It's been 5 years since I left Seattle. The 1.5-2 years I spent there were mostly all about working and driving back to Van for KP practice. And it was towards the end of my two years there that I came closest to quitting KP when I had decided that it was time to cut ties with Hongcouver and put down roots in the Emerald city. Then my mom got sick and I was summoned home and the rest is history.
The point of this blog is to mark and remember the chapters of my life, and this chapter hasn't even been mentioned yet.
Last week I had to drive down to Tacoma to my grandma's house to pick up something important for her. It took me 90 mins to drive from the boarder to Seattle, another 90 mins of traffic to Tacoma, 2 hours all the way back home. This gave me a little bit of time to reminisce. Most of my time in Seattle was mostly unremarkable. I was mostly in workaholic mode. I didn't go out at nights, and I came back to Van most weekends (maybe it was only every other weekend, I can't remember) and the weekends I didn't go home I went to Tacoma to visit with my family. But a few things I do remember.
I was living in a section of south Seattle called Skyway. I was renting a room in a house owned by my aunt's friend. The house and neighborhood reminded me of the older parts of East Vancouver but the ppl that lived there reminded me of living among extras for a John Singleton movie. Especially when Daisy and Hilda, sisters from upstairs, had bbq's; it's like I was an extra on a movie set, so funny. Daisy, Daisy Daisy. I was in severe like with her, but that all changed after she met some of my friends. I can't remember who it was, I'm thinking it was VJ and Michelle, Nick and Mel, we all went to Gillian's for drinks. Every time Daisy talked Michelle and Mel would just stare at her like 'is this chick for real?'. I became really self conscious about the way she talked, and after that I started to notice things like all her tat's and her binge drinking, you know all the things that worked in my favour at first.
A few other things I cherish from those days. I rediscovered the Real World. Hilda and I would make a day of it. Watching the marathons drinking and dissecting the episodes every Tues. My first 4th of July. We had preferential seating on a private dock because a friend of the fam had a food shack called the Happy Hooker. It was like Canada day meets Flip day meets the Symphony of Fire times 10. I loved how beer cost the same as pop. I loved going to Lakewood Mall and eating for free at my Uncles restaurant and buying bag fulls of cloths and only spending like 100 bucks. I remember getting to know my American family really well. And it brought back memories of all my summers in Beacon Hill as a kid. It was also at that time I figured out that I could move away from Vancouver and be fine. But on the flip side it made me appreciate my city even more. I'm sure there is more to remember. After Europe I want to go back to Seatown and spend a few days, see what comes back to me.
Rhoel.
posted by R @ 12:23 PM
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