Seattle, finale (Set adrift)

Day 2 in Seattle, I wake up at J's friend's house and we all watch some videos and drink some coffee before heading back to Capitol Hill.
We have amazing coffee (I got a latte) at The Bambino cafe near N's house in Bellevue? (can't remember the name of the area)
Driving back down 99, we cross from that section of Seattle into the downtown area, past Seattle Center and back up the hill. We walk to get breakfast and talk about life, and decisions, and dreams. It's awesome. And I remember why I was drawn to this person in the first place. That sense of passion for something. And that urgency to make your mark and have your art out there for people to see. When I mention wanting to go abroad, he says he can see me in Europe.

We climb out of his bedroom window onto the roof to hang out and I eat my breakfast sandwich while he plays his last two songs. He can't sing them because it's too noisy outside and they're quiet songs. But the music is awesome and seems to be telling a story even without the words. He has been doing a lot on acoustic guitar lately.

He takes a break and I play with the guitar. I know a couple of songs by now, that actually sound like what they're supposed to. But I can only practice until they sound okay...and it's taken me two years to get anywhere. I'm not at the level to write anything...or even be able to sing and play at the same time. Either my voice stops or my fingers do. I try something, but I'm so nervous that sounds don't even come out. I hum a little, and then just give up trying to sing. It's so hard to do this in front of someone that's so good at it.

It gets to hot on the roof, so we climb back inside and he sings in his room. I feel so fortunate to have this concert for 1. Of course I love every note and chord, but he's critical of all of it. And says it never quite sounds as good as he'd like it to.

We go outside on the front yard to sit, then he's hungry. We walk down to a Chinese restaurant where we are the only non-Chinese patrons. The waitress is super friendly and they bring carts around with food and he picks stuff for us to eat. We talk and eat and I'm enjoying this time. It doesn't seem like we got to do this back home. Walking back up the hill, we take a scenic route and he's picking flowers the whole way back. The colors here are so effing gorgeous!

The afternoon ends with a nap / book on a blanket in the front yard. The sun is really hot, but there's a cool breeze. We talk about trying to get on a ferry ride later, or meeting up, but then he's gotta go to work. By the time he leaves, he's in a foul mood and that pretty much continues the rest of the trip.

Thankfully, his friend and her cousin are extremely hospitable to me so I hang with them some the next day. We go to the Northwest Folklife festival, a free music, arts and crafts festival in Seattle Center. J's gotta work that night too. He tried to meet us downtown, but had a rough time getting stuff together that morning and before I meet up with him, he decides to leave. He can't take the crowd. N's worried, but I just call once to tell him where we are and to call if he wants. Late that night when he's rolling silverware, he calls us and explains how a waitress has walked out and the restaurant was slammed the whole time. Still in a foul mood.

I don't see him before I leave, but we chat on the phone before I fly out. He says it's the worst weekend ever for a friend to be there. And I try not to take it personally. I think he was stressed about trying to show me stuff while not having a lot of time before going to work. But I am glad that I got to see where he lives, and get to know N. and her cousin and friends. They have all been so awesome. He's still thinking too much, and worrying too much, and affected by the slightest things. But I see something good through the haze of all of the moodiness and awkwardness.

He reminds me of a friend I have in New York. And I love her to death. It's hard not to love a moody artist.
I see a lot of myself in them.

So he may be coming back east at the end of the year. I won't count on seeing him, but I will enjoy it if I do.

Seattle has been so amazing.

I call my daddy before the flight out and tell him I want us to take a family vacation out there so he and my mom can see what a beautiful place it is. I think they'd really enjoy it.

After a 4-hour flight to Milwaukee, a 2-hour layover and a 1-hour flight into Minneapolis, I'm at the hotel with my team.
I get sad for a little while, when I start looking through the pictures and the video I shot of J. playing that day. I wish I'd gotten to see him once more before I left. It will probably be a long time before I see him or talk to him again.

But, that's the way it goes.......I guess.

- - - - - - - - -

USAV Nationals. Our team is 1-3 after the first day.
We all have good moments, but we need to string some good moments together so we can win more.
All-in-all, though, it's a good day.

Hoping to seek out a good club tonight, start early, drink, dance my ass off, and then get to bed so I can be up in time to work the match tomorrow at 8am.

The trip to Seattle, p2

Started the day at a coffee shop in J's neighborhood called Soho.
Cute local place that started the day off right for me.

Reason #1: Radiohead on the Pandora every third or fourth song
Reason #2: Free wifi
Reason #3: Great coffee and egg, cheese and tomato english muffin

Everybody in the place seemed friendly and talkative, but not overly so. I'm wondering if it's the way people are here or if it's just that I seem more open and friendly to people since I'm on vacation and a bunch of my social walls get broken down when I'm traveling.
It could be because of the goofy grin on my face since I'm still in shock about being in Seattle.

I double check directions and leave Soho around 11, texting some people I'm supposed to meet up with.

I am completely unprepared for the total effing gorgeousness that I will see on the way from Seattle to The Gorge.
Water, sky, bridges, rocks, trees, flowers, snow-capped mountains, streams, farms, rolling hills.
EVERYTHING is so clear and beautiful. I'm taking tons of pictures and trying to drive at the same time. (I know, BAD BAD)
But I can't help it. I have never seen anything like this. I start to get a headache from changing focus so much. I can't stop looking around! I want to soak it all in. I am seeing the source of countless stock photography shots that I've used in marketing materials. And there really is no photoshop needed. These colors and textures....wow, speechless.

Once I get to the site, the traffic is pretty sparse since it's late in the day. I drive into the day parking lot, without having to pay? Ok, cool.

I get out of my car and it's pretty hot by this time so I grab my sunscreen and my bag and head off to find a ticket. I hear other people all around asking for tickets too, so I'm thinking this might not be as easy as I thought.
I walk up to the front gate, expecting to see people with stacks of tickets like at every other festival I've been to...but no. These scalpers are slick. They have signs saying THEY need tickets. It takes me a while to spot them because they look like people that are actually trying to attend the festival.

While I'm waiting around up front, I meet Tasha, a graphic designer from Portland who's there with her boyfriend, also trying to buy tickets.
A scalper offers to sell us his ticket for 175. Holy crap. No way.
Another one later in the day offers his for 150. At some point I hear 120. What the hell?
I'd rather just drive back to the river and hang out in nature...or chill at the gate for a bit and hear some of the bands for free.
I finally tell myself I'm okay with paying 100. So I tell some of the scalpers that, and they laugh at me and say that's what they paid. They have a system down and I'm finally figuring this out. They are shuttling each other back and forth from the entrance to parking down to the entrance for the show. I actually see a scalper buy a ticket from a girl for 100...he was agressive so I couldn't ask her first...and then in 10 seconds resell it to another person for 120. And he knew I'd been trying to actually get into the festival for about 2 hours at this point.

I started to get a little more aggressive and actually ask the people passing me if they have extra tickets. A girl walks by and says she might...but wait and she'd let me know. I figured she was just being polite.
She comes back from will call and doesn't have them, but she tells me good luck.

About 30 minutes later, I decide to give it one last try back out at the entrance to parking so I walk the half mile back up there and start asking people on the way. No luck. I walk down the row of cars arriving asking if people have extras they want to sell. It's humiliating doing this, but most people are pretty nice.

About the 5th car back, there are 4 girls in an SUV. And one of them is the girl I talked to before. She tells me they're going BACK up to will call to get their tickets and that if it's successful, I can get it. Awesome!
They ask me if I'd like to ride with them back up to the gate. Holy crap yes.

They are super friendly and offer me some goldfish and ask me how my day has gone. I tell them I'm about to just wander by the river instead of pay a fucking scalper 175 for a ticket. I'm hot and tired. And sad that people are so selfish and can keep actual fans of the music from attending a show just so they can make more money.

We get back to will call and hop out. One of the girls offers me a PBR. We get to talking about where we're from. The driver tells me she lived back east for a while. And works in the record industry. And knows people in DC and a girl in Richmond....who might be dating my friend?!?!? Such a small world.

Ticket girl gets back with 2 comps and I offer to buy one for 80 (the last ticket sales prices were 79) but am fully prepared to pay 100. The scalpers are following her and yelling in her ear that they'll pay 100 and 120 for her tickets. Driver girl and ticket girl look at each other. And driver girl says, "I really want this girl to have this ticket." So I think, sweet! At least I'll get first dibs at buying it.

But then they say, "yeah, thanks, but we'd like you to HAVE this ticket. We'll sell the other one to the scalper guy."

Holy.

Fucking.

Shit.

These girls have made my day. And have turned out to be some amazing people. Even before they gave me the ticket, they were taking care of me. But with the ticket. Whoa. I tell them how thankful I am and how much I appreciate what they've done. I'm still in shock, actually. Such kindness when they could've just made money.

------

So I get to see:

Animal Collective (for a few songs)
Sun Kil Moon (in passing)
Ra Ra Riot (awesome)
Mos Def (crappy start, but strong finish)
Bon Iver (words can't describe)
Kings of Leon (also awesome)

And the Bon Iver show was worth it alone.

I head back to Seattle at 11:30 and drive around the city with bad directions from 2:30 to around 4:00.
But finally find my friend. He's hanging out with some peeps, celebrating a birthday.
And we make a 4am grocery run.
Yeah, they have 24-hour grocery stores here.

Get back to the friend's house and I crash on the floor as they make food.
It's the best sleep I've had in a while and Justin Vernon sings to me again in my dream.

The trip to Seattle

I can't believe I'm even here yet.
I've done work this morning, so it doesn't feel different from when I'm in Richmond, and I drive to a coffee shop and freelance.

I got in last night after a 2 hour flight from Richmond to Atlanta, a sprint through the airport (since we landed 15 minute before the next flight took off), and a freezing 5 1/2 hour flight into Seattle.

On the first flight, I start reading a book that I think was recommended by the friend I'm going to see (and I later confirm this). It's called "the perks of being a wallflower." I can only get through chapter 1 because I tear up about 3 times and it gets harder not to cry with each paragraph...so I have to put it away. One of the lines that I remember is: "we accept the love we think we deserve"
It's a coming-of-age story about a teen boy in high school, but I feel like the author has cracked open my head and is writing things from my subconscious. So much has struck a chord with me in this book. It's a little scary.

I land and drive from the airport to the Irish Pub where my friend works. It took maybe 10 minutes. He told me to come there first and he'd buy me a drink before last call. I stopped to get a couple 6-packs at a convenience store, and got "hollered at" by about 5 dudes in the parking lot and in the store. Not sure what they'd call that out here, but I'd been in the city for 15 minutes and already got more attention than I ever get in Richmond....not that it's the type of attention I'm looking for, but still.
Someone told me Seattle was full of single dudes and the ladies are outnumbered...maybe that's true.

I got to the bar and he came outside to make sure I got to the right place and then ran back in to make my drink. Long hair and a thick beard. All black still. Red shoes. Makes me smile.

When I'm waiting for him to get off work, two dudes in the bar befriend me and ask me about Sasquatch. It's fun. Talking to strangers like I'm used to it. The bouncer yells for us all to leave, but then says that "Miss Virginia" can stay.

"Do you have one of those cute Virginia accents?" he asks me.

"I do"

"Oh, yeah, you do!"

Two words and they can tell.

I take my friend to the car he's borrowing, and on the way he notices I'm not listening to any music. He offers his CD's. I can choose the new Animal Collective, a jazz cd or Explosions in the Sky. I'll take Explosions in the Sky, since I've never actually heard it.

We drive east toward the house but on the way, he pulls over at an overlook so we can check out the view of the city at night from West Seattle. It's lovely. And reminds me of a time in Libby Hill Park, when we walked and talked and looked at the skyline in Richmond. He tells me how beautiful this place is and how he can't wait to show me around over the next couple of days. He says the view goes on forever.

His house is a decent size. He's got several roommates, but a proper room and a proper bed. We sit up and talk for a bit and listen to jazz and sinatra. He's a gentleman and offers me the bed and makes a palette on the floor for himself. He lights a candle and then puts on celestial harmonies as we fall asleep.

Seattle has been awesome so far.

Don't

Read this from a friend today:


Don't give temporary people permanent positions.




Truth.

it's official

Bon Iver albums...or anything sung by Justin Vernon...are my 2009 makeout soundtrack.

SEA and MSP, don't let me down!

Goodnight to what I thought could have been your light.

This made sense to me today.