Getting Lost In Seattle [and where did i put my coffee?]: Sleepless in Seattle

The last few days have been pretty uneventful overall. I did some more drawing yesterday morning. I was doing another postcard of a fish, when the wind blew it across the courtyard i was in, and a nice man picked it up for me; when i approached him i said "Thank you! You caught my fish!" but i didn't see if he laughed. I also found out i had $5 on a starbucks gift card i had found on the ground a while ago! Because i think they have terrible coffee (as i have stated before, and sorry if it's getting redundant) i used it to buy a butter croissant thing with some tomato stuff in it that was square and actually really yummy, but best of all free. After talking to the guy who worked there about how people throw trash in the "compost" can, (he said he likes to tell himself it's just tourists that can't read english and therefore don't know any better but we all know that's a dirty lie) he recommended a supermarket that has pretty good produce deals so i went to check it out.

I looked at their prices and bought some crackers that ended up being pretty delicious. They're called Wisecrackers and are made by Partners; i got them because they were the cheapest but they are manufactured at a factory that runs on wind turbine energy which is pretty cool. I also found canned beans with a pull top!(We don't have a can opener). I went to the Pike Market and talked to some of the locals to figure out some fun things to do. They recommended i go to Alki Beach and Banbridge Island and try to do a kayaking tour of Puget Sound which sounded really fun but also really expensive. After bugging them for a while, i went back to the hotel and ironed Nick's shirts (because he asked so nicely. And also paid me $5) while i microwaved an artichoke, which is something you can do*, apparently. Nick got home, we got dinner, hungout with his brother and girlfriend who are also staying in this hotel and had invited us to go drink shitty vodka with them in their room. It ended up being them flipping between the 10 channels on TV, all of which had really shitty programs on, Nick playing guitar, and me drinking a lot of shitty vodka. We went to bed around 11.

An artichoke and some homemade aioli sauce

Nick after a long day at the office. Ain't he a cutie?

I arrived in Seattle a week and a day ago, and without fail, when i try to sleep, i either end up tossing and turning all night, or waking up at weird times, and feeling super lame and basically, my wife didn't die, but i definitely feel like Tom Hanks' character in that popular 90's film Sleepless in Seattle. To combat it, i decided it's healthy and better if i just wake up earlier, so today i woke up at 7 and went to get breakfast with Nick. I then walked Nick to work before going back to the hotel and getting ready for a laundry day. I gathered up the dirty laundry bag, and brought a book just incase i had nothing to do. The closest laundromat, which is like 4 miles away in Capitol Hill, the gay community of Seattle, is called Lather Daddy**. I had the take the number 8 bus after walking 10 minutes in the Northeast direction, luckily for me, Amazon gave Nick an ORCA card which basically is an all access pass to public transit in the Seattle area, and Nick let me borrow it, which saved me $5. I got on the bus and didn't really check or care what stop i should get off on, so i ended up getting off too soon and having to walk a few blocks. I definitely didn't mind though. Seattle is such a beautiful place. All the houses in the area have big trees and there is moss growing on the sidewalks. The city is growing thanks to Amazon at a pretty rapid pace right not so there is construction going on all over the place. To make it a bit more community friendly, the big walls built around the construction site where i was walking had some cool historic information and murals and art work and even an installation of little green birdhouses.

I finally found the laundromat and did the lazy thing, where i throw all the clothes in one washer and turn it on cold, because it's way cheaper. The lady who worked there was really nice. They have this drop off service where you just drop off your laundry and they wash it for you and then charge you by the pound, and they also fold all your clothes for you. So cool right? There is also a dog that just kind of lives there, his name is Poe, like Edgar Allen Poe, he's ten years old and he gets really excited and barks one big bark when people come in. I was sitting at a table reading some local newspaper and he came under the table and let me pet him for like 10 minutes. It was really sweet. They also have arcade games and books and a vending machine with snacks, and it's air conditioned and clean. Why aren't all laundromats this awesome!? While i was waiting for the clothes to dry i met this lady, Luy (like louie) who is a DJ, knows a lot of drag queens and burlesque dancers, and told me about this place that has open mic poetry nights every Wednesday. I'm pretty excited and plan on going next week. She was nice enough to circle some events coming up for Pride Month that she thought i might enjoy.
After i folded the laundry, I hopped back on the bus and headed home. I made lunch (black beans, tomato and cucumber, only the cucumber was incredibly bitter and i was incredibly disappointed and had to pick it all out) and wrote this blog post. Tomorrow, my Uncle Jay and his wife Laura, who live up here in Tacoma, are going to pick us up and let us stay at their house for the weekend. I'm really excited to spend time with my uncle (he's my dad's brother) because i hardly know him and rarely get to see him. And a home cooked meal sounds pretty spectacular right now. I'll definitely have a lot more interesting stuff to write about in my next post. Hope you're enjoying my "day in the life" style posting. Wish you were here!