Every once in a while, it’s important to sit down, stop worrying, and take a breath. If that’s still not working, turn on some Blindside [wiki] and rock out for a bit.
If that doesn’t help, quit.
If that doesn’t help, the problem is you.
Blindside – All of Us Lyrics:
All of us are searching for an open arm.
Well, it’s a shame how I curl up in the dark
When it’s the same old word giving me the spark.All of us are searching for an open arm.
Well, it’s a shame how I curl up in the dark.
I’ve wanted to go to Gas Works Park ever since I saw it in the Seattle segment of the 2008 Where the Hell is Matt? video. The park is the former site of a gas plant, but much of the machinery has been left as part of the park though the most dangerous elements have been removed or sealed off.
It’s actually a great park for scenery. You’ve got derelict remnants of the industrial era, Lake Union w/ myriad boats and seaplanes, green fields, kites, and more. The beautiful weather assisted in the wonder of the experience as well.
After watching The Bucket List last night, I’ve been thinking about what I want to do or experience in the duration of my lifetime. Differentiating between fantasies and meritorious items can be difficult; after all, the list is a hypothetical for me at this point.
Another difficulty in crafting a list is considering how realistic the items are. In the movie, the main characters do much traveling, race car driving, and sky diving. Not all of these actions would be reasonable or even possible for most of the people in the world. For instance, a Guatemalan villager may not care to travel to the other side of the world or participate in an extreme sport whether or not it was financially reasonable.
In my case, I have decided to focus on including items that would be achievable given my current life circumstances. I am also trying to include items that are not dependent on material successes, but a result of time, effort, and interaction with other people.
I’m making forward motion and I’m happier than I’ve been since ~ one year ago. Okay, not entirely true, I’ve had some great vacations, great times hanging out at Saturday House, and a lot of other good stuff going on, but from a purely career perspective I’m happier than I’ve been in ages. Not because of where I am now, but because of where I’m going to be.
It might be a little bit more than two weeks, but it’s happening and happening for sure. I’ll probably post more detail on Facebook or Linked In or somewhere slightly less “open,” but wanted to make the general announcement here first.
Yesterday, I woke up, moped around for a bit, then decided to go to Canada. Despite insistence that he didn’t want to face the rain or leave the apartment, Martin came, too.
Around 1pm when the decision was made, I threw some essentials in my backpack and we headed out.
As usual, traffic out of the Seattle metro area tried to slow us down, but we made it pass the inevitable jams and traffic accident. Made it to the border.
I didn’t know what to expect at the border with this being my first time crossing an international boundary by vehicle (other than once when too young to remember). We passed the American side of the border and waited in-between queued up for our turn while looking at the Peace Arch and other scenery. After about a half hour wait, we made it to the border guard, showed our passports, had our backgrounds checked, and proceeded into Canada.
We took a “creative” route to Vancouver and initially found ourselves in New Westminster — a suburban town where the mall closes at 5pm on Sundays. Purchased a map from a local gas station, got back in the car, and headed to Vancouver proper.
The first part of town we visited was China Town. I was shocked out how run down parts of this area were. There were many homeless people in the area and I expect from observing the alleys that it’s also a prime area from drug trafficking and prostitution.
We serendipitously encountered a Chinese Market where vendors were hocking food, clothes, bras, panties, DVDs, trinkets, jewelry, and more. I found a table where the vendor was selling Blu-Ray discs for $6.00 (Canadian). They had a Chinese movie I’d seen at Pacific Place in Seattle called “CJ7″ and decided to purchase it. CJ7 ended up costing me $5 (USD) and 27 pennies (CAD).
Through later investigation I discovered this “Blu-Ray” disc is actually a region-free DVD (meaning it can be played in any DVD player — most DVDs are restricted to playing in the region of the world you bought it i.e. North America, Asia, etc.) I didn’t get what was advertised, but I also expected it considering the price at the location of purchase.
We continued our journey in Canada by trying to find food. We encountered difficulties in the pursuit when trying to cross town we kept being halted by a race. It ended up being Vancouver’s The Nike+ Human Race 10k. Eventually I gave up trying to drive around them, stopped outside of Science World (from the 86 Expo), watched the runners, and took photos.
Afterwards, we wandered towards nicer parts of down and ended up in the English Bay area. Finally found parking after searching for 15 minutes, walked around a bit to decide on a restaurant, and ended up at Ciao Bella Restaurant (reviews on Yelp).
I was tired from all the driving earlier (and recovering from the stress and frustration of being trapped behind thousands of runners not able to move through the city) so Martin drove home. I slept most of the way, and ended up back in Kirkland just as Monday began.