Deep Thoughts Will Wait

I have one or two of them, but today is Martin Luther King day, which means that everyone in my house is here, celebrating the right to stay home one day in January even though they are white.

(I think it is awesome that there is a holiday honoring Dr. King but if we want it to be more than just a bank holiday then we have to connect it to some holiday things. Like food. What was Martin Luther King's favorite thing to eat, I wonder? What was his favorite dessert? I'm dead serious about this. I'm going to see if I can find out because I think MLK day should be celebrated with his favorite foods, a reading of "I have a dream" and perhaps an enlightened and vivacious discussion of what it means to us. That's how I like to keep holidays, dang it...eating and reflecting. The Spouse, on the other hand, is waiting for his MLK Day present. Oops).

Here are a few pictures from the leg of my road trip that involved my family. At first I was going to follow Sean and Judi down in my car, for the better making of my escape should such be necessary. But Sean swore a solemn vow that we wouldn't be staying forever so I consented to go along. My baby sister Audrey Hepburn came with us and that was enjoyable because she is very funny. (Martha Stewart was driving up from the other direction with her husband and George Clooney couldn't make it. In case you were wondering).

Talk about your flashbacks...riding in the back seat on a longish trip with the folks in the front. I felt about 10 again. So did Audrey because we amused ourselves with some faux-fighting:

"Mu-oooom, she's on my side!"

"Daddy, she pinched me!"

"Tell her to stop making faces at me".

And when we were bored with that we'd ask, "Are we there yet?"

We stopped for coffee and doughnuts (Sean Connery wanted to hit the road at 7:30am. The service was at 11am. It takes maybe 2 hours to get from their place to the site of the service. You do the math. But Sean, oh, Sean, he wanted to allow plenty of time for traffic (smart, I suppose) and be sure to find a place to park at the church (turns out that was really smart because apparently the entire narthex of the church was SRO). Still. So we killed time at the Safeway in Somewhere-Along-the-Way, Washington. I found an abandoned toy on the "Discontinued" rack. It was a little Christmas moose. It made me sad in the "Island of Misfit Toys" sort of way. I couldn't bear the thought of a poor little moose sitting on a rack and gathering dust until someone just threw him away. He was only $2.50 so I bought him.

I named him Gilbert the Christmas Moose, in honor of Uncle Gib.

Audrey figured out that he was a dog toy. That explained why he lay flat in a very unmooselike way.

We had some very nice conversations on the way down, important conversations about growing up and about things that are going on now. I really like my sister.I had to make sure I didn't get blood clots in my legs. It was a lot more cramped riding in the back seat as an adult. Geez, when we were kids Sean and Judi would just lower the seat of the station wagon and the four of us would roll around unfettered the whole trip to wherever. Stupid life-saving seatbelts.Oh, I got my hair done before I left Seattle. It is officially the best hair cut I have ever had in my life. I guess you can't tell from this how superfantastic it is but trust me. It's awesome.

This is the wall above the bed in the guest room at Sean and Judi's. Isn't it appropriate?

And this is their cat, Lucy Maud Montgomery, who they call "Puppy". (Senile, I tell you...the old folks are turning senile). She is a very pft-ty cat, who only likes Sean and Judi and merely tolerates a very few other people. But she actually liked me well enough. She enjoyed pushing her head against mine and also allowed me to pet her behind the ears.

Well, Ain't That a Pip

I just got off the phone with my lovely friend, Judy, who I met when I was volunteering for Senator Cantwell. Judy was the volunteer coordinator when I started. I like Judy very much, she's a very interesting, charming woman.

Right. So the reason she called today was because she's interim director for a non-profit agency and she needs a part-time office manager for a few weeks and would I be interested?

So there you go.

It's just a 3 week gig, from 9 to 2, 4 days a week, through the end of the month. This means The Child is going to be on her own for most of the rest of the summer, which is fine. She actually thrives on that sort of responsibility. I'm sure it will all work out. Judy also knows of some other commitments I have and she's just so thrilled that I said "yes" that she's completely accommodating.

Judy actually wanted me to start today, but that was a little much. So my first day will be Friday. I found myself getting a little fluttery, which seemed silly because I can totally do the job. But then I realized why. It's nothing to do with the job and everything to do with karma slapping me upside the head.

Read this.

That's right. Starting on Friday, the DOT is shutting down a major section of I-5 through the city, all lanes, to do road work. I repeat, all lanes. During commuting hours. For 3 weeks. (And yes, you read that right: our totally brilliant mayor has suggested that people should just work from home or use the wireless at Starbucks. Because, you know, everyone in Seattle has a white collar job and a laptop. What a putz).

The point, my friends, is that while in conversations this weekend with people who are going to be severely impacted by the lack of a freeway and the gigantic tie-ups that will inevitably ensue on all the side streets, I was Perky McPerkison about the fact that none of this would affect me. Oh, I wasn't exactly gloating or anything, but I sure was grateful that this particular headache would pass me by.

Then I get a job. Starting Friday. In the north end of town. I live in the south end. Do we see the problem now? I have been wracking my brains for the last 15 minutes trying to think of alternate routes and every one of them is going to be impacted by the closure.

So now, instead of spending the next 2 days organizing the things I need to organize so I can be out of the house 4 days a week, I have to build a Viper and lay in a supply of tylium.

Rats.