping ourselves to some complimentary apple cider – mmm…), and the tree was ours.  The next task at hand was getting this thing home – in previous years, we’ve put down the back seats of our Civic and jammed our poor little tree inside the car.  This year, we were bold enough to strap it to the roof of our Honda Civic, despite the fact we don’t have a roof rack.  Twenty minutes later, we had it all tied up, but since neither one of us have our knot-tying badges, we were a little anxious about just how secure the tree actually was.  The parking lot attendant’s last words to us as we left were, “You’ll be ok, if you don’t drive fast.”  Ummm… we had thirty miles of freeway separating us from our house.  To the chagrin of all the other cars on I-90, we drove 50 mph the whole way home.  But we made it, with tree still in tow.

Then came the fun of stringing lights and decorating the tree.  My mom and dad have been giving me a Christmas ornament every year since I was a kid, so opening up the ornament box unlocks all sorts of fond memories.  It’s fun to think that I have been unwrapping and hanging some of these same ornaments for over 20 years.  I will sacrifice a perfectly decorated, color-coordinated tree any day for a tree with meaning.  And all of of my varied little angels, and glass kittens, and plastic snowflakes are quite lovely, actually…