Babies and Tears (2)

The girl from the last post, whom I shall call Samantha, came by the next day and told me that she heard from someone, who heard from someone else, etc, that the Boy asked someone to push her down the stairs to try and get her to miscarry. I told her in no uncertain terms that if he did anything to her that caused the baby to die, he could be charged with murder. She told him, and of course, he got mad, but maybe it will cause him to think twice before he does something stupid and irreversible.

I think that one of the things that makes me so mad about this entire situation (aside from the obvious) is the fact that one of my best and closest friends is struggling with infertility. It breaks my heart to know that she WANTS a baby so desperately, while kids who don't want babies get pregnant left and right. Then on Friday, the woman across the hall from me went to her first ultrasound and found out that her baby had died. It seems so unfair.

I know there is a reason for everything, but sometimes it's really hard to trust.

Learning to Relax

Something about this school year was different than any previous year of teaching for me. Normally, I look forward to the end of the year with breathless anticipation, and relish those last few days of finals. This year was such a terrible year, and I counted down, counted down, counted down, and then the end of the year reached out and smacked me across the face. I don't really remember the last few days and the last day of school didn't really seem like the end of the year. It was weird.

Due to that, and the visitors I had two days later, I have really struggled to find my rhythm this summer. Last summer was so busy, and the summer before that was such a nightmare that I don't really know how to relax this summer. This is the first summer I won't be hanging out with my two best friends in the world. I don't really know what to do with myself.

In my other life, I sew. I make things to sell, although that's not going great right now, so I thought about it for a while and decided that one of the things that might relax me a bit is sewing for me. So I am focusing on me this week. I am trying not to go anywhere or do anything...just focus on me for a while.

Fireworks last night...were interesting. Last year K and I went to Gasworks. This year, I didn't feel like fighting the traffic, so I stayed home. And it was then that I realized that Seattle is SERIOUS about their fireworks. From where I sat on my balcony, I could see 6 different legal fireworks shows (all south of Seattle) and there were all kinds of illegal family shows going on just in my complex. It was crazy. I am not so great at the photos at night, but here are a few....This one is from the large show just across the river.

And these were of the family setting them off about 30 feet down the sidewalk. Proving that even "small" fireworks can be pretty neat. I did wish that the older boy setting them off was capable of aiming up instead of DIRECTLY at the dead grass right in front of us.

Hope you had a happy and safe 4th everyone.....

Tripped

Friends have come and gone and I am gearing up for a few short weeks of summer.

We toured Safeco field (very cool and TOTALLY worth the $9 we spent - and I don't even LIKE baseball!) This picture was taken from the roof.
We went to Snoqualmie Falls to see J's aunt, I had never been there. It's pretty cool, although I do like Sahalie Falls and Silver Falls in Oregon better. I did manage to hike all the way down and all the way back up to the top - kind of proud of myself for that.
We went to the EMP - Experience Music Project - in Seattle, they have a Jim Henson exhibit going on right now that is pretty cool. Outside the EMP is an impromptu Michael Jackson exhibit. I myself did not listen to Michael Jackson at all while growing up, so have no real connection to him. I am pretty sure my students had been there though....since he will apparently be "remered."This is from inside the EMP Sky Church. This picture is apparently supposed to represent a dog....any guesses on what kind of dog? My guess is for some heretofore unknown hybrid of dog and duck - A doguck, perhaps?

Can I get a woot woot?

So....tomorrow I will be the featured artist on www.stealsdeals.blogspot.com, and you can win something from me if you want to. Go to the above website sometime tomorrow and follow the directions....Best of luck!

Final Visitation Rituals

C left today, but before she did, we made an excursion to the mall. We were planning on going to Alki beach, but it was cold and rainy, so we adjusted. We just kind of scoped out the new look at the Southcenter mall (very nice...and HUGE) and C discovered that she really likes Delia's. I would too if I was a size 2 like she is. Jealous much. =) Lunch was at a great little burger place I discovered called Shake N Go in Tukwila. They have the most amazing fries. They aren't really strongly seasoned or anything, but something about the way they make them produces the most amazing fries. I then introduced her to the joys of crafting at JoAnns, and then we just made the train...Thanks for visiting!

C brought up a t-shirt and I made her a bag..I had an ulterior motive, I needed a model to use on my etsy site.

The requisite picture of C eating lunch....these are the best burgers!

Baa....Serta's counting sheep and C

C found some cute tanks at Delia's, and they were on sale!

So...counting all 3 visits I have had this summer, I have visited the following places:

Pike Place Market (repeatedly)
Lakeshore Learning Center
Lake Kathleen
Jimi Hendrix Memorial
Argosy Harbor Cruise
Seattle Aquarium
Underground Tour
Fremont District
Fremont Troll
Gasworks Park Fireworks
Lake Union
Alki Beach
West Seattle
Washington Park Arboreteum
monorail
Pioneer Square District
Tacoma Glass Museum
Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium
Point Defiance Park
Lake Couer d'Alene
Pacific Science Center
International Fountain
International District/Chinatown
Enormous Goodwill

not to mention eaten at some GREAT restaurants and ridden the bus and the train! I feel so much more like a true Seattlite (?) now! True, I am a little fuzzy on the details of riding the bus...as you can see in this post, but I did it! It was a great summer, especially compared to last summer, which consisted of (in this order):

quitting my job
cutting off the tip of my finger
having 2 surgeries
looking for a job
sending out more than 50 applications
phone interviews
flying back and forth between Texas and Oregon
being rejected by many, many schools
packing my entire house
moving 2000 miles away from my friends

Now....time to focus on school! 1 week until I have to go back.

Thunderboomers

Yesterday was hot, hot hot! C and I finally got to bed after watching Michael Phelps win his 8th gold medal of the 2008 Olympics, and then at 4 am, the thunder started. It was a thunderstorm that was actually pretty comparable to a Texas thunderstorm, with very loud cracks of thunder, almost constant lightning, pouring rain, and a 30 degree temperature drop within a couple of minutes. C and I woke up, of course, and while we enjoyed the cooling temperatures, with a huge and very close lightning strike.....the electricity went out. I dug out the flashlight (which surprisingly had batteries and worked) and found some candles, and we waited out the storm. It finally started to die down around 4:30 or so and we tried to go back to bed, but since the electricity was out, the fans had turned off and there was no air moving in the apartment, especially my room, so it was kind of rough. In addition, the lightning had shorted out the fire alarm in the apartment under mine and I could hear it beeping. We finally got to sleep, but the electricity was still off when we got up, so we got ready by candlelight this morning and my hair was doing some real funky things all day. =)

After church we ate lunch, then drove downtown and spent 30 minutes looking for a parking space (ARGH) before finally making it down to Pike Place. It was crowded, but we did see fish throwing and some great flowers. It was also warm and kept getting warmer, so we decided to come home after a couple of hours and chill.

C with her giant burrito at Chipotle's.

Pike Place has so many colors....sometimes it's easy to overload, especially when it is completely crowded with people.

C only got lost once today...that's what she gets for texting and walking at the same time. =)

I introduced C to Tully's, a better version of Starbucks. She approved.

Alleys are fun.

And for your listening enjoyment, some original Starbucks entertainment...complete with wandering and ill-dressed tourists blundering through.

Sleeping and Shopping

I told C last night she could sleep in if she wanted to....I finally woke her up at noon because I was afraid she was dead. =) We didn't make it to the farmer's market, but after we got dressed and ready to go, we went up to Renton and ate lunch at an Indian restaurant, then went to the biggest Goodwill store I have ever been to, then went to Ikea. We were both pretty beat from yesterday's excursion, so we decided just to crash at home this evening.

C wasn't sure how she felt about lamb nehari....it was pretty spicy, but I liked it!

This is part of one wall of glass at the largest Goodwill I've ever seen. It was also the hottest Goodwill I've ever been in...we left when we realized we were leaving sweat trails behind us like snails.

We drove through the International District/Chinatown on the way back from Goodwill, and they have cool dragons on the light poles. C took these pics out the window...

...and was weirdly fascinated by Safeco field, where the Mariners play. I guess she hasn't heard that they are having a terrible season!

We stopped at Ikea on the way back because C had never been there. We were tired after hiking through that store and stopped to get drinks. For some reason, C got hot coffee. I did not, but I did notice that Ikea has weird ice.

Alki Beach

I was having trouble with Blogger, so this is actually the post for Tuesday.

S and I were exhausted, so we slept in today and didn't get out of the house until almost 11:30. We went to lunch at Typhoon (YUM) and then went to Pike Place for a while. We ended up at Alki Beach and came back through West Seattle. It was an absolutely beautiful day (for a change) and a nice end to S's visit.

flowers at Pike Place were beautiful!! I love lilies and they are in season right now

there were some peppers strung up in the street..... and there were about 10 people taking pictures of them.


this is the fish right next to the famous Pike Place sign




Like I said, Alki Beach was absolutely beautiful, despite the tide coming in

Tacoma Time

S found a coupon in the Entertainment book for the Tacoma Museum of Glass, so we went down to Tacoma today. We went to the glass museum, then ate at a good pizza place called The Rock Pizza, and then went down to Point Defiance Park for the rest of the day. We went to the zoo and aquarium there, then drove around the point slowly. It was pretty, and was warm for a change...in the morning. In the afternoon, it went back to being cool and sprinkling. Tomorrow we are heading out to Couer d'Alene, so no more posts until Sunday night at the earliest.

Among today's highlights was a woman telling her two small children that one of the otters was probably dead, since it wasn't moving (it wasn't). Zoos should have a no-kids policy one day a week.

the ceiling of the Chihuly Bridge of Glass...pretty...

Glass rock candy sculpture....very cool.

lemur glaring at me.

the reindeer is totally sucking rock!!

the polar bear was sleepy.

walruses (walrusi? walri?)

the elephant was also sleepy...that's his head on the left there.

nifty-looking anenome with long tentacles

tube fish...they swim backwards with their heads downward


There are a bunch of gardens in Point Defiance Park and we walked around for a while looking at the flowers. I really like this picture with the bee...kind of proud of myself.


driftwood at Owen Point


The walruses were funny...and HUGE. Bigger than the beluga whales, which we also saw, but had a very hard time getting pictures of. I haven't listened to the sound on this, but there are probably some screaming children...sorry. It's pretty cool with the sound off.

Drama Queen

I forgot to post this...my cat Emma has some boundary issues, and felt that S was invading her space on the back of the chair. So...Emma tried to push S off the chair by pushing against the back of S's head with her back feet. Punk.

The Point of Seattle

Today S and I got up early and took the bus downtown (transferred successfully and everything!!) and met her sister L at the Space Needle and we spent about an hour up at the top. It was COLD this morning (about 50 degrees, and remember, it is JULY 30!!!) and a little drizzly, but it was still fun. Then we took the monorail downtown and poked around the piers and Pike Place, then had lunch at Steamers (mmm.....). After lunch, L had to leave, so S and I walked her back to her bus, then went back to Pike Place, and eventually made our way down to Pioneer Square and the Water Garden before coming back home. I am not sure how much we walked today, but it was at least 3-4 miles minimum, probably more because we backtracked several times, and of course, most of it was uphill.

The Space Needle on a cloudy day...

The EMP (Experience Music Project) museum, designed by Frank Gehry, as seen from the monorail (which goes through the museum)

At Pike Place, I was amused by the instructional sign

I gave S the flu. (Funny stuffed germs...who comes up with these ideas?)

We stumbled across this water garden south of Pioneer Square, it is sponsored by UPS of all people.

Trees and Shrubs

S came into town this morning (we're both tired) and of course, today is the first day it has rained for several weeks. The rain was pretty light and intermittent, so we decided to stick to the plan of going to the arboreteum and the Fremont district. We figured out that we walked about 3.5-4 miles, mostly uphill...I don't know why, but I didn't take any pictures in Fremont.

This is a bridge at the arboreteum

I just liked the way the tree looked around this lamp post


Did I mention the arboreteum was very hilly?

I don't know what this tree was, but it had beautiful red bark

S and some more stairs