It DOES rain in Seattle

I have been granted a few extra hours of free time today by the rain. For the first time since I've been here, the sky is gray and it's actually raining, more than the mist I was promised. Unnoticed by me in restful slumber, it has been raining all night. As I checked my email, postponing re-donning my Ultimate clothes for a few last minutes, this came through:

"It has been raining, and will continue to rain into the afternoon.
All games are cancelled today.
Spread the word."

My tired legs couldn't really complain.

If you took time release photos of my apartment, you'd probably have images of me jumping about from bed to chair to table to kitchen to floor with my laptop. Today I've been typing in at least three of these places. You'd also notice a movement of dishes and piles of clothes. It's a continual battle to keep my studio apartment tidy. I feel like I wash an entire sink full of dishes at least once a day. And between the layers of work clothes, street clothes, and ultimate gear, I'm constantly washing, folding and storing the contents of the one suitcase I brought.

Friday afternoon, I met Ellen and Jacob Naor, old friends of the family from my parent's Wisconsin days. They took me to Alkai Beach, across the Sound from Seattle. The sky was clear, providing a great view of the Seattle skyline across the water, but the Olympic mountains off to the West were shaded in fog. We stopped for a photo and then drove further around the island to take a walk. Around the corner of the island, the ever-looming Mt. Rainier greeted us. While we stood and caught up on family affairs, the mountain became more and more clear as the sun changed it's angle. Jacob explained to me in wonderful prose about the early (non-native) settlers, Chief Seattle, and the gold rush. We spoke about some of the natural dangers that face the region, including tsunamis, earthquakes, and far from insignificant volcanic activity. Sitting in traffic last night, I realized how any plan of evacuation would be quite futile.

My friend, Paul, who now lives in DC, grew up in Seattle. He is well connected in the Seattle Ultimate community and has opened several doors for me. He found me a B league team to play with this Fall: Mr. Miyagi's Dojo, captained by Frank Nam, my new chauffeur to and from games. Frank and I got to spend more time than we had intended to yesterday after our games as we sat in football traffic. Instead of sailing down I-5, Frank decided to take the local roads and had this moment of recognition about two seconds too late of the folly of that decision. The good news was, our pizza was on the table, albeit cold, by the time we got to dinner, an hour later.