Yesterday was a very good day. I did lots of things in the morning because Jeff left for LA and so I got up with him at 8 to ride downtown and put him on the bus to the airport. By the time that the bus rolled out with my Jeff on it (wah!!!), it was 9:30 am and I was in the International District with no ooncrete plans. I ended up wandering west through the ID to Capitol Hill, because it was a nice day (no rain, at least) and I felt like walking. Here's all the things I saw and did:

-Went to multiple Chinese markets; was the only white person there; bought lots of good produce for about 6 dollars (peppers, basil, a pomegranate, an asian pear)

-Talked to a lady walking on the street, who was very chatty, and talked about her side job as a caterer, and how the post-holiday season is "funeral season"; asked her where the Capitol Hill Trader Joe's was, which she answered with a vague "It's on Madison" before jumping onto her bus

-Had a guy with dreadlocks call me "Rastafarian" and try to sell me one of 5 pairs of shoes, although they were all 3 sizes too small for me; at the same time, a lady asked me for food stamps

-Found the Trader Joe's and marveled at how nice the place is (much better than our ghetto store); bought oranges, bread, mango and smoked salmon. Helps to know the products well beforehand

-Went to find a bus line that would take me back to the U-District. Found one, but had a few minutes until it was due to come, so I went up the bus route to the main street. Came around the corner to see a wonderful view of the Space Needle framed by mountains. Was sad that my cell phone could not effectively capture the view.

-In trying to get an unobstructed view of the Needle, I found a side street that was closed due to a tree falling during Thursday's wind storm. The tree was completely uprooted and had fallen directly onto somebody's truck, smashing the back end pretty bad. My cell phone was able to take good pictures of that.

-Back in the U-District, I picked up my bike and rode home through campus. I saw two wedding parties and ran into an old friend from my parking job, who was working in the gatehouse, so we chatted for a bit.

-Made an omelette with the ingredients I had bought while out.

It was really nice getting back with time to kill before work. I think I shall try to get up early tomorrow and have more adventures. Today I got up at 2 pm, but with good reason: some people from Trader Joe's had a party last night, and a lot of us went after we got off work at midnight. We stayed out late and had a lot of fun dancing and joking around, and just hanging out together outside of work for once. Afterwards, Max drove us back to the U-District (the party was in Wallingford) and we hung out at his house for a bit, talking and petting his cat. Then I rode my bike the ten-odd blocks to my house, where I stayed up playing computer games and watching Arrested Development. So I was up super-late. Let's put it this way: If I hadn't slept until 2 pm today, I wouldn't have gotten 8 hours of sleep. :)

Well, I have work to be at again in 90 minutes. So I'm going to go get some stuff done, and eat lunch... Have a nice day.