J and I are back from a few days in Seattle. We headed up after the Labor Day holiday for a mini escape and to chill with our friends G and J. We had a great time. G&J recently had a baby girl and they also recently finished a major basement remodel… I say all this bc clearly their tolerance for “projects” and disruptions is very high. G insists that her kids are very good, and from my limited exposure, it does seem like the toddler and baby are both obedient, even-tempered, and champion sleepers. Still, the parents deserve plenty of credit. There is just a way about both G&J that is so distinctly different from J and me. And I keep coming back to this theme over and over again: Bubs and I are highly susceptible to annoyance and irritation bc I dunno: we (but I especially) are just impatient as fuck.

For example, this happens a lot when we travel, and it happens ESPECIALLY frequently when we are in Seattle: we decide to go somewhere and then on the way there, we get frustrated with the traffic and once we arrive in the vicinity, parking is a beotch. Then there was a crazy line. Be it food, the museum, a city attraction, the boba shop….

Like one morning, we selected a place to go for breakfast, then we sat through shitty traffic to get there, we eventually found parking, and bam, the place was CLOSED due to some random gas line problem! Last year when we were in Seattle, we hit up this highly rated boba place. We got there when it was posted to open at 10:30 and it still wasn’t open. Waited ten minutes. Nothing. Then we went to a park and same shit. The Nature Center posted a sign that staff would be back at x time and then it was x + 30 min and they were still gone. This trip, it happened again for the SAME boba place, then a second boba place (they just changed their fall hours), then I needed to use the bathroom at a third tea shop and no bathroom. Yeah, some weird stacking of bad juju. Story of our traveling life!

Needless to say, every time these glitches happen, I get irritable bc I’m hungry or my bladder is about to explode or I’ve been driving longer than I had anticipated and Bubbey is pissing me off as a navigator… I get really irked. But then I ask that question: “What would G do?” And I know that she wouldn’t waste her energy getting upset. She would just go to the next option and move on to Plan B. Shrug. I’m trying to work on my tolerance. To a small extent, I do try to keep it inside in hopes that the negative energy will dissipate. That said, I suppose there will always be some element of histrionics. I am my parents’ daughter after all, and if anything, I suppose it makes for decent blogging fodder. 🙂

Beyond that minor stuff, we had a lovely time hanging with our buds and also going around the city solo. It was a good mix of friend time and self exploration. J and I found a very cool Japanese store, chock full of stationery, kitchen wares, makeup, food… It was a very clean and tidy all-in-one shop adjacent to a Japanese supermarket. So much spiffier than Chinese markets, but J said the prices are also triple, so obviously, I just browsed and didn’t buy. Regardless, that place occupied us for a couple hours. We also did a lot of walking around the various districts: Ballard, West Seattle, downtown… On the home front, we had full use of their new basement palace, which is deluxe: living room, tv, bedroom, bathroom— a whole renovated floor with +/- 1000sf of living space.

Weather-wise, Seattle was unseasonably hot and muggy– I’ve never been in Seattle with hazy and ashy air (wildfires). That kept us from doing too much outdoor activity– that plus we are out-of-shape and lazy. Our last night there, my friend D and his Japanese wife came over and we all ordered takeout. She was a really nice lady: very kind (she volunteers at the animal shelter) and adventurous (they’v done a good bit of traveling, including staying at castles in Portugal!). And they are preggers! It really is something else to see people transition into different phases of life… I mean, sure, we’re all essentially the same people we were decades ago but dang, so many new responsibilities and perspectives! Makes me think of my college roommate. She just had her second kid. Honestly, I didn’t even know she was preggers and then one day on FB, there’s a posting about mommy and baby girl doing fine. Huh, when did THAT happen? I still have to adjust a little, bc my strongest impressions/memories of her are from three years of living together as college kids. Now she is a mom of two. SMH. It’s weird. Then again, I’m pretty sure she still sees me as that uber serious, very strict/square, stressed out, nervous Nelly. Little does she know, this Vix is the toned down version!! How’d THAT happen, right? Life, man.