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Tag Archives: memories

My Grandma Jean

01 Sunday Dec 2013

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family, grandparents, holidays, home economics, memories, passings, transitions

My Grandma Jean passed away last Sunday 11/24.  She was 97 and the most extraordinary person I’ve ever known.  I’m so blessed to have had a grandparent in my life as long as I have, and even moreso with a grandparent who stayed mentally sharp even in her much later years.  I know all of that is rare…my other grandparents struggled with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, sadly.  I miss them all.

I went to see Grandma Jean a few days earlier.  One of my brothers called and said you better come see her soon…probably to say goodbye.  She had fallen a couple of weeks prior and just wasn’t pulling out of it like she had with other falls.  Her leg strength was pretty much gone, to where using her walker just wasn’t working anymore.   When I arrived at her retirement home the nurse brought me to her room.  She was sleeping, as she’d been doing a lot.  Refusing food and liquids.  All the classic signs she was getting ready to transition on.

I stood at her bed and started to cry.  I tried to hold it back but choked a little and she woke up.  I don’t know how coherent she was or if she recognized me, but I said what I wanted to say to her and left.  The nurse followed me out of the room and said “you have to be strong…don’t cry…next is with God.”  I think that actually made me cry harder.  I’d been holding it in that’s for sure, and seeing Grandma curled up in bed and a shell of what she used to be kind of shocked me.

Grandma was born on July 14, 1916 in Oakesdale, Washington. A tiny little town for sure!  Her parents were both very highly educated people…her father was a doctor/surgeon and her mother had a master’s degree in biology from Occidental College.  Wow!  She was the youngest of three daughters, actually.  Their Dad was the town doctor and made house calls, delivered babies, the whole works.  He could also perform lots of types of surgery, but when more resources were needed it was a 50-mile drive to Spokane, and he would drive his patients there himself. They were fortunate to have a car and a home with an electric stove, I remember her telling me.  Where they lived that was not very common.

Her Dad’s medical practice thrived (he was adamant about using proper sterilization techniques in his work, something that might not have been very typical in smaller towns I’d imagine), and the survival rates of patients and women giving birth rose dramatically.  But as she and her sisters got older, her parents wanted them to have more educational opportunities than what the town could offer.

So…they moved to Corvallis, Oregon!  I think Grandma and her sisters were teenagers at the time.  But then…WHAMMO.  The stock market crash of 1929 and the Depression sunk in.  It was hard enough to re-establish a medical practice, but this made it all the more difficult.  Times were tough and money was tight, as Grandma recalled.  Her mother was an excellent seamstress, but Grandma remembers sometimes she’d have to wear the same dress one or two weeks in a row.  You just did what you had to do.

Amazingly, Grandma and her sisters each graduated from Oregon State University…during the Depression!  Their parents put education as first priority and they made it happen for their family.  Astonishing!  Grandma’s degree was in Home Economics.

She married my Grandpa at age 24 in 1940…and 10 months later my Dad arrived (in Corvallis)! Her father delivered all of his grandchildren, actually.  That was how it was done back then so nothing odd about it.  They raised my Dad and Uncle in Seattle.  After they were each off at college she went back to school to get her teaching certificate and taught Home Ec at the high school level for 15 years.  When my Grandpa retired she did as well, and they hit the road traveling.  Camping and fly fishing were their favorites and they did it everywhere.  All over the country…and in New Zealand and Mexico too!  They even drove to Guatemala in their camper one time…in the late 1970s!

Grandma could cook, sew, bake, knit and crochet like nobody’s business.  I spent so much time at her house as a little girl…we’d go shopping for fabric and make something like a new blouse or skirt.  Or she’d show me how to knit and crochet.  We’d bake cookies together or homemade bread.  Their house may have been small by most standards, but to me it was a mansion.  Walking up those steep stairs up to the bed where I would stay overnight…such a huge contrast from the rambler my brothers and I grew up in!

There are just too many wonderful memories to list.  Grandma was a huge inspiration and influence over me and all of her grandchildren (and later, her great-grandchildren).  Unconditional love and joy for everyone around her.  Boundless generosity.  Commitment to family and pouring love into everything she did.  I’m trying to find the words to describe it and it’s harder than I thought!

She made a few scrapbooks for me as a teenager…one has incredible family photos (photos of HER grandparents), and she typed up several pages with more details about the family history along with all of the pictures.  Pictures of her with her sisters as young girls all dressed up with hair in curls.  Another scrapbook has samples of all kinds of sewing techniques with handwritten explanations how to do them.  Snaps. Zippers.  French seams. Darts. I am tearing my house apart trying to find that one.  It’s a treasure.  How she found time to do all of this astounds me.

She and her oldest sister were quite close – her middle sister I don’t think as much, but I honestly didn’t know her very well.  Sadly, tragedy struck our family when her middle sister and her husband were killed in a car accident in Costa Rica.  This  was in the late 1970s – they were retired and enjoying life.  Their car went off the road.  I don’t know much more than that to be honest.  Her oldest sister lived into her 90s like Grandma Jean did.

So we’re getting ready for her memorial service next week.  It’s still kind of surreal that she’s not here.  Thanksgiving dinner was bittersweet.  I kept expecting her to pop into the living room with a scratch pumpkin pie like she would always bring.

I’ve shared a little about her with a few trusted co-workers. One of the comments really struck me down to the core:

“Wow, fivenineteen.  She gave you so much.  Now it’s YOUR turn to pass it along.  Don’t waste it.”

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Drunk on Bliss…What a Weekend!

31 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by fivenineteen in Uncategorized

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bliss, family, ferry, memories, spontaniety, sunshine, weather, weekend

KMYep, there’s no other way to say it.  This past weekend goes into my Top Ten of All Time…so far!

Starting with INCREDIBLY fabulous weather!  When it’s pushing 70 degrees F (21 C) in late March, we celebrate here in Seattle!  Not a cloud in the sky, Easter the way we dream it to be…in springtime clothes, not in polar fleece and rain gear!  I’ve said it before but it’s worth repeating…we TRULY appreciate great weather here.  Everyone’s moods shoot through the roof and there’s a kind of ding-y and sensuous vibe in the air.  Smiles everywhere…people are waving and friendly…there’s just ZERO reason to be in a bad mood on days like these!

I wrapped up week two at the new job last week.  While I’m used to the ‘first day of school’ mentality given I work shorter-term engagements, it’s always nice getting the first few weeks out of the way to get my bearings and really start feeling productive.  The honeymoon phase is morphing into the oh shit/frustration phase (very typical for my job ramp ups), where suddenly it CLANGS loud in my head that I’ve got deadlines but I’m not fully up to speed on where or how to get ’em done.  I tend to be my own worst critic on not ‘getting it’ on Take One, so it’s a relief getting good feedback that I’m a quick learner in the eyes of others.

This weekend was blissfully full of time with family.  My cousin, her husband and their three kids spent their entire spring break here ‘out west,’ having flown in from Wisconsin.  They packed in time with relatives, skiing, sightseeing and topped it off with dinner at my folks’ house Friday night.  I was grinning ear to ear and walking on air the entire day at work, constantly looking at my watch! 

J and I spent Saturday afternoon and evening out enjoying the sunshine!  We planned on getting Pho at one of his favorite spots, but they were closed all weekend for some reason.  So what to do for Plan B?

Something infinitely more spontaneous and fun:  we hopped on the Edmonds to Kingston ferry as walk-on passengers.  What a GLORIOUS day to be out on the water…not a cloud in the sky and all the mountains were out clear as a bell, still thick with snow.  We grabbed burgers and beer at the Main Street Ale House (YUM) and later strolled around the marina, drooling over boats. [the pic above is of the marina…I shamelessly found it online; it’s not a pic from yesterday but you can get the idea.  And that’s Mt. Rainier in the background.] I am falling in love with this way to just do a quick getaway to a quaint town for a few hours…the ferry crossing is only 30 minutes each way so it’s super easy and convenient.  And once you arrive in Kingston there’s so much within walking distance and gorgeous scenery everywhere.

And today, Easter Sunday meant brunch at my grandmother’s retirement home on First Hill, just east of downtown Seattle.  Their food service is truly excellent, and they had 4 different stations set up serving everything from made-to-order omelets, carved leg of lamb with mint jelly and fingerling potatoes, salads, fruits, bagels, lox, blintzes…and of course lots of desserts.  WOW!  I’m stuffed. After brunch my folks and one of my brothers and I spent some time chatting with her in her apartment.  Grandma never ceases to amaze me with the new stories she shares, rather than repeating the same ones over and over.  She grew up in a very rural town in eastern Washington, the youngest of three daughters, and her father was the town doctor.  He visited patients in their homes either by car (which was rare for people to have a car in those days – this was the late teens/early 1920s) or by horse when the weather was bad.  She remembers as a little girl coming with her Dad to the nearest major hospital – 50 miles away – when a patient needed surgery…and how there were a ton of nurses going in and out of a particular patient’s room in the hospital once they arrived.  What was going on?  It was a nun giving birth!

Happy Easter, everyone!!

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2012 in review…Looking back and looking forward!!

30 Sunday Dec 2012

Posted by fivenineteen in Uncategorized

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2012, 2013, changes, forward, happiness, memories, new year, welcome

WOW!  Here we are on the cusp of another glorious flip of the calendar year – 2012 has been so amazing and transforming in so many ways…and I can’t wait to discover what 2013 has in store – she’s right around the corner! 

The nice people at WordPress pulled together a cool report of fivenineteen.org’s activity this past year – check it out below and let me know what you think! 

Whether you follow along here regularly or have just stumbled in here on accident – my sincerest thank you to each of you. 

Welcome, and welcome back.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 3,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 5 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

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…and another Thank You, Jude Cole (Take 2)

31 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by fivenineteen in Uncategorized

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emotions, guitar, Jude Cole, lyrics, memories, music, passion, piano, singing, talent, words

How come my favorite singer/songwriter’s music is so dang hard for me to blog about?  Man, I re-read my post from last Sunday and it doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface.  Normally when I post it’s like a stream of passionate consciousness – done in one take.  That last post…well, I went back and tweaked a few things.  It’s rare I find myself at a loss for words! So yeah, that last post is alright but I’m still not completely happy with it.  So, I thought…why not just start a new one? 

I think this is the first time in over 20 years of loving Jude’s music that I’ve tried writing down how much it means to me.  And I stumble and struggle to find the right words.  When talent this extraordinary stirs your soul and music this fantastic is so timeless, saying how much I love and appreciate it doesn’t seem like enough.

A View from 3rd Street and Start the Car (two of his five solo albums) are now happily back in my car’s CD player.  So what if it’s rainy and blustery outside, traffic sucks and is even worse with some stoplight outages, slowing everything to an even more painful crawl?  I’ve got two of THE best CDs of all time cranked and I’m smiling and singing along shamelessly.  Fellow commuters, don’t be jealous!

I’ve read that when you listen to 3rd Street that “you don’t hear a single.”  Never heard of that expression before but I totally get it.  It means that EVERY track is stupendous; there isn’t just one or two that sound made for radio play and everything else is filler and skippable.  How many CDs are in your collection where you “hear no singles?”  I bet not many.

When I listen to these songs again I’m inspired to get back to playing the piano.  Maybe learning how to play guitar finger-style, rather than just the few chords I can clunkily strum.  I remember how I felt as an early/mid 20-something when I heard these songs for the first time.  And I smile at how wonderful they still sound today through all I’ve gone through in life.  His rich, creative harmonies.  His lyrics that have celebrated my highest of highs and carried me through my most angst-ridden lowest of lows.

Rise over the darkness / sail above the clouds / faith keep me from falling / and I swear I won’t look down.  That’s from Right There Now from Start the Car. My God how those lyrics have been my gut-wrenching prayer countless times, sung at the top of my lungs, choking through sobs with tears streaming down my face.  And yet also with jubilation, celebrating getting through that pain.

And – squee!! – I stumbled upon a Jude Cole Facebook group.  An unoffical fan site – it just was set up for people who love his music.  Wow, I’ve found My People who GET this passion for this incredible talent!!

And thanks to the magic of YouTube I found a few gems – a couple of videos from back in the day – PLUS (major bonus) some live, acoustical versions of his songs.  OK wow.  A talented singer/song-writer who sounds just as amazing LIVE as he does in his albums – dear God, I think I can die happy now. 

Pardon my gushing, but here we go:

Baby, It’s Tonight video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pavmG-YKLM (from 3rd Street).  Ah, the memories. 

Time for Letting go video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyDFfVMTGW0&feature=related   I honestly had not seen this video until just recently – the song is GORGEOUS.  And like one of the commenters posted, HIGH 5 if you’re still listening to this song.

Holy crap this is beyond amazing – Baby It’s Tonight (acoustical): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8ODFMRJsMw

And lastly (for now), his acoustical performance of Tell the Truth on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKqD3U3CKb8&feature=relmfu

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Thank You, Jude Cole

28 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by fivenineteen in Uncategorized

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CDs, Jude Cole, memories, music, passion, performing, singing

Is it possible in all of my 200-some posts that I have yet to devote one to music?  It likely is!

Where do I begin when it comes to music?  What a haven and solace it is.  Don’t we all have songs that trigger boatloads of memories…the ones whenever you hear them you remember EXACTLY what you were doing and who you were with the first time you heard them.  You sing along and know every lyric.

I started taking piano lessons at age 5 and continued through age 15.  Mostly classical with a little jazz thrown in.   Choir (all kinds from chamber, renaissance and vocal jazz) was a huge part of my high school and college life.  Lots of my time in school was actually spent outside of the classroom performing and touring with various choirs…which was just as educational to me as sitting in a lecture hall or with my nose in a book studying.  After college I joined a church handbell choir and stayed with the group for 15 years!  What a joy it is to make music in an ensemble – and share it with an audience.  Our tour through Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy in the summer of 2001 was incredible!

Sometimes people ask me who my favorite group is or what kind of music I like.  As with lots of things, my tastes are very eclectic.  It’s hard for me to name just one group or one kind of music.  Shuffle through my iPod and you’ll find everything from Bach to Lynyrd Skynyrd to Carpenters to The Who to AC/DC to Kylie Minogue, plus lots of dance/electronic music (great for workouts). I’m a huge fan of c89.5 radio here in Seattle (a high school student-run station)…and I’m probably decades out of their target demographic but who cares.

So who’s my favorite group of all time? The Police and INXS (see, I really can’t just name one).  And I’m proudly dating myself with those answers – yes, I came of age in the 1980s.  In high school, The Police were da bomb. Their music was everywhere. I literally wore out two copies of Ghost in the Machine (on cassette tape). I saw them in concert in 1983 – my first EVER live concert (at the relatively late age of 16 compared to lots of my friends).  30 years later I still have a huge crush on Sting.

Later in college I discovered INXS.  Michael Hutchence (their lead singer) could do no wrong in my book.  The man practically oozed sex with his stage presence and that sultry, husky voice.  Many a wild college party had INXS blaring in the background.  And really late one night in 1997 as I was moving to a new apartment and on my 3rd trip hauling boxes of stuff in my car, I heard on the radio that he had committed suicide.  I about cried.  What a tragedy!  What a loss!

As I finished college and started my working career I remember thinking to myself…what kinds of music will be hot in the 1990s and beyond?  What kinds will I like – and not like?  What music will be in my adulthood soundtrack?

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to one of THE most talented and most criminally underrated singer/songwriters in modern history:  Jude Cole.  There are a lot of great singers out there, but those few who also write their material get HUGE props from me.

How to describe his music?  Man, that’s a tough one.  It just rings and resonates so deeply in me down to my toes that it’s hard to put words to the feelings. Let me take a stab at it:  Rock shot through with a touch of blues.  Raw emotion and energy.  You hear that mid-western ‘down to earth-ness.’ Grit along with slick, polished production.  Some have categorized his music as “adult contemporary” which totally misses the mark.  “This is no syrup-y Richard Marx clone,” quips a music reviewer on Amazon.com.  Spot on true!

In 1990 A View from 3rd Street, his second album, was released.  From this sprang two top 40 hits:  Baby, it’s Tonight and Time for Letting Go.  Baby, It’s Tonight has more of a pop, upbeat vibe, while Time for Letting Go is slower mid-tempo – and GORGEOUS.  These are probably my two favorites from that album along with Hallowed Ground. But all 10 songs on this album are amazing – there are no filler tracks.  And yes, this was yet another cassette tape I wore out back in the day.

1990 – oh man.  Back then I was 23 and sharing a dumpy 2 bedroom apartment in Seattle with a great friend from high school and college.  We were both trying to carve out our places in the world, just getting our careers underway.  We had a killer view of Gasworks Park, Lake Union and downtown Seattle, yet our apartment had no dishwasher or garbage disposal.  I remember watching MTV with her on our teeny little TV and hearing Jude’s music for the first time – WOW.

Now when I listen to this CD today (and sing along loud and proud), I am STUNNED that it’s 22 years old!  The tracks are timeless. What a talent with that golden, rich tenor voice.  Go find the videos on YouTube and you’ll see they’re now a little dated but hey, it was 1990.  But what never gets old is the Jude eye candy. Those warm brown eyes, that sexy cleft chin and stubble and the way he plays his guitar and that all-knowing little smirk he does at the end of some of his videos and…

…is it warm in here?

So what happened?  The guy sadly pretty much dropped out of radio play altogether.  Meanwhile his last CD, Falling Home, was released in 2000.  [Raining on the Moon is my favorite song from that one as a side note.]  And since then – ?  Well, from what I have read online he manages the group Lifehouse.  Props for staying in the music industry, but man oh man, why did this brilliant, handsome song-writing genius not become a MEGA star with tons more albums of his own?  I honestly don’t know.  But I have a feeling the massive steamroller called grunge which bulldozed through the music industry starting around 1991-1992 probably had a lot to do with it.  Casualties everywhere if you were not a part of that scene.

Pick up any grunge-era CD from Nirvana, Alice and Chains or Pearl Jam and presto – you hear 1990s grunge.  Which had its time and place.

But play any Jude Cole CD…and it’s timeless.  Thank you, Jude.  Your music is the soundtrack of my adulthood.

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At Long Last…We Meet! And other Weekend Highlights.

15 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by fivenineteen in Uncategorized

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cooking, eating, food, friendship, internet, memories, online, relationships, restaurants, summer

I was reminded threefold – yes THREEFOLD – this weekend about how much I adore time with old and new friends enjoying great food, drink and conversation together!  It just doesn’t get any better than THAT!  Anytime year ’round is wonderful, but there’s something about the laid back summer vibe that makes it even more special. Even without a lot of summer vacation (at least for me; as a consultant I’m paid for hours worked so paid vacations are non-existent), this was just the triple dose I needed to make it FEEL like a vacation, AND to catapult me into this (short) workweek and my upcoming trip to Kansas City, MO later this week.  That trip still seems like a dream to me as it’s been in the planning for several months.  Now it’s just a few “sleeps” away!

It kicked off Friday night with my dear friend T.  We toasted the end of the workweek and a rather tough summer so far on her part (her Grandmother’s passing and all involved with arrangements before and after and travel back and forth and all that) at Wildfin, a casual spot we’ve enjoyed in the past for lunch. Friday night was sunny so that meant sitting outside…ahhh…dinner al fresco!

Saturday was a fantastic BBQ at P’s house.  P is a former co-worker I worked with – loosely at the same company – 4-5 years ago, for barely one year (my entire business unit got dissolved, long story, so I went as quickly as I arrived pretty much).  She’s one of those rare, treasured former co-workers who has become a great friend, for far longer than any time we even worked together at the same company!  I credit her for igniting my passion for running (which is sadly dormant right now but will re-awaken), photography and travel!  She’s off to Ecuador and the Galapagos in just a few weeks with another mutual friend of ours!  Her menu was delicious halibut steaks fresh from Alaska, sautéed sliced potatoes, fresh salsas for dipping chips and veggies, an incredible ceviche mirrored after one she enjoyed on one of her recent trips to Belize, and some hard-core Sangria provided by a few of her other guests who are quite the connoisseurs – love it! And numerous other yummy munchies and drinks.  Oh, and did I mention the desserts?  After a slice of tiramisu and some raspberry frozen yogurt I was beyond full.  YUM.

It was one of those afternoons you just never wanted to end.  Laughing, eating, drinking, watching the dogs run around and play in the yard…and wondering what the weather is going to do next (this is Seattle-area summer, after all).  Thankfully the weather was terrific.  And P’s house is just perfect for entertaining.

I barely slept that night, despite a full belly of great food and some butt-kicking Sangria that required me to pop a Motrin before going to bed, ha ha.

Today (Sunday) I drove down to Lacey, WA, just a short hour or so from my house.  I met up with a friend I’ve been chatting with online for years but have never met in person.  And oh man, this is a long story so buckle up.

A little over 6 years ago I was bored at work and did a random online search about a handbag I was considering purchasing.  What popped up was a myriad of results…a little overwhelming.  And then, one of them caught my eye – it was a link to an online discussion forum..about purses and handbags!

I clicked on that link and my life has not been the same since. Since May 2006.  Seriously.  What I’d clicked on, unbeknownst to me at the time, was how this online discussion forum was designed. I’d never seen one before in my life. And…it was all about – mostly – handbag shopping!  What people liked and didn’t like!  Sorted by handbag designer!  With pictures!  I was immediately hooked and became obsessed.

What’s also spun out of this online forum are other subforums devoted to just about any other lifestyle issue:  tv shows, movies, makeup, other shopping, relationship issues, family issues, celebrity style, raising kids, jewelry…and on and on.  And behold…a HOCKEY subforum too!

That’s right…there’s a subforum on that site that’s devoted to hockey chitchat…what a delicious slice of the universe this is!  Well, at least for me – and a few other thousand women – it is.  Where else can I browse for pictures of fabulous handbags, shoes and sunglass, read about the latest makeup trends and immediately shift over into chitchat about the NHL draft, for example?  Or the playoffs? 

For some reason last year, the hockey subforum chat group got a little snarky.  I don’t remember all the details, but some wackaloon came in during the playoffs and pretty much shit on everything we’d all been discussing for ages.  OK, I realize there are fair weather fans out there, but puhleeze.  There is an etiquette out there for online chit chatting, for real, which said person clearly had no clue about.  And there were 82 games in the regular NHL season prior to the Stanley Cup playoffs, hello???  So don’t come in a-poo pooing in on things.  Just saying.

Anyway, after one too many shittings-upon, one of the women in the group posted a rant (maybe on Facebook, can’t remember), saying something like “haters are hatin’ on my Happy Hockey Island.”

What a stroke of genius!  Within a day or so we had a spin-off online chat forum with invitation-only access set up just for the 10 or so of us who were frequent posters in that hockey subforum. Something completely separate and different. Thankfully we had a resident expert/guru who knew how to do this!

And…the rest is history.  NOW we have our own little separate subforum of goodness!  I still post and chat occasionally on the original forum, but the core of my online viewing and posting has now shifted to this happy hockey island.  I love these girls so much I can’t even stand it.  They’ve been with me through hell and back and me for them as well.

And after all these many years, I finally got to meet one of the women from this spinoff group this afternoon!  What a thrill it is to meet someone online and just see how much the same they are in real life as compared to their online ‘presence’ and ‘voice.’  I LOVE that.  After years of online chatting and posting and whatnot…to be greeted with a huge HUG in real life is priceless!

We had an amazing lunch at the Budd Bay Cafe in Olympia, WA.  Wonderful clam chowder and salads, plus a nice boardwalk area overlooking the port, the farmer’s market and the state capitol just a few blocks away.  As a lifelong Washington State resident this was even more special for me, as I’d not spent much time in Olympia or Lacey.

After lunch we walked long the boardwalk – Percival Landing, all endlessly fascinating to me as a tourist in my somewhat-local region!  Typically the Olympia/Lacey area is what I blast through on the freeway on my way out to the Washington State Coast.  This was a rare, delicious opportunity to experience it close up, with my dear online friend and her husband.

I’m so touched and happy at how wonderful that meetup was.  And yet not surprised either. K was exactly in real life as she is online, and meeting her husband and Mom was just a fantastic bonus.  I smile and know this is not the last time we will all meet up again.

Behold, the power of the internet!

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The World in a Bowl…or the Joy of Soup

27 Sunday May 2012

Posted by fivenineteen in Uncategorized

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Chile, chowder, cookbook, cooking, ingredients, joy, memories, passion, soup, South America, spices

I’ve been in deep, gooey love with soup since, well, as long as I can remember.  Back in the day as a kid my Mom served up good ol’ Campbell’s canned soup for lunch quite a bit – chicken noodle, tomato, split pea – and I braved those awful MSG-laden headaches in the aftermath every time.

And I have wonderful memories of digging razor clams with my family at our summer house on the Long Beach peninsula (in Ocean Park, WA).  Mom and Grandma would make clam chowder from scratch…and those clams couldn’t have been any fresher!  I remember putting buckets and buckets of clams down in the beach house basement, covered in cold salt water.  The clams would “clean” themselves (meaning, get rid of a lot of the sand and debris on their own), saving a little time when it came to make the chowder.  I devoured bowls of it I’m sure.  I can still taste it as I write today.  [Side note:  a sign of a great clam chowder is one that’s heavy on the clams, not the ‘filler’ stuff like potatoes.]

Every once in awhile Mom would whip up a huge pot of Cioppino or Bouillabaisse.  I’d come home to those heavenly scents of seafoods and spices simmering joyously in the kitchen…such a luxurious treat! 

Today, cooking soup from scratch is one of my passions.  Save for a few very heavy stew-like soups, I love making hot soup year ’round.  Sure, a nice, cool gazpacho (with a tiny touch of hot sauce) is a perfect, light dinner in warm weather, but hot, spicy soup – interestingly enough – helps me cool down when the temperatures climb.  We don’t have to worry too much about super hot weather in the Seattle area actually.  And I guess what you consider to be “hot weather” is all relative.

It was time to blow the dust off a cookbook I have not used in quite some time, and as I stared at the row of cookbooks on my kitchen counter, this one jumped right out in a ‘pick me, pick me’ fashion:  The South American Table, by Maria Baez Kijac.  This is much, much more than a cookbook.  It’s pretty much a short history of the continent – its mind-blowing diversity of climate and cultures.  And if you’re a geography buff like I am, the introductory chapters of this book will sing to you.

The continent is far larger and more diverse than many of us might imagine.  As Kijac explains, “…it is also farther east than most think – the west coast of South America actually lies almost due south of the U.S. East Coast.  Chile’s Atacama Desert is one of the driest places on earth, with some parts going as long as 20 years without rain.  On the other hand, Choco, in western Colombia, has some of the world’s wettest weather.  Patagonia, in southern Argentina, has glaciers and snowy, wind-swept peaks, while the Amazon region is famous for its lush, tropical rain forest.  The Andes, one of the planet’s great mountain ranges, are mostly volcanic.”

From the northern regions on the Caribbean sea, to the far south along the icy waters surrounding Antarctica, the diversity of this continent is astonishing!  And this has tremendous impact upon plants, animals, civilizations and cuisine in every region. 

As you might imagine, it was hard to pick just one new recipe to try.  There are 26 recipes in just the soup section alone!  I hit the jackpot with this one…Caldillo de Congrio a la Neruda (Neruda’s Fish soup).

Serves 6 to 8 (requires some pre-preparation and marinating)

  • 2 pounds Chilean congrio filets (1 1/2 – 2″ thick) or other firm white-fleshed fish such as Chilean sea bass, red snapper or halibut
  • Juice of one lemon
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 2 medium-sized onions, thinly sliced (about 2 cups)
  • 1 tsp sweet paprika
  • 3 cloves garlic, mashed into a paste with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 small carrots, thinly sliced on the diagonal
  • 1 4 oz jar pimento strips, drained
  • 1 T chicken bouillon granules
  • 1 bay leaf
  • Pinch of sugar
  • 1 tsp dried marjoram
  • 1/4 tsp hot pepper sauce or cayenne pepper
  • 1 16 oz can pear-shaped tomatoes, drained and chopped
  • 1 C dry white wine or dry sherry
  • 3 C water
  • 1 C milk
  • 6 medium-sized all-purpose potatoes, peeled, quartered and cooked in water to cover until tender, and drained
  • 1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined
  • 1/2 C whipping cream (optional)
  • 1/4 C minced fresh parsley leaves for garnish
  • 1/4 C finely chopped scallions (white part and 1″ of green) for garnish

Cut the fish filets into 2 to 3″ pieces.  Sprinkle with the lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed. 

Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven or large casserole over low heat.  Add the onions and paprika, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 10 minutes.  Do not let brown.  Stir in the garlic paste, carrots, pimentos, bouillon, bay leaf, sugar, marjoram and hot pepper sauce and cook, stirring constantly, for a couple of minutes.  Add the tomatoes, wine and water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Discard the bay leaf.  The soup base can be made ahead up to this point.  Let cool, cover and refrigerate until needed.

To finish, bring the soup to a boil over medium heat and add the milk, fish and potatoes.  Cover and simmer until the fish is cooked through, about 8 minutes.  Just before serving, add the shrimp and cook until they turn pink and begin to uncurl, about 1 minute.  Add cream, if using, and heat through.  Taste for salt, pepper and sugar.

Serve in soup plates, sprinkled with parsley and scallions.

Fivenineteen notes:  There is a fair amount of prep work with chopping and peeling.  Please don’t be discouraged by this; the flavors in this soup are mind-blowing.  I opted to first cut up the fish and put it in a large, glass Pyrex bowl to marinate while I prepped the rest of the ingredients.  I quartered a lemon, squeezed each onto the fish pieces, sprinkled a little salt and pepper on them and covered and placed in the fridge.

Congrio is an indigenous fish from the coast of Chile.  Sadly it is not available in the States, but a Chilean sea bass, red snapper or halibut are good substitutes.  At the grocery store, the halibut was $17/lb…and the cod filets were $9/lb.  Given I needed 2 lbs, I opted for the cod and it turned out great.

As I often post in here about spices, it’s extremely important your dried spices are pungent.  Do the smell test prior to adding to your cooking – actually before you go grocery shopping.  If they’re not pungent, throw them out and get replacements.  I cannot emphasize this enough!  Don’t sabotage the true essence of all of your recipe’s flavors by thwarting it with old, wimpy spices!

Tomatoes:  I used a 14.5 oz can of pre-chopped tomatoes instead of purchasing canned pear tomatoes and chopping them myself.  Given there was a lot of other chopping and peeling with this recipe it was a nice timesaver.  Be sure to drain the tomatoes in a small strainer to remove excess liquid (same with the pimentoes too).  Shake the strainer several times to make sure you squeeze out as much liquid as possible.

Potatoes:  the recipe calls for 6; I opted to go with 3 medium to large size.  I cut them into smaller pieces (rather than just quartering) before putting in water to cook slightly.  If you are truly making this to serve 6 to 8 I would probably stick with the full amount of 6 potatoes.

Adding whipping cream:  this is a completely optional step.  I chose to do so to give the broth more of a chowder-y feel, a bit richer than the fish broth on its own.  Either way, the flavors are incredible.

The author always includes a couple of introductory paragraphs describing each recipe – personal memories, or interesting facts about the region each dish comes from.   I am so impressed with this cookbook – you can tell the author has poured her heart and soul into every single page.  Fantastic!

She explains:  “This famous Chilean soup was immortalized by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, well-known for his love of good food and a ‘happy table.’  In his poem ‘Oda al Caldillo de Congrio’ (Ode to Congrio Soup), he sings the praises of this delicious soup.  The just-married flavors of the earth and sea come to the table so that some lucky people can be introduced to heaven…”

Yep, that’s how good it is.  Enjoy!

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Savory Green Onion “Pancakes”

24 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by fivenineteen in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

cooking, food, memories, recipes, Tom Douglas

I couldn’t wait until my usual Sunday blogging day to share this wonderful discovery…a savory pancake!  When I think of pancakes I think of my childhood, making buttermilk pancakes for breakfast from scratch on Saturday mornings with my Dad, using his grandmother’s trusted recipe. I have that recipe firmly planted in my own recipe box.  Great memories.  And yes, those were the years when I was an early riser.

These pancakes are great as a side dish paired with a salad or, as I’ve discovered, a quick and unusual light dinner entrée. 

Four servings…two pancakes:

  • 1 large egg
  • 2 tsp sesame oil
  • 4 8-inch flour tortillas
  • 2 tsp sesame seeds, toasted
  • 1/3 C finely chopped green onions or scallions, white and green parts
  • 1 T peanut or vegetable oil, plus more as needed

In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg with the sesame oil.  Brush each tortilla with the egg mixture and then sprinkle two of the tortillas with the sesame seeds and green onions.  Place one of the plain tortillas over each of the sprinkled tortillas and sandwich them together, pressing down to seal, forming two whole pancakes.

Heat the peanut or vegetable oil in a saute pan over medium heat.  When hot, add a pancake to the pan and cook until lightly browned on both sides, about 2 minutes per side.  Repeat with remaining pancakes using more oil if needed.

Cut each pancake into 6 wedges and divide them amongst serving plates.

Fivenineteen notes:  I’ve sautéed these over both olive oil (when I couldn’t find peanut oil) and with peanut oil, and the peanut oil does make a difference with the flavor.  So track it down if you can.

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Remembering

11 Sunday Sep 2011

Posted by fivenineteen in Uncategorized

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Tags

2011, 9/11, anniversary, attacks, boyfriend, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, memories, Monolith, New York City, Pentagon, Slovenia, terror, Vancouver, World Trade Center

For the first 34 years of my life, September 11th was just any old ho-hum day.  No family birthdays, no wedding anniversaries, nothing real significant in my world…it was just a day that wove into the typical back-to-school or back-to-work-in-earnest-because-the-Labor-Day-holiday-is-done kind of rhythms.

It was simply just A Day. Now for ten years and forever it will be a Day Everyone Knows.  A huge wound trying to slowly heal itself and rebuild but forever scarred no matter how we try to think otherwise.

I’m stunned that today is the 10-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks.  It is a beautiful, clear morning here – just like it was that morning in New York City.  I’ve been kind of weirdly looking forward to this day only to just get through it if that makes sense…a sort of ‘self duty’ I have to write about it, and even moreso that my typical Sunday Blog Day falls on the anniversary.

So here I am, swirled in memories not only of that horrible day but the 2001 I knew prior.  Some memories are a little fuzzy – maybe by design as my mind moved through the decade and replaced them with others, but I could pretty much sum it up into one word:  INNOCENT.

My God, how innocent and quaint the world was prior…at least in my own little world. Remember when you were a kid (maybe you do) when you could just go to the airport with your family, sit in a terminal and just watch planes take off and land for fun?  When I was getting ready to fly to Florida in 1997 to catch a cruise to the Caribbean…and I forgot I had a huge pair of scissors from my office in my purse (no idea why)?  And the security agent looked at them but let me put them back in my purse before boarding the plane?  Dear Lord how things have changed!

Early 2001 started for me out of the country…in Vancouver, BC.  OK, OK, I remember now.  See, for those of us who worked in IT-related fields over Y2K, that New Years was spent working pretty much the entire day and into the wee hours.  No vacations or partying allowed.  I toasted 2000 with a bunch of co-workers and a carload of lasagnes we picked up from Olive Garden earlier that evening, washed down with a little sparkling cider.

So.  The calendar flip from 2000 to 2001 meant Time to Party, making up for the working New Years prior.  I started dating a guy, D, around summer of 2000.  He and I met during a huge technology deployment project and while I was not fond in theory of dating co-workers, this project was so huge and he and I really didn’t cross paths too much.  We didn’t even work in the same building or same department.  So we kept it discreet, people knew, but didn’t give us a hard time about it – well, not terribly hard.  In a word, it worked because we kept things professional.  And wow, we were really in love.

We got pretty ripped that night in Vancouver, enjoying dinner and doing a couple of bar hops around Robson street.  Cabs were working hard that night!  And New Years Day was sunny and glorious…we took the tram up Grouse Mountain not to ski, but to just walk in the snow and enjoy the beautiful view looking back down on the city.  Gorgeous.

I remember the random Monoliths that a group in Seattle had planted around the city…a funny prank.  I remember the Mardi Gras riot in Pioneer Square…and the 6.8 earthquake we suffered the very next morning.  UGH what a horrible 48 hours for us.

Probably my favorite memory of 2001 was the two weeks I traveled through Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy.  Ah, the time one could take a (PAID) two-week vacation…that DOES seem innocent.  I traveled with a group from my church – we were touring to share our music!  We had a choir and a handbell group…I’d been in the handbell group for many years and was so thrilled to take this trip.  If you haven’t traveled yet with a group of 70 people and lots of equipment, I highly recommend it.  It can be grueling at times, but the bonding and friendships last forever. 

We got back in the states in mid July.  Ah yes, that’s right!  We celebrated the 4th of July that year at a pub in Varazdin, Croatia.  A little surreal being out of the country on that holiday, in a place where people have no reason to care that it’s July 4th.  When I got back home, other than fighting off the jet lag I was wondering if I would have a job to come back to…our company was re-organizing and there were a lot of uncertainties and rumors flying around. 

I ended up moving to a different department on our team and immersed myself back into the swing.  I was not particularly looking forward to having direct reports again, but the group was well established and in good standing so there was nothing majorly broken.  Or maybe that’s the fuzzy part of my memories.

D and I had been going through some struggles in our relationship.  We’d been together about a year by now.  He’d been working a lot and we were just, well, struggling.  He’d always given me a hard time on whether I truly didn’t want to have kids or not.  He was ten years older than I with an 11 year old daughter and made it perfectly clear he did not want any more kids.  So clear that he took the steps to ensure that if you know what I mean. I was 34 and knew deep down I didn’t want to have kids, even though a teeny part of me was still kind of wondering…what if I really did?  I think he sensed that…he kept bringing it up ALL the time and we’d argue.  Looking back on it now, I think he was worried that if we were to be together long-term, well, if I changed my mind down the road then I would resent him?  And then leave?  I guess in a twisted way he wanted to make sure I was happy.  But I wasn’t in how he handled it.  I was kept arms distance from his daughter too – I rarely got to see her…I wanted to get to know her because she was well, his family and part of him.  Wow, I haven’t thought about that in a long time…hence my ramble.

And oh that first part of September…I remember driving him to jail.  Yes, jail.  Now more is flooding back.  Earlier in the spring he’d been out drinking with a buddy of his and swerved getting off a freeway exit ramp – and got pulled over.  And failed sobriety tests.  I remember the night he told me what happened and I just fell to the floor emotionally, but immediately gave him a hug.  What the hell already?

Now, if you have to drive your boyfriend to serve two days in jail, be glad it’s a small county jail in a very rural part of the state (rather than downtown). That’s where he had his little, uhhhh, incident.  The whole thing was so surreal…and those were two of the longest days of my life.  He couldn’t have any phone or email contact with me, obviously.  I had to call the jail two days later to confirm he was going to be released so I could make the hour and a half drive north to come get him.  SURREAL.

Somewhere in all this mess we agreed to just stay together 24/7 and try to work things out.  Plus he had a suspended driver’s license so yours truly was the chauffeur.  

Lots of those days after bringing him home from jail are a little blurry, but one night I will never forget.  We were watching TV…Larry King Live.  One of the last news stories was about an old Air Force One 707 that was being retired.  Seriously…it was a total snoozer of a story and we both looked at eachother and said WOW, they’re really must not be a lot of news going on right now!  We even went to sleep that night giggling about it.

That night?  Monday September 10th.

The next morning my alarm went off around 6:30am or so.  I had it set to my favorite radio station at the time but I remember immediately shutting it off and getting in the shower.  D was still fast asleep.

After my shower I turned on the radio again.  The first words I hear are the DJ saying “…yes, yes, we’re getting your phone calls.  We know one of the World Trade Center towers has just collapsed.”  I thought I was completely losing my mind.

I ran down the hall and turned on CNN.  That was the very first thing I saw on TV…one of the towers was gone and the other was on fire.  And I had no fucking clue why.  I screamed for D to get in here right now!  We were both so sleepy still and couldn’t believe it.  We just sat on my living room couch, dumbfounded.  THEN we saw the replay of the 2nd plane hitting a tower and we just gasped. 

For all the thousands of times everyone has seen that horrific moment, I don’t think any of us will forget when we saw it first.  And keep in mind here on the west coast we are three hours behind, so a lot had already happened that we simply didn’t know about, except for the real early-risers.

Then we learned the planes were hijacked.  My stomach dropped.  One of my brothers was a flight attendant with American, based at La Guardia at the time.  Could not reach him.  I had two cousins in college at Columbia…was everyone OK??

The TV was focused on the one remaining tower.  I’m pretty sure the whole world was by now too.  And then, in seconds, it collapsed.  That was the only thing D and I saw live on TV.  I remember feeling like I was going to throw up.  What does this mean?  Who would do this?  All those people still in the towers…how many thousands and thousands are there?  In the streets?  In those planes?  Are we going to be attacked next?

My mind raced and whirred.  The Pentagon was attacked too…and there was a plane crash in Pennsylvania (which we we learned later was Flight 93, probably intended for the White House).  I remember calling my folks and my Mom answered the phone.  I said “are you watching TV??”  She said yes…and I sort of yelled “OMG, where is M?” (my brother).  She didn’t know.  And my Dad was up in rural BC on a fishing trip…

Somehow D and I drove into work, in a daze.  Everyone at work was either zoned out, panicked trying to locate family members or crowded around the TVs in our lobby.  I don’t think much got done that day.  I remember just trying to infuse some sense of normal routine into a day that was anything but.  We sat at our computers but mostly surfed news channels, tried to track down our family and friends, tell people we loved them. 

After the shock there was fear. D and I spent that night of the 11th at his house.  I didn’t sleep well for several nights.  I was panicked, worried that there would be more attacks in other cities.  Thank God my brother was off that day and home in New Jersey, by the way.  Waiting to find that out seemed like eternity.

I did some journaling in the days following.  And I wish I knew where that writing is…it is probably on an old computer I don’t have any more.  Too bad, for the writing there is a lot more raw.  Funny how a decade smooths our raw edges out.

I remember speaking with my friend J…and you know what immediately popped into each of our heads about that day (along with so many other thoughts)?  She and I went on a Caribbean cruise in the spring of 2000.  We’d flown to Newark on a red eye before catching a connecting flight to Ft. Lauderdale.  I remember arriving with her in Newark, bleary after an all night flight and walking to our connecting gate.  There, out the window was a beautiful sunrise…and the Twin Towers glowing as we looked across the river.  How I regret I never had an opportunity to visit the WTC.  And I’ll never, ever forget that image in my mind of them.

The rest of 2001 played itself out grimly…what started out as a great year save for an earthquake plunged me into sadness.  What was the world going to be like NOW?  Will we ever find time for humor, laughter?  There sure wasn’t much to smile about.

The year fizzled out horribly.  My grandmother passed away that November after a long battle with Alzheimer’s, just two days prior to my Mom’s 60th birthday.

And D and me?  Well, we gave it a go for awhile but we couldn’t get through many hurdles in that relationship.  I broke up with him…New Years Eve to be exact.  A year prior we were celebrating in Vancouver.  And now, too many walls up.  We were sitting on the couch, supposed to go out for dinner, but we knew it was ending and that that dinner would never happen.

It didn’t.  He left and I sat again on the couch, sad and in shock.  Just like when he and I watched the 9/11 footage in horror together.  So while our relationship didn’t work out, he is seered in my mind forever, mostly for that reason.  They say you’ll never forget where you were or what you were doing if you were old enough. 

So when people ask me where I was, I start off with this:  “I was in my apartment at the time with my boyfriend at the time…”

10 years.  Wow.  Blessings to all who lost loved ones that day.

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Cotton Ball 5K

28 Sunday Aug 2011

Posted by fivenineteen in Uncategorized

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Tags

5K, Alki Beach, family, memories, volunteer, walk, West Seattle, work

Whew!  The 3rd time IS a charm.  After being too tired or too rained out for two other 5Ks this spring/summer, I finally got one under my belt this year!

OK, yeah…I didn’t RUN it, but it still counts right?

This was my second time volunteering in the annual Alki Beach 5K Walk & Run, which benefits Northwest Hope and Healing.  Northwest Hope and Healing is a non-profit organization which provides emergency financial assistance for women who are undergoing breast cancer treatment at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle.  Assistance with basic living expenses like rent, childcare and groceries.

And wow that was a lot of hyperlinking in that last paragraph.  But really good stuff – please check it out.

So, how do you volunteer at a 5K?  Well, the way I did today was one of the easiest jobs ever – walk the course at the very end, to help let the police and others know that they could start re-opening the roads again.  That’s it! 

There are a ton of both new and old memories woven into this event…starting with the neighborhood.  Alki Beach is in West Seattle, and there’s a ton of family history here on my Dad’s side of the family.  My grandfather grew up in West Seattle in the 1920s.  He and my grandmother later raised my Dad and Uncle in this same neighborhood.  I have enormously fond memories as a kid of the long drive from my house growing up in the suburbs over to West Seattle for Sunday dinner at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Countless, joyful times. 

And the newer memories are from my dear friend P, who inspired me to start training to run 5Ks a couple of years ago.  She and I used to work together and I’m so glad we still keep in touch despite super busy schedules.  P’s both run and volunteered in this 5K before, and I was so happy she asked me to join her again this year.

What can I say…this just FEELS good all around.  And it’s a nice change of pace getting out of the suburbs and into a wonderful, older neighborhood in the city, right on the salt water of Puget Sound.

OK, getting up super early on a Sunday morning is not my favorite thing to do, but once I got up, got dressed and on my way to meet P for our carpool, I was smiling.  P showed up with S, an exchange student from Japan who is staying with a friend of P’s while attending college here.  S was a good sport – I wasn’t sure if she knew entirely what this event was going to be all about but I admired her spunk and enthusiasm.  And her English was pretty good too!  Far better than my Japanese for sure, ha.

We arrived at Alki Beach around 8am.  Damn, that fog was thick but thankfully it was not as chilly as it was last year.  I remember borrowing knit running gloves from P at the last minute!  And also having to put our t-shirts on over our jackets! This year it was not cold, but that fog didn’t burn of AT ALL.

Yep, that’s Yours Truly in this week’s picture – that’s a fivenineteen first, everyone.  Had it not been so foggy there would have been a spectacular view of the Seattle skyline behind me.  Believe me.  P and I were so bummed because we really wanted S (the exchange student) to experience the view.  But the darn fog never burned off.

The one challenging thing about walking at the tail end of a 5K is, well, keeping your pace just right.  You don’t want to ‘hover’ too close behind the last group of walkers.  And, you want to make sure you start walking truly after everyone else has started.  With about 1200 people participating we had to wait several minutes before we could take to the street and start.

This race goes up and down Alki Avenue – a very flat, fast course.  At the halfway point the course does a 180 turn and heads back down the street, finishing at the same place we started.  Even though I was walking at a very slow pace with P and S, I was looking forward to a quick gulp of water at the water stop.  NOPE.  No water stop at the turn around point this year!  If I had been running this race I would have been extremely pissed.  Yikes.

Other than a few late stragglers we had to corral (how in the hell do you show up over one hour late for a 5K? Baffling.) the three of us had a very nice, relaxing stroll.  And we even finished in around 1 hour 15 minutes.  MUCH faster than last year.  Feels kinda cool walking over the finishing line and hearing the emcee announce, “…and our last walkers have just crossed the finish line…”.  Meanwhile we didn’t even break a sweat.

So although the fog kept its iron-clad grip on the neighborhood (hence my ‘cotton ball’ post title today), we had a wonderful morning volunteering.

And on the drive back to the suburbs?  Glorious sunshine.  Even Mount Baker was out.  Too funny how socked in Alki was.

Now it’s time for a nap.  Until next week, everyone! 

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