Les-a-lee!
For all you language dorks out there, don't you just love the epenthetic 'a' in the title? Okay, back to your corpora....go on now go...shew shew!
My Boston dwelling sister, Leslie, graced me with her presence this weekend and inaugurated my apartment as being the first weekend guest. Now, in all fairness, Mom was really my first weekend guest, but I like to think of her as more than that...I mean, who would really make their guests help unload U-Haul trucks, carry up the box springs, and drive for two days just to WORK? No no, Mom is like co-settler. Jared, on the other hand, is co-founder, although he never actually got to see the place, but that's another story. I digress. Leslie got in on Friday night and left just last night(Tues). Apparently some schools in Boston actually celebrate Columbus Day. Here at UW, I think we looked at each other and said, "he sailed the Nina, Pinta and Sangria, right?". But whatever the reason, I had Leslie all to myself for four whole days. One cannot conjure in words the feelings of joy felt by seeing a family member/friend/loved-one after being surrounded by strangers for weeks. I had the same sort of experience when I was in Japan, and my friend from high school and college (and LIFE!), Danae Whipp, was finishing up her contract in Japan, and crashed at my pad before taking off from Fukuoka Airport on her way back to the States. Seeing her in the sea of bad-Japanese haircuts, screaming cicadas and sweating the day through was a feeling that the word "happy" hardly touches.
I think I've gone on long enough that I just need to start a new paragraph and get on with the weekend. I guess I'm trying to make up a bit for a lull in my writing (thanks to said-weekend guest ;). Les and I picked right up where we had left things in Newport this summer, and embarked on a really great four days. We managed to walk the hell out of the northern neighborhoods of Seattle (University District, Wallingford, Ravenna, Fremont), visited the Ballard Locks, made people blush in clothing stores by dancing to funky ambient music, both suffered from really bad gas after a great lunch buffet on the Ave, discovered Snoqualmie Falls and the some fun trails in the Cascades along McClellan Butte, silently and not-so-silently cussed out impolite hikers, slept-in, caught up on all the family stuff, had competitions who could make the ugliest face in public, had sushi on Lake Union, kayaked to Gas Works park and along Fremont, watched MAKING FIENDS and a lot of other fun stuff. And just as a side note, if you ever want to come and visit me and go kayaking, I will go for you...but only for ONE hour. That's my limit. That's it. After that, my 38 inch legs just can't handle the, as Leslie and I called it, "perfect and un-moving Roots & Wings position" any longer. I didn't hold back in letting Leslie know of my discomfort level, but by the time I was paddling back under University Bridge, she kindly asked me, "How you holding up?", to which I replied, "I'm fine now...the numbness is euphoric". No, I'm not a whimp, I was just biologically assigned a very very very very long pair of legs.
You probably don't care about my issues dealing with being long and lanky, so I'll cut to what people want...pictures. In an effort to further my photographically-challenged/undocumented-life cause, I managed to take all of two pictures on this trip. That's actually an improvement for me. Just ask my darling Jed. Ten days spent together in Boston and New York this March resulted in 5 or 6 pics (although they were really great, I must admit).
Leslie and I at the base of Snoqualmie Falls, doing the whole "Derek will take a picture with his freakishly long arms (that surprisingly go with his even longer legs) and make both of us look really distorted" thing.
Leslie's toilet of choice. We saw them EVERYWHERE and couldn't get over the name.
The best part of having a weekend guest...there's someone there who wants to get out and see things that you really want to see but have somehow managed to put off as foolish ideas. "Why would I want to go and commune with nature, when I have 300 pages of diagnostics reading to cover before next Friday?"
The hardest part of having a weekend guest (and being in school)...going and having fun and forgetting that you are indeed in school and really need to stay on top of your studies before they start getting on top of you.
We were blessed with delicious weather...truly. I don't know what I'll do when the real Seattle weather starts moving in. I've been so spoiled these past weeks with days of warmth and basking in the sun's rays. I fear I'll suffer from a panic attack with reality sets in...but in the mean time, I'm enjoying THIS reality!
So many besos to my sister Leslie for getting on a plane and flying to the LEFT coast (as she likes to call it). It was great having you here!
My Boston dwelling sister, Leslie, graced me with her presence this weekend and inaugurated my apartment as being the first weekend guest. Now, in all fairness, Mom was really my first weekend guest, but I like to think of her as more than that...I mean, who would really make their guests help unload U-Haul trucks, carry up the box springs, and drive for two days just to WORK? No no, Mom is like co-settler. Jared, on the other hand, is co-founder, although he never actually got to see the place, but that's another story. I digress. Leslie got in on Friday night and left just last night(Tues). Apparently some schools in Boston actually celebrate Columbus Day. Here at UW, I think we looked at each other and said, "he sailed the Nina, Pinta and Sangria, right?". But whatever the reason, I had Leslie all to myself for four whole days. One cannot conjure in words the feelings of joy felt by seeing a family member/friend/loved-one after being surrounded by strangers for weeks. I had the same sort of experience when I was in Japan, and my friend from high school and college (and LIFE!), Danae Whipp, was finishing up her contract in Japan, and crashed at my pad before taking off from Fukuoka Airport on her way back to the States. Seeing her in the sea of bad-Japanese haircuts, screaming cicadas and sweating the day through was a feeling that the word "happy" hardly touches.
I think I've gone on long enough that I just need to start a new paragraph and get on with the weekend. I guess I'm trying to make up a bit for a lull in my writing (thanks to said-weekend guest ;). Les and I picked right up where we had left things in Newport this summer, and embarked on a really great four days. We managed to walk the hell out of the northern neighborhoods of Seattle (University District, Wallingford, Ravenna, Fremont), visited the Ballard Locks, made people blush in clothing stores by dancing to funky ambient music, both suffered from really bad gas after a great lunch buffet on the Ave, discovered Snoqualmie Falls and the some fun trails in the Cascades along McClellan Butte, silently and not-so-silently cussed out impolite hikers, slept-in, caught up on all the family stuff, had competitions who could make the ugliest face in public, had sushi on Lake Union, kayaked to Gas Works park and along Fremont, watched MAKING FIENDS and a lot of other fun stuff. And just as a side note, if you ever want to come and visit me and go kayaking, I will go for you...but only for ONE hour. That's my limit. That's it. After that, my 38 inch legs just can't handle the, as Leslie and I called it, "perfect and un-moving Roots & Wings position" any longer. I didn't hold back in letting Leslie know of my discomfort level, but by the time I was paddling back under University Bridge, she kindly asked me, "How you holding up?", to which I replied, "I'm fine now...the numbness is euphoric". No, I'm not a whimp, I was just biologically assigned a very very very very long pair of legs.
You probably don't care about my issues dealing with being long and lanky, so I'll cut to what people want...pictures. In an effort to further my photographically-challenged/undocumented-life cause, I managed to take all of two pictures on this trip. That's actually an improvement for me. Just ask my darling Jed. Ten days spent together in Boston and New York this March resulted in 5 or 6 pics (although they were really great, I must admit).
Leslie and I at the base of Snoqualmie Falls, doing the whole "Derek will take a picture with his freakishly long arms (that surprisingly go with his even longer legs) and make both of us look really distorted" thing.
Leslie's toilet of choice. We saw them EVERYWHERE and couldn't get over the name.
The best part of having a weekend guest...there's someone there who wants to get out and see things that you really want to see but have somehow managed to put off as foolish ideas. "Why would I want to go and commune with nature, when I have 300 pages of diagnostics reading to cover before next Friday?"
The hardest part of having a weekend guest (and being in school)...going and having fun and forgetting that you are indeed in school and really need to stay on top of your studies before they start getting on top of you.
We were blessed with delicious weather...truly. I don't know what I'll do when the real Seattle weather starts moving in. I've been so spoiled these past weeks with days of warmth and basking in the sun's rays. I fear I'll suffer from a panic attack with reality sets in...but in the mean time, I'm enjoying THIS reality!
So many besos to my sister Leslie for getting on a plane and flying to the LEFT coast (as she likes to call it). It was great having you here!
posted by D-Rock at Wednesday, October 11, 2006
2 Comments:
I love blogging. It's the best way to keep up with people that it would otherwise be impossible to keep up with, though I'm totally in awe at your Googling skills, since I have no idea how you found me, or Theta Naught. Send me your email address, yo.
ps- I know exactly what you mean about friendly faces.
I am glad you had fun with your sis. Someone way taller then you just came in to the Tix. He scared Josh.
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