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A ritualized gathering of connoiseurs and the spoilt at a spotlit parade of snazzy pulchritude, it is an industrialized version of the pagan festivals of renewal. |
Saturday, June 19, 1999
One year ago: Friday Night Practice
Although I've been making progress on my decluttering project, I haven't yet made room for better sleeping arrangements in my bedroom. So I'd stopped by my sister's house yesterday and borrowed the hide-a-bed mattress out of her loveseat, and I slept on that on my living room floor. Only a little lumpy, but I was cold! And too drowsy/stupid to wake up and close the window.
At Jack's request, I'd made a trip out to his old place yesterday afternoon to see if there was any mail for him in the mailbox. Nope! and there'd been a sticker on the mailbox door, saying "No J. Bell." So I'd suggested that he should call his local post office this morning. When he reached a real live person, after a long series of recorded menus, that person told him he should come by and see if they were holding anything for him, which would be much better than the mail being returned to sender.
So we stopped at the espresso stand a few blocks from my place, then drove off to Redmond. Jack went into the post office and filled out a form, directing his mail to "General Delivery, Bellingham." He was able to to pick up the mail he'd been worried about, too, so that worked out all right!
* * * * * * * *
I was antsy to get to the Fremont Solstice Parade, which kicks off the Fremont Street Fair. This would be the first time I've actually watched the parade instead of being in it, I think!
We parked on Westlake and waited for the bus, instead of trying to actually drive to the Fremont neighborhood. Trying to park there on this day would be letting ourselves into a load of hassles. Jack teased me as we were waiting, pretending to be all irritated by how long we had to wait (about fifteen minutes, I think). "I want instant gratification, and I want it now!" he cried. We may have just missed a bus, since there was no one at the stop when we arrived. By the time the bus came, there were seven or eight folks with us.
We got off at the drawbridge and walked across. They'd already blocked traffic, so we could walk in the center of the span. It's a strange sensation to walk on that metal grid, seeing the water below. We made our way down the parade route, until Jack spied a "beer garden" set up at History House. I hadn't seen this place since it had been renovated, with a cool metal sculpture fence. I don't know how these alcohol-drinking pens associated with any outdoor event got the beer-garden name; I didn't see any flowers or plants around.
Jack had an India Pale Ale, with a bonus glass because they'd given him some extra foam on the first pour. I had some sparkling water. The sky was partly cloudy, so not too warm yet. The crowd was lining both sides of the street, but it wasn't too thick yet. Still, I couldn't stay back; I wanted to be sure of being able have a place to see. Jack reposed himself and smoked a pipe, back in the beer garden, then joined me later.
Finally the parade started, about a half-hour late. There were lots of good acts and funny costumes. We were shocked to see a firebird stiltwalker take a spill just past us! But he got back up and, after recovering for a few minutes, continued on and finished the parade.
Jack's favorite unit was a visual pun. Two kids, dressed as dragonflies, had stuffed, sculpted flies on strings, on the ground behind them. Get it? They were "draggin' flies!" It was cute, and Jack laughed heartily. I saw Wally ride by on his bike, so quickly that I didn't have a chance to get a picture. He was nude, covered with donuts, and wrapped in Saran Wrap!
I did see my Cacophony buddies, comprising one black monolith emitting a piercing shriek, and three folks wearing ape masks and dancing around. Oo, that noise was fairly annoying. I was glad I'd decided to just watch this time.
* * * * * * * *
When the parade was done, Jack and I walked towards the street fair proper, but got caught up in people gridlock in the main intersection. Jack was getting stressed, so we aborted that attempt, backtracked around to another side of the fair, and got in that way. I led Jack down an alley I've never been down before, and succeeded in finding the porta-potties, which was the most critical need for both of us!
Then we made several stops at food boths, and looked high and low for the clothing vendor that I like. We eventually found them, and along the journey Jack found the Washington Blues Society (and bought a CD and a tiny harmonica on a neck-cord), a man selling a guitar (he resisted this; he already has about eight guitars!), and several leather vendors (he found a belt that he liked). So I didn't feel too bad about dragging him over most of the fair. I bought a red dress, a black and white dress, and a boldly multicolored dress. We were getting tired, so we were glad when the bus came shortly after we arrived at the bus stop. I'm glad we didn't arrive just in time to see it pulling away!
* * * * * * * *
After reposing on the couch for an hour or so, we decided to go to Tami Vining's graduation cookout. She just finished the film school at Seattle Central Community College, so a lot of friends were at her place in the Genessee neighborhood. I hadn't seen the place before; she's got a nice setup, with the whole finished basement of a house.
The yard was great! And the weather had turned perfect for a cookout. We grilled the bratwursts that we'd brought along, and rehashed the convention we'd been to last weekend with Ian Haggeman, Amy Thomson, and a few others. Jack found that Ron shares his interest in the author John Crowley.
We left, but Jack wasn't quite ready to go home. So I drove around in the "Judkins Rejected" neighborhood, looking for some good overlook to view Lake Washington and Mercer Island. The Judkins part of the name comes from a street, and the "rejected" part from some dispute about the tunnel construction and urban renewal when they were building I-90. That's a part of Seattle that I'm not too familiar with. I found an open block at the top of the hill, and we admired the view for a while.
* * * * * * * *
We watched a bit of TV, while Jack did a few loads of laundry. I was so tired! I remember my head dropping a few times, waiting for him. What a fun day! And I should have enjoyed it, since I think almost everything we did was my idea.
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