SEATTLE VIA SPONTANEITY

So on Friday, I left for lunch at work to take my brother to the airport and decided to hop on a plane to Seattle myself. I like traveling alone and there's such a sense of adventure to it. Plus, I've always had a feeling that Seattle is a city that I would really enjoy.

Here's a summary of my trip:

Day 1:

Arrived at 8pm. Showered, got dressed and asked the taxi driver to take me to wherever is cool on a Friday night. He drops me off in this area where there are a bunch of bars/clubs all within blocks of each other. Apparently, if you buy a $12 cover, it gets you into 12 clubs. So I go to one of them but it's still early so I spend some time chatting with the bouncer about the city, telling him that I'm thinking about moving here. He tells me that the best thing about seattle is how nice and diverse the people are. I need to eat so he directs me to a pub around the corner that is supposed to have awesome food. I go to that pub (McCoy's) and it's a quaint little place that commemorates firemen. The only space in the bar is at the counter so I sit next to an old man who stares at me. Finally, he declares that he wants to buy me a drink and won't take no for an answer. So I'm ordering my food and he's talking to me about what he does, etc. He's really nice and a little bit crazy, like someone's eccentric uncle, even going to the lengths of taking out his dentures to show them to me. I'm listening to him talk about his life and he's decided that he shall call me Rosebud and then later, he decides that my name will be Sunshine. And I'm apparently the nicest person he's ever met. At some point, some guy pressed up against the bar between us to order a drink and the old man tapped him on the shoulder and said, "You need to say excuse me to the Lady." The guy was confused and I said, "No, it's not a problem." But the old man tells the guy he's got to apologize for invading my personal space or he'll break his legs. So things are a little tense and the guy moves away and the old man finally gets up and goes home. He wasn't a bad guy, just lonely, I think.

I go back to the club (Fenix) with the cool bouncer and the band is set up and playing. They're an 80s Hair Band Cover Band and played Sweet Child O' Mine, Pour Some Sugar on Me, Panama, Living on a Prayer, Cum On Feel the Noise, etc. They were pretty rockin'. I LOVE Seattle's music scene and this wasn't even a measurable taste of it! I saw a really hot guy who had the body of an Abercrombie model and the face of Andrew Keegan (10 Things I Hate About You) walk in and he was by far the hottest guy I'd seen all night. We made eye contact and smiled, and he came over and talked to me. Turns out he (Herbie) and his friend (Ryan) are from Wisconsin and they were really nice and fun. I find out that he's been published in The Onion and I give him major props--hot guy, writes for The Onion, likes hair bands, and acts like the boy next door and seems suspiciously gay? Damn. He's the man of my dreams. But I'm not really looking for anything on this trip so I get up to leave.

They leave too because they're going to hit the other 11 bars. I go downstairs where there's a DJ spinning. The dancefloor is a trainwreck--way too many middle-aged white people trying to dance to trance. I watch for a while but decide that since I've had 3 drinks already which is over my limit, I had better check out the other bars before going home to crash. I leave and run into some drunk girls celebrating a birthday; they were looking for the Fenix and so I took them back there, since it was the only place in seattle whose location I knew. I hung out with them for a bit. Some dork tried to talk to me but I wasn't interested. He mentioned that he was just at a place called Larry's across the street that was a hip hop club now. I think, "Bruthas!" so I excuse myself to get another drink but instead, I leave to check out Larry's.

Yeah, as I had hoped, the place was filled with bruthas. Great music, a huge screen playing weird ass videos and the occasional G-Unit video. So of course, I order up a Hypnotique on the rocks, because it seemed to fit the environment. I'm pretty buzzed so I just want to be in a corner and dance by myself, just me and the beats. But people keep coming up and trying to dance with me. One guy wasn't bad so I let him dance with me, but then when he was gearing up to kiss me, I excused myself to get a drink but just get water at the bar. I came back when he had moved across the room but some other guy came up to dance so I had to excuse myself to get another drink (getting more water). I was feeling pretty tired so I decided I would check out one more place and then call it a night. I went to the club next door and the first person I see is the guy who works at the airport whose job is to hail cabs. He recognizes me and wants me to dance. I'm really worried about my ability to stay on my feet at this point, so I dance with him but as soon as the song is over, I tell him I've gotta jet. He insists on walking me, and then tries to pressure me into letting him give me a ride. I keep turning him down but he starts getting more aggressive. Since we're right next to the Fenix, I tell him that I have to go inside and say goodbye to a friend who's having a birthday. He wants to wait for me but I tell him no and I go inside. I watch the band for a few songs just to sober up some when in walk the Wisconsin boys. The bar is closing down so they want to know if I want to go with them to an after hours dance club. I agree so we head over there. We dance some but then these two girls from England start macking on them. Being the Leo-Riser that I am, I felt a twinge of jealousy but measured them up and decided I wasn't threatened;I just watched it play out and didn't care. The girls kept talking about astrology which I found annoying (surprisingly) but finally, the boys want to go home and asked if I wanted to crash with them and head out to breakfast with them in the morning. I agree and we head back to their room. At the hotel, Ryan says, "You know what we should do? We should all make out." I decline because I'm not attracted to Ryan on top of that being just weird, and plus, he had already grabbed me and kissed me at the after hours club to celebrate getting in for free. Since Herbie had made so many "jokes" about being gay, I declared that it was safer to sleep in Herbie's bed so I got into his and we had a great conversation about writing. He tells me he wants to get my number so that we can keep talking and maybe he can hang out when he comes out to LA, or if I want to visit him in Portland (where he's currently living). Ryan kept yelling over to us, "Herbie, why are you guys not making out yet?" Honestly? I don't think he's exactly straight. But I did appreciate watching him change into his pajamas.

Day 2:
I ended up slipping out of the boys' room early in the morning because I felt weird about waking up having slept in the clothes I wore the night before. Plus, waking up being spooned by the most gorgeous man I've ever met is going to completely fuck up my standards when I get back home. I already cry every time I drive through West Hollywood. I walked back to my hotel which was a couple of blocks away and took a short nap. Got up and went to see the Space Needle, which is interesting from the outside, but just feels like a tall building from the inside. I think the optimal way to experience it would be to take a helicopter ride around it. I bet it looks really cool close up from the outside. Then I walked over to Pike's Market, had some oysters and chowder, watched 1 fish get thrown, and sat on the grass with all the other bohemian types, though I was good and didn'tt ask anyone where I could score some weed. That area reminds me a little bit of 3rd Street or Farmer's Market because of all the people playing music and all the fresh produce and arts/crafts for sale. And of course, the plethora of yuppies. The one music act I liked was called The Kitchen Syncopators, and they played homemade instruments that seemed like they were right out of O Brother Where Art Thou. Same kind of music, too. Very interesting. I walked around the city picking random streets, just observing the areas, the buildings, the cars and the people. This city has such a good vibe. I could definitely see myself living here. I went back to my hotel to take a nap, then went to dinner at a Japanese fusion restaurant called Dragonfire (?) . I had the 5-spice Salmon which was AMAZING. Best salmon I've ever had. Then I went over to the bar/club area and hit Larry's first. This white guy named Jamie who had an interesting manner and aura about him came over and talked to me and he was surprisingly intelligent and well-read (surprisingly only in that, you don't find many young guys in bars who can talk about Chaucer). I give him my number and my website address and head out. I drop by Fenix to check out the live band before calling it a night, and I catch their last two songs, Creep by Radiohead and a bangin' version of Closer by NIN. I fuckin' LOVE that song. I check out the dance floor before I leave and am dancing by myself, just feeling the beats, when this guy comes over and asks me to dance. I don't really care either way and I'm not really paying much attention to him because I'm just there to be with the music, not to participate in a ritual that leads to physical consummation. We dance for a while and he wants to buy me a drink. I find out that he's with the National Guard and shipping out to Baghdad next week. I ask him, "How many times have you used that line?" He says, "Once." He actually has his papers in his wallet and shows them to me, and I was so curious about them that I read the whole thing under the pulsing lights of the bar. We end up talking for a long time about what it's like going to war for policies you don't necessarily believe in, and about how he chose that path, etc. Meeting him was an invaluable experience. He gave me a lot to think about as far as what each person holds important and how separate people's journeys can be. God bless you, Matt Haber. I hope that life brings you back to your loved ones and your dreams safe and sound.

Day 3
On the taxi ride to the airport, the driver asks me where I'm from. I tell him that I live in LA but I'm originally from San Francisco. He comments that San Francisco is really wild, because there are men there who turn into women and women there who turn into men. I tell him that there are people like that everywhere. He asks me what I am. I kind of laugh and tell him that I was born a woman and will probably die a woman. Probably. Though in hindsight, I wonder what he would have said if I had told him that I was a man. He asks me if I'm looking to get married and how hard I'm looking, and about how in Seattle, men think about futures when they see women. He gives me a rather interesting lecture about how men in Seattle don't cheat and are not looking for just sex, but if you seem wild, these men won't go near you. Except the people who use drugs. They cheat. At the end of the cab ride, he wishes me luck in the pursuit of a husband. I give him an extra large tip for his unabashed candor. The next few hours are hell, as I take a flight from Seattle to Boise to Salt Lake City to LA.

But this was overall, one of the best solo journeys I've ever taken.

Next destination? Probably Portland... :)