News feed

Since my last post, a bunch has happened. To wit:

• My boss pointed out author-provocateur (provocateuse?) Norah Vincent's newest outrageous, ethically questionable piece of muckraking;
• my former NWsource.com colleague Jon Palmer drew my attention to the Times' new blog, Coffee City;
• Facebook revealed plans for another big facelift;
• and former Seattle Weekly managing editor Chuck Taylor -- aka my former boss -- unveiled his new Seattle Post-Post-Intelligencer wiki, just one of many online responses to the probably imminent demise of the Seattle P-I. Chuck has been interested in the topic of technology and journalism for a long time, so it's good to see him stay ahead of the curve.

In more personal news, I:

• visited my half-sister Lore in Los Angeles and took a lot of pictures (the image above is of a public high school, believe it or not);
• watched The Class, the Heroes pilot, and Atonement, the last of which was better than I thought it would be (The Class and Heroes were, respectively, quite good and just fine);
• saw the Irish band Lunasa perform on a wonderfully warm night;
• read quite a bit of Curtis Sittenfeld's American Wife, which I'm really enjoying;
• began to realize that my 20 daily milligrams of Celexa aren't, thus far, measuring up to my previous prescription, 10 milligrams of Lexapro;
• visited L.A.'s Central Library;
• consumed various authentic Mexican delicacies, including candied lime skin stuffed with sugared coconut and watermelon, cantaloupe, and mango cut in pieces, tossed in a plastic bag, and seasoned with chili powder, salt, and lime juice;
• and got my beloved car, Gracie, back from the mechanic. She's doing fine.

It's been a busy time, and I'm working full days (8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.) until St. Patrick's Day. I'm staying in Seattle this weekend rather than going to Vancouver, as I'd planned to do, because I'm in stop-the-world-I-wanna-get-off mode, and I'd like a few work-free days to cool back down.

Back in the saddle

Or, rather, the driver's seat. A miscommunication between me and my mechanic at Hilltop (on 15th Avenue East, a block from where I used to live) led me to believe that after $840 of repairs, my beloved '95 Subaru Impreza, Gracie, was still unsafe to drive. As it turns out, she isn't, so I'm going to pick her up Monday evening and learn a few things about checking fluids while I'm at the service station. I still plan to bus to work three times a week to save gas money and reduce wear and tear on the car, but mainly I'm glad that if someone's having a party in SoDo, I don't need to rely on buses, friends, and taxis to get me there and back. To say nothing of future open houses at Bastyr. Gracie, you're like the earliest Christmas present ever. I'm glad you're coming back to me, because I just didn't know how to quit you.

Do you like falafel?

You do? Oh, good. I had Hallava's falafel once at a Vespa event (those were the days, my friends -- the days in which I was contemplating buying a scooter), and it rocked my vegetarian world. Now I yearn to revisit it at one of its sort-of-permanent locations. It's kind of like a Middle Eastern answer to Skillet!

Also on the food front: White Center's Mexican food, in particular 16th Avenue's Taqueria Del Rio. Yes, I know, everyone and their brother has already experienced its bargain-priced deliciousness ($6.50 or so for a full plate of veggie enchiladas smothered in cheese, plus rice, plus chips and salsa!), but I have to add my voice to the chorus of praise. Also: Aaron's Auto Wrecking (the reason I was in White Center in the first place) rules for putting a solid $50 used tape player in my beloved car. Thanks, Aaron, whoever you are!

I can haz 1995 Subaru Impreza

I am finally a car owner. My very own auto is named Gracie -- the name just popped up when I was e-mailing my mom. It came out while I was typing, and I'm in no position to question the genius of my subconscious, though I did have a talk last night with a friend who reminded me that naming inanimate objects after women is kind of sexist. Still, my car is definitely Gracie. Her color would be described politely as blue-green and less politely as "what color is your car exactly?" She has 130,000 miles on her, yet she runs more or less like a dream. She was recently cleaned and un-dented. I'm so, so pleased to have her. I really can't even describe how pleased. Now I can explore West Seattle without having to take three separate buses, and Ballard without a 90-minute transit ordeal. Now, moreover, I can visit my friends in Lake City and Lake Forest Park who never quite make it to Seattle anymore. And I can drop by a Wallingford friend's house on the spur of the moment. This, friends, is what life was meant to be. No more taxis. No more Zipcars. No. More. Buses. (Except on the way to work, for another two weeks.) I'll have photos for you soon -- kind of like baby photos, when you have a new baby, or puppy photos, when you have a new puppy.

Awesomeness.

In other news, I had an amazing dinner at Elemental the other night with Angela. The flavors and textures of the meal were some of the best I've had in years. We had artichoke soup, a salad of dandelion greens and goat cheese, grilled asparagus with a poached duck egg, green chile cheesecake, ravioli filled with ricotta and green peas in a sauce that included mint, a fantastic cheese board, and a dessert sampler that included ice cream, little doughnuts, chocolate mousse, and a lemon-ginger pound cake with whipped cream. This is my new favorite Seattle restaurant, no question. I intend to get back there at least once more before I leave town. Maybe for my farewell dinner...

Finally, you may have heard that my alma mater changed its motto -- well, its marketing motto, at least. (The official motto is still "Learning and Labor," though you can expect an outside consultant to come in and mess with it any minute now.) This student film purports to uncover the dark truth behind the new direction, but if you really want some insight into Oberlin life and culture from an outside source, check out Lewis Black's visit, which occurred in the spring of 2001. I was still on campus, and I totally recognize some of the people in the video. I love that Black doesn't directly mock the square dancing at Hales Gym, he just stands in the foreground and lets it mock itself. Though of course it actually seems kind of sweet, especially in comparison to the harsher ridiculousness of the "real world." I miss the bubble sometimes.