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I was so sleepy. I'd hardly slept. Nancy was taking a nap. When would it be time for my nap? I showered, ate my leftover chana masala, didn't dare to sit down on the bed for fear of keeling over and falling asleep. And then it was time to head out to Big Time Brewery, the landmark where Dave Loftesness had agreed to pick me up.
On my way down to Big Time, I stopped in at Wow to get a boba tea. I chose barley jet flavor, which turned out to have the flavor and texture of malted barley. Combining this with the boba pearls was a poor choice. But the ice was wonderful.
I arrived in front of Big Time, and soon Dave pulled up. We headed over to a pet store where Penny was picking up pet stuff, and then we all headed over to the community of Kirkland to see how Matt and Davina were adjusting after their escape from Colorado.
They'd found a nice house. There was a downstairs area which stayed cool even in the middle of a heat wave. There was a garden with peas and corn growing in it. We went out to Milestone Grill, an air-conditioned restaurant with so few customers that our waitress made gratuitous visits and computed separate checks for lack of better things to do. We made our way back to the Kirkland house for further conversation.
I was worn out. I didn't really follow the conversation. I just kind of laid back and basked in their company. Later, I'd think, Why did I waste my time like that? How long has it been since I've seen these people? I should have snapped out of it, made some conversation. But at the time, I was just happy to listen to the talk swirl around me.
The kids, Torrey and Eli, were adorable. Torrey had realized that she could get grown-ups to pay attention to her if she asked them questions. Lots of little kids do this in an annoying way: They ask "Why?" "Why?" "Why?" You can answer them, but you quickly figure out that they aren't really paying attention to your answers. They just ask "Why?" again. Torrey wasn't like that. She'd carefully craft multi-word questions. The strange part was, she still didn't seem to pay that much attention to the answers. Or maybe our answers just weren't so interesting. Eli was getting ambulatory. I imagined that he'd be about ready to walk across the country in another year or so.
I renewed my acquaintance with Bloober the dog, who was still a lovable spaz. As I drifted further from consciousness, I wondered if my dog-fur allergy was kicking in, or if I was just exhausted.
It was Sundsay morning, and I was once again calling up Matt's cell phone. He wasn't answering. Ron wanted to know if Matt and his'n' were coming to a lakeside gathering.
Probably Openwave had given Matt the cell phone. My manager had said I'd get a cell phone when I started at Openwave. I wondered if people would use the phone to harass me, just as I was attempting to use Matt's phone to harass him.
The planning for this get-together had been complicated. Sua was newly pregnant. Ron didn't want her to exert herself. I couldn't tell if this was new-father jitters or good sense. Sua was pretty tiny, and it was easy to imagine her getting pretty tired out while with child.
Sua was a good hostess. Her sister, Soo Jeong, was a good hostess. Their mother was, I'm told, also a good hostess. Soo Jeong was going to be at this gathering.
If Sua wasn't going to exert herself, it was important that this lakeside gathering not be a picnic. Because Sua and Soo Jeong wouldn't be content to boil up some eggs and grab some food from a deli. No, they'd knock themselves out preparing the best picnic ever. Even if Ron convinced Sua to take it easy, Soo Jeong would undo this conviction once she got involved.
My head was spinning trying to follow all of this. Or maybe it was accumulated sleep deficit.
Amongst all of this planning, there was a knock on my door. When I opened the door, I saw a housekeeping lady. I looked down at the doorknob. The "Do Not Disturb" sign dangled there. "What is it?" I asked. The housekeeping lady grunted something and dodged under my arm and into the room. I wondered if she spoke English. Maybe she hadn't understood the phrase "Do Not Disturb". Maybe she couldn't formulate a coherent response to the question "What is it?" Maybe I was bewildered by social planning, but I reflected that some people are stuck in even more bewildering circumstances.
At the appointed time, I left my room and ambled down the hall. In a couple of minutes, I was supposed to be downstairs out in front of the motel so that Ron could pick me up. Now I was at the top of the stairs. I looked out the window. There was Ron's car, pulling up. I chuckled, and started running down the stairs. Clomp clomp clomp clomp.
I had forgotten about the building's low entryway. As I ran out to the car, I clonked my head pretty hard. I wanted to sit down. Fortunately, I just had to totter a few steps to the passenger side of Ron's car to do that very thing. While Ron shopped for a TV mounting bracket, I walked slowly and took deep breaths.
By the time we were back in the car, my head was back to 100% functionality. Our next planned errand was to go to a gas station to refill a propane tank. However, it suddenly started raining. This wasn't a typical Seattle "rain." What a Seattlite usually calls "rain" might be described by an outsider as "Stop whining, you jerk, that's just a light mist." But this was a real rain, huge splatting drops bursting across the windshield. Ron didn't want to ask a gas station attendant to endure this just to refill a propane tank. So we headed up to his Edmonds house instead, to seek shelter.
Sua was at the house, fielding a call from her mom. Mom and Dad had recently moved to the area, no doubt hoping to discover what their daughters liked so much about the place. Mom was studying English. Mom wanted to know if the "d" in "fixed" was pronounced "d" or "t". At first, I thought this might be some Korean-specific problem. I remembered when Joon had tried to teach me the subtle pronounciation of the "dolsot" in "dolsot bi bim bap". The "d" was harder than I was used to, the "t" softer. But the more I eavesdropped on Sua talking with her mom, the more I realized that English pronounciation of "d" varies quite a bit. The "d" of "fixed" is much harder than the "d" of "realized". It doesn't help when jokers like me pronounce "fixed" as a two-syllable word "fikk-sedd."
Anyhow, when we went out to lunch at a Korean place, I was all set to order the dolsot bi bim bap, since I'd had occasion to load its pronounciation into my brain's quick cache, but Sua ordered for us. The walls of the restaurant were covered with photos of pop stars and idols. Some drama was playing on the TV. If I'd just been clonked on the head a little harder, I'm sure that I would have picked up all of then-current Korean popular culture right there through osmosis.
Then there was the gathering at Matthew Beach. This was a lakeside beach on the East side of Seattle. I'd never been there, but it was great. There was a swimming beach, a playground, lawn, benches. It was a perfect place for a little gathering, a little croquet.
Joon and Soo Jeong showed up, along with Hellen and little Daniel. Hellen was talking, and Daniel was no longer just a prediction. Obviously, it had been too long since I'd seen these people. Joon had brought along a toy helicopter. A minute's pumping filled up an on-board air bladder that powered its rotors. It would zoom up in the air and slowly fly down to earth. The kids would chase after it, trying to catch it before it hit the ground. I also chased after it, tripped, and got a big grass stain on my jeans and a big bruise on my knee. Maybe I should have packed a second pair of pants for the trip. Somehow, none of the kids displayed similar klutziness.
Dave and Penny showed up, and were ready for croquet, in spite of the occasional bursts of rain. Joon et familia knew to get out of the rain, however, and took off. This was probably wise of them.
There was thunder and lightning. The lifeguard called all of the swimmers out of the water. We didn't let that stop our croquet game, however. I wondered if the hoops would attract electricity. I should have concentrated on remembering my croquet skills, instead; I stunk up the course with terrible play. We sought shelter under the trees when the rain came down extra-hard. Then I decided to keep playing in the rain.
It was nicer when the rain was falling than during the relatively dry times. When it wasn't raining, it was humid. Dave compared it to the weather he remembered from the East Coast. I thought of Chicago. We all got rained on. The play of the course changed as the grass became heavy with water. Eventually, Dave and Penny emerged triumphant and then everybody jogged back to the vehicles to avoid the next shower.
Ron and Sua drove me back to my motel, going past a huge NOAA complex and a National Archives. Obviously, there was some interesting stuff going on to the East of the University District. I made a mental note to check out this area sometime.
I wanted to walk along University Ave quickly. It was gray out, and I didn't want to get rained on as I searched for a place to eat dinner. However, my knee protested when I put my weight on it, so I gimpily hopped along and eventually went to Ruby's, where I had a sandwich. One of the ingredients of this sandwich was balsamic vinegar. I'm sure it was the best vinegar, but there was so much of it that the sandwich bread was sopping wet. For this I came in out of the rain?
Monday, day 6, last day in Seattle, and I'm ready to try out a new-to-me breakfast place. Chuck Groom and Ron had both mentioned that there was a good place around 65th and Roosevelt, the Sunlight Cafe. So I headed North, enjoying the cool foggy morning. The Sunlight Cafe had many strikes against it: It was a vegetarian place. (You might think that was a benefit, since I was a vegetarian. But I've had better luck with vegetarian dishes at omnivorous places than I've had with vegetarian places.) It was a brunch place, not a breakfast place, and on weekdays it didn't even serve brunch. And it wasn't open then.
So instead I had a bland eggy-cheesy breakfast at the nearby Scarlet Tree. Wow, there was a lot of cheese for such an early hour of the morning. As the cheese sent me into a digestive coma, I was able to calmly blink around as the waitress dealt with an exploding ketchup container.
Full of heavy egg and cheese, I slowly made my way back to the motel, idly planning out packing and transport. I looked up at gray skies. I walked through cool mist. I was back in the Seattle I was used to. Or was I? Was Seattle really back to normal?
A Seattlite walked towards me. I smiled at him. He instantly frowned and looked down. I was back in the Seattle I knew, just in time to leave.