Scarlett Letters

1) twilight2000 held her annual white elephant gift exchange last night. The company, as usual, was quite fine. The gift exchange was, as usual, entertaining. I came home with the lemon of the evening, a doll so ugly that it will not pass "Go" or collect $200; it will go directly to Goodwill. But I'm the only person I know who can go to a White Elephant party with a $5 salsa bowl and come home with a Wilton Armetale serving platter, as I also did last night. One year I came home with a Lenox dish. Another year, a collectible teddy bear. And another a pair of gloves that I wear to this day. One person's white elephant is another person's gold.

2) An essay about The Big Bang Theory is making the rounds on social media, specifically about what the show is and isn't when it comes to nerds and nerd culture. I have a lot of thoughts about this, which will comprise another post, possibly later today, but I wanted to post the link here now so that if people are curious, they'll have context for when I go off about it. :-)

3) Zeke is growing like crazy. He is now, to use davidlevine's description, a small cat rather than a large kitten, and he definitely has a mind of his own. I've resorted to using a squirt bottle to keep him off of counters and the craft table. I kind of hate doing it, but it's apparently the only effective deterrent. The nearly imperceptible stripes I noticed on him as a kitten are showing a teeny bit more as he grows, but he still looks like a completely dark-gray cat. Must post more recent pics of him.

4) I have an enormous To-Do list and, as I look around the house, I find myself despairing a bit. While I know that creativity, whether it's writing, jewelry-making or photography, is more important than housekeeping, sometimes housekeeping helps keep one sane and provides comfortable space for the creativity. I get myself into such a prioritizing spiral about this that often nothing gets done. I need to fix that, most probably with incremental, alternating task completion; I suspect it's the only way to make any progress toward any goal right now.

5) I spend far too much time on social media. I need to unplug for a couple of days and just get stuff done. Must schedule this. Hm.....

It's been a crazy-hard-busy spring here at Chez scarlettina: busy, difficult, and so on. But there are things I really want to write about. Perhaps making a list will help me achieve the goal of LJ catch-up.

Things I Want to Write About (in no particular order, even though the list is numbered)

1. Growing up to do a job that didn't exist when you were a kid (possibly in the form of a commencement address--or not)
2. Reviews of the last two SIFF documentaries I saw (We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists and The Revisionaries)
3. My epic autumn trip, currently in the partly-planned stage
4. My impending landmark birthday and the planned (and unplanned) celebrations
5. My ongoing ruminations about the possibility of getting another cat
6. Game of Thrones -- the TV version
7. The general busy-ness of life and what's doing here and there

Any preferences for what I write about first?

Today after work, I'll be preparing for a whirlwind overnight trip to parts south for JayCon, staying with some of my most favorite people. It will be the first time I drive south since the car accident last fall. I'm having mild anxiety about it, but I've done it a million times before. The accident was an anomaly. And one can only get back up on the horse by getting back up on the horse, right? And so we go. . . .

Yesterday I posted the following list of things I wanted to post about on LJ:
-- Rediscovering my smashed-penny habit
-- How we're taught to deal with product frustration
-- The difference between "for your information" and passive-aggressive sabotage

I'm going to talk only briefly about the third item in this list this morning. It related to a rather upsetting encounter I had on Facebook tied up with food and food issues, and the question of what is and isn't passive-aggressive behavior. I spent time this morning writing up a pretty detailed account of the entire affair and then realized that, as of this morning, I'm done with the encounter emotionally. I'm not sure what good it would do to rehash it here in detail for more conversation. The friend in question, whose intentions I am certain were good, has explained her thinking and apologized, and I've accepted her apology.

At some point I may still post about passive aggression and my experience of it here in the Pacific Northwest, where I've developed a whole new appreciation for its fine art and science. This morning, however, it's a non-issue and so I'm going to leave it where it is and be done with it for now. On to other subjects . . .

I've been out and about with the camera a bit lately, and fairly pleased with some of the results. Both last weekend and this weekend, I took mini-trips with friends to take pictures.

Last weekend, I spent some time with CS at the Volunteer Park Conservatory and the Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery (Seattle's Civil War-era cemetery), the former a favorite destination of mine, the latter one I'd never been to before. The weather was stellar for walking and shooting, and I got some lovely photographs that day, several of which I'm quite proud. We ended the day with a fine meal at Matador in Ballard--excellent company and delicious food.

Yesterday, I was off with a gang of the usual suspects, CS, and his 8-year-old daughter S to walk on the Alaskan Way Viaduct. For those of you not local to Seattle, the viaduct is an elevated, double-decker roadway that runs along Seattle's western waterfront. It was damaged during the 2001 Nisqually Earthquake and, since then, the city has debated endlessly about its fate. The decision was finally made to dismantle it for safety reasons, and to replace it with an underground tunnel. I'll not debate the merits of this decision here, but simply say that the loss of the viaduct will adversely affect Seattle's traffic patterns. It will also deprive us of some of the most wonderful views of downtown, West Seattle, and the Olympic Mountain Range available in the region. Yesterday, the city opened the viaduct to pedestrians for the first and only time in a sort of farewell celebration. It was a typical Pacific Northwestern autumn day, though perhaps darker and wetter than we've had in a while--the rain was a fine, constant shower, the clouds low and dark gray--thwarting hopes for clear photographs of views from the top. I'm sure that photographers more gifted and skilled than I got lovely, moody images nevertheless. The pictures I took are not art by any stretch, but they are my souvenirs of a roadway I have used regularly during my time in Seattle and which I will miss. (Note: The last five photographs in the set were not taken yesterday but during past drives.) ironymaiden took some wonderful pictures, and e_bourne took some nice shots with her iPhone. CS took a couple of striking images, too.

I'm going to miss the viaduct. I know that a lot of people consider it an eyesore and a wall between downtown and the waterfront but, as I said above, the views from the upper deck were wonderful. I always loved coming home after a long trip and looking down the city's canyons as I passed by, seeing skyscrapers from a good ten stories up in a way not possible anywhere else. Seeing sunsets from the viaduct was marvelous as well. And having used the viaduct as a primary route to the homes of e_bourne and markbourne, and ladyjestocost and bedii regularly, I've developed a fondness for it because of my associations with them, some of my longest, dearest friends locally. Lastly, the viaduct is one of the things that distinguishes Seattle from many other cities. As we walked, varina8 remarked that the last time she returned from a trip, she felt as though the city was becoming a generic urban area, losing its character slowly as a result of gentrification and the loss of historic, distinctive architecture. As I consider how the Capitol Hill neighborhood has changed over my years here, I see her point, even though a great many historic structures have been registered and will be saved from the axe. This particular loss I feel somewhat more keenly than for any one particular building because its looming presence is one of the defining features of the waterfront and because I've used it so regularly. I suspect, based on the turn-out yesterday, the number of people who took souvenir chunks of viaduct rubble, and the farewell grafitti, that I'm not the only one who feels that way. The city posted a farewell banner on the viaduct for yesterday's event. I couldn't have said it any better myself.

ETA: Pictures and video of the start of demolition. It actually hurts me to watch the walls being destroyed. ::sigh:: And here's a video of how the southern bypass will look during the demolition of that first mile of road. Pretty cool. And you can get a sense of what the views of town are like from the viaduct. With thanks to e_bourne for the links.


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Things I want to post about:
-- Last weekend's photo excursion
-- The book I'm nearly finished with (when I'm finished with it)
-- The interview/dinner I enjoyed with some of the women from Weight Watchers last weekend
-- The coming dismantling and replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct
-- Other stuff I'm sure I've forgotten

Note to self:
-- Make an icon for posts about photography

I have several things I want to write about over the next few days. Time is at a premium at the moment, so I'm making a list in order not to forget:

--Review of In the Other Room, or the vibrator play which I saw last night
--Ruminations on the WorldCon anxiety attack, weight loss, and body image
--Brief pondering about the changes at Weird Tales about which I'm far more nettled than seems appropriate, and yet...
--"...the see-saw tug of two lovers/too great to bear..."
--Travel plans for the next 4-5 months

Life is busy-busy-busy right now, but these things are important to me, so you should see something about them soon. We now return you to your regularly scheduled LiveJournal.