A Day in the Life of the Unemployed

Wednesday, February 9th. 9AM. Beep! My alarm goes off... I scowl at it - Beep! I force myself out of bed. I'd rather not, but, admittedly, 9AM isn't exactly early - for the unemployed amongst us, staying up till 2:30 appears to be a lot easier than getting up before 9. I prefer it that way anyway.

By 9:45, I've had a quick breakfast and it's on to my leisurely day of unemployment: get on the bike and head up to Northgate to visit Gunnar and check on how the mini is doing in his capable hands. Outside, it's sunny, yet a frigid 41 degrees: deciding on a number of layers to wear is a tricky proposition - I settle for erring on the side of hills I'd eventually have to climb through the U District and Green Lake, which are sure to warm me up more than I ever wanted.

After a brief stop at Trader Joe's (turns out the best thing ever is actually Quinoa), I make it up to Gunnar's by 11. The changes in the mini are pretty incremental, but if you look it over closely, some startling things start to emerge: the body no longer has any rust at all, and all the panels that are on it are now properly (and meticulously) fitted.

My baby is all rust free... Check out the shiny new bumper!

The floor is one of the many panels that, at last check (a month ago), was still just very barely in place - now fits better than the one they had put in at the factory.

The 'boot lid' (or the 'trunk door,' as those of us less British might say) has similarly been replaced, adding a matte black new wrinkle to the fluorescent yellow body style... (Just a few more months... just a couple more months, and the fluorescent yellow is all gone!)

In fact, Gunnar and I spend most of the next 30 minutes discussing such seemingly frivolous things as wheel arches and a stereo system. Well, also the rear subframe, and the doors, which are all getting completely replaced...

By 11:45, I'm already running late again, so back on the bike and over to the freeway to catch the bus heading downtown. Now lamenting not having chosen to take more layers, as standing in the shade in Gunnar's garage was a lot colder than it had been on the way up the hill to get there. Well, at least American buses have heating... (I'm looking at you, Bolivia!) The bike is coming with me too, of course, as Seattle buses all come with bike racks. By 12:45, and after having changed buses downtown, I'm back on Eastside and ready to play the 12:30 game at Microsoft (pickup frisbee!). The next hour and a half is running back and forth in the sun, up and down the field, chasing after a little flying disc - it's great fun!

By 2:15 we wrap up and everyone goes back to whatever it is that they do - I'm pretty sure this game regularly attracts equal numbers current Microsoft employees and Microsoft alumni, in various stages of post-corporate evolution (de-volution?). My next step for the day is actually potentially related to employment, as I have a call with a recruiter scheduled for 2:30. (Having recently put my resume up on monster.com, I've been getting a deluge of calls from recruiters - most just fronting for contract positions right back at Microsoft. I'm steadfastly holding out still, but this guy is with a small-ish software company in downtown Seattle, so holds far more appeal. Now to convince him to hire me for a three month contract!) Somewhat inexplicably, the recruiter first tries calling 45 minutes early (I am on the field playing frisbee instead of looking at my phone), but calls again, closer to the appointed time of 2:30, a mere 10 minutes late... We chat for a bit - his company sounds rather enticing (online advertising, in its various forms), and while they're mostly looking for full-time people, they do need contractors on occasion, so he's going to go back and talk to his hiring managers to see if there's a fit.

3 o'clock: that was hard - I just spent 20 minutes trying to work; time to return to aimless unemployment... The Duke - Carolina game is tonight at 6, and we're planning on watching it at Brodie's house here in Redmond - I don't particularly see the point of going back to Seattle just to come back in three hours, so I instead head over to Brodie's nearby Building 50 to take a shower there. (Brodie still has 'My House/Monkey on a String!' in his office - that was the first wakeboarding DVD we all watched upon discovering wakeboarding back 10 year ago!) By about 4, having showered and changed, I've biked the 20 or so minutes to Redmond and head over to the local Post Office. I've got a book to mail for somebody in San Diego for my next errand of the day; you'd better start coming through with some books coming my way soon, Paper Back Swap!

4:30 brings a lunch break at the Redmond Starbucks. I'd been hoping I'd have a little more time here actually, having brought my databases book to read, and having a plethora of things I still need to research online, but instead I've barely got an hour to grab some lunch, catch up on email, and research some more mini fender flares - Gunnar would like for me to actually figure out what I want to do with the car. I'd been aiming to leave by 5:30, instead I finally head out by around 5:45, as it starts getting darker and colder all around. I'm reliving the glory days of some eight years ago, biking along the Sammamish River Trail - the dark doesn't scare me much either: the bike is now equipped with lights. The cold stops being a problem too as I start climbing the hill leading up to Casa de Brodie. Redmond's apparently full of hills... Redmond also claims to be the 'Bicycle Capital of the Pacific Northwest' - maybe they are, maybe they aren't (they're certainly a lot better than nearby Bellevue), but I could use the roads being a little better lit up!

Shortly after 6, I make it up to Brodie's, finding Theo and Tina to have come up as well, and the next 2 and and a half hours go towards watching the Duke-Carolina game. Go to Hell Carolina, Go to Hell! 79-73 final, after Carolina fails to hold on to the large first half lead they had built up! Burn, baby, burn! (I sure hope they still burn benches at the Duke Campus after beating Carolina!). Now, as for getting back to Seattle... bike back down the hill into the center of Redmond (passing by a temperature readout that proclaims 31 degrees!), wait 15 minutes, then catch the 545 back across the bridge to Seattle. By about 10 o'clock I get home for the first time since having left at 9:45 that morning. Five minutes later, having dropped my things off, I run off again, this time to meet Erica at nearby Liberty for some late night sushi and a drink. Actually home a little after midnight...

And so goes a day in the life of today's busily unemployed - 30 minutes worth of potential job research, 13.5 hours of running errands and enjoying the time off. Apparently, I may have to re-appraise my priorities a bit if and when I do actually get a job again! I suppose I'm ready for it... Daily totals: 18.2 miles pedaling; 34.1 miles riding the bus.

And if you've made it all the way here, erstwhile blog reader, I think I'm supposed to now reward you with some pictures of exciting things I've been doing recently and exotic places where said exciting things have been taking place... Unfortunately, I'm afraid exciting and exotic has been hard to come by of late, but here's the finest from the month or so since Utah/San Diego:

Strange Brewfest 2011

Jane, David, Erica, and I went to Port Townsend for the annual Strange Brew Beer Festival at the end of January. A high number of strange brews were on display - 3 different Jalapeno beers and the Beer Bloody Mary, coming out as my personal favorites. The rest of them were strangely smitten by the Peanut Butter Winter Warmer... to each his own, I suppose. More strange from the Festival:

Man on stilts... Costumes were duly encouraged - there was to be a contest Saturday evening

We explored Port Townsend a little... finding such attractions as this old Bell Tower! I really did find it to be a pretty and pleasant coastal town though...

Valentine's Day presented a better than average excuse to go back to Oregon, do more wine tasting in Willamette Valley, and spend a little bit of time in Portland:

The metal umbrella man and I, in front of the Portland courthouse

The post-modern, notably ugly Portland Building, graced by the Goddess Portlandia in the front (really!?)

And finally, back in Seattle, the spoils of war! Spoils of traveling to wine country anyway...

As for the sites and sounds of the good times here in Seattle? Well, every Sunday night, the monks chant at nearby St. Mark's Cathedral. (it's actually just a choir that sings, but 'Monks chant' is more fun to say). I don't have any pictures of the chanting anyway, but I rather liked this shot of the cross:

The monks/choir were really good too!

And on the other end of the serenity scale lies the Seattle Ultimate Carnival - a motley gathering of Seattle's finest, or at least drunken-est, ultimate frisbee players:

Erica, a bit petrified of the multi-colored pants man!

Mark and Justine - making 80's gangsta look good!

Utah: snowy, a bit rainy, kinda creepy... "this is the place!" - Brigham Young

The noble Bigfoot used to roam the streets of Seattle with impunity, occasionally stealing a kid's lunch to keep himself going, not causing much trouble otherwise. But then, the warning signs went up:

Beware, Seattle!

This left the Bigfoot ill at ease - soon enough he had turned into a fugitive and had been forced to leave the easy-living streets of our emerald city and look for quieter places to roam (and to scare kids for lunch). After long and lonely months of prowling the plains he came upon a vision right out of Bigfoot heaven - a modern city (with inexplicably wide streets), surrounded by snow-capped mountains on all sides. "This is the place!" Bigfoot roared - little did he know that he was eerily mimicking the words uttered by a fever-stricken Brigham Young on the very same spot a hundred and sixty years ago. Soon enough, the Bigfoot learned all about his new Mormon neighbors, who inhabited this gorgeous place, and while he wasn't in any way excited about joining their religious cult, he did do some research and reasoning: the members of the Church were supposed to donate twenty percent of their annual income to the Church. This seemed like a significant downside... But the Bigfoot did not actually have an income, so twenty percent of zero didn't seem all that burdensome. And the Mormons did enjoy having rather large families, so there would never be a shortage of little kids to scare up in the mountains, then steal lunches from. This felt like an upside... even though the Bigfoot reasoned he might have to donate twenty percent of the stolen lunches to the Church. He stayed - this was the place!

In fact, he soon evolved into sort of a local celebrity on the slopes around the Great Salt Lake!

The Bigfoot wanted his buddies to come visit, so he started leaving these ice crop circles as reference markers

The place would really never be the same once the Devastator Ram showed up...

And that's the story of the Bigfoot of Utah... Look it up - it's bound to be on wikipedia by now! And following in Bigfoot's footsteps, Erica, Mara, Mark, and I headed for the scenic mountains and spectacular powder of Utah this past weekend.

View of the mountains encircling the city from the plane

The fog lifting leaves the mountains crystal clear everywhere in the city. I may not be a bed-ridden Mormon leader, but this is definitely the place!

Erica, myself, Mara, and Mark in Salt Lake City

Erica and I landed in Utah early Saturday afternoon and headed straight for Park City - the home of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Grabbing lunch at a Utah brewery was a not-to-be-missed cultural experience (Utah has finally given up on its ludicrous alcohol laws, which had previously mandated all beer brewed in the state to contain no more than 3.2% of alcohol by volume...), so we stopped for lunch at Squatters in Park City, then made it over to the slopes by about two in the afternoon. Two o'clock is normally an unacceptably late hour to start your day of snowboarding, but the Park City resorts will give you a free lift ticket if you show up bearing a boarding pass from the same day, so it was was still easily worth it. The resort is vast, featuring a maze of runs and chairlifts, and giving us an early glimpse of the Utah powder - unfortunately the advertised closing hour of 9PM failed to mention that only a single run had been equipped with lights for night skiing, so we left around six, not quite having explored the entire resort, but having witnessed a stunningly spectacular sunset over the mountain:

The skies lighting up a bright red over the peaks of Park City

Now, Utah is famous for the amazing, light, fluffy powder, covering the slopes of its mountains, and the following morning, I was excited to be introduced to a full day of said powder! Unfortunately, the weather fates intervened, and we got introduced to the Pineapple Express phenomenon instead - it rained!


Undaunted, we headed for Brighton, having picked up a tip from a local ski shop that Brighton was the highest altitude mountain in the area - fortunately staying in Salt Lake City puts you within a 45 minute drive of a dozen different ski resorts, so you are never short on options (This is the place!). The Pineapple Express bathed the road with sheets of rain on the way up (damn you, Seth Rogan!), but Brighton did prove to be just high enough, as the rain finally turned to snow right as we were entering the parking lot - hooray!

The Sun even peaked through in the middle of the day!

Eventually though, the rains caught up... We stuck with it for a while, locating some of the famed Utah powder in the higher reaches of the mountain - this was almost enough to make me forget about the wet slush down at the bottom, but by 4 o'clock, we were ready to cut our losses and get back to town (and dry off).

Monday arrived - our last day in Utah... the rains had ceased, and the overnight forecast had claimed 5-9 inches of fresh snow - we were all psyched up to get to the mountains. Mark and Mara chose Alta (a fancy-shmancy skiers only establishment), while Erica and I had our sites set on Snowbird - meeting up with Vidas, a fellow hockey player from back in Seattle, and setting off to experience what promised to be one of the best resorts around Salt Lake City. A quick study of the trail map left me feeling downright giddy - the trails were varied and plentiful, including a thorough selection of diamonds, with a nice variety of easier stuff mixed in. Most exciting of all, the mountain had a 'back-side,' and you got to ride on a magic carpet, through a long tunnel to get there! Unfortunately, the fates were back at it ... we got into the nearest lift line (an exceedingly long one at that) ... and soon discovered that this would essentially be the only lift open on this day. The winds at the top were gusting up to 60 mph, so none of the upper mountain lifts would be opening - the tunnel and the magic carpet remained firmly out of reach... On those slopes we could reach, the wind had blown any and all new snow away (the forecasted 5-9 inches had actually resulted in a slightly less awesome 2-3), leaving the trails hard and icy. No shortage of great views though:

Erica, carving up the icy slopes

Afternoon shot of the mountain, when we had located some better, less icy, snow

Sunset over Salt Lake City on the way back home

In the end, the astounding, spectacular Utah powder didn't really materialize over this weekend, which was a little disappointing. I got enough glimpses, that a return trip is easily warranted, but Park City on the first day probably had the best snow. Snowbird, I got to see enough of, that I'm certain, on a nice sunny powder day it shall be absolutely spectacular!

Back to our title - Utah had certainly proven itself to be very snowy and a bit rainy. As for a kinda creepy - Sunday morning we went to see the imposing Salt Lake Mormon Temple, holding a prominent position in the very heart of the city

Tell me the reflecting pool doesn't make it just a little extra creepy! Especially on a somewhat gloomy, gray day like this...

Ok, how about the statue of the kids prancing about on the lawn?

At the top of the Temple, sits the Golden Statue of the Angel Moroni, who had apparently visited Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon faith, on numerous occasions...

I hope that if there are any Mormons reading this, they know I only kid! But if you take the intersection of the Venn Diagram of the words 'Mormon' and 'Moroni,' you get 'Moron'... I'm just sayin'! The temple definitely creeps you out a little, as well as the imposing, gigantic, very somber LDS office building next door. And we won't even get into the stories of the nearby caves that supposedly contain detailed genealogy records for most of Americans... But, hey, the mountains are beautiful - Brigham Young and Bigfoot were right - this is the place!

After three days I needed a break from the cold and the snow though, so I headed South, arriving on the sunny beaches of San Diego to meet my parents just a few hours after Mark, Mara, and Erica had landed back home in Seattle

San Diego forecast: 81 and sunny - this is also the place!

Whoa!

Huh, I've just found a picture from the blog being referenced on another site (which was strangely exciting, to be honest!): here. It's part of a set of surreal' images: http://paintingphotofy.com/q/surreal+painting+3+spheres+suspended/. And in case you still hadn't clicked, this is the picture they found sufficiently surreal to qualify for their collection:


Interesting... that's, of course, mini doors getting painted in Gunnar's garage. Not my mini specifically, but another one he'd been working on, which was, incidentally, getting to be a very similar color to what I envision mine ending up with! Read all about that particular day in October - I refer to the site as very 'surreal' in that post incidentally.

And speaking of the mini, I went to pay it another visit yesterday, and an amazing discovery was made: a floor!

That gaping hole in the floor, which you may just be able to spot in the pictures in the post linked above, has been replaced with a shiny new floor panel! A wholly un-rusted, un-mangled by Mongolian 'roads,' floor panel - awesome! Merry Christmas, dear mini!

Cyrus, myself, and Gunnar appreciating Gunnar's handy work


Let's got for more surreal! Yesterday, there was also a brief excursion to Gas Works park to witness the Christmas Ships on Lake Union, Christmas Carrolling by the Seattle Girl's Choir, aboard one of the ships, included. Sites (no sounds):

The Ships all lit up for the holidays on Lake Union

The Seattle skyline at night.

Gas Works Park in the darkness

Speaking of surreal... Maybe they'll post this picture of Gas Works too?

I'm starting to really appreciate my new camera's ability to take night shots! Also (as I'm about to uphold the finest of Jewish holiday traditions and head out for Chinese food): Merry Christmas!

turkey, basketball, and pinot noir

There's no use even trying to pretend that I'm really all that busy these days, not working and all - and yet ... I've been meaning to put up this blog post about the Portland trip for almost a month now! And, so far, just couldn't find the time. Well, better late than never, I suppose... Besides, Portland's as far as I've traveled in the past three months, and I've got to try and keep the blog exotic and entertaining somehow!

And so, we begin back where we left off last time - back here in Seattle over Thanksgiving:

The Mu's were hosting, the turkey was delicious, and I ate so much that I had to take a bit of a nap to recover in time for desert.

And having survived the feast of Thanksgiving turkey, it was time to move on to basketball and wine. Basketball being a Duke game, against the University of Oregon down in Portland, and the wine being the delicious Pinot Noir that Oregon's Willamette Valley is so famous for. I recruited Erica to come with me on the Oregon adventure (and to drive...) - the prospects of Pinot Noir doing most of the sales job (as well as my charming personality, obviously...)

Down in Portland, we met up with Shima, whom I knew back from Duke, and headed straight over to Voodoo doughnuts - one of Portland's must-see hole-in-the-wall attractions

In fact, Saturday was largely dedicated to exploring the sites of Portland, as the game was at one, which left plenty of time to wander around the city, yet not enough time to get anywhere out of town. I'd been through Portland a number of times before (most recently on the way to Burning Man just a couple of months ago), but had never actually spent any time in the city itself. So, this was a fun and novel adventure for all of us, but first things first: the game!

The Oregon mascot roaming through the crowds prior to tipoff. We had very good seats...

Duke's Mason Plumlee dominating the opening tip - Duke would go on to dominate the rest of the game too

Singler vs. Singler!

The game was sort of a big deal around these parts: Kyle Singler, Duke's All-American senior, is from Oregon, and his little brother, E.J. is a sophomore starter for Oregon's team. This gigantic poster, covering a side of a building in Portland's Pearl district and picturing both of the brothers Singler, was here to promote. Of course, Oregon's football team was busy being undefeated and ranked #1 in the country at this point in time, so the locals weren't really all that heart broken over the basketball team's loss, or really overly interested by the game - easily half of the crowd was featuring Duke garb on this afternoon. And the other half didn't have much to cheer about... (Let's Go Duke!)

After the game, more pretty shots of Portland

The wineries weren't on the schedule till the next day, but we got got in the mood by visiting Coalition Brewery Saturday night, one of many breweries in Portland; this one justifiably famous for its King Kitty Red (a beer which gracefully combines a funny name with its delicious taste)

Brunch the following morning (Portland's apparently, and deservedly, quite famous for brunch) at the Blossoming Lotus. It honestly didn't seem fair that all of their food could be so astonishingly good while remaining strictly vegan!

And then, it was time for the Pinot Noir! That sweet and delicious nectar that the Oregon wineries are ever so fond of producing. It was Wine Country Thanksgiving in the Willamette Valley this weekend, meaning our tastings were paired with a helping heaping of tasty snacks and some longer than usual winery tours. I approved! We got to visit six or seven wineries over the course of the day - keeping track was becoming difficult after a while, especially since I was forced to do more of the drinking, so as to keep Erica able to drive... you're right, it is a rough life:

The vines at White Rose, starting to wane as the weather gets a bit colder, but looking very dramatic against the bright blue skies

Archery Summit took us on a a tour through their tunnel maze where the barrels are kept

Rain coming down on the way out of Monk's Gate, coloring the scene in a very Renoir-esque French impressionist sort of hue. I liked Monk's Gate best - small and very friendly winery; excellent product!

The striking main house at Lenné, our last stop, as the darkness was starting to fall

Erica going 'wheeeee!' at Lenné

And with that, the weekend was over, it was time to head back to Portland and Seattle and get ready to go to work in the morning... or do whatever it is that I've been doing!

Dinner back in Portland on the way home at the New Old Lompoc Brewery, the maker of the Proletariat Red, which I found to be just right, comrade!

And on back to Seattle... where the Space Needle is getting into the Holiday spirit