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July 30, 2000 |
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I drove across the 520 bridge today. It was a bit strange since I saw the
Blue Angels fly above on as I was approaching the floating bridge.
It also reminded me that the I-90 bridge would be close while the Blue
Angels were flying above, which made the entire mess with the 520 bridge
considerably worse. What would normally be four lanes of traffic eastbound
across the lake would be down to one lane at times today. Yeah,
it would be a bad day traffic-wise.
Like this view? I arrived a few minutes before Pam was ready and I proceeded to take a few pictures from her balcony. The view is very nice. After my fumbled attempt yesterday I corrected my mistakes. I took the pictures again, this time with the software's suggested 50% overlap and they turned out much better. I hope you like them.
The plan for today was to look at a place in Bellevue, the same place we had looked at a couple of times before, she seemed to be warming up to the place. This time they had one additional floorplan available which was a two bedroom, two bath, and a study. We couldn't actually look at it, mind you… since the place wasn't vacant yet, but it was very similar to another floorplan, with the added study. So presumably now, she would have more options. She asked more questions, many which she asked before. I have to remember that not everyone has a memory like mine and that many people forget things.
I figured we would spend the day looking at apartments. Originally, weeks ago, we had planned to go to my company picnic, but yesterday she had asked where we would be looking for apartments today. Granted, I didn't mind skipping the picnic to do this. I had skipped the picnic in years past. However, it would've been nice for her to ask if we might be able to do this instead, actually she had forgotten about it entirely.
To my surprise, she had suggested we go to the picnic. She seemed fairly content with this new complex and felt comfortable enough to take an afternoon off. I'm glad I get to spend a day with her when she's not agonizing over closet space or bus lines.
The drive to the picnic is what many people refer to as scenic. I've never really liked this term, and this is why… The word scenic is derived from scene, which although certainly implying a picturesque quality to the location, does not actually imply nature. A cityscape of Manhattan can be picturesque. Why is it then that the moment you use the word scenic, there's a natural implication to the word. Can't a drive through Philadelphia be scenic? A picture of the Golden Gate Bridge?
We drove to the picnic and along the way we passed much vegetation and even some rock formations, which certainly was appealing to Pam, but not to me. Folks these are the same trees that sit next to your house; there are just more of them. Sure you put them up to beautify your place, but you put up a white picket fence to beautify your place as well. If you see a five mile stretch of white picket fence, do you fall over drooling? No? So why a forest?
Okay people, get this through your head. Nature does not imply beautiful. Urine is natural; do you collect it and admire it? It it limited to living things? Like trees, birds, and flowers? … how about cockroaches?
As it happens I missed the exit on the freeway. Normally not too much of a hassle, but in this particular part of the freeway, it would a couple of miles before the next exit. And as it so happens, there was no exit from the freeway in this particular street, so I had to double back… twice! Otherwise, arriving at the picnic was uneventful, although I had left my lights on, which I fortunately went back and checked.
We didn't really do that much at the picnic. Just walked around and got food. The picnic is huge; my company rents out a farm to put the picnic together. There was a lot of free food. Pam kept referring to it as a food orgy. Okay, I don't know about the rest of you, but when I hear the words "food orgy" an entirely other picture comes to mind. We got ribs, gyros, polish sausages, fruit, and many other things. I ran into a couple of people I knew, but none of the friends I was hoping to see. I knew for a fact that Scott and Tom were here today, but didn't run into them. They probably still believe that Pam is fictitious.
We though briefly about partaking in some of the other activities. Like the hand climbing tower, which looked fairly impressive. I don't know if I have the upper body strength to pull it off. There was also this gyroscope-like contraption that they strap you into. It is basically a frame where you get to spin across three different axis. Pam had no real intention of doing it; I would've done it, but didn't think the long line was worthwhile. We also considered the line for the fortune tellers, but it too was too long. The one we seriously thought about was flying a kite, which I would've done, but we ended up backing out of it.
Thank goodness I had the foresight to put some sunscreen on, because otherwise I would've probably burned. That was pretty much it. We didn't eat all of the fruit that she had picked up, so we ended up taking it with us. We left at about 5pm, we even drove back with the top off in my car.
The drive back was uneventful, although you might've guessed differently from Pam's reaction to the traffic. Did I mention that she's a bit of a nervous passenger? I suppose that it didn't really help that I had the top off the car and it was considerably noiser.
On the drive back to my place we passed a spot selling berries. They were right next to berry farms and they had raspberries and blueberries. They'll even let you go in with baskets and pick them out yourself. Naturally, Pam wanted to stop, so we stopped. I don't see the fascination with fruit either, but no matter.
We eventually make it back to her place. Where we sit tight and relaxed for a bit. She called her mom, since she had left a number of messages. They spoke briefly. She again referred to the picnic as a food orgy, and again an entirely different picture came to mind.
I suppose that I had become weary of searching for an apartment with her, and thus lately she really had not been in the mood to… well, you get the picture. I'm not sure precisely what it was, but I was in a bit of a questionable mood.
We did decide to go to dinner at this at Racha, this Thai noodle place down the street. I was fairly distant during the walk down there. I'll admit it, I was pretty upset and there was a part of me that wanted to vent my frustrations. Still, I reasoned, we had to eat, so I walked down with her.
We ordered our food and sat quietly at the table. I'm sure she sensed my distance and was a bit taken aback. It was once we got our food where things went sour. Why is it that people ask, "What's wrong?" in public places. Well, we started talking about it and both got pretty upset. To the point where we packed up our meals and took it back with us.
We managed to talk some things out when we got back to her place. Like any arguments between couples, we resolved some things, and we avoided others. There's a part of me that understands that she is in a lot of stress, and I want to be supportive. However, often times it feels as if I've become an emotional dumping ground for her frustrations.
Note: Yes, there's a part of me that feels a little strange about writing about this. I have mixed feelings since it is a big part of my life, but then again there's the privacy issue. When writing about it, I try not to assign any blame.Still, we both felt considerably better. In fact, we felt good enough to walk down to the movie theater after a while and see Shanghai Noon. Actually, I had seen the movie a number of weeks ago with Len, while Pam was in Maine, and I had promised that I would see it with her.
It was a good movie. Okay, let's be fair; it was a passable movie. It's a good action film, but to me that's like saying this particular model happens to be a good Yugo. Not that I don't think action films can't be good films, but typically what makes an action film a good "action film" is typically what makes it an otherwise bad movie. People are not interested that trucks can never outspeed a motorcycle. People are not interested in counting bullets. Or that maybe one in a thousand people can actually shoot a gun with either hand, much less simultanenously. Oh, and plot, people are not really interested in plot as long as you have enough explosions or flying kicks. Like I said, what makes for a good action film typically makes for a bad movie.
Still, Shanghai Noon, was fair in both accounts, which is to say that it really didn't excel in either. Not to say that it really mattered to Pam since she fell asleep through the movie. [Sigh]
July 30, 2000