fancying that!

years ago, when i had a cold very similar to the one i'm experiencing right this minute, i asked the doctor i was working with if one could become clinically dehydrated from sneezing. "i don't know" he said thoughtfully. "it would have to be an awful lot." i keep thinking about that today. i feel like i'm on my way. isn't that repulsive?
*
the prelude to my current stasis:
i saw this on the burke-gilman trail and fell even deeper in love with this silly town.

beige industrial stuff, fremont.

beautiful tacoma washington.

...i really do find it beautiful. tacoma's a very interesting place. everyone talks shit about it, myself included... but it's photogenic as fuck, if you like taking pictures of places with very apparent pasts. my family grew up in tacoma. i spent more time visiting here as a kid than i did in seattle or olympia. hell, i was conceived in tacoma. tacoma reminds me of anchorage, with better architecture and more interesting topography.
my favorite building in tacoma, the old BPOE hall, is still there, in the same state of glorious disrepair that it was in 20 years ago. i've gone to tacoma many times specifically to take pictures of this fucking place. if they ever gentrify it i will be sad.
the spanish steps, reverse filter. the sillouhete on the left is a teenage girl with lip piercings and a scowl, who was standing there and reading a book the entire time i was there. the two on the right are two younger guys who were using the stairs for pure transit, not as a dramatic venue for brooding. another reason tacoma reminds me of anchorage: lots of artsy miscreants skulking around with nothing to do, waiting to get the fuck out.

looking back up the spanish steps. monkey tree!

an exciting government institution in olympia! i dig the linear bauhaus-y design. this doesn't fall into my previously-cited catergory of "who could have possibly thought this an aesthetically pleasing structure?", though i suppose it would to most people.

my parents' beer fridge. they have a fridge just for beer, because they're awesome. (ILY!)

...and back to seattle. viva la contrast, darlings.

things are looking up.

less pendulum, more abstract flailing

jethro got some new plants to perk up his utterly mundane and depressing existence.

killing time in kent: that is a phrase one should never have to apply to oneself. what a vile place.

years ago, at this gelato joint in fremont, i came across this book of boring postcards. it was titled, of course, "boring postcards." it was fucking brilliant: actual published cards of terribly bland 60s insurance offices, empty runways at municipal airports, whatnot. this completely vacant, random office park in kent reminded me of that book, and while i was waiting for these photos to upload i finally ordered it.
if you ever need to stash a corpse, this would be a good place.
*
the bionic cat, eating! my unofficial rule with my beasts: if they eat, they live.

this block in pioneer square (2nd and washington?) has been boarded up for years. when they first put the plywood up, the "beba's" sign was sticking out and i thought it was hilariously lazy-assed, but temporary. i took a picture of it then. now it's a mural. it must have been before the economy nosedived. oh, these times!

scenes from my hood.

unfortunately backlit. either i simply own a lot of questionable shit and her proxy is inevitable, or entropy only likes being photogenic near such things.

"can judgment, rational thought, or foresight affect us, once panic has hold? and can anyone outside, looking in, fully appreciate the frenzy involved?" -sallie tisdale

entropy and jesus!

pike place market.

more buildings within buildings.

the metal tree!

me, thinking i'm taking a picture TOWARDS the water. i was facing the sun and couldn't see a damn thing, and apparently pushed the reverse-image button.

people were jogging. walking their dogs. squinting. smiling earnestly. one woman was complaining about the calder sculpture. "everyone has a different idea of art" the man she was with replied impatiently.

this town is keeping up its charming streak. i am greedily accepting its skilled advances.

head pulled from ass

the poetry of razor wire!

a random wall in ballard.

i was in illustrious thurston county a few days ago. it is a berg of nasty memories i am trying to reclaim as pleasant present-day moments. stomping through melting snow at defunct-olympia-brewery-#2 is one such way.

the original brewery, circa 1898, is far more badass, but there was still about a foot of snow on that drive, and my feeble lower-48 car balked.
*
my hood.

fremont. in one of the stores i saw a magnet that had a '50s woman beamingly cradling two cocker spaniel puppies. "they're small and soft, just like my ex!" i laughed loudly in the middle of the quiet shop. and left. without buying anything. to take this picture.

you know what this is.

heavy rainier parking lot.

my issues with life, seattle, etc, have been directly addressed. it isn't seattle. when i was asked "so if you met someone in anchorage and they said, 'let's move to seattle', what would you say?" and i immediately replied "yay! i love seattle! let me show you cool shit!" i realized where my brain was. and today, god DAMN. today was like an abusive lover whispering "i love you, baby. let's never fight again." today was gorgeous and great.
seattle is a fucking temptress. no, let me rephrase that: seattle is a brooding mecurial bitch, but when she smiles at you, you feel like the only lovestruck fool in the room.

blankness

it's been a rough winter.
downtown, raining sideways. more hipstamatic uncropped mishaps. i like this one, though i would have framed it much more effectively if i had control.

i am vehemently anti-photoshop, so what you see is what i took.
tonight, lower queen anne. note the man with the blanket. he yelled halfway down the block if i had any change. i almost yelled back "i had to pay with my drinks with a debit card and i'm using an expired transfer", but instead i said "no, sorry" and smiled politely. he promptly turned away. i was no longer useful.

the route 8.

entropy-pants. i didn't plan the nose-shading to turn out as it did.

i can't see the trees for the forest. that's my problem.

snow in seattle

it's kind of a big deal.
snow in washington is not like snow in anchorage, where i had been 24 hrs previously. snow here falls on obscene hills; it is wet and dense and covered with instant skins of ice; there are no plows or sanders or salt to deal with it; very few people have studs or 4WD or, at least in my case, an ice scraper.
nevertheless, i'm embarassed: by my regional inexpertise despite many years of driving in alaskan winters; by my wimpy lower-48 car; by having to call in to work yesterday because i couldn't move my car out of its parking spot, much less to and from north seattle. i felt like quite the moron.
my lair, yesterday morning.

sledders at 1st and stewart.

broadway, today. note the utter lack of plowing. the snow, by this afternoon, was that mushy exhausting consistency. now it's powdery with a satisfyingly crunchy crust. snow brulee.

my neighborhood this evening.

gruel simmering at the lair. potatoes, basmati rice, 2 boullion cubes, a shit-ton of curry powder, a bunch of garam masala, a bunch of cumin. it needs salt upon devouring but otherwise... it satisfies in a sad way.
when i was ultra-poor, i lived on instant oatmeal topped with dried oregano for months. add salt and cayenne and, if yer feeling extra-saucy, dried minced onion, and DAMN: savory cold-weather victuals. try it!

the street right now.

the filtered lair, just now.

i feel like i'm showing a new toy to a dog. "isn't this FUN?" when it's really not all that interesting. i'm stir-crazy and jangly. my mind is focused on other things.

anchorage, part 2

let us begin with the 'money shot': westchester lagoon, -5F, magical ice fogginess.

point woronzof, around 5pm. i was arrested here once. i was 17 and out past curfew with an open bottle of harvey's bristol cream sherry. that was the first time my mother met my future ex-husband #1 (a classy sentence to type, i might add); the cop called her at 130am and made her pick us up. b sat stupidly in the back seat of her plymouth colt vista. "this isn't a very good first impression, is it?" he said. hooooo boy! good times. every fucking inch of anchorage has an anecdote attached to it.

i used to live two blocks away from this street (W 32nd?). actually, i lived two blocks away from it twice: once in a complete rathole bates-motel-esque apartment with pink bathroom fixtures and no hot water, and once in a fourplex with lavender bathroom fixtures that was across the hall from a convicted sex offender.
the ravens were having an eerie hootenany, which is why i took this. ravens are FUCKING AWESOME.

a typical street in beautiful spenard. note the hulking trucks, alaskan flag a-flap, and beautiful chugach mountains.

turnagain arm through the car window. i like the blur. sunshine that bright gives everything an air of gorgeous brutality.

i never went to gwennie's much when i lived in AK; it has a cheesy mediocrity about it, and the interior lights are unflattering as fuck. and most people know my story about THAT place... but it was near, and i could walk there in subzero temperatures whilst listening to firewater on my headphones, and i got to seat myself next to a beaver.
oh, grow up.

being back in seattle is lonely and sad.