We went indoors a little over a week ago when it was still summer and 80 degrees out, and it hasn't been safe to come out since then. As the smoke from the wildfires has settled in, I've watched morosely from the window as the leaves begin turning fall colors. If I watch things from the window too long, I get a headache, so I move to the back room ( Read more... )

Technically, "Phase 2" of the pandemic started on the tenth day after the establishment of the Capitol Hill Free Zone / Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) / Capitol Hill Organized (ha!) Protest (CHOP). The virus hadn't magically disappeared, so all of us quarantined in the neighborhood on our various group text threads conjectured that the ( Read more... )

Fast-forward from my last post... I'm sure glad I went to Hawaii because who knows when I'll ever get to go again. It all happened gradually but if I could see then what it would look like just a few months later, I'm not sure I'd believe it: Two blocks south of me on the south side of the park, thousands gather every day to protest. Everyone wears ( Read more... )

On Waikiki Beach, before the lockdown began, we sat in the sand with our toes touching the surf. "I love you," he said for the first time, going on to explain that he had waited until we were in Hawaii to say it. He's a historian, so maybe it makes sense that he'd try to control the narrative. I said I loved him too, but thinking back on it now, I ( Read more... )

In the afternoon around 3p.m. is when the light is best. I work in the dining-room at a desk in the corner. On sunny days, a perfect beam bathes everything in a perfect golden glow. Through the laurel bush that seperates my building from the neighboring condo, I see the neighbor across the way sipping coffee and looking out his window at the park ( Read more... )

I'm up to 40 birds since I last wrote. I've identified 40 birds since the pandemic started and I first bought this bird book. Who knew there were so many different ducks? The American Wigeon, the Northern Pintail, the Common Merganser and Green-winged Teal. Then the wrens--the Pacific Wren, the Marsh Wren, the Bewick's Wren. And the confusing ( Read more... )

"And scarcely knowing what she did, she stumbled forward and pressed the unfamiliar button, the one that opened the door of her cell."~ The Machine Stops, E.M. Forster ( Read more... )

1. What did you do in 2019 that you'd never done before?
I performed in front of a live audience of 18k people at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas as an 'in-audience reporter' for a data visualization game show--in a silver sequin jumpsuit. [File under: "Bucket List Items I Didn't Know I Had"]

2. Did anyone close to you give birth?
I did a semester ( Read more... )

I still keep a handwritten to-do list on my desk at home. It's more satisfying to cross off a task physically than it is to delete digitally. I'm very particular about this list, and it's always written using the same type of pen and notepad. Notably, my current to-do list is the most absurdly short and non-urgent that it's been in a long time. It ( Read more... )

Pete died in April. There’s still no obituary. Yesterday, Facebook reminded me that it was his birthday and that he would have been 52. The last communication we had was when he “liked” my post announcing I was moving from New York back to Seattle a year ago ( Read more... )