Seattle visit
We took off for a Seattle visit recently. It was SO good for us, on many levels. First off it was good to get out of town for a while. Nothing wrong with the homestead, but being out of town is good for wider perspective thinking.
I arrived with snowstorms on the weather report- thankfully that didn't happen. In fact it was sunny, cold and clear the entire time - which was an unasked for blessing.
The main purpose of the visit was to celebrate M's 16th birthday. Her birthday was well and truly celebrated - over four days! We were only told about two of those, so we didn't make it to all of the parties. That was probably disappointing for M, but since we weren't even told about it - it put us in a hard spot. It's hard when there are communication problems since that is out of my purview.
At any rate, it was really good to see her. It's pretty amazing to see this adult size person, with an overlay of the 4 year old girl I met so many years ago. I lucked out in the stepdaughter department as she's a really good kid. Her great grandmother told me as an aside that M was asked if she had any adults she could talk to outside of her parents and I was on that list- that was nice to hear as I have always tried to talk to her.
In addition to family time, I was so grateful to get time to visit friends. We left some excellent peeps behind when we moved- and I'm always happy to see them again. There is never enough time, but I try to make the most of what I get. I was really pleased to be able to catch up with babalonyieh and to spend time laughing with our friends D&R.
It is always interesting to go back to my old stomping grounds. I took many long walks around Capitol Hill. It's amazing how much of it has changed! Walking around the neighborhood was just a stream of memories of places I used to live, or where my friends lived. I must say that I wouldn't choose to live in that neighborhood now if we lived up there- the feeling isn't as friendly or as fun as it used to be. It's a weird mix of unemployed skeevy types and total condo strip mall gentrification.