It's Friday
And what a busy long week it's been.
I realized earlier today that I'm starting to miss my morning Crowd. I've only walked my normal way to work a couple of times this week, both because I stayed at home Wednesday morning to meet the movers, and because (as I realized a day late) my monthly TransLink pass didn't expire on Dec 3 as it might first appear (since it indicates that I bought it on Nov 3), but on Nov 30; I'm not certain whether the price is prorated or what, but it seems to be a pretty fundamentally bad deal if you don't pick one up within the first few days of the month, otherwise. When I bought the new pass, I went ahead and sprung for the Two Zone pass — the One Zone pass was exactly adequate for getting me from downtown to the last train stop before the office, but was inadequate for getting me from the office to anywhere else nearby (except back towards downtown), and also inadequate for grabbing the bus after work instead of walking to the train, if I felt so inclined. So, yes, long story short, bought the Two Zone pass, and have been enjoying my new second zone freedom to get off the train at the stop past the office and walk through the park to get there (and you thought I'd never explain what a Two Zone pass has to do with not walking the same way).
On said walk through the park this morning, however, I realized I'd only seen Usually Late For Work Banana-Wielding Sprinting Dwarf Man (I need to find out his name so I can refer to him by means more efficient for typing and less potentially offensive to Little People) yesterday this week (sprinting full tilt up the path toward the train once again — he's gotta be tired when he gets into work on mornings like that), and I'd only scene Sad White Jacket Girl on Monday or so. I don't think I've seen Pink and Silver Hair Lady this week at all.
It's like wondering where your family is, and then realizing you're the one who's standing in the wrong house.
* * *
I received my confirmation for the bus to Seattle tomorrow, so I'm in business: 6:30am I've crawled my sleepy self over to the Holiday Inn a couple of blocks away to climb onto the shuttle bus, 8 o'something-or-other I show my papers to the borderfolk (I imagine that being asked with one of those World War II movie Nazi official accents: "Vehr are Ihr Päpers? I must zee zdem!") and step back onto US soil again for the first time in a couple of months, and 10:25am or so hop off the bus in Seattle.
I don't know why the US soil thought is more weird now than it was when I'd been in Asia for two months, but it just is. Maybe it's because the realization that the US is very not-home these days has really sunk in, somehow, or maybe it's because I've never been to Seattle, so this side of the border is ironically more familiar to me than the southern side in this part of the world — I don't know. It's just very strange that my homeland already feels a bit like a foreign country.
Anyway, it makes me a little nervous that something may go wrong, especially on the way back, but I think that's because my transplanted existence here is more than just a vacation, and I have more to lose than a day or two of fun times to lose if a border guard gets cranky. I'm sure it's not worth worrying about, but still I've never had to use "They wouldn't let me back into the country" as an excuse for being late to work on a Monday before.
At any rate, tomorrow I get to see Seattle, and visit the cool music museum there, and eat some Seattlific lunch and dinner, and then come back and spend Sunday trying to figure out whether I can clear off enough floor space in the new apartment to reassemble my bar table (may put a temporary hold on that, since eating standing up has worked so far — it can always go into the storage locker temporarily), to assemble and find a permanent place for my computer desk (not as optional, since I have a lot of things I can't really unpack until the desk is there), and find a place for my pseudo-papasan chair thing not including On the Bed, where it currently sort of lives when I'm not home. I don't think my family or friends realize that I'm not exaggerating when I say things like that — well, maybe Emily or Natasha would understand, having made the roughly equivalent Tiny NYC Apartment Adjustment, but to all those people who equate the line between a studio and a 1-bedroom as something far greater than 450 sq ft, yeah, it's a challenge. Coziness will be cool once everything has its little spot, and once I've purged myself of all the junk that for some reason at one time seemed important to ship to myself up here, but until then, it means those things which don't yet have a place are mostly stacked on top of about 5 1/2 feet of other things and boxes which don't yet have a place. The arrangement has transformed slightly from a well-centered 8 ft tall Matterhorn sort of conglomeration to more of a hedge maze kind of configuration, and, although less conducive to getting to specific boxes and crates, the Matterhorn sure was easier to navigate around in a hurry.
I realized earlier today that I'm starting to miss my morning Crowd. I've only walked my normal way to work a couple of times this week, both because I stayed at home Wednesday morning to meet the movers, and because (as I realized a day late) my monthly TransLink pass didn't expire on Dec 3 as it might first appear (since it indicates that I bought it on Nov 3), but on Nov 30; I'm not certain whether the price is prorated or what, but it seems to be a pretty fundamentally bad deal if you don't pick one up within the first few days of the month, otherwise. When I bought the new pass, I went ahead and sprung for the Two Zone pass — the One Zone pass was exactly adequate for getting me from downtown to the last train stop before the office, but was inadequate for getting me from the office to anywhere else nearby (except back towards downtown), and also inadequate for grabbing the bus after work instead of walking to the train, if I felt so inclined. So, yes, long story short, bought the Two Zone pass, and have been enjoying my new second zone freedom to get off the train at the stop past the office and walk through the park to get there (and you thought I'd never explain what a Two Zone pass has to do with not walking the same way).
On said walk through the park this morning, however, I realized I'd only seen Usually Late For Work Banana-Wielding Sprinting Dwarf Man (I need to find out his name so I can refer to him by means more efficient for typing and less potentially offensive to Little People) yesterday this week (sprinting full tilt up the path toward the train once again — he's gotta be tired when he gets into work on mornings like that), and I'd only scene Sad White Jacket Girl on Monday or so. I don't think I've seen Pink and Silver Hair Lady this week at all.
It's like wondering where your family is, and then realizing you're the one who's standing in the wrong house.
* * *
I received my confirmation for the bus to Seattle tomorrow, so I'm in business: 6:30am I've crawled my sleepy self over to the Holiday Inn a couple of blocks away to climb onto the shuttle bus, 8 o'something-or-other I show my papers to the borderfolk (I imagine that being asked with one of those World War II movie Nazi official accents: "Vehr are Ihr Päpers? I must zee zdem!") and step back onto US soil again for the first time in a couple of months, and 10:25am or so hop off the bus in Seattle.
I don't know why the US soil thought is more weird now than it was when I'd been in Asia for two months, but it just is. Maybe it's because the realization that the US is very not-home these days has really sunk in, somehow, or maybe it's because I've never been to Seattle, so this side of the border is ironically more familiar to me than the southern side in this part of the world — I don't know. It's just very strange that my homeland already feels a bit like a foreign country.
Anyway, it makes me a little nervous that something may go wrong, especially on the way back, but I think that's because my transplanted existence here is more than just a vacation, and I have more to lose than a day or two of fun times to lose if a border guard gets cranky. I'm sure it's not worth worrying about, but still I've never had to use "They wouldn't let me back into the country" as an excuse for being late to work on a Monday before.
At any rate, tomorrow I get to see Seattle, and visit the cool music museum there, and eat some Seattlific lunch and dinner, and then come back and spend Sunday trying to figure out whether I can clear off enough floor space in the new apartment to reassemble my bar table (may put a temporary hold on that, since eating standing up has worked so far — it can always go into the storage locker temporarily), to assemble and find a permanent place for my computer desk (not as optional, since I have a lot of things I can't really unpack until the desk is there), and find a place for my pseudo-papasan chair thing not including On the Bed, where it currently sort of lives when I'm not home. I don't think my family or friends realize that I'm not exaggerating when I say things like that — well, maybe Emily or Natasha would understand, having made the roughly equivalent Tiny NYC Apartment Adjustment, but to all those people who equate the line between a studio and a 1-bedroom as something far greater than 450 sq ft, yeah, it's a challenge. Coziness will be cool once everything has its little spot, and once I've purged myself of all the junk that for some reason at one time seemed important to ship to myself up here, but until then, it means those things which don't yet have a place are mostly stacked on top of about 5 1/2 feet of other things and boxes which don't yet have a place. The arrangement has transformed slightly from a well-centered 8 ft tall Matterhorn sort of conglomeration to more of a hedge maze kind of configuration, and, although less conducive to getting to specific boxes and crates, the Matterhorn sure was easier to navigate around in a hurry.