ivy and rain

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"We are, after all, our own crosses, but we will be given the strength to bear them."
(Madeline L'Engle)

And so I am in Seattle. Upper Queen Anne, to be exact. I will be interning at Image starting Thursday, so these first few days have been empty and free in a way I have not experienced in awhile. I like it and hate it at the same time. It has meant that I have written more in two days than I have in two months and that I have had time to explore my new surroundings and that I can read in bed for an hour or two each night. Those are good things.

I am living on a back street where every home is twenty stairs up and then ten stairs down just to get to the front door. There is a baseball field across the street and I have found comfort in being an anonymous observer at the little league games in the evenings. This neighborhood is all ivy and rain. It is not my city. I feel that acutely when I walk around. But perhaps that can change in two months.

Today I woke early and packed my bag and strolled down the steep hill to Seattle Center. I felt like I was in Disney World, surrounded by tourists and colorful sculptures and fountains and space-like things (mainly, the Space Needle, of course). I even took the monorail to the city center. I unexpectedly walked by the original Starbucks, explored the largest map store I have ever found, and walked through Pike Place Market. The flowers! Poppies and peonies and snapdragons in the largest bundles all for just $5. It was a good adventure, but I was glad to come back up the hill to this slower-paced neighborhood.

(And I left my camera cord and my Holga spool in Chicago, so I have no means for pictures except my phone for now. Soon that will come.)
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