I am now back two days from my near two week visit to Seattle. Immediately upon return, I felt like I needed a vacation from my vacation from my vacation life. I saw well over 50 people while in Seattle, many one-on-one or two, some in small gatherings, and a couple larger groups. I tried to pace myself with just two get togethers a day, some days turned into 3 and my last day was 4. I started out strong since I have been living a relatively stress free life here in NYC. My friend Leanne warned me about trying to see too many people with each visit. She visits Seattle yearly from Denver and seems the expert of making the rounds. I was using her as a role model. I can not imagine how celebrities and statespeople keep their pace. I barely lasted two weeks! The notable thing about this trip is that for the first time in a very long time I wasn't cramming to get work done and all duties covered before leaving town and then worrying through most of my vacation about how much work I was going back to have to take care of once back, reading work emails every day to stay abreast of what was going on at work and with patients, and then getting back to work so behind that any relaxed feeling accrued during the vacation is pretty much gone after the first couple of days. This visit started out relaxed, stayed relaxed, and I am still feeling the effects of a really great visit though I was pretty socialized out by the end. It's so interesting how I've adapted so readily to NYC. While driving around Seattle I seriously thought to myself that it has way too many trees. Does a city really need that much nature imbedded in it? I never really noticed just how many trees, plant life, and open spaces (parks, yards, planting strips, etc) Seattle has. It reminded me of when I first moved to Seattle to go to graduate school 30 years ago, my dad asked me in all seriousness, if there was really a city there in all that forest. He had a vision of Seattle being a complete forest, and now so much later, that was kind of my impression too. I feel like there must be some curve for acclimation that I am now in that will eventually curve back to thinking NYC is a concrete jungle and Seattle a most needed nature respite. For now, I love the intensity of NYC, the crowded streets, the over stimulation, the CITY! I think it is my nature to always be overstimulated in some way, before it was with work duties and responsibilities, and now that that is gone, its all about living in NYC. It felt great to be walking around my neighborhood and still discovering new places along streets I've now walked dozens and dozens and dozens of times. It was good to be home again and it was great to be back with Bob. I felt that NYC welcomed me back with fantastic weather these first two days back. Today was 66 degrees, sunny, and with a mild breeze. Everyone here was loving it--a great sneak preview to Spring.
Seattle weather was very true to form, a lot of rain, overcast gray days, and cold damp days despite the temps being in the low 50's. It was hard for me to feel warm there a lot of the time. I think it's easier to dress for warmth in NYC even when temps drop into the 20s. There were two really magnificent sunny days while I was there and then some bright spots here and there. Highlights of my trip were of course seeing all of my friends, having a really wonderful Fools for Love Club sleepover (this must have been close to our 30th annual sleepover), Barbara's great breakfast meal (unbelievably delectable baked French Toast), having lunch at the Macrina Bakery in Belltown then a walk in the Olympic Sculpture Garden, going to the Crest Theater to see MegaMind, going to Satsang and doing the Arati with Visila, meeting the "Germans" in Paul's house, going to the farmers' market and buying multiple bags to bring back of their mad good coconut almond granola, going to the PCC to get special POH brand floss (Bob's favorite that we can't get here or online), just hanging out with Paul and his housemates while we all enjoy his witty repartee, taking a walk in Discovery Park along the bluffs above the Puget Sound, visiting at Children's Hospital (which I had initially had reservations about doing), dinner with Kelly and Sophia, learning about Kelly's medical school You Tube spot for their version of It Gets Better, eating at THRIVE, and getting to places in Seattle that I didn't spend much time in while living there (Belltown, Columbia City, Madrona, Madison Park). Another highlight was learning about Fixed Index Annuities at a free dinner that Paul took me to downtown and which by complete random design, Kelly's godfather, Norman sat down at our table at this event. (Downtown Seattle, by the way, was DEAD at 8:30pm.) The only things I didn't do that I really wanted to do was to get a tofu banh mi sandwich at Saigon Deli in the International District and take a walk around Greenlake.
I did feel very ready to come back to NYC after two weeks. It's the kind of thing that staying any longer would have started to feel like I should be living a real life there since I know Seattle well and had pretty much seen all those I had wanted to see. Knowing that everyone is busy and you're not just starts to feel weird. And I missed Bob and our life in NYC.
Once back, there was a fair amount of settling back in, following up with a few things from the Seattle trip and visits, and getting things taken care of that had been put on hold for the two weeks I was gone. My role being that of taking care of all the details of our lives here while Bob puts in the hours and brings home the bacon. I've come to really enjoy that role in that it affirms our partnership in this new phase of our lives. We had a wonderful reunion upon my return and we are happy to be back in our rhythm together here.
BTW, while there, Darrow turned me on to two great music CD's: Florence and the Machine--LUNG and Adele--Adele 19. Love them.
Check out the UW medical school's You Tube version of It Gets Better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd21lx4dozk Kelly and others did a stand out job on it!
We go to see Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino on Saturday night. We also have a number of visitors coming over the next several months so I am saving all kinds of articles of interesting places to see and do to suggest. Fun times ahead!
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