Last night

It's my last night. I knew as soon as I was ready to bust out of town, the weather would turn beautiful and pull people out of their apartments and into the streets and parks. My bosses took the office for a lunch cruise around Lake Union, and in the evening I had an amazing dinner at the Athenian in Pike Place and wandered around the Seattle Art Museum scuplture park. Really, couldn't ask for a better send off. I think I'll write more when I don't feel as overwhelmed by the season of change. I've yet to figure out what I'll need to hold onto, and what to let by.

My LastFM

I checked out LastFM this evening. Holy time burglar. My early evening, carefully laid out for box-stuffing, bathroom dissecting, and apartment cleaning, was soon split between these necessary tasks and the not-so-necessary task of playing around with tags and skips on LastFM. "Indie" wins for most likeable tag - but "Really fucking good" wins for "Tag Most Likely to Incite Forehead-Wrinkling Gufaws" (apparently, "really fucking good" also translates to "Swedish powerpop"). Regardless, it's addicting, and highly likeable and adapted well for passive listening. My one complaint thus far is that nearly every band save British chav rap is linked as similar to Arcade Fire. Really, great band...but no es todo el mundo, comprendes?

I noticed tonight that my friends in Seattle and I keep talking about Seattle happenings as if I'm not leaving. Makes sense, considering the awkwardness of being like, "What, you never went to see a show at the Triple Door? Wow, then nevermind. What I was going to say is totally pointless. You won't see one there anyway." That's a lot more awkward than ignoring that I won't get to see and do certain things by nature of not being here anymore. But when I'm by myself, I think about it and get that salty taste in my mouth when you realize something is ending and you are transitioning. Like when you are standing in the lobby after a film, rubbing dry eyes and trying to disengage from the story so you can mentally put on your coat and walk out the door.

I just got my second Neutral Milk Hotel tune on this tag. Apparently, The Algorithm has declared me a NMH fan. I can't wait for this thing to start predicting music for me. I'll sit back all lazy-minded and let the mathematical structure of my own subconsciousness pick my tunes. Damn, we are so close to hoverboards, I can feel it.

Wait...it's playing Bright Eyes?!?! I don't like Bright Eyes! Or do I? Maybe I love it!

This time again

Nothing like a little six month break from posting on your blog.

I'm leaving Seattle in one week. This is the longest I've spent in one city in any given stretch since high school. Fifteen months. Less than a cell phone contract. Four jobs, two locations, a couple of stretches sleeping on a cot and the floor, one relationship ending, went from having two cats to no cats, having a car to having no car. Being honest to God broke to having enough to get along well. I spent too many evenings alone reading Pitchfork reviews, watching Frasier reruns and eating Trader Joes peanuts for dinner. Not my finest year.

But damn, when this city tries, it is truly beautiful. And I've made great friends here. And the smell of a warm breeze off Green Lake is amazing.

I can't imagine leaving a place without looking back, without grieving a bit. Sometimes a lot.