Blowing through Wyoming

This morning we awoke in a hotel room in Denver, the wake-up call scheduled for a mere ten minutes before we were expected to meet the airport shuttle downstairs. Shuttle at 6:40, call at 6:30. We made it down there in great time, which was not really a surprise since we hadn't settled into our room until after midnight so we were still packed. We had just driven about two hours from Laramie, Wyoming where we visited our dear friend Anthony for the weekend to witness his graduation from law school at the University of Wyoming. We made it a priority to attend Anthony's graduation because he is a great friend who accomplished a great feat. Over the past three years we shared many conversations on the phone and occasionally in person where he expressed his love of and devotion to his goal - and to the intricacies of the law he was learning. I recall talking to Anthony at length about legal scenarios involving shooting at turkeys but killing family members, creative copyright law (such as the student who apparently created and the sold the Nike logo for $30 decades ago) and of course, about the empire of storage units he plans to eventually create. I admit that Laramie is not an ideal destination, not somehwere I would pay to visit on my own, but Anthony will be first to tell you that it is an ideal locale in which to learn and study. The winters feature days on end of sub-zero temperatures and biting winds. Little to no social scene exists (unless you consider livestock your friends) and the terrain is basically a high cold desert plateau. So you bundle up, attend class, and then study indoors the rest of the time to evade the arctic winds. Some members of Anthony's family attended and they were a joy to meet or reacquaint with and we are all intensely proud of his achievement. (Of course, taking a weekend trip to the high desert in the middle of nowhere also helps us secure a friendly attorney once he passes the Bar.) It was a speedy trip - we flew out late Friday night and came back early this morning - but well worth the time spent with friends. Some highlights:




Anthony receiving his Juris Doctorate hood. I apologize for the shaky camera work but the shouting friends nearby created come vibrations. We arrived a bit late and were forced to sit in the back with all of the crying babes.


Ant relaxing at the reception


Ant affixing our graduation gift. The helmet reads, "Quid Pro Quo" which I understand translates to, "Something for Something." Indeed. He sacrificed a lot for this degree.


Matt at the Cowboy Bar with ladies dancing on the bar behind him.


Anthony delivering his closing arguments to a riveted jury

Movie Posters

As I mentioned before, I am working on artwork for the poster / DVD / DVD box for a friend's short film which will soon premiere at the Seattle Independent Film Festival. After a little break due to full-time grocery bagging for seven days straight I finally composed a handful of sketches and sent them off to get some feedback. Check 'em out. (they're also available on my flickr page).
















Yeah, I actually intended to create only three sketches but I really liked all of the different directions. I honestly have strong favorite. Can you guess which one?

Working, Sniffing, Betting

Well, today I attended my orientation day at Whole Foods. Loads of information. Most of it was common sense, some information about the job and the company. Despite my misgivings coming from a cooperative grocery background, as far as corporations go, I could do worse. And they're all extremely nice and intelligent people - though I sometimes felt the sense that they had the swirly-eyed, "Just join us and you'll understand," drink the Kool-Aid mentality. I'll give them credit for admitting in the propaganda videos that they are indeed in it for the money. Is that why I'm in it too? Oh yeah, and natural organic foods are kinda groovy too. And wow, they make a killer burger there at the grill. Saturday we drove up to Mt. Vernon to attend the month-long Skagit Valley Tulip Festival and the weekend-long Mt. Vernon Street Fair. Interesting arts & crafts abounded and we stopped in to the Skagit Valley Food Co-op. This was a beautiful grocery store - it held that graceful balance between hippie co-op, community market and family grocer. Not too nice, not too funky, but just right. They make their own soups and salad dressings and had fantastic prices. Nice work, hippies! After the fair and some corn dogs - MMM! We drove out to check out the fields of fully blooming daffodils and the tulips just beginning to get going.

Field of daffodils








Tulips gettin' sexy


Me gettin' sexy


Tulips and Cascades

Then on Sunday we met some friends at the track to bet on some ponies. This was both of our first time at the races and we're defnitely going back, though we both came out with less cash. Not too much money, and well worth the sunny afternoon entertainment.

The final race - I won twenty-five bucks on this one. Still in the hole overall but a nice end to the day.


View of Rainier from our seats at the track. We're both still thrilled to see sights like this and realize that we live here now.

When it rains, it...well, it rains a lot here

So I realize I'm spending a whole lot of time on this computadore. Yes, it can be explained since it's kind of what I do. What can't be explained - or at least should not be rationalized - is the amount of time I spend surfing the web. It's shameful. Thing is, at times I have thought that in order to keep up with pop culture - also part of what I do - that I needed to actually spend more time keeping up with whatever new video or photo or what not is being passed around. The problem arises when I realize that a bulk of the time I spend online is completely narcissistic. That is, every time I sit down, and at frequent intervals when I'm sitting here, I check hits on my portfolio website, see if there are any comments on my blog (yeah, um, are you people actually reading this?), check my email and peek at the the other places I have words or images posted. It's an odd lust for recognition in a world I progressively feel a part of, even though if you talk to me socially I'll go on about how people spend way too much time on the internet and not nearly enough time outdoors breathing the air and smelling the scents of life - good and bad. I guess I'm doing okay since I haven't Googled myself...in a few weeks.
Anyway, life continues in beautiful Seattle... and it is beautiful. I continue to take long walks almost daily, taking new streets or new routes to the same streets. Taking walks through neighborhoods is really the only way to know where you are. It's easy to drive - and I do that too - but walking provides a street-level experience where you have time to stop and look at that odd collection of toys on the porch or the strange blooming tree on the corner.
Work - remember being single? Remember what it was like when you got to the point where you weren't girl-crazy and you were happy and confident being single and then...BAM! Well, that's how it happened with me at least, and it's strictly coincidence that my wife's initials are indeed BAM. Anyway, after toiling on the job search for a few weeks now, I feel like I'm in that same confident mode. I finally managed to secure a job at (look away, former DFC coworkers) Whole Foods. Yep, hired on as a "Customer Service Representative" or "Team Member" or whatever they call it there. I haven't actually been to the orientation yet, but the writing is on the wall. And yes, I will be bagging groceries. Sure it's not what I was looking for specifically but it's an opening and, well, it's income. And coming from nearly five years of marketing natural foods, I sure as hell better be able to sell them and bag them. As I was saying about being single, as soon as I secure the Whole Foods job, I got a call back from Bastyr University about my application to be a marketing coordinator there. I won't know for at least a week or so, but I again feel good (cautiously) and this job seems so incredibly similar to my job at DFC they would be crazy not to hire me. Rest assured, I will tell them so.
So, more about the single guy analogy, I also got the okay to make some changes to the DFC website under contract. That's income, baby. Also, tonight I met with my friend Shawn here in Seattle, a brilliant actor and budding filmmaker. He has just shot a short film for the SIFF - Seattle Independent Film Festival - and asked me to create the poster and DVD package for his film. He showed us the raw footage tonight and the film is beautiful He is enlisting volunteer services from friends with talent and I am extremely proud to be involved. So work is there. I'm keeping busy. A busy Seth is a creative and productive Seth. Just knowing that the Whole Foods job is there has made me so much more comfortable in my interactions with life. Crazy how that's what it takes. Of course I'll never experience serendipity the way I did with finding Beth, but the feeling is reminiscent. Life is good. Trees are blooming.

Spring has Sproinged

Ahh, springtime. Pretty fantastic around here today. Took a walk over to the UW campus to check out the emerging cherry blossoms. Take a look:

Looking out over the plaza. It's Saturday and the grounds were packed with people taking photos, picnicking and getting married. We walked by three different wedding parties, all of whom looked barely 18 years old.


Bird just a little bit bigger than my thumb


Blossoms

Last weekend we drove down to Bend, Oregon to meet friends, get a final day out on the mountain at Mt. Bachelor and celebrate Kenley's birthday.

Friends (and dogs) on a hike.


Friends caught in a UFO tractor beam near Tumalo Falls. Look at the agony on their faces! The humanity!

Still seeking employment, so we're both getting our résumés out there like mad. I have gotten pretty good at composing cover letters. Maybe I should offer to sell my cover letter writing services? They're obviously not THAT good since there's still no job.
We fell over when we finally got our taxes put together and saw what we owe. Seems we managed to bump up a bracket without witholding remotely enough - even without the freelance work I did. Deep breath... Ahhh, cherry blossoms.

Are you employed, sir?

I should also mention that I have actively started to search for a job. I got an interview with the City of Redmond, a suburb of Seattle about the size of Davis. The position looked great, with good pay and benefits and room to grow. I got my portfolio looking all slick, I rehearsed my presentation with Beth (thanks Beth) and dressed up all nice. I went to that interview and really felt like I knocked it out of the park. I felt great about the prospect right up until Friday afternoon when I got the message that I didn't get the job. Yeah, I kept telling myself this was all just practice, getting my interview skills honed. Still, I was pretty disappointed. I realized that I had never actually had a job interview and then not been offered the job. So a little reality is good, motivated me. I'm now actively searching and looking at more possibilities.

It's a cop, dummy!

Beth and I took yet another fantastic trip last weekend. We drove about 2 1/5 hours southwest from Seattle to the coast just north of Oregon, to a little town called Westport. The inspiration for this trip came right out of the pages of Via, the AAA magazine. Kind of like picking an adventure out of National Geographic, but a little less exotic and a little more trashy. I suppose we've become accustomed to the countless quaint little expensive artist retreat towns all up and down the Northern California Coast. These towns - Westport, Grayland - are perched on stunning pieces of land, but the towns are fairly run-down. The constant rain can't help much (the marquee on the roof of the local hardware store advertised something called Rid Moss) and they're a relatively long way away from metropolitan areas and so aren't very touristy.
We rented a motel room from this incredibly friendly Norwegian couple. Photos of them on their site. The rooms were modest but very clean and you could tell they put a lot of effort (if not money) into making the spaces homey. I was impressed by the live succulent in the room. During our initial survey of available rentals in the area we came across a cabin curiously named The Beastmaster's Den. You must follow the link to see the details as my wording would not do it justice. Go ahead, look now and make sure to look at the photos. Yeah, right? Notice there is only one window in the whole cabin and it is blinded by wooden slats.
So yes, we stayed at the Pacific Inn with our hosts Egil & Gunvor. After lunch of one of the tastiest fish sandwiches I've had yet (I admit I've had a lot lately) we drove around the small town a bit. Along the main drag I checked my speed when I saw a cop parked in a lot facing the highway. As we passed slowly, Beth remarked that it looked as if he were taking a nap in his car. We swung it back around and discovered:


There, there, sleep, gentle cop. I'm going to come a bit closer.


Whoa. That's not a real cop. I didn't realize until looking at the photo later that he seems to have lipstick smeared on his lips, ear and neck (you can click the photo for a larger version). Apparently there's not a lot going on in Westport.

We went to the beach and scoured the sand for marked sand dollars, part of a local celebration of driftwood and flotsam and jetsam.

Beth, happily searching the beach for marked sand dollars


Me, enjoying the sunshine


Looking down the beach. The Washington beaches feel much more stark and isolated than those in California. Despite the cold and wind, they seem more tranquil up here.


Blowing sand


From a lookout tower in Westport. There were surfers down there along the jetty - all decked out in full-length hooded wetsuits. We were surprised to learn that Westport is home to two surf shops. On the horizon you can see the snowy peaks of the Olympics.


Again from the tower, looking back on the marina.

According to the Westport tourism magazine, Westport is one of the best charter fishing spots in the WORLD - they said it. The area is also called the Cranberry Coast. Just south of Grayland were countless farms of cranberry bogs, wide flat expanses of scarlet. This is also where they grow the prized cran-apple.

Look at me, I'm 33

Beth and I celebrated my birthday earlier this week. Yep, 33 years old. We went downtown and had lunch, where I was treated to an amazing cornmeal encrusted catfish sandwich. Then we headed to the Experience Music Project. It's a sort of rock & roll museum and it's all very well thought out and very interactive. Of course, different music to listen to at stations all along the way, of course a section devoted to the Seattle grunge scene and of course an incredible section devoted to Jimi Hendrix (including a piece of that guitar he famously burned at the Monterey Pop Festival - oooh). Right now the EMP is also hosted an exhibition of letterpress work by Hatch Show Print, a printer out of Nashville. It was amazing to see the hand-carved wooden blocks used in printing all sorts of materials, from trailer advertisements to Grand Ol' Opry flyers to modern band posters. So neat to see the artistic skill and creativity involved in each piece. According to their video, they keep every block and so have hundreds - thousands of blocks dating back decades. It's an incredibly interesting way to view history and popular culture. (Thanks to Beth for indulging the font nerd in me on my birthday)
We topped off the day with a trip to REI to grab a new backpacking stove for the quickly approaching summer. Ooooh, new gear. Great birthday, great to spend it with Beth.
(We realized at some point that we forgot the camera, so instead of birthday photos I'll include a photo of another recent outing to the Seattle aquarium.)

Sun and Snow

I sometimes worry I'm boring myself by thinking about the weather so often, I'm then reminded that weather was one of the major reasons we moved to Seattle. I am still amazed by the changing weather. Yesterday was stunningly beautiful. Clear and crisp with broad mountain ranges visible to the east and the west. Today it's snowing. The variety in the weather makes the days more interesting. Every day comes on fresh and new with anticipation. There is always some uncertainty of sun or storm.

I finally submitted my first resumé last week and am sending off another on Monday. I know I will likely have to send out many resumés before landing the right position, but I feel like the process has begun and I'm finding satisfaction in actively working toward a goal after the long break. Not that I have been wholly unproductive. If one could pick out a routine from my daily habits, it would surely include a good deal of time spent reading design books and learning more about Flash and web development.

Today's snow was fleeting (it's sunny out now - wait, now kind of foggy) but a week or so ago we awoke to a fresh blanket of about three inches. I still find the composition of city and snow a novelty. I still have an innate sense that it only snows in the mountains. That morning I set out early to take some photos of my new found fascination. See them below (click on photos to view larger versions).


This image feels incredibly still.


The bike is reminiscent of Davis, but not so much the snow.










Interstate 5 with downtown off in the distance to the south. Notice the morning commute headed into downtown. We're learning when and where not to drive in order to avoid crazy city traffic. Though the traffic can be frustrating, all of our essential needs are within walking distance so driving trips are never urgent.






Almost back home, I came across these shoes on a line, their foot beds full of snow. Of all the scenes I discovered that morning, I think that this one best illustrates snow in the city.

Coasts and Co-ops

So since we're still happily unemployed, we decided last week to take a day and drive out to the Olympic Peninsula to see what all the fuss was about. We chose Port Townsend as our destination and figured we would drive all the way there and then take the ferry back to Seattle.

The day was beautiful and the drive relaxing. We stopped off in some of the small communities on the way - so many homes and lots for sale! We checked out the little town of Gig Harbor and on our way out - BAM! Flat tire. We both recalled how we got a flat tire driving on the California coast, on the trip with the ring and the kneeling and proposin' marraige. So we knew we could stay in good spirits. A quick patch and we're back on the road.

Both ravenous by the time we arrived in Port Townsend, we quickly sat down to lunch and listened to the rude old lady at the table next to us. Will we be rude old folks? Don't people feel thay they're entitled to be rude once they get gray and wrinkled?
Food was great. Delicious fish & chips and a prime rib snadwich.

The Port Townsend downtown was quaint, with brick buildings constructed more than 100 years ago. Many held fading ads painted on the ocean-facing sides of the building.



The docks offered vast viewing of the sound, and the town was dotted with many old bookstores, all independently owned and crammed to the ceilings with all manner of old and interesing books. The whole place seems very distant and remote, partly because we were there in the off season.





Pretty cute, eh?


We of course did the obligatory stop at the local food co-op. It's such a comfort to walk amonog ailses of familiar products. More so than in the PCC stores we have visited here in the city, Port Townsend Co-op shoppers all seemed to know each other and all seemed to be fiercely proud of shopping at their Co-op. Loved it, though their version of the Golden Beet & Kale Salad just didn't have the right zing we've grown accustomed to in Davis. Always the Co-op nerd, it seemed I was wearing by Co-op Advantage beanie in this photo.


Then we also have to make the obligatory stop at the local brewery. (The sailor is pointing at Beth and yelling "Thar she brews!") The tiny tasting room was packed and got progressively more crowded. It was located right near the docks and many of the patrons donned well-worn hats and sweatshirts labeled Port Townsend Shipwright's Co-op. They love them some cooperation out in PT.

We took the Ferry Back from Bainbridge Island right into Downtown Seattle. By then it was dark so we were treated with the glowing nighttime skyline. Wonderful day. It felt pretty great to see the beautiful city and say, "we live there."