Snow Day!

Yeah! I got a snow day today! I don't think I've had one since high school (we didn't even get one in Iowa when a state of emergency had been declared with -20 degree weather and -40 windchill.) It wasn't actually that bad in the city of Seattle - side streets were ice rinks at best. The main roads were clear. But just outside the city, it was horrible with cars abandoned on the side of the road, people parked at the end of their street because they couldn't get up the hill (especially Queen Anne Hill!)

I called the emergency weather number for work and then crawled back into bed. I went to the gym, had lunch with a friend, bought holiday cards at Target and talked on the phone for a hour with Rebecca, knitting, hanging out with kitties.... it might have been a perfect snow day. Ever.

Holy Snow!

It might have made national news for it surely made the local news -but it was snowing yesterday - I mean like snow globe snow. It didn't start off that way. In the morning as I drove North up I-5 explaining to a skate friend, who has never driven in such bad weather, how not to hydroplane we came into a snowy wonderland in Lynnwood. It was real snow and really sticking. By the time we headed home an 1.5 hours later, Seattle proper was getting sleet. By the time I headed to Capitol Hill (near where I work) it had turned into fat, fluffy snow flakes -simply beautiful!

The snow stopped by 11 p.m. though the streets were so quiet as I drove to work this morning - more quiet than Thanksgiving day itself. As I left work, it started snowing again - tiny snowballs (not hail), poured snow. It was super fun as I crept home, past the university where student were have impromptu snowball fights and kids were sledding on the one inch of snow in their tiny front yards that graded steeply towards the icy streets. I stopped by the Fred (Fred Meyer, Kroger chain) to get some Christmas lights to decorate my small apartment. So festive and so fun. Of course, anyone who knows me knows I love the snow and have been dubbed "snow princess" in my past.

Seattle does get snow. According to the weather Channel, Seattle gets on average 7 inches a year. I think we got one inch over this weekend. However, the 8 snowplows that the county owns are all used to push the snow off of Snoqualmie Pass which goes over the Cascades, connecting Eastern and Western Washington. So while the 8 plows are pushing off the real substantial snow, the city folks are left to fend for themselves. As my skate friend Heidi, who is native of Seattle, stated "and what are those 8 trucks going to do - scrape the 3 inches of ice off the streets." I told her about this amazing thing called salt...or sand. In any case, snow accumulation is so rare that there is no need for so many plows.

Now, tonight, the sound of children has been replaced with people spinning out and tires trying to grab traction on the ice. The streets are still so quiet and no one is out.

I hope we get a snow day tomorrow! That would be so much fun!

~the photos are from iceskating with friends at Seattle Center this weekend.

Book clubs

It has been a fantastic long four days off - most of it spent eating, playing board games until the wee hours of the morning, naps, hanging out with kitty friends, exercising and much conversation. I did not participate in the shopping madness, only tonight going to Target to get kitty litter.

One of my conversations was about "organized religion" and its value and its ill. My friend turned to me and said "Michelle, why can't church be like a book club for the bible. I mean you get a group of people to meet out at a coffee shop and talk about what they thought of Exodus. Then you can find out the values you share and see why other people have other interpretations..." avoiding wars, crazy amendments, and the like. I thought that was a pretty clever and funny idea. Then I realized that there exists a book club for the Bible and other great works... called philosophy.

One Year ago today...

I called Pygmy on the phone... she inquired where I was on my journey across the middle of the United States. I replied "I'm on Snoqualmi Pass -I just past a sign that said 'Entering King County' and it just started raining..." How ironic.

I spend Turkey Turkey Day with Pyg's husband's family who are like my family. It was a great anniversary for me. Last year, I stretched my legs out of my car filled with most of my belongings and took a deep breath of air, getting ready to start a new leg of my own adventure.

It's been a great year - minus this last week of complete frustration with both derby tryouts and a potential boost for my writing career (what?) that didn't work out which has left me wondering What Next?

A great year... I made a bunch of new friends from skating, the Seattle Film Festival, and work in a new city that charms me with its passive-aggressive attitude, growing city struggles, and multitude of Michiganders (not a duck). I found a new "hobby" in roller derby that I enjoy like no other sporting endeavor in my life. I rediscovered my love the mountains that I had forgotten about since I was a kid - reconnecting with the "wild wild west." I learned to be alone again. I decided that camping was the one of the best things to do with friends. I have finally found "my bar" and I have gotten use to the rain.

I still miss my friends back in Cleveland - the ones with whom I did all things creative like art openings, samba and knitting and the ones I shared stories with at the Old Angle - and the snowy winters. I miss the warmth of the people and the city that struggles and struggles. (I miss the fights - though I'm getting use to having different ones.) I miss all my peanuts - the two sets of twin girls in my life. I miss Thanksgiving at Jill's.

The list of the things that I both love and would love to have with me are long - which is why Thanksgiving is such a good holiday to be grateful for all of those things.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Absurd

Jon Stewart made a very funny (surprise) comment on the Daily Show the day after the 2004 presidential elections... it went like this: I woke up this morning and found myself beaten up and naked alone in some random parking lot. What happened? I felt the exact same way this week. It turns out, though it would be pretty obvious to guess because of a lack of posting, I didn't make a team for Rat City. I didn't even make the wait list. I went from one of the top skaters in my practice group to beaten up, naked in a parking lot (figuratively). I am not going to even guess what happened.

Though because I'm an optimist, what came out of it was proof of incredible support (and utter disbelief) from my old friends at home, my new friends, colleagues, coaches, and skate buddies here in Seattle. This week I celebrate a year of being in this new town and I'm happy to have so much love and support.

I guess my string of good luck got tangled up... in someone's skates.

A string of good luck...

It turns out that fortune I pulled out of my cookie as part of my cheap Safeway Chinese food has been ringing true. There are strings good luck running every which way probably creating webs in the universe like the usually do: the elections (for some of us); Derby Tryouts; my friend got a new job and doesn't have to travel obscene amounts anymore and I'm sure it goes on and on and on without even knowing.

Below is a part of an email that came off the Rat City Roller Girls forum that really has made all of us proud of making first cuts - yeah! Now if we can't only make 2nd and 3rd cuts too....

My goodness! I'll take a crack at some of these questions. Meanwhile, know that we're not ignoring you -- we're just in the thick of this whole process right now, and things are hoppin'! (Off-season, schmoff season.) If there's anything I don't cover, please stay tuned for our next edition of Derby Little Secrets, which will include a tribute to those who won't be skating next year, and introductions to our latest round of fresh meat.

How are the prospects?

Amazing. We had a great turnout of almost 50 very talented skaters. It was a tough decision to make, but we did have to narrow it down for the second round, which will include more skating drills and interviews with team captains. If all of the girls who showed up on Sunday night keep skating, I can say without a doubt -- the future of derby is safe.

How many positions are we looking to fill?

We're really can't say for sure until it's all over. Each team can have up to 20 skaters on their roster. However, it's likely that next year, WFTDA rules will dictate that each team only dress 14 players per game. Apart from the 20-player cap, it is totally up to each team to decide how many skaters they have on their roster. They may have room for three due to skaters leaving, but only decide to take one or two. Or, that same team with three spots may think they only want to pick up one player, but become overwhelmed by the hugely talented skaters at tryouts (it's true! They're amazing!) and end up filling all three spots.

I'm also wondering about how a skater ends up on a particular team - is it a draft or do the girls get any say in who they skate for?

Potential RCRG skaters are free to express preference for a particular team, but first and foremost we're looking for RAT CITY ROLLERGIRLS -- girls who will be a good asset to the league regardless what team they like best or what team ends up picking them. There is a draft of sorts ... first pick goes to the fourth place team, and so on, until each team has their roster filled to their satisfaction.

What are the teams looking for ?

Again, it can different for every team. It depends on who they're losing, their evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of their team, and what their goals are as a team for next year. Probably first and foremost teams look to find skaters who are a good fit personality-wise. Is that vague enough for you? I know, I know -- but it's hard to describe exactly what we're looking for in new skaters and how we know it's right. I'll compare the process for choosing new players to a famous situation from Supreme Court history. In Miller v. California, the court couldn't quite determine how exactly to go about classifying whether an image was pornographic or not. To that, Justice Potter Stewart said he couldn't intelligibly describe what makes an obscene thing obscene, "But I know it when I see it." Ha! So there you go.

The talent we are experiencing at tryouts is obscene!

Lucky, #4

#4 was on the sheet of paper posted outside Skate King last night as we headed away from our first round of tryouts. So was #2, #5, #11, #15, #16 and a bunch of other numbers of gals I was rooting for. A majority of the gals in the practice group Potential Fresh Meat (FPM) made it through the first cut - awesome! The second set of tryouts are Tuesday and Wednesday. Nerve racking - yes. I hope to win them over with my sparkly personality and my enthusiasm - for just about everything.

Rain, floods and a pinch of luck

Surprise, surprise, it's raining in the Pacific Northwest! But it has been really, really raining - fat, cold heavy drops atypical of the mist that ususally covers the mornings here. (There was even a lightening bolt and clap of thunder on Wednesday - which a bunch of us Midwesterners commented that it would probably be on the nightly news as a "huge thunder storm" because it never happens here. Ever.) And all of this rain has filled rivers, flooded homes and ruined lives. I was impacted more severly by the floods of 1993 that swept across the midwest - damaging the University of Iowa and displacing my and my fellow-students for months (where every rain storm would highten our anxity.)

It's not flooding so much in the city however. Seattle is much like San Francisco - steep hills leading down into Puget Sound. My car did actually take a swim the other day thought, drain pipes finding themselves clogged with fall leaves. We got thru it ok, but it is not something I want to do on a regular basis. Of course, all of these SUVs and Jeeps are glad to have their moment of glory.

This weekend, my plans for hikes will surely be hindered by down pours. I looked at the forcast for the next 10-days and it's all rain. For some reason this is cracking me up. Maybe because it's fall and it's suppose to rain; maybe because the country is hopefully heading down a different course and the storm will surely break; maybe because Rat City Roller Girls have their tryouts this weekend and I am in need of a pinch of luck and could care less about the rain...

YEAH!!!

Election day: Monkey says...

Do not oppress people or force them to vote Fez! (Honestly, I'm just using this as an excuse to post very fun pictures of my kitty friends.)

Voting should be something people do willingly and freely. It's very sad, yet interesting that America, the "ideal" of democracy has such a poor voter turn-out.

Compare U.S. voting with foreign voting, and it's not a pretty sight. Americans are less apt to vote than are people in other old democracies, in new ones, in dangerous places, poor ones, cold ones, hot ones and highly dysfunctional ones. The United States lags about 130 countries.

And interestingly enough it mostly has to do with culture. Some state, like Minnesota and Wisconsin, have some of the highest voter turnout in the country and it's not because you can register to vote the day of elections (though that helps) but because of their culture of civic duty. Which makes sense. In my family, voting was very important and taken very seriously. Thus, all of us kids vote with regularity.

Today, in soggy, rainy Seattle, it is election day. We will be following the results around the country and then later this evening Pygmy and I will go to party headquarters to watch the results from around the country. I'm looking forward to that part because I've never done it. The last few years I've worked elections and would, consequently, find myself at Jill's house at 4 a.m. nearly drunk and agruing over politics among the few other drunken friends still there at that ungodly hour. This year, I hope, it's different...

I'm an optimist. It will be.

Fez says VOTE

Besure to VOTE tomorrow. Make sure your friends, neighbors, colleauges, everyone gets out and votes. Or Fez might get upset and turn your couch into his next scratching post.

Xenophile Arts Junkie...

xen‧o‧phile - noun
a person who is attracted to foreign peoples, cultures, or customs.

art - noun
1. the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance

junk‧ie- noun Informal.
2. a person with an insatiable craving for something: a chocolate junkie.

. . .would be a serious of adjectives I often use to describe myself. Unfortunately, lately I haven't had a very complete combination of these in my life. And like a five year old who doesn't get her afternoon nap, I get kind of crabby. The funny thing is that it usually takes me a little while to figure out what it is that is bothering me so much.

Zen would describe how I feel when I walk into JoAnn Fabrics. I love touching the fabric, the patterns, colors, sequins; designing a skirt, costume, head piece in my mind while walking around the store. "Being creative" turns on a completely different part of my brain and it's like a drug, I love it and can't get enough of it. Luckily, last week I got a taste when I created and sewed together my space pirate skirt for Halloween. But it was just a taste... and sometimes that's worse.

Culture is what I would say I'm lacking in my life lately. These things happen when you get busy with work and focus too narrowly onlimitedied number of activities. I need to catch a film - with subtitles; see a band who sings inlanguageuge I don't know; watch a performance about an experience I know nothing about.

So I'm planning on doing all of these things this weekend... and get my fill as a xenophile arts junkie.