{"id":239,"date":"2004-04-13T01:28:00","date_gmt":"2004-04-13T08:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juliashih.com\/blog\/?p=239"},"modified":"2010-04-25T18:21:43","modified_gmt":"2010-04-26T01:21:43","slug":"239","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juliashih.com\/?p=239","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE VIA SPONTANEITY<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019s such a sense of adventure to it. Plus, I\u2019ve always had a feeling that Seattle is a city that I would really enjoy.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a summary of my trip:<\/p>\n

Day 1:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019s still early so I spend some time chatting with the bouncer about the city, telling him that I\u2019m 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\u2019s) and it\u2019s 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\u2019t take no for an answer. So I\u2019m ordering my food and he\u2019s talking to me about what he does, etc. He\u2019s really nice and a little bit crazy, like someone\u2019s eccentric uncle, even going to the lengths of taking out his dentures to show them to me. I\u2019m listening to him talk about his life and he\u2019s decided that he shall call me Rosebud and then later, he decides that my name will be Sunshine. And I\u2019m apparently the nicest person he\u2019s 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, \u201cYou need to say excuse me to the Lady.\u201d The guy was confused and I said, \u201cNo, it\u2019s not a problem.\u201d But the old man tells the guy he\u2019s got to apologize for invading my personal space or he\u2019ll 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\u2019t a bad guy, just lonely, I think.<\/p>\n

I go back to the club (Fenix) with the cool bouncer and the band is set up and playing. They\u2019re an 80s Hair Band Cover Band and played Sweet Child O\u2019 Mine, Pour Some Sugar on Me, Panama, Living on a Prayer, Cum On Feel the Noise, etc. They were pretty rockin\u2019. I LOVE Seattle\u2019s music scene and this wasn\u2019t 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\u2019d 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\u2019s been published in The Onion and I give him major props\u2013hot guy, writes for The Onion, likes hair bands, and acts like the boy next door and seems suspiciously gay? Damn. He\u2019s the man of my dreams. But I\u2019m not really looking for anything on this trip so I get up to leave.<\/p>\n

They leave too because they\u2019re going to hit the other 11 bars. I go downstairs where there\u2019s a DJ spinning. The dancefloor is a trainwreck\u2013way too many middle-aged white people trying to dance to trance. I watch for a while but decide that since I\u2019ve 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\u2019t interested. He mentioned that he was just at a place called Larry\u2019s across the street that was a hip hop club now. I think, \u201cBruthas!\u201d so I excuse myself to get another drink but instead, I leave to check out Larry\u2019s.<\/p>\n

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\u2019m 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\u2019t 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\u2019m 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\u2019ve 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\u2019re right next to the Fenix, I tell him that I have to go inside and say goodbye to a friend who\u2019s 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\u2019t threatened;I just watched it play out and didn\u2019t 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, \u201cYou know what we should do? We should all make out.\u201d I decline because I\u2019m 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 \u201cjokes\u201d about being gay, I declared that it was safer to sleep in Herbie\u2019s 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\u2019s currently living). Ryan kept yelling over to us, \u201cHerbie, why are you guys not making out yet?\u201d Honestly? I don\u2019t think he\u2019s exactly straight. But I did appreciate watching him change into his pajamas.
\n
\nDay 2:<\/strong>
\nI ended up slipping out of the boys\u2019 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\u2019ve 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\u2019s 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\u2019tt ask anyone where I could score some weed. That area reminds me a little bit of 3rd Street or Farmer\u2019s 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\u2019ve ever had. Then I went over to the bar\/club area and hit Larry\u2019s 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\u2019t 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\u2019 version of Closer by NIN. I fuckin\u2019 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\u2019t really care either way and I\u2019m not really paying much attention to him because I\u2019m 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\u2019s with the National Guard and shipping out to Baghdad next week. I ask him, \u201cHow many times have you used that line?\u201d He says, \u201cOnce.\u201d 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\u2019s like going to war for policies you don\u2019t 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Day 3<\/strong>
\nOn the taxi ride to the airport, the driver asks me where I\u2019m from. I tell him that I live in LA but I\u2019m 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\u2019m looking to get married and how hard I\u2019m 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\u2019t cheat and are not looking for just sex, but if you seem wild, these men won\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

But this was overall, one of the best solo journeys I\u2019ve ever taken.<\/p>\n

Next destination? Probably Portland\u2026 :) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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