22.10.06

Once in a while, you have a weekend so good, you forget that you're even in school. This weekend excelled in convincing me that I am not taking classes at the U, and that life is wonderful.

Friday after class (well, 5 minutes early, so I wouldn't be late), I raced up to 45th and Roosevelt to pick up my 2nd new bike. This time, I was smart about it and bought a bike from a Craigslist posting. The guy was nice, and so was the bike. It's a maroon ladies city cruiser, and it's beautiful! I love riding it. It was only 50 bucks, which is about the maximum I was willing to spend after my original new bike got stolen on Wednesday. I just bought a lock today for it, which is supposed to be much more secure than the last lock I got.

I had to work Friday evening. Saturday, though, I had completely off, and I was ready to make the most of it. My sister, who was supposed to come up to Seattle that day, unfortunately couldn't make it, and so that was disappointing. But there was plenty of other stuff to do that day, for it was my 1st year anniversary of dating Jeff! Yay! So whatever we were doing that day, we had to be going by 5.30 to make our 7 pm dinner reservations at Salty's. Ashley and I had decided earlier in the week to bike to Ballard together, so we got up at 9 am and did just that. The ride to Ballard is very flat, very scenic, and just plain awesome. Ash and I did our "Ballard Breakfast" routine, which we hadn't done in over a year, and which goes as follows: 1. We go to Great Harvest Bakery and buy a loaf of delicious, warm, gooey bread that we just want to bury our faces in and make satisfied noises, and 2. we take our bread down the street to Cupcake Royale and ingest a delicious latte or mocha along with our bread and maybe a cupcake. We had our coffee and our soul-warming loaf of apple cinnamon bread, and then we pedaled our way back to the U-District.

Next up, we had Ben's barbeque at his house. Although Jeff and I knew that we could only stop in for a bit on our way to dinner, we ended up getting behind schedule and missing busses so that our hour of Ben-time turned into about 25 minutes. Still enough time for a Heinekin, though. And it was nice to see Ben up on his feet again and moving around, as opposed to covered in iodine stains and lying half-naked in a hospital bed. He had the bike on display, the one he was riding when he was hit by a woman in a car doing 30. It was pretty mangled, as one might expect. So we had just enough time for a few stories, and then we were on our way again.

We used the bus system to get our classy selves over to Alki for our dinner at Salty's. Unfortunately, we missed our stop and got off at the end of the bus line. We walked about a block down the hill through a residential area before we stopped on a corner, wondering which way was the best way to get down to the water. At that moment, a car pulled right in front of us into their driveway. The driver opened the window and said, "You guys look confused. Where are you trying to go?" When we told him Salty's, he and his wife laughed. The wife explained that Salty's was not withing walking distance, especially if we had to make reservations. They offered to take us down there, and after a few modest declines, we agreed to let them take us in their car. It really was a huge blessing, because although not that far away, Salty's was down a big hill, and definitely a 20-minute walk away from where we had been. Our reservations would have been long past if we hadn't. We thanked the couple profusely for single-handedly saving our night. We were seated at a table in a darkened corner with a view of the water and of downtown Seattle and the Space Needle. Needless to say, it was very romantic. Our waiter was of course courteous and professional. It was really nice to be served for once, and we were very appreciative of his efforts. We had a wonderful crab and cheese dip for starters, and then we had a nice champagne along with our dinner. Jeff had a ribeye steak with bleu cheese, and I had apple wood-smoked salmon. For dessert, Salty's gave us a piece of their signature white chocolate cake, and we ordered a creme brulee to share. It was all delicious, and classy, and while I felt somewhat out of place with my dreadlocks and my lack of reverence for all things classy (I definitely burped at an inopportune moment while asking Jeff a question, which made us giggle for a solid 5 minutes), we had a great time, and I loved it. I felt like I wasn't a student anymore, but a real adult who has a life, and can afford things like a fancy dinner.

Of course, that feeling vanished after dinner, as Jeff and I left to trudge up the hill and find the bus stop. The walking directions from the Metro website led us up a dark hill in the middle of the woods. It was kinda creepy, but things were okay until we realized that the bridge that was way above our heads was the bridge we were supposed to be on to catch our bus. There were no stairs or any other apparent way to get up there, even though Metro wanted us to "take a left" onto it. So we had to keep walking up the hill, and do a 180 back around to the bridge. We were a block away when we saw the bus zoom past. So we killed time by walking around, going first to Starbucks and then to Safeway to stay warm. Starbucks had one customer sitting at a table, and the employees were cleaning up, so we went to ask if they were still open, since it was 20 to ten, and all we wanted was a place to stay until the next bus came at 10.26. The following humorous conversation took place:

me: "What time do you close?"
Starbucks Girl: (looking at the clock) Nine-forty. But we can still make you something, if you want."
me: "Um... no, that's okay."
SG: "You sure?"
me: "Yeah."

Nine-forty? Was she serious??? It's not often that you read the clock, and then tell the customer that you closed the minute before. Whatever. We had Safeway to keep us warm and entertained.

We finally caught the bus to downtown, and from there immediately caught a 71 headed to the U-District, so that went relatively fast. As the bus made its way up the Ave, Jeff pointed out Finn MacCool's, reminding me that the Senate was playing that night. So we went in and listened to the show, which was really fun. It was an interesting transformation, to be back in student-land once again, drinking microbrews along with the rest of the twenty-somethings in the pub and listening to a great local band.

We got back at 1.30, and I had to be at work at 10 this morning, so we didn't stay up too much later. Now I'm back from work, and I think I'm going to eat some food, take a shower, and go to bed - this weekend has completely worn me out. But Saturday was a wonderful, wonderful day. Can't wait for next weekend - it won't be quite like this one, but it's Halloween weekend, so it's sure to be fun and exciting, and full of sweet costumes. I'm going to be a mermaid!

1 comment:

t.leaves said...

A mermaid! Since there are sure to be parties all weekend, I'm going to be Dorothy and/or possibly a Barbie doll, except it'll be my own interpretation, ish. Remember my antithesis cheerleader? Yeah, it'll be in the same vein.

I'm trying to get a bike as well. I'm looking for a road bike. Craigslist is the way to go. Screw new bikes. They're SO expensive.