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Happy 4th of July…and “slow down little missy”

07 Sunday Jul 2013

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WP_000341After last year’s drama over the 4th of July I was ready for a truly relaxing getaway weekend.  And man, how time flies!  Can’t believe all that was a year ago.  If you don’t feel like clicking on that link, we had about a 3-4 acre beach grass fire in front of our property on the Washington coast, set off by an unsuccessful bottle rocket launcher.  No one ever came forward to claim responsibility, and my family, neighbors and I watched helplessly as the volunteer fire crew got it under control while the winds blew hard in our direction.  And my eldest nephew had to stay home with my sister-in-law, as he’d made a trip to the ER after trying a superhero-style leap off of a neighbor’s backyard slope behind a basketball hoop…and missed catching the hoop.

So this year we had nearly all of my immediate family at the beach house in Ocean Park, but not quite as many extended family in the neighboring houses as in other years.  It just seemed, well, a little quieter this year overall.  But we still had the fun crowds watching the parade down the main street, which has everything from the local high school band, people running for office, the car club, a belly dancing troupe…and a shopping cart drill team thanks to one of the grocery store’s employees!  And a fantastic time laughing and talking around the fire pit with other relatives in Oysterville, WA, just a short drive from Ocean Park and on the Willapa Bay side of the peninsula.

As I’ve likely written before, getting there is half the fun.  Meaning, the road trip from the Seattle area to Ocean Park is beautiful.  Even more beautiful once you get off the main I-5 freeway and onto the smaller more rural highways.  I’ve driven the route hundreds of times and it’s different every time.  It’s usually around 4 or 4 1/2 hours…but this year it took a whopping 5 1/2.  Bad traffic and an extra stop I hadn’t planned on making.

I usually grab dinner at the Crow’s Nest drive-in in Montesano.  Fast food doesn’t count when you’re road trippin’, right?  This is my classic although somewhat ridiculous excuse for a good, greasy burger and a shake.  After 3 hours on the road – double my usual time to get to this spot at about the halfway point of the drive, I knew I’d be arriving at the house after dark.  The main freeway traffic earlier had crawled…for some reason I had this silly idea that most other people would get an earlier start getting out of town and on the road, while I still had a full day at the office.  So, I stand corrected!  But it was a beautiful evening, and Mount Rainier was out – it was so clear you could even see the rolling foothills all around it.  Gorgeous.

I’m a pretty good ‘eater in the car’ type, even when driving, but this time I ended up wearing my dinner, as a few diced onions and sauce from my cheeseburger danced down the front of my new t-shirt as I sped down Highway 101.  I was determined to make up time, but the curvy highway keeps your speed in check.

And how interesting a segue is that.  This part of Highway 101 winds over quite a few rivers, creeks and sloughs that all eventually flow into Willapa Bay.  And summer is construction season, so bridge maintenance work is in full swing.  The sun was setting and I realized I didn’t need my sunglasses much anymore as the road wound through the trees.  I made up lost time driving a little faster – getting up around 65 mph on a curvy highway is about my limit.  Then…construction zones.  One of the bridges was down to just one lane, and they had an automated traffic light set up to keep traffic flowing long after the work crews went home. Painfully long light cycle…and I could tell I was just one of many frustrated drivers eager to make up time spent backed up in traffic earlier in the afternoon to get to wherever they were going.

A few miles later the highway straightened out and I was probably doing 65 or 70 again…enjoying the last bits of sunlight, admiring the beautiful bay views – and up ahead was another bridge construction zone.  Speed limit 25mph so says the warning sign.  So I gently started tapping my brakes to slow down…I wanted to do a gradual slow and nothing obnoxious.  As I was slowing down I saw a bunch of County police in their Tahoes facing the other direction.  Suddenly their lights started flashing and I continued to brake.  OK, it’s a construction zone but it’s after hours (around 9pm or so) so nobody is working, and oh, those cops must have been called elsewhere…that’s why that guy is pulling out into the road and turning around my direction, right?  RIGHT?  I keep slowing down and realize OH SHIT, he’s pulling me over!  Maybe I’m wrong and I just need to pull over to get out of his way.  Nooo…I pull over and he pulls over behind me.  FUCK.

As much as I want to tell this dude to get a life and leave us city people alone and go fight some REAL crime rather than trolling for speeding cars in a construction zone where NO ONE is working, I keep composed.  A half hour later he’s completed his paperwork and I get my license, registration and insurance card back.  And a $113 ticket for doing 35 mph in a 25 mph zone.  UGH.  OK, I was in the process of slowing down…I just didn’t slow down fast enough.

baby islandThat was at milepost 33 on Highway 101 in Washington state, if anyone wants to map that.  Right near the construction of the bridge over the mid Nemah River.  Be warned, my friends.  When it says 25mph, they mean it.  And fines double or triple in construction zones, even if no one is working in them.

So I didn’t want that episode dampening my mood any longer…I’m headed to the beach!  By now it was just after dark and I had the home stretch of the drive ahead of me.  The curviest parts of Highway 101 actually.  This picture is of Baby Island in Willapa Bay, and the sight of it always makes me smile.  I found this picture online – never have been in a spot to pull over and attempt to take a picture of it myself as the road shoulder is a little narrow and precarious – and you can see the bay, mud and beautiful sky.  I was actually driving this in that kind of not-quite-totally-dark dark.  Instead of beautiful sunset colors, everything had a brown, taupe and dark green glow.  You could still see the outlines of everything so clearly.  It was surreal; I can’t remember the last time I ever have seen the bay at night like that.

Deer are very common on the Long Beach peninsula, and I was crossing my fingers hard that one would not spontaneously leap out in front of me in the dark on the last stretch of the highway to Ocean Park.  Between bad traffic, spilled food and a speeding ticket that was enough.

It took me a good 24 hours or so to wind down.  And nothing better than seeing my adorable nephews and niece to put a huge smile on my face the next morning!  We enjoyed the annual parade through Ocean Park, watching the huge fireworks on the beach in the evening from our back porch, the volunteer beach cleanup (you would not believe the amount of fireworks debris left behind on the beach!) and just playing and relaxing.  Because you just can’t help but chill out and slow down when you get to Ocean Park.  The pace is slower, the salt air makes me sleep like a rock, cell phone coverage is a little spotty but improving…and the TV stays off.

oceanHere’s the view looking south at the (Pacific) ocean on Beach Cleanup day (July 5).  Nice relief from the hot weather we were having at home (but nothing compared to some other parts of the country, yikes).

And a large doe I encountered on a walk about a quarter-mile from the house…she was just standing in the middle of the road and walked over into someone’s yard to start munching grass.

Oh, and what’s with the “slow down little missy” in the post title?  That was J’s wise words to me in a text message after I told him I got a ticket!  Too funny.

Deer

 

Urban Beach Alternative

25 Sunday Mar 2012

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Last week L invited me to join him out on the Long Beach Peninsula for a quick weekend getaway.  He had a client photo shoot lined up and the use of a very nice vacation rental.  But plans changed and he wasn’t feeling well, so that got scrapped.  No worries there…for some reason as the week unfolded I was not entirely on board with getting out of town this particular weekend.  Not sure why as I didn’t have any real solid plans save for catching up on sleep and getting outside for a walk if the weather held up.

We decided to postpone the almighty popcorn ceiling scraping project at my townhouse yet another weekend and just hang out over at his place.  I reminded him that hey, dude, it’s been over a month (6 weeks?) since we got started and we still haven’t finished the upstairs.  It was Super Bowl Sunday, in fact.  And I joked that Whitney Houston and Davy Jones were still alive when we got started, teasing in a warped sense of humor moment.  But it’s all good.  I know we’ll eventually get it done.  I think we agreed on June as a deadline, but given our pace that will likely just to get all of the upstairs scraped, sanded, primed and painted.  Downstairs is going to be a whole other hairy beast.  I’m getting tired just thinking and typing about that road ahead.

So the plan was to chill out and watch hockey (when it’s Saturday that means Hockey Night in Canada – can’t beat that for a TV doubleheader).  Tacos, scratch margaritas and hockey.  Sign me up.  I don’t know L’s secret taco recipe, but I’ll share my margarita recipe here at the end of this post.

Holy damn, I slept in until 11:00am Saturday.  Even me, a notsomuch morning person, felt a little guilty as if I was wasting the day away.  But I know myself well…I needed that sleep.  I had thought I would have the energy to schlep into the gym – a place I haven’t visited in, gulp, over a year – for a much-needed workout, but somehow that didn’t happen.  Laziness.

I trotted off to L’s place that afternoon with a bag full of tequila, triple sec, limes, a cocktail shaker, a shot glass and a couple of margarita glasses carefully wrapped in towels.  He had an amazingly large bowl of scratch guacamole already made – enough for 20 people – but we sure chowed it down – with chips and salsa.  Ole!  Now when I say “trotted” I mean probably a 40-45 minute drive.  L lives in the Sunset Hill area of Ballard in Seattle, a quiet neighborhood in the city which is really busting out and growing, at least in its core.  And I thanked myself for filling up my car prior to that drive, for the main route to his house through Ballard is now all torn up with major street construction.  One lane roads with flaggers everywhere.  Brutal, especially for all the businesses along this street I’m sure, despite the myriad of “we’re open during construction” signs pleading down the street.  I remember crawling along in my car and seeing a reader board on one of the cafes:  “Free monster truck show with every meal.”  I wondered “HUH?” for a few seconds before I finally got it.  Aha – at least they’ve got a sense of humor about all of this.

L and I chugged down a few margaritas, devoured chips and guac and later some tacos.  After a beer nightcap and watching a GREAT Vancouver Canucks OT victory over Colorado, we were both pretty tired.  And it was barely 10pm!  L insisted I stay over and I was grateful for that.  I had a little buzz going on, so driving home that night was totally out of the question.

Now, for those of you tuning in fairly recently, L is my guy BFF.  Everything is totally platonic so crashing at his place was not a loaded big deal.  He let me use his bed while he crashed in the next room in his new guest bed.  I couldn’t believe I was going to bed so early, especially on a Saturday, but I guess I really needed the sleep.  It always takes me awhile to get to sleep even when I’m at home – I usually like to/need to read something light like a magazine no matter how late it is or how tired I am.  And I typically sleep in my own bed, so this was a change having immediate pitch black in a strange, new bed with no reading material.  And the silence.  I giggled to myself at the irony…the utter silence at L’s house in the city (he lives near the end of a dead end street) compared to the gentle roar of street noise I am now used to hearing around the clock – like nice white noise – at my suburban townhouse.

By around 8:30am or so he and I were both up, dressed and ready to take his friend M’s dog for a walk.  What a glorious Sunday morning!  We made the short drive to Golden Gardens Park, one of the few waterfront parks in Seattle with a sandy beach.  Oops, I was in high-heeled boots – and my sweater and jeans from the night before – and not in any condition to walk in the sand, so we stayed on the asphalt paths. 

How’s that picture at the start of this post for a morning welcome?  A cool, brisk morning and the sun beaming down on the Olympic Mountains, looking west.  We passed countless walkers, joggers, dogs…even saw a woman in the sand doing a slew of yoga poses.  So while I wasn’t wearing the best shoes for a brisk walk, it felt good to get one in.  And the salty air and breeze is the best soul therapy I’ve ever experienced.

Then it was off to brunch at The Blue Glass, one of L’s favorite spots.  I get giddy trying new places to eat so I could not wait to try it…and could not believe I was hungry after last night’s taco feast. 

Behold, their breakfast burger…sausage, egg and absolutely nothing McDonalds-ish assembly line about it.  A few dashes of hot sauce and some fries with their house-made ketchup topped off with a few cups of coffee and I felt totally refreshed.

We even made a quick stop to the nearby Goodwill store.  L has this uncanny knack for finding great things there at a steal of a price.  At the risk of sounding, well, how I don’t wish to sound, it’s not my first choice for places to shop, but admittedly if you take some time and dig around you CAN find some really great deals.  Voila…I found two pairs of pretty much brand new Adidas sweatpants…for $15 total!  Perfect for the rink or just lounging around. 

So, for the second weekend in a row, the Ballard neighborhood delivers.  It’s another world compared to my suburban haunts, and that’s exactly how I like it.  A touch of salt air, a slower pace with a slice of city vibe injected…and continuing to discover it with a great friend – this is what I adore. 

Oh, and almost forgot – here’s the margarita recipe!  Bring a couple cans of limeade to make more and additional limes for garnish.

  • 3/4 can limeade, thawed in the fridge
  • 4 shots Tequila
  • 2 shots Triple Sec
  • Juice of one lime
  • Salt
  • Beer (optional…couple swigs to cut the ‘tart’ to taste)
  • Crushed ice

Mix all ingredients except for the salt and crushed ice in a cocktail shaker.  Salt the rim of each glass and pour the mixture over the crushed ice. Garnish with a lime wedge.  Serve to good friends and have fun.  CHEERS!

There’s this thing called the "other" folder…

23 Friday Dec 2011

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It’s been quite awhile since I’ve had a double shot post week, so why not now?  Something about the holiday season, shopping rush, the solstice…my whole world just tingles with good (and restless) energy.  There’s a mad scramble at work to get stuff done before the office pretty much goes quiet this week and next as people take vacation over the holidays and into early January.  And for those of us still plugging away over a hot desk and laptop, well, there’s that funny struggle of wanting to get more done while it’s quiet, but there aren’t enough people around to truly get it all done or all the right decisions made…ah, the classic dilemma, at least where I’m working right now.  Years ago I used to work in the retail service management industry, and this time of year for vacation was a big ol’ fuhgeddaboudit given the peak shopping season.  Nope – all hands on deck save for Christmas Day and New Years Day.  And today I sit here and think oh crap, I’ve gotta head into the belly of the beast tomorrow (meaning The Mall) and finish some last minute gift shopping. 

So anyway, last week I was on Facebook.  Now, how often have you read that or heard someone say that and think oh no. Right?  Well, as I said when I first launched fivenineteen over two years ago, my interpretations and musings on reality are better than anything I could possibly make up.  You might want to go pour yourself a glass of your favorite beverage for this one.

OK, back to Facebook now.  Last week on some ho-hum Wednesday night I happened to be browsing around and saw a post from a woman I know from the church I used to attend years ago.  Haven’t seen her in probably 10+ years, which is kind of sad, but I don’t attend that church any longer.

Her post: “You have two inboxes with facebook. You get notified of your messages; but you do not get notified of the messages in your “other” message box. Go to messages and click on it. After you do there is now the work “other” under your messages. (on the side bar). Click on that and see messages sent to you from people not on your friend list.”

I thought OK, what the hell, I’ll peruse over there and find this “other” folder.  Man, I love Facebook but it’s hard for me to keep up with all the changes and learn all the nuances and whatnot.  By the time I’m home from work and on my home laptop, my brain is pretty much full and fried.

So there was the elusive little “other” folder, a tiny subfolder on my left menu bar.  I clicked on it and up popped a very long list of what looked like notifications, spammy type stuff and one email from some random weirdo dude who really likes my profile.  Uh huh, whatever.  Delete!

Then, there they were. Not one but TWO messages from a guy I was great friends with years ago who I was no longer in contact with.  Basically saying hi there, it’s been forever, I’m about 92% sure this is you and would be great to catch up sometime.   Oh. My. God.  I about fell out of my chair!!  And then I about fell out of my chair again when I noticed he had sent these emails to me back in freakin’ JULY!!  Holy moly…had I not seen that random post from my church friend I never ever would have even noticed that “other” folder in the Facebook message section!

My fingers flew on the keyboard.  I wrote him back, still in shock to have found this folder…and his emails from months ago!  Yes, yes, it’s me, I’m alive…!!   

So what’s the story with this guy, you may wonder?  In short, he is the closest guy friend I have ever had.  We met online I’m guessing around late 2004 or early 2005ish.  I had been in a relationship with another guy a good chunk of 2004 who I’d met through hockey.  He broke up with me that fall and I admit it broke my heart and put me into an emotional tailspin of sorts.  Hard to explain, and now with it being 7 years later the memories can get a little fuzzy and mushy both.  While I’m not typically the type of girl who always has to have a boyfriend, something about that breakup triggered something within me.  I immediately started online dating – on two different sites at the same time actually – and I THINK that might have been my first time ever doing that.  Nowadays meeting people online is not anything weird, but back then it still might have been a little odd given it had not been around that long.  Or maybe that’s just my interpretation.  

I started going out on a bunch of dates and kind of having casual, not too serious mini-relationships of sorts (and yes, hookups) with a couple of guys.  I felt lost and hurt after getting dumped and was just looking for some reasurrance that I was really still desirable to men.  In that timeframe, I met L, probably for coffee and dessert or something.  We had hockey in common and I just remember him being nice and friendly with an offbeat and awesome sense of humor.

We went out on a couple dates and talked on the phone a few times (this is the olden days before texting became so commonplace) and somewhere in all of this we somehow realized we were better off as friends rather than dating.  I’m giggling right now, because if he happens to read this at some point I’m sure he will let me know if my memory of all of this is correct or not.

Let’s just say 2005 was a hell of a year.  A lot of Life happened and it was intense.  My grandfather passed away in early February, a month short of his 94th birthday.  13 days later my niece was born.  My Dad retired.  I was growing restless at my job – a company I had worked at for over 6 years at that time and I really loved it – but my new Director and I were butting heads quite a bit.

And in the spring of that year, I went through a very dark season in my life.  There was legal drama involved in it too.  I am not going to delve into that in here, but just know it was a very bad time for me and given I am an expert at beating myself up, combine that quirk with dark drama and I just felt very lost.  I felt like my world was turned sideways or upside down…like my reality had just snapped, shifted and toppled over.

I felt lost but not alone, thank goodness. L was there for me through it all.  An amazing friend and confidant he was for me.  I confided in probably only my uber close friends circle and my family about what I was going through.  L listened and helped keep me laughing when I needed to and gave me advice.  He helped me with a few projects around the townhouse here and just was a great shoulder to lean on.  And in the funny, small world we live in, it turns out another (female) friend of his has a beach house not far from where my family has had one for 3 generations.  The 3 of us even went down there together one weekend.  Can’t help but laugh at the Threes Company-ish thing it was, but it was great. 

Now somewhere in all of this, L and I started up a mini episode of Friends with Benefits.  Ummmm…yeah.  Don’t judge, people.  Yeah, whenever I hear about people getting into dealios like that I used to judge and think I’d NEVER do that.  But definitely no regrets…and he and I later talked about it and agreed we would not cross that line any longer.  And we didn’t.

As my dark drama was finishing up that fall, I met another guy online and it got pretty serious pretty quickly.  L and I shared our dating stories all the time, and he was genuinely happy for me when this one started taking off.  And I was very open about my friendship with L with my new boyfriend.  Nothing to hide.  

But he would have nothing of it.  He didn’t want me to be around L and didn’t want to meet him or anything.  Nope.  And I got grilled with ten billion questions about him too and the nature of our friendship.  Now, side note here – as I’ve shared this recently with a few close friends – friends I’ve met since that era who never knew L or my boyfriend then – it’s amazing the wide variety of opinions that come out.  Some friends say well, you should have run the other way when your boyfriend got controlling and possessive like that early on.  Others say yeah, I can totally see why he wouldn’t want you having a close guy friend still in your life as you were focusing on a new relationship. It’s all water under the bridge now.  But I tell you, I’d never been in a situation like that before and I haven’t since.  

L gradually faded from my life.  I’d made the decision to focus on my new relationship.  He and I may have gotten into a couple of spats while this ‘transition’ was happening too.  Again, fuzzy and mushy memories.

When I walked away from that boyfriend in spring of 2007, I kept moving forward and never reached out to L.  I had great memories of our friendship and time together but never made any effort to try to track him down.  Sometimes people are in our lives for a short while to make a difference, help us and then move on, and I chalked him up to being one of those.

And…life moved onward.

So.  2 days after I discovered those emails in my Facebook inbox last week I was on my way into Ballard to meet L for dinner.  My God, had it really been six years?  It was like no time had passed.  I cannot tell you how great it was to just see an old friend and pick up right where we’d left off.  Definitely no hard feelings or regrets.  Just hours of talking and catching up.  And a brief interlude between restaurants to walk his friend’s dog – the one with the beach house near my folks’.  Even seeing that dog again brought another wave of great memories whooshing back.  Wow.

What a wonderful end of year surprise!  Oh, and he and I are Facebook friends now, of course.  He says, “hey, let’s try staying friends this time, OK?”  

I think that’s a GREAT idea.