lounge kitty

my friend susan thinks i favor the canine breed and brush off felines i come in contact with, including my own.  while i will acknowledge under my breath that i'm much more of a dog person, a cat i do have; and she is spoiled regardless of what susan says.

almost every night, the dog and i become the equivalent of her hot water bottle. she splays herself over either or both of us, purring and letting us know if we inconvenience her in the slightest.  there's just something about the stand-off-ish nature of cats that makes me gravitate to dogs who don't mind being smothered with love and don't mind reciprocating that love right back at you.

radha was posed in such a demure way the other night, i couldn't resist. 

meet ms. lounge kitty.

the dragon's here

i have a handful of asian friends (mostly chinese) who have gotten me in the habit of paying attention to when the lunar new year begins. this year i was especially proud of myself because i even got organized enough to send cards to my acupuncturist who comes from a long line of artists and healers in mainland china as well as my malaysian chinese friends living in singapore.  i also made a special effort to wish the visiting chinese teacher at our school a happy new year.

she came to my classroom today and presented me with the bowl below, complete with all kinds of things typically eaten during the celebration. i loved how the colors played off one another; the orange and green, the black of the sunflower seeds and the crystalline white of the candied moon melon which i was particularly excited about trying.

may the year of the dragon be kind, and even generous, to us all!

why seattle?

when i was recently in santa cruz fawning over the weather and the beach, my friends asked me why i didn't consider moving back. why am i living in seattle if i hate the cold? a completely reasonable question answered by taking a look around seattle on a sunny day as well as the news out today:

aside from the nation's capital, seattle retained it's place as the second most literate city in the country and i'm drawn to smart folks. and smart folks we have here in droves. plus, we have an amazing library system and such a diverse array of cultural events, it's hard not to soak it all up as often as my schedule and finances will allow.

just a smattering of things i try to do that contribute, in my humble opinion,  to this city's learned citizenry:

national geographic live!

seattle international film festival

seattle arts and lectures

town hall seattle

and probably one of the biggest reasons this city reads as much as it does?

this amazing bookstore


of course one could argue we see tons of film and read far too much because the gloomy grey skies and unrelenting rain drive us indoors, but then you enter the rabbit hole discussion of "what really came first?" and who wants to go there? i'm happy enough to know that i live in a city of inquisitive people who spend their time engaging in an activity i can wrap my mind around as well.

three weeks and counting

i have no room to complain. we just had an unanticipated run of snow days that allowed for time off from school. believe me, we are making up for it this week, with all kinds of wonky schedule changes and people scrambling to get things done before the end of the semester, which also got affected by the white flakes that came down from the heavens and caused mayhem throughout not only the school but the entire city (see prior postings for mayhem illustrated.)

but that's not my point.
now that we're back in it, back in the throes of trying to teach, all i can set my sights on is three weeks down the road when mid winter break will be upon us and i will be heading back to puerto rico.

last year, i found myself there on a whim and i have to admit: i liked it.
i didn't think i would, but just setting up shop in one neighborhood, establishing a routine and then settling into it for a week was both relaxing and refreshing.

so this time around i plan to do the same thing.
my days might look something like this:

wake up
walk
eat
read
nap
read
drink
eat
hang out
sleep

(ok, maybe that's being overzealous! maybe i will only accomplish half of that!)

i will be staying here, which means these will be my everyday surroundings:

and if i end up doing nothing but walking to the beach and planting myself there for hours on end,  i honestly won't feel guilty about disclosing that either.  these next three weeks can't go quickly enough!

you try driving these hills in the snow

it's easy to disparage people's driving. we all know it happens and that sometimes certain ethnicities become more of the focal point in jokes than others. but that's not where i am going with this.

it's hard to describe to people who have never lived in seattle just what havoc snow wreaks on a city that has hills as steep as san francisco and drivers that are transplants from almost anywhere but here. some people even go as far as to say that seattleites can't manage driving in the rain. i agree, coming from the land of the angels, where i was taught to merge onto the 101 fwy at 60 mph at the tender age of 15 with driver's permit in hand and dad at my side.  i was negotiating those freeway interchanges in downtown l.a. like a pro before i was out of high school and i sometimes find myself yelling at people here in the northwest because they lack defensive driving skills and can't merge to save their lives.

but driving in the snow is entirely different. and i would argue that you need to know your limits.
even with the quintessential all wheel drive vehicle, i don't venture out of my own driveway when it's a sheet of ice four inches think and i live on a hill. i know when to shut up, go inside and wait it out.

that's why i was so entertained to read art thiel's rant commentary.
someone finally called the loud mouths out!

last romp before the thaw

as temperatures start to rise and we thaw our way out of this three day snow-turned-ice storm, here's what makes a dog happy: to have frozen toys the size of soccer balls that you can chew on, pounce on and bat around one last time.

state of emergency

our governor declared a state of emergency this morning, with most of the state covered in a combination of snow and ice. the seattle p-i online had this image from a shut down seatac airport where all three runways were iced over and no one was going anywhere fast:

it's definitely more treacherous to go out walking today. from an audible standpoint it's easy to differentiate why. 24 hours ago it was a fine powder that would give way when you could walked on it, that you could easily pick up with your hands and throw without inflicting harm. with extremely low temperatures overnight and a bout of freezing rain this morning, the snap-crackle-pop sounds now emanating underfoot are totally different. one's body weight is obviously crushing the layer of ice laid down atop the snow from days before.

as a result, we stuck close to home and practiced a little catch

and then busied ourselves with images from the immediate environment....

i have to admit it'll be a bit of a rough go if this ice doesn't go away with the rain that's supposed to show up and we're homebound into the weekend but we'll take it one day at a time. no one's going to go hungry or be cold. we just might die of boredom or cabin fever!