Kathlyn in Abu Dhabi

My filmmaker friend Kathlyn is in the United Arab Emirates for work through October, so she's started a blog to document her experience.

Greetings from Big Sky Country

After arriving yesterday afternoon at Helena Regional Airport, I quickly noticed that Montanans are friendlier than Seattleites. By a wide margin. They strike up conversations simply because they're in the same space as you. They offer you fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies when you check into their hotels. They share taxis with you, to be friendly but also because there's only one taxi company in town, and sometimes the next cab won't be coming for an hour. We asked our driver how long she'd lived in Helena -- she was born around here -- and she said: "Too long." I shared the car with a nice couple visiting from Alaska. They had a satisfyingly negative view of Sarah Palin and Ted Stevens; the wife was in town to help lead a yoga retreat.

Last night, the groom's male friends, myself included, threw him an impromptu "bachelor party" that was really just a brief bar-hopping spree. We met some locals, discussed marriage and relationships, and got to bed by 1 a.m. Today I had a crepe for breakfast and read The New Yorker, got my Facebook fix, and had a fantastic veggie burger for lunch at an (ostensibly) Irish pub. Now I'm about to go swimming in the hotel's heated pool. The ceremony isn't until four o'clock. (Did I mention I'm in town for the wedding of my Oberlin friends Jesse Groman and Abby Person?)

The rehearsal dinner last night was splendid, and just the way I want mine to be someday: relaxed, fun, and full of nice people and delicious food. And random dogs. And homemade lemon sorbet for dessert, served in emptied-out lemon halves. This mini-vacation I'm on was sorely needed, and I hope to take more weekend trips in the near-ish future. Sometimes a change of scenery can be incredibly refreshing. (By the way, the picture above is of Helena's downtown cathedral, which I hope to see before I leave town tomorrow afternoon.)

Pictures from my mom's recent trip to Poland

She took them on her newish digital camera and uploaded them herself. I'm so proud!

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.

JDate Village '09

It's like the Olympic Village. Except here the sport is finding an attractive Jew to marry.

A friend has already voiced her unwillingness to go, but if you go, please blog about it at Jew-ish.com. I'll even lend you my login. I'm just that eager to know what the hell actually goes on at these things. I mean, besides the obvious rum 'n' hookup combo.

Now I'm DEFINITELY going

Looks like there oughta be room for me and Kate after all.

I made it to Motown!

The married military man and the elderly lady in the seats behind me on the plane talked for three and a half straight hours, preventing me from sleeping (though admittedly I spent at least an hour of that time reading The New Yorker, and another half-hour listening to the Avenue Q soundtrack on my iPod), but I'm here! And my mother's dog is as cute as ever, and my mother herself is mildly obsessed with Trader Joe's (the fridge is filled with TJ's stuff, and it's almost frighteningly well organized), and I'm making stuffed mushroom caps for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, and all is right with the world. Oh, and Calvin Trillin's piece on barbecue in the New Yorker food issue is every bit as good as Michael claimed it was. Mimi Sheraton's ode to brodetto is great, too -- makes me want to go back to Italy. (I still remember meeting Ms. Sheraton at Salumi, with Roger Downey providing the introduction. Those were the days...)

Where I am going, for sure, is the Inauguration! I'm very excited. I'll probably spend about ten days on the East Coast in total -- several days in New York before Jan. 20, and several days after. I can't wait!

My piece on Jewish motorcycling is live!

Enjoy!

Gazpacho and tortilla, coming soon to the Hill

The spot across from the Harvard Exit has been a Greek restaurant, a molecular-gastronomy mecca, and even a dessert cafe. Now, according to the Capitol Hill Blog, it'll be serving up tapas, including gazpacho and a real, honest-to-goodness Spanish tortilla. Since I haven't been able to get to Spain since I spent a semester there in 2000, this is a nice reminder of my undying love for two of Spanish cuisine's few vegetarian specialties.

One day, I'll see the world

My former boss sent me this wonderful video:


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

"A friend of mine sent this to me and for some reason it made me think of you," she wrote, which is very sweet. I do want to travel the world, and this is a great reminder that it's okay to start off alone -- you meet people along the way, and sometimes being alone is fine, because you get to dance with a dog, or you get totally drenched by a big wave. (Of course, someone must have been filming the guy at every stop, but let's ignore that for the moment.) This kind of thing really helps me keep my travel goal in mind. Thanks, Jane!

A nice weekend out of town

I spent this past weekend in Long Beach, Wash., with my friend Elana's family. We hiked, played Taboo, swam, played water basketball and tetherball, grilled veggie skewers, chicken, and veggie dogs, saw two lighthouses on Cape Disappointment, splashed around Waikiki Beach (so named, supposedly, because a Hawaiian sailor once washed up on its shores), and just generally had a nice time. It was exactly what I needed after a tough week. The picture above is of Ari, the lovable Kupor dog.

Alan Ball at SIFF

There are few people I consistently refer to as heroes of mine, but American Beauty screenwriter and Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball is one of them. (Roger Ebert is another.) To my delight, I found out tonight that Mr. Ball will be attending both SIFF screenings of his new movie, Towelhead, which is based on the novel of the same name. Without much hesitation, I snapped up a few tickets.

The catch? The screening I'm attending happens June 14, when I was theoretically going to be in California. My June travel plans hadn't really snapped into place for me until tonight; now I think I'll spend a weekend or more in Portland between June 1 and the date of the screening, then drive down after the screening to Sacramento to visit my friend Emily Page, a former Weeklyite who now works at the Sacramento News & Review. I could also use part of June to prepare for my eventual exodus from Seattle, which should be happening later in the summer, after my Eurotrip.

In any case, the Alan Ball screening/appearance is a nice anchor for next month's planning. I think I'd regret missing an opportunity to see him in person, and having June even a little bit more figured out is kind of liberating. Not that unemployment has been particularly harsh so far. I'll make sure to blog about it when it bears down on me with all its guilt-inducing, monotonous force. But the first week hasn't been too bad.

It has benefits, just not the usual kind

Yep. I'll likely be heading down the West Coast in early June; in July, it's on to Europe; and eventually I'll say goodbye to Seattle. But you know what? For now my job is going to Madison Beach Park, as I did today, and soaking up some rays. I had a fantastic last day: a mellow six hours at work, root beer floats (organic root beer + Häagen-Dazs = awesomeness), a nice time at the beach with Sarah from work, and a festive last-day-of-work dinner at Cafe Lago with Alka. Oh, and also tea at 22 Doors with Alka and Matty, whose Dreamlets will be featured May 23 on NWsource.

Tomorrow it's off to the Seattle Cheese Festival with Reed, possibly preceded by coffee with Nichole. And Sunday is my guitar recital at Piecora's, and another edition of the writing workshop. And Monday... picnic lunch with Sarah DeWeerdt in Lake City! Very exciting. I'll hopefully also be finding some time to plan for the coming months' travels. And maybe looking into getting my car's tape player repaired?

Ecstatic dance, baked rigatoni, road trip

I went to Dance Underground tonight for ecstatic dance. I dug it. It reminded me of the dance class I had in elementary school in which the teacher told us we were all ingredients in a stew in a giant witch's cauldron. We zoomed around the studio in a big circle like crazy little kids, which we were. It was great. Tonight was a little like that, for which I'm grateful. It's nice to have sore feet because you actually used your body for something other than sitting and typing and walking to lunch.

Also, I ate a lot of soy ice cream when I got back, and watched a bit of Top Chef with Angela, Michael, David, and Jessi.

Oh, and earlier today I had lunch at Skillet. I ordered baked rigatoni with ricotta and weird broccoli. It was fantastic. Dessert was Nutella and banana on crostini, and we also had Mexican Coke (real sugar! glass bottle!) to drink. And I'm writing an article about Dreamlets, the invention of potluck regular Matty Harper, for NWsource. I'm excited. The interview is on Monday.

In other news: Kickball starts tomorrow. It'll be fun to run around again, this time in a non-dance context. I sincerely hope our team name doesn't end up being the Schoolyard Bullies, though. Someone suggested the RickRollers, and I loved that. I hope we get to be the RickRollers.

Finally, I gave notice at work this past Friday. Tentative plan: Stay in Seattle through May, drive down the West Coast in June, return to Seattle by July 4 to fly to Germany with my mom for our Eurotrip. We're going to Freiburg, where I spent several years of my childhood, then Paris; the first leg of the trip is, in part, about a big dinner my mom has arranged in honor of my dad, who died approximately five years ago (June 11, 2003). After Paris, I might remain in Europe and Eurail it for a while, staying in hostels; upon my return, I'd sell or ship anything that didn't fit in my car (I'm buying Angela's car!), pack up the rest, and drive east. East! Through Montana and other pretty states, and hopefully to Chicago, where I'll pick up my friend Margo. Then we'll head to the East Coast; once we arrive, she'll fly back. That's one plan, anyway. And where will I end up? I'm thinking either Brooklyn or an intentional community in New England. The fictional Fieldstone Collective from The Ballad of Jack and Rose, even though we get only a brief glimpse of it, really inspired me.

I'm in San Francisco this weekend

Back next week.