Saturday morning in Seattle.
I don’t remember setting the alarm clock but every day like clockwork it goes off at 7 am. Annabel starts her little wake up call. As in, if you aren’t already awake you should be. And get yourself into the kitchen because I’m hungry.
I went running yesterday. It was my second run in the last two weeks. I found the one flat stretch of street in Seattle along the Puget Sound. I made my way towards Alki Beach watching the mountains rise out of the fog while feeling something close to the pain of Ironman in my legs. Too bad I had only gone 5 minutes. And had 45 more to go.
Yesterday’s adventures include a walk in Seattle, a visit to a giant bookstore, coffee, a trip to a vintage clothing store where I found the most fabulous hats, and moo moos, boas and wigs.
I call this my safari outfit. It’s ridiculous isn’t it? Check out the giraffes on the silk moo-moo and the fur on the hat. I could have spent all day in that vintage shop. Of course I would have caught head lice from trying on hats and wigs but ah…the price of fun.
In the evening I met up with Jessi, Colleen, Bryan and Tom. Jessi even put on her fancy black pants for a night in the big city. Bryan drank PBR. We were served by Linsday Lohan’s girlfriend look alike. And then I nearly fell asleep at the table. No one should be awake past 1 am CST.
Saturday morning – and like I said the clock went off and I was up. Walked across the street for coffee and then returned to find Annabel demanding more food. For someone so little she sure does eat a lot. Learned that Toasty O’s are like crack for babies. And then Annabel proved you can unsuction the suction cup bowl and throw it on the ground. Along with the spoon. And the cup.
Now we are watching some “for baby” tv show. It’s called Eebee baby? It’s kind of creepy but moves along at a pace that mesmorizes the kid. And me. There’s a freaky puppet, some real babies and a bunch of houseware stuff. About 10 minutes of the show was footage of the puppet looking at a milk crate.
A MILK CRATE.
One part of the show involved the baby putting shaky eggs into a mixing bowl. I yelled to Melissa: GET A BOWL, LET’S SEE IF THE KID CAN GENERALIZE! And you know what? She did. Melissa put a metal mixing bowl in front of Annabel and then she put her sippie cup in it. Then Pete found the shaky egg they have and Annabel put THAT in too.
Genius.
Fed Annabel again after a few hours later. Taught her how to throw her dish at me to get more mango. Smart kid. Then we went for a walk. I’ll tell you what – the world is not stroller friendly. Everything should be accessible via ramp. And aisles should be 10 feet wide.
We were supposed to see Santa but he didn’t show. Turns out we read the date wrong. No Santa, I tantrummed but funny thing was that Annabel didn’t seem to mind. I guess kids are pretty cool like that until they actually understand what the hell is going on.
Tomorrow I’m going for a run with Jason. I’ve warned him that Colleen completely trashed my hamstrings, abs and glutes. That’s the last time I let a physical therapist show me her pilates moves. And I’m staying 10 feet away from anything called pilates from here on out. I’ve already apologized to Jason for running too slow tomorrow. I figured he should be warned. Really I’m on a covert mission to be sure he is staying in his zones. Then we’re heading to the pool with Jessi. And then coffee. I think I have found my match for coffee obsession – Jason. He’s mentioned a latte in every email we have exchanged.
This morning the sun peeked out of the blanket of clouds that was pulled over the city as it still slept with night lights still on. To the south, Mount Rainier rose up out of the clouds. I looked at it for awhile. While the city was snug in the clouds and warmed by the sun, on that mountain there could be a harsh and abrupt clashing of life and death. Snow, rocks, cold. I wondered who was up there challenging the mountain. And why. Maybe it’s something to overcome in themselves. Or something they needed to learn about their life. I don’t know. But as I looked at it I wondered what you would learn about yourself on the side of a cold mountain that stood so boldly in the world. My guess is you could learn a lot. You could take a lot of lessons from that climb.
Not that I would ever climb it because I think doing stupid things is kind of stupid. But then again I’ve done Ironman so I’m not immune to doing stupid things. Maybe it should be on my life list – to climb a mountain.
Or…maybe not. I’ve been making a list of crazy things I want to do in life – like climbing mountains, spending a week drinking Spanish wine in Spain, doing 24 hours of triathlon. I guess I should blame the off season.
Pete’s cooking again. I’m not sure where my brother acquired such mad cooking skills. But I’m not going to ask either. It’s best not to interrupt a man when he’s cooking. Plus if I talk too loud the baby will wake up.
Kind of like she does every day at 7 am.
