Hello, Seattle

**All pictures in this blog are taken with my iphone.

Lets start in Seattle. Depending on how long this goes, I may break it in to two posts.

So, I went to Seattle just to resolve some wanderlust. I packed up a single, yet excrutiatingly heavy bag (not really… but minimalism was not in effect here.).

I hop on a train and begin reading. What am I reading you ask? The first of three books in The Hunger Games trilogy. I wanted to read it before the film comes out.

The train ride is smooth and calming. The sun is setting and I have the seats around me all to myself. In between pages, I am receiving texts from a new friend I’ve made. We seem to hold conversations like we’ve known each other forever, and not that it’s a well-guarded secret, I’m growing quite fond of her.

Seattle is dark and cold. I meet up with an old friend and we grab dinner at this restaurant that appears to be an old converted fire station.

Kyle picks me up. He confirms that navigation is not one of my super powers. We fill the air with banter and chat and my heart is light with the excitement of no work or responsibility.

But I’m tired. The long weeks and travel catch up with me far earlier that I except. Kyle says “if you’re too tired, I understand. We just don’t get to hang out all that often.” Guilt trip? Yes. I grab my first silver bullet.

We can’t be loud and noisy like he and I tend to be. So we grab Jenga and Uno and find a bar. It’s 11pm and I’m wired. We play, I lose the first game, but destroy at Uno.

And then we move on. There’s a taco place across the street. I’m not sure how Kyle stays so little when he eats as much as I do. It’s weird. And I hope he reads this.

We walk around downtown Seattle. It’s now 1am. We want pizza. No dice. We make a semi-split second decision to sprint back to the car. I have this on camera somewhere…

We find a pizza place right next to where we parked. It’s warm inside and they serve Kalamada Olives. It takes me back to Oz, where I used to get Pizza Capers all the time.

*Pause: I meant to write this sooner. Closer to when it happened. But now I’m trying to recount the events in some heinous stream of consciousness. This is for my benefit right now.

We head home. I pass out. I sleep until 3pm. I also crawl back into bed (couch) and stay there until 6pm.

This is not from alcohol. This is just a need to sleep. Kyle picks me up and we grab dinner. I swear it was not a date… although he paid again.

We went to this awesome Mexican restaurant and I thought I’d try out my newly acquired Spanish skills with the waiter. Big mistake. He insisted on using Spanish the rest of the time. Silly Gringo, you have much to learn… Good thing my teacher is much more patient.

Stuffed, we head to Vertical World. Their grand opening isn’t until the following night but we get in and climb. Have I mentioned that I have no aerobic endurance? I am decimated trying to keep up with Kyle and Darrell. I thought they were my friends… why would they do this to me? I take my first legitimate fall. Lets pretend it was like… 30’. It was probably only 15-20’. But I was certain that was it. I was dead. (Darrell, who has decked outside and broken his back laughed and informed me that the fall wouldn’t have killed me. Just broken my legs. Thanks Darrell.).

But I wasn’t. And suddenly being riskier (relatively speaking… I’m not saying “Go forth! Do something stupid.”) didn’t seem so bad. Pumped and blown out, Kyle drops me off at Bryan’s apartment… I swear I couch surfed and bummed my way through this entire trip.

Bryan and I stay up talking, watching YouTube and hanging out. I pass out, again from exhaustion. Wake up. Shower. Say goodbye. Hike to UW’s Dempsey Stadium where my old track team is competing.

I walk in. the ambient and familiar hum, drums me into complacency. I arrive at the pole vault pit. Sneak up on my friends and greet them with hugs and handshakes. Some faces are missing, but Attrition is a fact in this sport.

It’s not long before a starter gun goes off. My blood boils. People are vaulting. My breath is rapid. I hear the familiar creak as fiberglass strikes a plant box and bends. I feel like a recovering addict seeing my cocktail of choice for the first time in what feels like an eternity. I lived for this. This high. I loved it and I despised it. But I couldn’t stop the need.

I say my goodbyes, and head to the door. It’s raining outside. The rain makes me feel calm and I relax. I climb in a car and drive away.

The remainder of the day (3pm-930pm) consisted of bouldering at the Seattle Bouldering Project, and climbing during the Vertical World Grand Opening. I’m not going to go into too much detail as to how dangerous it was to climb with that many people not paying attention to their environment. Now, I was confident that my friends would catch me if I fell. But I couldn’t control the other climbers who frequently and carelessly walked underneath a climber, or crossed lines.

We left. Obtained more pizza. Played a game called headbands. I did really well at it. I’m basically Sherlock Holmes. ;) Anyways, you have a card with a who, what or where on it. You have 20 questions to guess what it is.

(I find this image especially unnerving... can't figure out why. haha)

Then there was catch phrase. Also awesome. BTW, I got a slight black eye from walking into a metal pipe sticking out of a Thai truck. It hurt. In fact, a week later, it’s still pretty tender. Even though the discoloring is gone.

We eventually go to sleep. I’m taken to the train in the morning. I enjoy the snow. I spend the quiet ride back finishing The Hunger Games. I get home. Shower. Sleep.