little black journal

So hard to believe that today was the last official day of summer…  The afternoon nearly slipped by us in a lazy haze of post-brunch football and naps, but around 4:00, I peeled myself from the couch, laced up my sneakers, and convinced Shane to join me on a short Sunday mini-adventure (yes, I use the word ‘adventure’ lightly).  I was itching to get out to enjoy the sun and see something new, so we headed toward Lake Washington in hopes of finding some kind of close-to-home new discovery.  There is a large community garden in Colman Park that I’d driven past a couple of times but never ventured into, so we decided to make that our destination.  And WOW.  The garden is tucked into the side of a hill, hidden from view of the lake by a large grove of trees, and as we came upon it, with the late sun just barely skimming the tops of the tallest stalks of flowers, I was enamored.  We spent nearly an hour wandering among the rows of bright pink and yellow dahlias, leafy lettuce, and hearty squash plants.  So many lovely colors and shapes and signs of life.  And it was nice to get out of the house to enjoy a leisurely stroll with Shane – it seems that lately, all of our time and energy for outdoor activities has been funneled toward jogging (with Shane training for the marathon and me trying to work off those lattes and scones that I love so much), and so I’d forgotten just how nice it feels to be able to go outside and stop to smell the roses – literally.  It’s too bad that we only just discovered this place, as things are starting to die down for the Fall and Winter, but I’ll look forward to seeing what kinds of new growth and colors Spring will bring to the garden.

We ended our day-date by sitting for awhile down near the lake, enjoying the sound of the water lapping over the rocks at the shore and the view of Mount Rainier in the distance.  It was one of those very perfect Seattle kind of afternoons – a lovely way to bid farewell to what has been an amazing summer.

Today was a good great day – a totally open bonus day to spend however I chose.  Being that cafe-sitting is one of my most favorite pastimes, I started my day with a latte at a new cafe I’ve been wanting to check out – Citizen in Lower Queen Anne.  Good coffee, cool space, but a little too restaurant-y for someone like me, who likes to feel free to linger over a latte for an hour+ without any pressure to buy something else.  I cut my stay a little short to give my table up to the breakfast-ers who were filing in.  They did have a pretty amazing-looking crepe menu, though, so I’ll head back next time I’m in the mood for a solid brunch.

Post-coffee, I headed home and picked up Shane for an 11:10 showing of 500 Days of Summer.  Did you know that movie tickets are 6 bucks before noon?  Score!  Plus, I showed up to the theater with snacks in my purse, so I was an exceptionally cheap date this morning.  The movie was really good – smartly written and well-acted with a quirky/artsy vibe to it.  Loved it.  A post-movie lunch at Panera, a round of shoe shopping to find a much-needed new pair of running shoes, and I was somehow tuckered out from this wonderfully mellow morning.  And Lord knows that my ‘perfect’ day absolutely includes a nap, and so I spent an hour on the couch dozing while Shane watched the Giants game, waking briefly for each of Uribe’s home runs (Shane just couldn’t silence his excitement).  Refreshed, I took advantage of a momentary break in the rain to get out for short run to break in my new running shoes.  An impressively good dinner of miscellaneous items we needed to use up from the fridge, a home pedicure (on the off chance that I get to bare my feet in sandals at least one more time before the chill of Fall sets in), and I’m now settling into the couch for the evening with my cup of ginger peach tea and my book.  Perfection.

I am constantly looking for new ‘Schnell Family Traditions’ that Shane and I can instate and take part in year after year.  Today I think we may have found a perfect summer ritual – we called a couple of friends, hopped in the car, and were off to do some blueberry picking.  Our destination was Bybee Nims Farm in North Bend, which was beautiful.  We wandered among the aisles between heavily-laden bushes as Mount Si loomed beneath a layer of misty clouds in the background.  Perfect.

The berries were fat and juicy – so good in fact, that for every few Shane dropped in the bucket, I caught him popping one or two in his mouth.

The darling hands of our little helper plucked the berries from the lower boughs…

We walked away with over 5 pounds of berries, at the bargain price of only 10 bucks!  We’ve been gorging ourselves on them all day – sooooo good.

Today was painfully hot in Seattle, as we reached the hottest temperature ever on record here.  Now, I lived in California’s Central Valley, so I know heat, but I also know that in California, you can usually count on coming home to an air-conditioned house.  No such luck here, so once again, we headed right back out the door once we got home from work to seek refuge from the heat.  After calling a couple of restaurants in search of AC, and visiting a couple of others, we finally found ourselves at Pyramid Brewery and promptly ordered a round of cold beers.  Sweet relief…

After dinner, we spent some time hanging out at REI, fiddling around and waiting for the sun to go down, and left the store just in time to swing by Elliott Bay to catch the last remnants of a vibrantly pink sky.

This weather has been a great incentive to get out and enjoy the city, but then again, tonight we’re sleeping on an air mattress in our living room, because it’s just two degrees cooler down here than in our upstairs bedroom.  This is what desperation feels like.  (Yes, I do know that I’m being dramatic…)

Seattle is hot, hot, hot this week, with temps approaching 100 degrees.  I feel like it’s heresy for a Seattle-ite to complain about heat, since we always seem to be complaining about the absence of sun, but we are approaching the point of unbearable-ness.  This, coupled with the fact that Shane’s dad is visiting and we’d like to show him the city, is incentive to do all we can to get out of our AC-free house in the evenings.  And so tonight we headed out to Ballard for Thai food (after calling ahead to make sure that the restaurant was air conditioned), then decided to check out the Ballard Locks.  It was a great night to be out near the water.  We watched the boats travel through the canal, oohed and ahhed over the huge salmon that were running in the fish ladders, and reveled in the feel of the cool breeze coming off the lake.  Lovely.

When Shane and I started house-hunting two and a half years ago, we kept our search radius within a 30-minute bus ride to the center of downtown Seattle.  The place we ended up buying in Columbia City met our criteria, but still, the fact that it took 25 minutes (on a good day) to commute to 4.5 miles to downtown was a little tough to stomach, considering I had been able to walk to work from our old apartment in almost half that time.  What made the bus ride a lot easier to bear was the promise that the first leg of the Seattle lightrail system would eventually run just two blocks away from our house, thereby cutting our commute time almost in half.  And finally, after enduring two and a half years of roadwork and construction and train testing, the lightrail officially opened for business on Monday and made our trek to work so much more pleasant.  A few of the pros:

-  The trains come almost three times more frequently than our bus used to come, so if we happen to just miss our train in the morning, we’ve only got a seven-minute wait to catch the next one.

-  The downtown stops for the lightrail are in the underground bus tunnel.  This is a big plus, considering Seattle sidewalk bus stops are cool and wet for eight (or more) months out of the year.  The underground tunnel is dry and well-lit – a much more pleasant place to wait on a cold winter evening.

-  The trains are so clean and modern and shiny and new!  Yes, this will last for only so long, but it’s such a step up from the bus – I hate to rip on Seattle’s bus system, since it did serve us relatively well for the last couple of years, but some of Metro’s buses are looking a little ragged.

-  It’s just so much more cool to say, “I’ve got to catch my train home” than to say you’re taking the bus.  So much more urban!

Major kudos to Seattle for taking such a huge step in improving our city’s mass transit system.  We’re finally getting on the right track (pun intended).

This weekend was proof that summertime is just around the corner, as I enjoyed: slicing into a perfectly juicy watermelon; taking in a Sunday afternoon baseball game; seeing our little front yard garden grow by the hour; drinking several glasses of chilled white wine; jogging along sparkling Lake Washington; barbecuing in the backyard with neighbors; waking up each morning and opening all the windows in the house; wearing tank tops and flip flops; reveling in the feel of sunshine on my shoulders.  ‘Tis the season for all these warm weather pleasures.

Unfortunately, ’tis also the season for busy-ness, with long hours at work and weekends spent preparing for my next licensing exam.  But I will certainly be taking time to stop and smell the spider mums…  (Flowers courtesy of Shane.)

It has of course been difficult falling back into the daily grind after our 2-week fairy-tale of a vacation, but I feel like Seattle has been especially good to us since our return.  We’ve enjoyed good times with friends and neighbors, and we’ve had some great opportunities to enjoy Seattle’s multitude of entertainment offerings.

We hit up our first Mariners game of the season a couple of weeks ago and are so looking forward to more visits to the ballpark – I have made it my mission to learn the names of at least 9 Mariners and to seek out the best hot dog that Safeco field has to offer.  A daunting mission, yes, but one that will ultimately earn me the utmost respect of my husband, and so I’m calling it a worthy endeavor.

Last Saturday we enjoyed our first ever Seattle Sounders game at Qwest field.  Our friends had scored four tickets right at the 50-yard line and asked us if we wanted to go with them – um, yes, please!  The excitement over Seattle’s soccer club was almost electric, as people jumped and shouted and hugged after each goal.  Confetti rained from the skies when the team declared their victory – it was quite the athletic event.  It’s a bummer that Seattle had to say good-bye to their NBA team last year, but I am stoked about the buzz our city’s soccer club has generated.

Sunday I officially became part of the Aluminum Siding fan club as I watched my friend D’s dance performance at On the Boards.  She titled her piece “Chemo Confessions”, as it explores the struggle she endured in overcoming cancer a couple of years ago.  I was moved to tears as I watched D use her art to express the fear, the pain, and the ultimate necessity for strength that a battle with cancer entails.  I am in awe of the way she has turned her experience into something so inspirational and so beautiful.  I have a whole new admiration for her, and a whole new excitement about modern dance.

Last night we headed to the theater for a performance of Crime and Punishment at Intiman.  The play was intense and dramatic, and the intimate setting of the theater heightened the whole experience.  I could see the beads of sweat on Raskolnikov’s tormented face, the tears falling from Sonia’s desperate eyes.  I didn’t realize I’d been holding my breath throughout the final scenes until the stage went dark, the play ended, and I found myself needing to deeply inhale.

So, do I miss Europe?  Well, yes.  Duh.  But I am excited about the breadth of experiences that Seattle has to offer.  Looking forward to taking advantage of more of my city’s offerings!

We came back to a Seattle full of vibrant colors – it seems that every day something new blooms in the neighborhood.  I love the new growth that Spring brings, along with the promise of longer days, baseball games at Safeco field, and backyard barbeques with neighbors.  Dare I bring out the flip-flops and pack away my heavy wool coat for the year?

Schizophrenic weather today – a cool drizzly morning, a quick but intense afternoon wind/rainstorm, followed by a glorious sunbreak, and now we’re back to a cold, rainy night.  I guess I’ll keep that wool coat at the front of the closet for awhile longer…  But I’m taking solace in the fact that Spring is just around corner, as proven by my quickly-sprouting daffodils.  I had forgotten that I’d popped these bulbs in the ground last fall, so it was a nice surprise to see these nice little chutes of green growing out front – can’t wait to see what color the flowers end up being!   I expect that when we get back from our trip in mid-April we’ll be greeted by a Seattle full of budding leaves and blooming floors.  I love the changing of seasons – although I wouldn’t dare to complain about the year-round sunshine that I often enjoyed down on California’s central coast, there was monotony in the perpetual warmth.  And so I’ll endure the rain for a couple more months and look forward to another one of those Seattle summers that makes it all worth it.