Days 88 - 90: With a Reserved Demeanor and a Sarcastic Quip...

I'm lumping my Three days spent in Seattle into one post, because all the days were pretty similar and all had very little to do with cycling.

Surprise, surprise, I really, really like Seattle. Every city I've been to has surprised me with its beauty and originality, and I think it's symptomatic of a mindset that runs rampant in NYC. Since moving to Brooklyn, I've relegated every city in North America that isn't New York to a second tier status; looked down my nose at these lesser cities as 'less than' in size, population, and coolness, rather than unique entities that have their own unique atmosphere and ambitions. There's very little I can do in NYC that I can't do in Chicago or Seattle. For the first time in years, I can see myself living in another American city outside of New York. Thank you Seattle, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, and Chicago; thank you for relieving me of that self-centered mindset. All that being said... I really miss New York... I'm a little worried about spending two months in Los Angeles. I think I might go nuts. I'm not a huge fan of that town.

Tomorrow I will get back on the bike, bound for Portland. It's strange to think that I have only 3 days of cycling left, and only 8 days of traveling left. It's scary, but I can't yet worry about that... these past four days I have grown soft and doughy, and I will need to get my 'A Game' back before hitting the road tomorrow. It occurs to me that I never printed out the maps that Mike R. emailed me. Tomorrow could be interesting.

List of things I did/saw in Seattle:

1. Capitol Hill

2. The Bridge Troll in Fremont

3. The Lenin Statue in Fremont

4. The Space Needle

5. Volunteer Park

6. Waterfront Park

7. Pioneer Square

8. Pike Street Fish Market

9. Rode my bike all over the place, especially back alleys

10. Saw Gone Baby Gone. Had its problems, but overall very good.

11. Saw Michael Clayton... same deal.

12. Booked a Greyhound ticket from Portland to Los Angeles

13. Befriended a South Korean named Chanyong(?)

14. Caught up on my blog/correspondence

15. Got wet and stayed wet for 4 days

16. Saw a cyclist get a ticket for running a red light.

17. REI

18. Other Stuff:These 2 players are probably so excited because one of them did a very good job either catching or throwing a football.

**** Addendum!****

Later that evening, our protagonist remembers some other stuff he thought he would mention....

Tonight while I was at the movie theatre, I accidentally dropped my hostel room key card under the seat. I walked all the way back to the hostel before realizing this. Immediately I knew the odds were against me recovering this key card tonight... but I was hoping to get an early start tomorrow, so I guess I had better try, right? It was 1:30am, and the streets were mostly empty except for homeless people. I got to the mall complex and the doors were locked, I was expecting this so I flagged down a guy who was pressure washing the sidewalk and got him to let me in... I took the elevator to the 4th floor, but the doors to the theatre complex were locked. I banged on the window for 20 minutes while a night crew cleaning woman pretended not to hear me. I didn't begrudge her, she probably didn't want to get into trouble for letting in some strange kid after hours.

Eventually a short mexican night crew cleaning guy opened the door, but would not let me in. I tried explaining my case, but he did not speak a word of english and kept repeating "I don't know". I tried pantomiming my case, and to make the matter simple, I pretended that i was missing my car keys. Driving a car is much easier to pantomime than entering a hostel door. "I don't know" he continued to say. Eventually i just started walking forward through the doorway and he moved out of my way. I said "Gracias" as I headed to the escalator and didn't look back to see if he was upset with me. And indeed my key card was sitting on the ground right beneath my seat. I felt pretty triumphant; so proud of myself that i felt the need to hurry home and blog about it!

The walk home was nice. Brimming with self confidence, I would've welcomed some masked gunman to try and rob me. I probably would have given him the wallet, but with a cool, steely, reserved demeanor, and a sarcastic quip.

Another much shorter anecdote I wanted to mention was when some kid in McDonalds was convinced that I was Aesop Rock. I told him that I am not, and he didn't believe me. Apparently Aesop Rock was playing a show in the area, and this kid was confident I was him. He kept pestering me with questions while I ate. And so I ate quickly. I left McDonalds with this kid still sure I was Aesop Rock. Maybe it was the hat I was wearing. Maybe it could be a very easy Halloween Costume this year?