9/22- Seattle

The morning returned me once more to my buses, though these were far more streamlined than the ones on Saturday. Daniel lent me Walden as well which I started reading on that trip down. I'd never really read Thoreau before, I knew of his ideas and thought I knew about his deeds, but I'd soon be finding a drastically different man than what I'd expected.

I read the full hour of the first leg before I was dropped off in Poulsbo again for my connecting hop to the ferry. While there I kept reading until a kid swung by and asked me what Thoreau was bitching about now. He guessed at the same time that I spoke leaving us saying collectively, "Clothes". I have to say, I'm a little disappointed in the guy.

That kid and I only talked briefly before he realized my opinion of him. We both agreed that Thoreau was a bit of a whiny bitch, and that he had good overall ideas, but seems to fit more in the category of McCandless's breed than Ghandi or King's. The introduction clued me in to the fact that Thoreau didn't live out in the wilds at all, but a mile from his mother's kitchen. He, as well, goes on with the great line "I have traveled a good deal in Concord" to show that he is a towny. I'm not quite sure if I'm annoyed with him, or simply his icon, because I agree with many of his ideas. My problem, which I realized while briefly annoying this kid at the bus stop, is that what I've read so far all seems like theory that he doesn't want to strain himself too much for to test. He also seems to go on at length about his labors seemingly to let us know he isn't just a guy squatting on his Mom's land for free. I'll have to read more, but that's my initial impression.

Anyway, I got into Seattle sometime around noon, again with no real concrete plans, so I dropped in on Trish again. This time she was working at D'Annunzio's across from our old coffee shop. She made me a sandwich while we caught up briefly, then devised a plan to hang out later in the night once she got off of work. From there I put out some calls and hit the library for an hour. By the time I got out Laura and I finally made arrangements to meet up.

Once again, plan making with me is quite difficult when I drop into town for a visit. Not only because my phone usually isn't on, I rarely know precisely what day I'll be in town, and usually call when I arrive rather than before hand, but also because most of my friends are exactly the same way. Laura is one of these friends, though I had decided to turn the phone on for the day to try and make things run a little bit smoother.

Laura is actually a former employee of mine. I'd hired her to be a truck driver when I was running the SPUD warehouse mostly because her resume showed she was a sea captain and I wanted to have someone driving for me who I could call Captain. We've never hung out outside of work, which was two years ago, but we did keep up on occasional sporadic emails. When we met up that afternoon I found out she's far more nomadic than even I am.

We met up in the U-District where the college kids hover and caught up over a few beers then took a little walk when we got tired of that. I hadn't really known too much about her, other than the sea captain business and that she lived in Steamboat Springs as ski patrol for a bit. It turns out she's been all over the world sleeping in the streets of Johannesburg, drinking in dive bars in Laos and Singapore, and just got back from Chile not too long ago. Clearly we didn't know too much about each other since, while talking of Johannesburg, assured me that of all the places in the world that one I could avoid for safety reasons which just served to put in on my list of places I want to go now.

After about three hours or so she went off to meet some other friends and I went off to meet up with Lawrence. He was at his house working on a project, as I'm getting the impression seems to be what he is eternally doing. It took me a little over an hour to walk over there, passing through my old neighborhood along the way, and when I got there, there he was in his workshop devising a new type of dome structure. The more I learn about him the more fascinated I get.

He had some things to move around in his storage unit, so we chatted as I helped him out with that, then, after meeting his neighbor, Maria, he took me out for a burger again. I was a bit of a disappointment that I wasn't staying in town longer since he was going down to Portland the next day to go rollerskating with a friend and wanted me to come along. It did sound fun, but I told him about finding a job and all that, so after the burger I headed back downtown to meet up with Trish.

On the way, I reconnected with Penney and Robert and their adventures. It seems the fates haven't passed them by on their travels either. They had gotten into Portland, picked up their friend Joe, and gone down to Eugene to visit some of his friends. They all live in a coop, much like the one Todd and I visited in Oklahoma City, and Penney liked it so much she decided to stay. Robert then decided he'd roam around Oregon finding farms to volunteer on and learn while Penney brings in the real funds, and then he'll drop back in to visit on weekends.

I got off the phone with them right by the Merchant Cafe where Trish was hanging out. That was a hoot. Tricia always seems to attract the more odd sorts of folks, and tonight was no exception. We ended up drinking with Krystal and her husband, and Krystal was covered in ridiculous plastic gem jewelery that was simply amazing, yelling about her uterus and that her husband has many eggs. Most of the night was babysitting her, and fixing her flashlight that she broke when she tumbled off her chair. Its probably one of those things you had to be there for, but it was truly great. I haven't lost my breath laughing in a long time.

That night I stayed and Trish and Chris', her boyfriend. The next morning I rode the bus in with her and we were treated to a guy wheeling his "perfect wife" onto the bus. They were dressed identically in black sweaters, pants, boots and goggles, though the wife had on one of those S&M crotch belts on. She was strapped to his wheely luggage because she is a plastic mannequin. Through out the entire ride he was professing to a lady sitting nearby that his wife was the perfect wife because there was no back talk, no waiting games, and knew her place. Fair enough, I suppose.

I left Tricia downtown and returned to the library for a bit. Chieu and I had arranged to meet up after 5pm and I'd yet to reach Rachel. I got a text from her, however, on my way out of the library and within fifteen minutes we were sitting outside of Top Pot having a coffee.

Rachel's a special one to me for bonding over this kind of lifestyle. She's studying nursing right now, and when she started back up in school she'd told me it was part of her training to be a hit man. I'd never really dug that deep into my spiritual philosophies with her until this meeting and was amazed out how alike we are. After a little while in the sun we retired to her new apartment and talked for hours about everything. It was a really great visit. I even ended up pushing meeting up with Chieu back to 7pm since it seemed like leaving at 4:30pm would be cutting something really good short.

Eventually I did go, though. We both had friends to meet up with, and I was excited to see Chieu as well. I had to work the next day again, but by this point I still hadn't decided if I'd head back that night or the next morning. Chieu ended up making that decision for me.

We met up at my old favorite, Bau Haus, which was actually where she and I had met for the first time. From there we grabbed dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant on Broadway where we caught up on everything that was going on. Its funny, because her boyfriend, Scott, is yet another who has suddenly got a supreme interest in sailing and also spends the bulk of his days traveling the world. By the end of dinner Chieu, being the more organized between us, insisted I figure out if I even had the option of leaving tonight. I did, but I'd have had to have left right then, and she was inviting me to stay at her place anyway which sounded nice.

Busing back to her place we continued our visit. She'd rented Australia, an absurdly long movie, but we watched that for the evening drinking milk and eating truffles.