let me tell you about my city

[rivendellrose]

I love my city, and my commute this morning seemed like an unexpected series of reminders why.

For one thing, let me clear up a misconception about Seattle: it does not, in fact, rain all the time in this city. Seattle is more often grey than rainy. Rain happens... oh, let's see... well, it rained yesterday, but only for half the day, and that was the first time it'd rained during the day in a few weeks, unless I'm mistaken. Grey however, that's a pretty frequent occurrence. But the thing is (and I think folks from Boston and possibly the UK, maybe a few other coastal cities, can back me up on this) there are about a thousand different kinds of grey that a day can be. Today, Seattle is this remarkable sort of soft grey, where the clouds all blend into each other, some dark, some almost yellowish, some pure white, and everything farther than a few blocks away gets misted and soft-edged like a dream. It's the perfect kind of Seattle morning, I think. Across the lake, or across the sound, everything looks fuzzy and half-awake, but the buildings up close are sharp and lit with this wonderfully diffuse light that made me wish I'd brought my camera to work.

Why am I going on about this? Essentially, I felt like utter crap this morning, so I stopped off at the little Italian Gelato place between my apartment and the bus-stop and bought a real coffee (as opposed to Starbucks or the crappy coffee at my office) to trick myself into leaving the apartment. Because otherwise I was absolutely not going to go. The nice gentleman there paused in his morning coffee to make me an Americano (is that just an Italian way of saying "coffee for people who don't understand coffee?") that was so delicious I didn't need any sugar to cover the taste of it (a novelty if you're used to bad-office-coffee, as I am), and which I promptly drank all of, on the bus, on an empty stomach. Which explains why I am now absolutely fizzing with energy, while at the same time wishing I'd been a bit more sensible because I now have a stomach ache. But I am also awake.

The other reason I'm going on about this is that while drinking the very strong coffee, I read a collection of Douglas Adams' essays, and I have a terrible habit of picking up the way people write into my thinking. So now I can't have a single thought without it wanting to turn into one of his essays, and to be honest I'm just not half as clever as he is, so this is what you get. Rambling about clouds and coffee. Because that's about all my brain can handle this morning.

And now I have to login and start actually working. But before I do, I'll leave you with one last, absolutely delightful thought:

I finished the Dratted Fic last night. 41,150 words of absolute crap that needs more editing than I probably have breath in my body, but I've got a draft. And that's a very good thing.

Comments

[beam-oflight.livejournal.com]

Yep a lot of grey here *hates winter*.

What sort of things were the essays on?

Yay for finishing! Good luck with the editing!

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

It's funny, you know... I don't really mind winter until right about this time of year, when spring is so close but not quite here. Especially since Seattle can't really rely on good weather until after the 5th of July. :P

The essays are a total mishmash - pretty much everything that was on his computer when he died in 01. Tea, rhinos, his feelings about new years' resolutions... absolutely everything. He's such a funny guy, it's been great reading it.

Thank you!

[sigelphoenix.livejournal.com]

What a lovely description of Seattle. I do love my city, though I haven't taken the time to really notice it like that lately.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I keep meaning to write more about it, but it always gets put off, somehow.

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

I like the clouds, and even occasionally the light drizzles of rain, but it's the summers I live for, here. Or at least the clear days, when you can come over a rise or even around the corner, and suddenly there are snow-capped mountains right there. My breath still catches in my throat occasionally when I see that.

Maybe it's just cause I'm from the Midwest.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Nah, it's not just you or the Midwest thing - I grew up here, and I still get caught by it. Mountains and water - those two things right next to each other are a big part of why I love this area.

[shadawyn.livejournal.com]

Everytime M is like "lets move to XYZ city! It'll be an adventure!" I'm like "uh, no." Mostly it's because my career is here, as are all my friends and the family I can stand, but also because I love Seattle. Me'n Seattle get along in a lot of ways I'm not sure I would in another.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I think I could handle another coastal city on the same general latitude... which would pretty much mean Boston, which I loved, or somewhere in northwestern Europe. Even then I suppose I'd miss Seattle a lot... but I'm convinced I'd go nuts if I moved very far in-land. My reaction to places in the middle of the country is always a sort of panic - Too much flat! Too little water! Not right, not right, must get back to the coast!!! ;)