road closed, parking change, two films, shopping errands
This morning, "J" and I went to the usual SIFF press screenings. I dropped her off on Seventh Avenue close to Pacific Place so she could get into the movie line while I took care of parking. I proceeded forward, intending to turn right on Olive to look for street parking somewhere up Capitol Hill.
Last time I was on Seventh Avenue, the northbound lane had been closed between Pine and Olive, which required a small detour that was rather annoying in the heavy morning traffic. I thought it was for some sort of construction, and that it would be back to normal today, because the construction signs were gone.
But to my surprise, I discovered that the city had permanently closed Seventh Avenue to northbound traffic in that Pine-to-Olive block; now it's a southbound one-way street there (and had been that way since the 19th). It seems that the temporary closure had been to change the stripes and the street markings to make it a one-way street.
Instead of going up the hill on Olive, I went up Pine a little way, took a left and a right, and continued on Olive. And the spot where I had found street parking was all full.
But I remembered seeing something when I dropped off J: there was a sign near the entrance of the Meridian Garage advertising 12 hours for $15, if one went in before 10 am, which was the same price I had paid for a surface lot on Pine, halfway up Capitol Hill. Much closer for the same price sounded good, so I returned to Seventh Avenue - by a rather roundabout route - where I found the parking advertising sign again. I drove into the garage entrance and proceeded into the depths of the Earth, taking a magnetic-striped paper ticket along the way.
Two films
The morning film was Nona, which seemed through most of the film to be the story of a young Honduran woman traveling with a charming Mexican man to the US, where she could escape the violent crime of her Honduras village and join her mother, who had fled some time earlier. Of course, that story was not only too good to be true, it was horrible: he was part of a human trafficking ring, and she was his next victim. The film was almost good, not at all in the same league as Lilya 4-Ever or Eden.
The noon film was Love, Gilda, a documentary about the brilliant comedian Gilda Radner, who had been part of the original Saturday Night Live cast. It was a good, lightweight documentary with lots of funny clips - and an ideal film to follow a film about a subject as grim as human trafficking.
Errands
After picking up "T" in the late afternoon, we went on a couple of errands. One was to Costco for fuel and a few grocery items; the other was to a home improvement box store to get lots of potting soil to use with our fairly large crop of tomatoes this summer.