Showing posts with label Seattle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seattle. Show all posts

Monday, November 3, 2014

Click, Click, Click, Click Camera

Are you tired of where you've gone?
And you think you might belong
In a moment when you step out of the rain?
And you've ended up in someone else's frame?
And they're memory now is never quite the same
And they never even thought to ask your name

Take another picture with your click, click, click, click camera

A few weeks ago on the internet there was a post going around to name your top ten live music experiences. I posted mine and almost immediately thought of changes I would have liked to have made. Friends commented on concerts we had seen together and I couldn't believe they didn't make my top ten.  It made me really think about music and how music is sometimes the narration of our memories and sometimes serves as the sound track. Sometimes one live show can change your life or at least your mood for a little while. Music is a wonderful addition to our stories and I know I’m not the only one who has heard a song a completely created a music video montage in their head. When I hear music I feel it. I hold the sadness and celebrate they joy that these musicians have chosen to share with me more deeply than many people I know, I think I get that from my pops. Somewhere along the way I feel out of love with music. I stopped listening to new bands and rarely went to a live show. Listening to music became too hard. Wanting to burst into tears on the bus is not the way that I like to experience music. One of my best friends challenged me to fall back in love with music. She couldn't believe me when I said I rarely listened to music and basically told me to get my shit together and start listening to music again immediately. After getting to Seattle I started looking to music to help me fall in love with music again. Bishop Allen recently put out a new album and came to Seattle for a show and there was no way I was going to miss it.
I was nervous about the hipster douche bag quotient that might be there but was psyched to see the band anyway. It was a great venue and despite some sound issues that were out of the band’s control they rocked through it. I was there dancing alone, sure a few people were rocking back and forth but I was surely the only one really giving it my all. I was full of energy and in those moments when the dark purples and bright oranges were leaping from the stage and into my veins I could not have felt happier or more in love with music. No I was not on drugs when I hear music I see it in color. My friend that went with me said I dance just like Claire, Molly Ringwald’s character in the Breakfast Club without knowing that it was one of the best compliments that I ever could have received.


After the show the folks in the deliberately clashing outfits, big hats and ironic lives scattered and my friend and I went to sit at the bar and finish our drinks. I talked with the bar owner about Snake Whiskey and our various adventures in South East Asia. 
 Slowly the members of the band trickled out. We talked about living in The North Country in New York, immigration and long distance relationships, fracking and what bullshit it is. We drank Rainer and said cheers to shots of Jamieson and I got tell them that they made me fall in love with music again. What an amazing experience I was able to have. Sitting at a bar, in a city I love, shooting the shit with one of my favorite bands. I first heard of Bishop Allen when I saw Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and fell in love with the soundtrack. Bishop Allen was on my first international flight with me. They were the soundtrack to many trips into Seoul including the first one which was when I met the woman who will soon be my wife. They played while I walked for miles and miles clearing my head and I had the opportunity to tell them all of that. I said, “Thank you for helping me fall in love with music again” and one of them said “That is an amazing compliment thank you for listening.” A truly awesome night that I know I will never ever forget to put on my top ten list of best live music experiences. 

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Challenge accepted

Last night my roommate and I had a Halloween party at our place here in Seattle. It was a pretty small gathering but it we laughed a lot, played my new favorite game Anomia, and had a true Fireball Friday. I made my Ursula costume using only a glue gun and let me tell you it was much heavier than I had anticipated. 
A beautiful Sea Witch

Today is the start of NaBloPoMo National Blog Posting Month. I have accepted the challenge from my roommate to participate and get back to blogging by writing a blog post every day this month. I love writing and I always really love to blog. The unfortunate thing that happened for me is that I let the internet take my power. I stopped sharing my thoughts because my words were used as a weapon against me and it hurt me deeply. What I have discovered with social is that it has ruined many of my relationships. A decade ago it might have taken me years to find out that a sorority sister was a raging racist or that a camp friend would support me to my face and spout homo antagonist rhetoric when I wasn't around. Now thanks to memes and angry status updates I get to discover these sad realities while I check my news feed and drink my morning coffee. So I’m taking back power. I like being open and sharing my life with my friends and family. I am sharing them to let people know they are not alone. I am sharing them to keep folks updated on my life and my adventures. I am sharing them because I need to fall in love with writing again. Happy November let the adventure begin. 

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Blessed is the flame


I haven’t blogged in a long time but frankly I haven’t really had much to blog about. I mean my last year of graduate school was pretty much a blur of boxed wine, long talks, new folks and working every day to make it through to graduation. This that and the other thing and now I’m here in Seattle. A friend gave me an amazing opportunity and I couldn’t pass up the chance to start a new life. That is exactly what has happened. In the short time that I’ve been here I have started to change. I am learning to trust. The main thing I need to trust is that what I believe matters. I know what I need, want, deserve and I’m ready to expect that from the people in my life. I feel like there was a flame in me that I had let die. I smothered it to protect myself. It has been lit and I’m going to work every day to make sure it never goes out again.Keeping it lit means opening myself up to trust, believing in what I deserve and reconnecting with my body. 
 Lighting my flame led me to a new job which I will begin in December. I am going to put my degree to work and be a case manager at an agency downtown. It’s more social work than is my "wheelhouse" but I know I’m going to learn a ton. Lighting my flame lead me to find a new place to live which was sorrowful but necessary and no not because I was sad to leave that fucking huskerwiener (please tell me about the drug induced doggie key party where a husky and wiener dog created that little allergen producing, shit machine with a whine that sounded like something climbing out of a well in a horror movie.)
Lighting my flame gave me the courage to reach out to everyone I knew and post an ad on Craigslist to see if anyone would let me live with them for free. I had a few offers for short tern space from friends and acquaintances but go figure there was a family that saw my add on CL and called me up. Now I live with them as their housekeeper in exchange for room and board. It’s a pretty sweet room actually and the food is delicious.
Love the chalkboard walls

I was nervous at first because the mom described the family as conservative Christians and I am a liberal socialist queermo who loves to drink and say fuck like it is an integral part of every sentence. It turns out we get along just fine I wouldn’t say we are going to be besties but it’s good. Mom is a stay at home mom and Dad is a police officer. They have 6 children (5 months, 3, 4, 6, 8, 14) and an exchange student from China. That is a phenomenal amount of laundry, dishes and general cleaning. On Tuesday nights I watch “our” 6 children plus about 10- 15 more depending on how many show while the adults are upstairs having bible study. Thankfully I was a camp counselor and have an endless knowledge of games and tasks to keep them busy.
Today I used my day to clean and organize the laundry room which is where I spend the majority of my life so it only makes sense that it isn’t full of cobwebs, mouse poop and clutter. CLUTTER!!!!  My space can be chock full o’ tchotchkes the more the better gnomes, Pez dispensers, rocks from important places love it all..but I fecking hate clutter. So I cleaned…. This may sound like hell for the average person but it is something that I love. Take a bunch of crap and make it useful again amazing. Who says anxiety isn’t can’t be useful?  I had 10 solid hours organization therapy and I am tired enough to hopefully sleep through the night, I need a back rub and am very pleased with myself. 

Before
After
Before

After