So when we last left off, I was in the middle of finishing my final paper and thus completing grad school. Well, I finished the shit out of it, turned it in early, and got a 3.8 on it. Not too shabby. To celebrate, I ate an entire pizza, drank an entire bottle of wine, and watched Moulin Rouge! to celebrate its 10e anniversaire.
Earlier that weekend, I picked up my former roommate Heidi and her fiance from the airport, which meant I had to clean the apartment for the first time since spring break when she moved out. (That is only mostly true.) Anyway, they had come out for the iBall, which is the big library dance party, like prom! only with (legal) alcohol. I got very drunk (I was also packing my flask) and danced my little heart out and caught up with everyone. It was a blast. On Saturday we all went to lunch with Caroline and since the day was so nice and sunny we dined al fresco. By the time I got back from dropping them off at the airport, I noticed my arms were bright red. Really, Seattle?!?
On Monday, I picked Kristen up from the airport. We caught up and talked so much that we had nothing else to discuss for the rest of the trip. But first we went to a moderately-price family-friendly (American) Mexican restaurant where we both got margs even though we hate tequila and the word margs. Then we went to the grocery store and bought way too much food especially since we ate out so much, and in the end I had to throw most of it away when I cleaned out my fridge.
On Tuesday, we were going to go on an impromptu road trip to Canada, but then I realized I had my poetry study group that night, so we delayed the spontaneous trip. Instead, we hoofed our way across Seattle largely due to a logistical error on my part. I'd rather not talk about it. After walking forever, we got lunch at Specialty's Cafe which is the most amazing sandwich chain on the west coast (and Chicago). And you have to get an item from the bakery case. I got the most amazing cinnamon roll I've ever had, and I don't even like cinnamon rolls. Later we went to poetry and read a Frost poem that was plagued with awkward syntax and then a Mary Oliver poem and realized she is a total hardass. Later that night we made mac n cheese, and then we got incredibly tired and emotional. very emotional.
So on Wednesday, we did go to Cananda and that was an adventure. Kristen had brought her passport, so we thought let's go to Vancouver, especially since I had lived in Seattle for nearly two years and had never made it to The Great White North. We had our GPS on, even though I was planning on just taking I-5 all the way to the border. However, the GPS in its infinite wisdom decided we should enter by a different way, we mere humans obeyed of course, and I'm not really sure where it took us, but we eventually made it to the border. The Canadian border patrolman drilled us (and not in the good way) and when we told him that we were from Seattle and going to Vancouver, he asked us why we had taken this very indirect route. And once we had been let in, the GPS promptly shut off. Obviously, this is because Canada doesn't have satellites. or maps.
We did find an east/west highway, Highway 1, so we took that going west and eventually we did make it to Vancouver. So then we chose an exit at random and popped off the freeway and tried to make our way to all the tall buildings. We finally made it, and found some supposedly "public" parking at a business building. Once we exited the parking garage, we realized we were completely lost. But we did find a food court, so we decided to eat lunch. We were then directed to the Waterfront Station, where we were probably supposed to take some sort of bus to Granville Island, but we were futzing around with the sky train fare, when an incredibly nice man helped us pay the fare and direct us to the station we needed to get off at. Then we had to take a little motor boat to Granville. It was a very long, arduous process. Then we arrived.
So Granville Island is basically a huge market. It's the Pike's Place of Vancouver. I also realized I am not a market man. We had already eaten and had limited Canadian cash, so we didn't hit any of the food stalls. That left us with handicrafts, mostly jewelry, and I don't know about my fellow gay men, but I don't really care that much about jewelry. Kristen, however, loved the jewelry and the touristy shops. She eventually bought a large bottle of maple syrup for her mom, only to realize it was too large to take on the plane. After a Very Long Time at the market, we decided to head back on our boat and then sky train. A bus would have been much faster and probably cheaper. This is why it's helpful to do a little research even before an impromptu road trip, especially to a foreign country.
By the time we got back to the city, I was ready to go--and we didn't even get to see the library! So once we figured out where we had parked, we had a few scary moments. First we realized we didn't have enough Canadian money for the parking fare, so we had to go find an ATM really far away. Then we realized the business building was closed. So we entered the garage through the car way, and then we realized that, yes, the parking garage was locked. There was a number for the company that owned the garage, so we called it, but they were closed. PANIC! Then we saw a number for the security guard. So we called him, dragging him away from the Canucks game, and he was able to let us in. Thank god!
However, we still had no idea how to get out of the city or even the name of the freeway that would take us home, because we had entered the "wrong" way and our GPS didn't know where the hell it was. If only we knew how to hack into our GPS. Also, did I mention there was a Canucks game? so traffic was pretty crazy. Eventually we found a bridge a drove out of the city--a really, really far way with no freeway in sight. So then we drove back toward the city this time finding a sign for BC 99 North. Now, we wanted to go south, but we had found the highway we wanted, even if it was going the opposite direction. So we drove all the way back into the city, got off 99 North, made several left-hand turns in congested traffic, and . . . we drove a really, really far way out of the city--but this time with signage! We eventually did make it onto BC 99 South and back into the country--I could have kissed the tarmac (if there was one and I was the Pope, but there wasn't and I'm not)--and drove all the way back to Seattle.
On Thursday, we went to the Elliott Bay Book Company. I was planning on buying Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? but that apparently doesn't come out until November. Lame. Then my parents arrived, and I had to get ready for my convocation. I made myself pretty, and we took a taxi to the campus. I sent my family off to the Ave for food while I caught up with people at the reception. At the ceremony, our speaker was the CEO of Costco. He didn't say anything relevant to librarians, but his speech was blissfully short. I did learn that Korean cuisine doesn't really contain bread, tomato products, or cheese, but that the Costco in Seoul sells more cheese pizza than Costcos anywhere else in . . . Asia (or was it the world?). Then I was hooded, fluffed, and graduated. Dirty.
On Friday, Kristen, my family, and I went to the Space Needle and the EMP|Science Fiction Museum. Then I had to go to a wedding, leaving Kristen with my family which I think was traumatic for me, Kristen, and my family. I suited up and went out to dinner with Maggie at our favorite Wallingford Pizza House which proved to be unnecessary because they had so much good food at the wedding. We arrived seconds before the ceremony started. The wedding was short and so beautiful. So we socialized and then we ate and then there was dancing, but I had to cut that short to rescue Kristen. and my family.
On Saturday, we all went to the Seattle Aquarium where they have the cutest otters, and then on a harbor cruise/tour which was actually lovely. I took Kristen back to SeaTac, and my family came to my apartment to start packing. So much packing. And on Sunday, the packing. and the cleaning. On Monday, my family was supposed to arrive around 10 am with the U-Haul, only that turned out to be more like 6 pm. It's a long story. We loaded everything in, made one last stop at Dick's and drove all the way to . . . Yakima! We woke up early the next morning and drove all day during which my sister left her purse in La Grande, OR and we finally made it home in Utah around 9:30 pm. And that my friends is the story of my last week (plus change) in Seattle.
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