Seattle Then and Now
Last week I travelled two and a half days for a meeting that lasted one hour, but the upside was that I got to see Seattle - a town that I'd always heard great things about, but had never actually been to. Seattle has always been this sort of mythic town for me. When I was a kid we used to refer to Seattle as you might nowadays refer to Topeka or Altoona or the Okeefinokee Swamp - like, it was really far away and kind of backwater.
But by the time I got to college Seattle was the place to be. It was, everyone understood, a place full of flannel and coffee and great music and cute boys and if you moved there you would probably, like, be neighbors with Eddie Vedder, or at the very least some cute guy would pick you up at a grunge show and then after breaking plates and getting into a car accident you would fall madly in love and move in together.
And then, a few years after that, Steven moved to Seattle for a year to pursue his dream of working the night shift at a Mormon bagel bakery, which seemed like the kind of thing one should do in Seattle. Then he came back and we got married.
People mention a lot of things about Seattle (the rent is cheap, it rains a lot), but they never talk about how beautiful it is. They also never talk about the unnerving desire that hits you the second you step off the plane - namely, the odd feeling that you must instantly purchase a fleece pullover. And some coffee.
All of which is to say that I think if I'd gotten to Seattle earlier it might have been my kind of town. But at this late date, after nine years as an eyebrow-waxing, kitten-heel-wearing, pedicure-getting New Yorker, the town made me kind of itchy. I wanted everyone to stop wearing comfy sandals and put some real shoes on. I wanted people to put on a a little eyeliner. I wanted there to be less coffee, less biking, less recycling, fewer vegan lunch options at the corporate cafeteria. I guess, ultimately, I wanted Seattle to be more like New York. Except for the real estate prices. Those they can keep the same.
So I missed home and, even worse, home missed me. I have been paying all week long for how much home missed me. Milo cries when any one else picks him up, he longs for me to hold him and play with him and feed him and BE THERE ALWAYS.
I'm trying, little chicken. I'm trying.
But by the time I got to college Seattle was the place to be. It was, everyone understood, a place full of flannel and coffee and great music and cute boys and if you moved there you would probably, like, be neighbors with Eddie Vedder, or at the very least some cute guy would pick you up at a grunge show and then after breaking plates and getting into a car accident you would fall madly in love and move in together.
And then, a few years after that, Steven moved to Seattle for a year to pursue his dream of working the night shift at a Mormon bagel bakery, which seemed like the kind of thing one should do in Seattle. Then he came back and we got married.
People mention a lot of things about Seattle (the rent is cheap, it rains a lot), but they never talk about how beautiful it is. They also never talk about the unnerving desire that hits you the second you step off the plane - namely, the odd feeling that you must instantly purchase a fleece pullover. And some coffee.
All of which is to say that I think if I'd gotten to Seattle earlier it might have been my kind of town. But at this late date, after nine years as an eyebrow-waxing, kitten-heel-wearing, pedicure-getting New Yorker, the town made me kind of itchy. I wanted everyone to stop wearing comfy sandals and put some real shoes on. I wanted people to put on a a little eyeliner. I wanted there to be less coffee, less biking, less recycling, fewer vegan lunch options at the corporate cafeteria. I guess, ultimately, I wanted Seattle to be more like New York. Except for the real estate prices. Those they can keep the same.
So I missed home and, even worse, home missed me. I have been paying all week long for how much home missed me. Milo cries when any one else picks him up, he longs for me to hold him and play with him and feed him and BE THERE ALWAYS.
I'm trying, little chicken. I'm trying.
posted by Hana @ 1:30 PM
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