Odds and Ends

My feet hurt, and it hurts to look at them. One day, before I went to Denver, I lay on Amy's lovesac and she mentioned how nice my feet were. I think it went to my head. This picture was taken of my feet after I came back from Denver, and since it's blurry you can't see how callused, blistered, and sore they really were.

Well, running around at the dry hot Castle has only contributed to the problem. My feet are in an awful state and they look forward to the day of pedicure which I think must happen after the show is over. I've never had a pedicure before.

And since I never posted my pictures of Seattle, here they are. My friend Christy came with me and I am still grateful because the drive was rough as it was with the two of us. My favorite part of the journey: when my iPod ran out of batteries we played a game: see how many words to Disney songs we know. Please imagine the two of us, EXHAUSTED, after 10 hours in the car with only two gas/bathroom breaks, kind of delerious. And Christy is yelling/growling the songs out when they get too high. Hysterical I tell you. We did pretty well, I knew every SINGLE word to "Zero to Hero" from Hercules.

We had left at some ridiculous hour like 4 in the morning. I won't tell you how much sleep we had. We made it to Seattle by 5 or 6 so we could see a production of Uncle Vanya at the Intiman Theatre. It was SO GOOD.





I had never seen Chekhov performed (outside of a classroom) before, so I was a little nervous that my first experience with performed Chekhov would be a bad one, since it's so hard to do. But it was so so so good. Everyone was spot on. It was so funny and so sad. There were silences which lasted and transitions from scene to scene that were GORGEOUS and moved the story along in themselves. They were amazing. It was directed by the same man who did Light in the Piazza and I am now a wholehearted fan. It was almost perfection, I honestly have almost no criticisms and the ones I do have are small. Costumes, GORGEOUS. Set, GORGEOUS. Music, GORGEOUS. The woman who played grown-up Amy in the movie of Little Women played Elena, she was good.

The trip included an evening at Golden Sands (or something) beach. It's the only sandy beach close to Seattle and it was beautiful. We brought chinese food and free firewood to build a bonfire on the sand.



We also spent an afternoon in a park on Capitol Hill. There was a rapunzel tower, lots of grass, an Asian art museum, a conservatory with Beautiful flowers, Oren's awesome shirt, Shakespeare in the Park, and the cherries I'd bought earlier at the locks. Delicious.


My pictures are all out of order and I'm too lazy to fix that. Sorry. We also visited the very first Starbucks while we were at Pike's Place Market. There's another picture down below somewhere...





Christy does not like seagulls. There are, understandably, many in Seattle. The Seagull is the state bird of Utah.
Everyone who goes to Seattle should go on a ferry ride. They're pretty cheap, and the trip to Bainsbridge Island is lovely, only half an hour, and you get to walk around in Bainbridge. There was a bookstore there that I LOVED, and a really tastey diner/cafe. What a lovely morning. This was on the first day and I was in love with Seattle already.




I really wished I had some reason to buy flowers at Pike's Place because they were so beautiful and they were wrapped in brown paper.

I actually should have taken more pictures, there were plenty of opportunities and Seattle is gorgeous. It was also sunny all weekend long, lucky me. But I was focused on getting the Feel of things, seeing if it fit and absorbing all of the neighborhoods that I could. I LOVED Seattle. Do you ever go places and you wonder how you didn't grow up there? It just fits you. That's Seattle for me. I also loved, as silly as it may sound, how hidden away it felt. It seemed like Seattle was a well-kept secret, hidden behind mountains, trees, beyond wide waters. I want to live there someday, and I want everyone I know to come visit me there when I do because it's beautiful and I want everyone to experience it. It doesn't feel like a big boisturous city, but it's a very well-educated city. My cup of tea. Here's what you need to do when you come:

ride a ferry
go to Pike's Place
eat some sea food, preferably on the pier so you can gaze out at the water
spend some quality time in a non-chain bookstore (there's another in pioneer square which is great)

I'm sure I'll come up with more. Spend some time in a boat would be on the list if I had a boat.

On a different note, I've been in Borders for a while. I used to prefer B&N to Borders, no question about it. But I've got to say that at least here in Provo/Orem, I prefer Borders. Here are a few reasons: less crowded, more organized, much better film collection, quieter, more low-key (sometimes I feel B&N is snooty), and you don't have to pay for tampons in the bathroom, how nice is that?! Bottom line, they are both still chain stores.

And in defense of B&N, I have roots/memories there and their theatre section is much better.

Odd. and the end.