Nana Stories

In support of the blogging that is happening, I wanted to jump in with a post. The other evening, Shaoshu cooked a traditional Szechuan dinner for us and Nana, as an excuse to hang out with Nana. Shaoshu and his girl friend Mylinh (Vietnamese American) were impressed by Nana's willingness to try the new and different food, and her competence with chopsticks. We all have met people our own age who don't know how to use chopsticks, and refuse to try. Props to Nana. 

We got to talking about Nana's days living in a houseboat on Lake Union. She described on mirage they had in a fairly secluded area at the base of a hill. It was secluded enough that Nana would slip out in the morning wearing only a slip and a bra ("because we didn't wear pants in those days") to put a few laundry items on the line to dry. One morning, Papa's friend Dick's father was in town, and he dropped in on them at just that very moment- undressed, outside the boat. "I grabbed a dish towel and held it up in front of me life I was about to hang it, and gestured with the whole thing 'you just go right on in, right over there.' Then I ran to my neighbors house, undressed, and begged to borrow a dress. The only thing she had was a plaid thing with giant bubble sleeves. I put in on and went back to the boat and tried to act like nothing happened. He never raised an eyebrow and I never said a thing!"

Updates for the Oversees Readership

Since the parents are inaccessible by phone for the next few months, I thought I might get some leverage out of the blog in place of long, rambly emails.

As the parents were leaving on their grand adventure, my in-laws were in town for a few days. They came for the boat show, after a great adventure of their own to Southeast Asia. (Being retired sounds awesome...). [Note to parents: eating brains, raw blood, or "washed" lettuce are all perfectly valid ways to get terribly ill.] We went to MOHAI, a very awesome Seattle-centric history museum. It had boats, and old Seattle history, and wartime history, and modern stuff too. I'm hoping I can take Nana and Jerry some tiem this month. Matt's step-mom made greek food (yay!), and we all got to watch the Superbowl together.

Over the summer, Mom had helped Nana and I make what seemed like an absurd quantity of freezer jam. It's super yummy, but I just don't eat that much jam these days. The freezer jam was a big hit with pancakes, and the freezer Raspberry jam was to DIE for on the Trader Joe's flourless chocolate cake we had with the Greek food. Even though I managed to not cook even slightly all weekend, it made me feel like a domestic hero to have my own jam on hand.

Oh, and I may have mentioned the Superbowl was played over the weekend. I dunno if you were watching, but the SEAHAWKS WON! There had been a lot of excitement, even on our (suburban, working class) campus, with potlucks, and photo-ops and the like. We watched at Jeffery's house, where we had a huge screen, lots of snacks and a pretty mellow watching experience. This was ideal, since by the half, it was hard to pretend we were biting our nails for the outcome anymore- there was plenty of time to catch up. We went back to our suburban home where not much was happening, but I relished seeing the parties downtown, including Seattle's no-jay walk riots. I know not all my family loves sports, but in this day and age of tv-on-demand and personalized everything, it's really awesome to be able to share a story like that with a large community.

While WA has been spared of most of the brutal winter weather that has been visiting on the midwest and east coast (and TX sometimes, too), this week is actually getting pretty nippy. I mention this only because Matt and I have plans to be camping this weekend in a cabin at Wallace Falls. WE were planning to do a little hiking and a little eating by campfire, but we may opt for a lot of drinking cocoa in our sleeping bags if it stays below freezing.

Updates are still coming in on the fundraising blog- 75% there with Mom's help taking dinner to the shelter last week! I'm starting to feel like when I am done with this crazy project I am doing NOTHING for at least another year. Turns out, $30,000 is a big number.

Fall in Austin

For those of you returning after the last blog entry, yes, Jess did make it back just fine. Tyler seemed quite happy to see her, though he wasn't as deliriously beside himself as Jessie would have liked. Perhaps because it was the middle of the night for him. She picked him up to rock in the chair a little bit, then Tyler got out of the chair, walked over to his crib, and pointed at it. He's a really good sleeper.

Last weekend we went camping. It was a little bit spur-of-the-moment, we got invited out by Jessie's boss to spend a camping weekend out with a bunch of people from work and a whole lot of food. Don't get me wrong. We weren't rouging it by any stretch of the imagination. We drove right up to the campsite. There was no way I was carrying Tyler's travel-crib any appreciable distance, to say nothing of all the other stuff we needed to bring.

Early in the week was pretty cold, so we packed for cold nights. We even got a couple of hand warmers to put in the bed with Tyler in case it got really cold. Of course, this turned out not to be a problem, as it was very temperate most of the time, and occasionally even a little too warm. The main downside of the whole trip was that Tyler woke up on Friday night a little after midnight and didn't get back to sleep until about 3:00 AM. He wasn't fussy or anything, just chattery, and we didn't want to wake up nearby campers. After that frustrating spell, though, the rest of the weekend was great.

We were camping with about 8 or so other families, most of whom had kids in high school, though there was a second strata of a few kids still too young for school, so Tyler had some playmates, though he mostly stayed with us and explored. They had some hammocks set up that spent time between getting napped on by grown-ups and getting swung on by pre-teen boys. There were several different full-sized grills in attendance, including a smoker, and someone brought a flat-screen TV and a portable satellite dish to watch the important College Football games on Saturday. I'm just saying we weren't wanting for much. We joined in the food fest in our own small way. I brought hobo pouches for us to eat on Friday that were delish! Saturday we tossed in our hot dogs along with a lot of hamburgers, side dishes, and other random goodies provided by everyone else. It turned into a buffet.

Tyler liked exploring, as you could imagine. He was very interested in us setting up the tent, and then trilled by being allowed to run around inside it. He ran around with some of the younger kids, but his stubby legs couldn't quite keep up. There was a little playground nearby with a see-saw that we got to ride on with Tyler, he really liked that. And we even went on a short hike on Saturday morning, though we did mostly have to carry Tyler around with us. He still liked looking around, and it was great exercise for us. He also needed some alone time, because there's a lot to take in when you're that young, so we spent some time in the tent with him just reading old familiar books before bedtime.

We decided to head home Saturday night, reasoning that it would be better sleeping for both Tyler and us, and we were just going to pack up and head home in the morning anyway, so we wouldn't be missing a whole lot of campitude. So we put Tyler to bed in his little travel-crib like everything was perfectly normal, then picked his crib up, carried it out of the tent, and packed everything while he slept in his crib next to the car with a blanket tossed over the top. Then we said our goodbyes, woke Tyler up enough to get him in the car seat (and he was an absolute gentleman for the whole ride home) and made our escape back home. Only one night in a sleeping bag and already the bed felt more comfy than I remembered it being before.

I'm super-excited about Seattle. Jess and I have a few things we want to make sure we get to do, though we're keeping the schedule kind-of light so that we don't overwhelm the little one, though he's certain to spend at least a few days in the tender care of Nana and Great-Nana while Jess and I are off doing crazy things like...I dunno...probably learning about history or something.

Oh, and we voted. Got in on the Early voting which was great, because no lines. :) I got to hold Tyler while I made my selections and he watched. He was equally entranced by the touch screen I was using and by all the grandmothers staffing the polling place who kept giving him smiling faces. I think he liked the attention. When we were done, we gave him both of our 'I Voted' stickers and hung out for a while at the playground outside the voting area. He liked that. Yay for Democracy!

-N

First Day on the Job!

Today was my very first day at my NEW job.  It is different than any job I could have imagined myself in a year ago, but I really think I am going to like it there. 

 Although the job isn't what I could have imagined for myself- it is exactly what I figured working in a Seattle office building would be like.  The big big boss has a golden retriever named Cody who loyally follows him around.  Our conference room looks out onto Elliot Bay, the important people's offices look back at the Space Needle.  Seriously, I am down the hall from the Associate Press of Seattle. 

There are about 10 people in our office, with desks and computers and stuff in the office.  Now I am one of these people with a desk, two monitors and even a phone. We've got a break room that is stocked with tea and coffee and leftover Halloween candy.  My manager suggested I might enjoy eating my lunch on the patio (with the unreal view of the bay).  I actually can enjoy part of that vista from my sorta cubicle.  Not exactly 4 walled cubicles, we have long, stair shaped desks that probably could accommodate a dozen extra people.  I don't really feel like I "share" this with anyone, but there are two other people in my bay, I suppose you would call it.Tragically, I have no walls to call my own to hang any time of commemorative anything more substantial that a postcard.  I'm totally willing to give this up for the view.

And the work just picked up where we left off on Friday, which was cool.  I'm diving into some newer stuff (very superficial xml), and being able to call upon the people around me to help out is a real boon.  We are at the very early stages of a product cycle (starting a new class), so I can get the feel for my coworkers before things really heat up.  I've never worked in an office setting before, and I was struck that everyone talked like librarians, very hush hush (I am sure this is magnified by a factor of Seattle).

The downside.... oh, the downside... was the commute.  It took me about an hour to get in this morning.  I left around the time Matt did and easily made it in before 8 am.  But, I wasn't supposed to meet anyone there until 8:45, so I went and sat in a coffee shop full of vintage furniture and sipped tea in the grey Seattle morning light and listened to my podcasts.  I felt very urban.  On the way home, I left just after dark, waited for buses a bit longer than I should have and ended up getting home just before 7.  This is a long day, but really the only part that is stressful is the transfer.  Otherwise I was checking my email, listening to podcasts, playing on my phone... the bus ride was easy.  If I can get an elegant bus route lined up I don't think I will mind so much.  By the time I got home I felt.... excited.  And energized.  I don't think grad school ever made me feel like that, I'm hoping I can hang on to that momentum through the roughness of the winter commutes and/or still enjoy it during the long summer days.

Today just headbutted my optimism

Let's level- job hunting is lame.  It's a constant drain on my confidence, my time and is giant hurdle I have to get past before I can really have a future.  When I am not looking for a job, or meeting people who can help me get a job, I am thinking about it.  When I am job hunting, I am faced with jillions of jobs for which I am NOT a good fit.  There is nothing good about job hunting, and I know that, so I try REALLY hard to stay upbeat about it, to keep at it when I can and just cry about it when that's all the more I can do.  It makes me hypersensitive to my failures and reiterates my shortcomings (OMG- Did I just send that recruiter a note about an 'oppurtunity'??  What is wrong with me??). One of the best things about getting a job will be that I can stop looking.  Point made?  Ok, this is just the backdrop then to what might have seemed like a typical day at any other time in my life, but today just made me want to crawl back in bed.

It started out good- I applied for a job I really liked last night, and I was feeling anxious about how my application came across.  I put a lucky penny in my shoe today (because having my life feel out of my own control reinforces my superstitions) and headed out to my internship.  I was able to find a parking spot in South Lake Union, where I met a new team of investigators who are in crunch time about their upcoming grant.  And they are studying one of the few major diseases I don't know ANYthing about, and a class of regulated substances I am also totally naive about.  The manager just throws me in like I belong there, but it isn't long before everyone is throwing questions to "the market analyst" and "I will check that out too..." doesn't seem so helpful.  But no one stormed out of this meeting (unlike their last one- did I mention it was tense?), and I went back to our regular office.

Parking on campus is a drag, but I've found a lot nearby that usually has a spot for me- but today I didn't have the right change, because I left my $1 coins ...somewhere.  I decided to risk feeding half the money now, and half the money later when I broke a $20, because -dammit, I was ready to have a good day.  I had a networking meeting further down on campus, and for some reason I didn't bring a coat.  Obviously, it was raining cats and dogs.  The meeting was ok, but it reinforced that I am not doing enough to get something useful out of my internship.  And made me soaking wet.

Traffic was TERRIBLE.  When I got home, the cat managed to rip a hole in my work pants (of course, in the bum) while I started a late dinner (made even later by the fact that Matt is gone to CDL school).  And then I burned the speghetti sauce- I know, I didn't know that was possible either. 

Any other day I might say "I got a new project, I didn't get a parking ticket and I got to meet some new people," but not today.

Scenes from Casa Seguin

Nothing specific to report, but I feel that recent blog entries have not really captured the weirdness that encompasses my life these days.  Without further ado:

I was looking for Matt, but he wasn't inside.  I opened the garage, figuring he was probably tinkering.  Instead, the garage door was wide open.  I called "Hello?" and in reply, a shadowing figure unicycled down the street in front of the garage.

A difference we noticed recently between PA and WA- in PA, liquor laws are such that most restaurants are BYOB, they don't have a wine list, but will give you a wine glass if you bring your own.  We never took much advantage of this, but living as we do now, near so many wineries, I was wishing we could.  We now have beer places (Black Raven, Malt and Vine etc.) that are BYOF- you can bring in outside food from anywhere to enjoy with your beers.

Matt got some parts for the unicycle.  They came with bumper stickers for Unicycle.com and Banjo.com.

For St. Patrick's Day, I spent the day job hunting, and in the evening we met some friends for Vietnamese food.  Pho reals.

Dad is coming to visit this weekend, because Seattle is a place where people actually go sometimes.  I'm pretty thrilled.

New life, full of stuff

I have been spending a lot of time going places this week.  I know I'm not objectively driving a lot, but as someone who used to have to invent excuses to leave the house, this is an exciting change.  I've started actually being a useful person at the bank (for a very forgiving definition of useful), and then I get to run off to the U district to my internship.  I'm not sure about my impressions of that yet, so I'll just save my comments on that til later.  But it does give me an excuse to be on the other side of the Lake, which opens up other possibilities.

Tuesday night I went to a networking event in South Lake Union.  This distance is not great, but the volume of road closures and detours gave me a full tour of the Seattle Center and surrounding areas.  Thursday I grabbed coffee with a guy at one of the research institutes in south lake Union (I found a better way to get there while there wasn't traffic).  And Shaoshu's job has relocated to Belltown, so now he is super into hanging out downtown.  We grabbed a fancy drink on Thursday after he moved.  Well, the drink wasn't that fancy, but the Belltown hoity-toity place we were was...

Friday, after my shift as an intern, then as a teller, I got a call from Matt saying he and Jeffrey had ridden into the U district and would I like to check out the pub they are in, or maybe bring them the bike rack?  By the time I got there the three of them (Shaoshu beat me there) had recovered their strength with nachos and the crazy cyclists decided to ride the 20 miles home.  It was totally worth it though, there were girl scouts preying on heartbroken huskies fans and selling Girl Scout Cookies, so I got an extra box of Samoas- which totally fills the gap left by the boxes I already ate.

I would be interested to know if the rest of you who have more experience with driving in Seattle can speak to my main navigation conundrum.  I am wondering if it is really essential, when moving from one place in Seattle to another, that you drive past the foot of the Space Needle?  A couple times I did that, and I figured "how fun."  But is it necessary to be there when moving from U district to Belltown?  It just seems,... corny.

Otherwise, Life is good

Couple other little updates from my glamorous life.  My Chinese brother Shaoshu turned Thirty on Sunday (so old!), so we got to celebrate with some old friend, several of whom we hadn't seen since college.  It was a fun party.

It is snowing in Seattle.  It's not that much snow- maybe 6 inches on the ground here, getting icy on top.  The real issue is that there isn't much snow removal equipment, and not a lot of experienced drivers.  It's the kind of combination that makes a person want to sit at home with cocoa- which I did.

My dissertation arrived.  It's anti-climatic to have the final printed version.  It looks good, the images came out nice, and it is bound in black with the title along the spine.  That is the end of that.

The job hunt continues.  I am told this is a good time of year to be looking for a job.  I have some plans to meet with more people, so the networking part is coming along.  Nothing feels like it is that close to turning into a job yet (Boo), but I have got some things to keep me busy.

Like this cold.  I was feeling all jealous of Noel's household being sick all the time, so I went out and got a germ of my own.  Matt isn't thrilled, but that's because I have more germs than him- for now.

Overall, things seem fine.  This is the first time I will have been home for a full week in over a month.  I am trying get a normal life here.  Seeing friends, cooking in the kitchen, that sort of stuff.  I am looking forward to Nana's February visit.

Moving on out...

The movers came.  I haven't participated in a professional move as an adult, and I gotta say, it was BY FAR the best move yet. Over the last week we'd been making lame attempts at decluttering, dusting, and compacting some of our stuff.  It was just enough to remind me how flustered I get during a move.  Do I still want this stuff?  Can I bear to throw it away?  Is there a better place for it than the trash can?  How will I get it there?  This resulted in basically trashing the house- we removed all the 'stuff' from the spare room to leave Raoul enclosed in during moving day.

Monday morning, three GIANT dudes show up (like, duck through the doorway guys), they walk around the place, have a short conference in the truck and bring in heaps of boxes.  I went to the Science Center, since Matt was here and there wasn't much for him to do anyway.  I came home in the early afternoon to see the crew finishing up for the day, everything we owned in boxes.  They covered the floor in plastic to prevent tracking dirt, left aisles in the boxes and had an extra box for us to put our overnight stuff in.  During the day, Matt said they would ask/remind him about things he might like.  Will you need an alarm clock tomorrow?  Coffee maker? Allergy meds (so glad someone thought of this- the dust is killing my allergies)? The boxes were stacked in these comical towers (who puts two wardrobe boxes together?  They go higher than a door), probably because they were all stacking up to their own eye level.

Today the same guys came back, parked a big truck in front of the house, one guy doing inventory, one guy packing some last boxes, and the third guy hauling HUGE boxes out of the basement.  I'm really relieved someone will unload these too, because I could not move most of them, let alone put two on my back and haul them out.  The furniture was plastic wrapped, and the truck was densely packed.  Of course, having standard size boxes and copious packing material probably helps, but these guys clearly knew what they were doing.  They did the whole house in about 5 hours, including the basement and garage. Paper work was exchanged and we'll see our stuff in Seattle in a week or so. 

The cat is dealing with this remarkably well.  The movers did kinda scare him (big voices!  big feet!) so he mostly hung out under the bed in the spare room.  But once they left, he took a look around and was back to his usual self.  He did make the most surprised sound today when I let him out into the empty apartment, the same sound he makes when you sneak up and poke him.  Now he is hanging out with us while we do some cleaning and organizing of our remaining things. It gives me confidence that he'll weather the move ok.

Matt and Raoul leave Thursday morning, and will be at the new house Thursday afternoon. I'll be giving our car the bon voyage that afternoon, and will be staying with some friends while I do some more work at the Science Center.  It looks like I might be able to continue some occasional volunteer work with them after I leave, which is good since they keep suggesting other things I could do if I were around longer.  But, I have this exciting life to look forward to in Seattle!  Starting soon!

Moving to Seattle!

By now, you probably all know that Matt has accepted a job (is dream job too strong?), and that we'll be relocating to Kirkland WA for him to start work in November.  He has given two weeks notice, we've told our landlord, and... the rest we need to decide.   In the meantime, though, I am in Spokane celebrating with Nana.  And who better to celebrate with than Nana?  Unlike our friends back home who were happy for us in a "but that means you are leaving" kind of way, she and I are just blissed out, thinking of all the cool ways that this changes our lives for the better.  Like, I can come visit for long weekends.  Or she can come visit me!  Or, it's no big deal to get the whole family together.  Or to wait out time changes for phone calls.  I'm going to try and convince her to move West for my sake, but really, being in the same time zone will be SOO much nicer. There are so many way this is great news!

And can I brag on Matt for a little?  He made me swear to secrecy about this whole affair, from his application, to the interview he was flown to Seattle for, even through the negotiations and the final offer. He is very private, he didn't want a whiff of this to hit his current employer, and he didn't want to have to deal with any public disappointment.  Even when all signs were pointing towards "THEY LOVE YOU," he was cautious.  They flew him across the country, put him up in a hotel and rented  him a car to go and visit his Mom in, and he didn't want me to say anything.  They gave him an offer letter, which he signed, and the movers had called us, and he didn't want me to say anything until his references reported back.  But Friday he got the final green light from the new job, and we are thrilled with the result.  He'll be working as a design engineer at major truck company, who recognize both his years of experience, as well as his fancy degree from Western.  It's a promotion in both title and pay, and it's much more in line with what he always wanted to use his eduction for.  I'm so happy for him to get a chance to think about cars all day, since that is what he'd be doing if he didn't have to work anyway. It's a great offer, which he absolutely deserved!

Yes, so very exciting times.  Nana and I are going to celebrate the excitement by meeting up with Mom and Dad in Seattle this weekend (see how close Spokane and Seattle are?) to be giddy with excitement some more, and also maybe all daydream about the future together. So glamourous. Yes, I have unfortunately left Matt to shoulder the burden of the anxiety about the move for the rest of the week, but I promise I'll be back in full force next week!  Sorry honey!

sports and culture fallout

I know there aren't that many Seattle sports fans on this blog, but I can't help pointing out the news about Cliff Lee, the star pitcher who will henceforth display his excellence in a Dallas Cowboys, er Texas Ranger uniform.

As many of you know, the Seattle Opera Association has been working for the last couple of years on commissioning a modern-day follow up to the Wagner Ring saga which had been such a huge hit for them over the years. The adaptation was going to focus on the sad history of Seattle sports, with characters based on Lauren Jackson, the Storm basketball star, as the Queen of the Valkeries, a Coach Mike Holmgren look-alike playing Wotan, and either Ken Griffey or Alex Rodriquez playing young Siegfried. There were other characters and roles involved, Gary Payton and Billie Jo Hobart, Nate Robinson etc.

But with the loss of Cliff Lee, apparently the sponsors decided the whole topic was just too sad, too tragic, and too depressing even for grand opera. Now the plan is to just do a version of Romeo and Juliet set in Rwanda.

It's supposed to be a lot more cheerful . . . .

Exciting archival package!

In tidying up her house, Nana told me that she unearthed a ledger she kept as a newlywed of the household expenses. She said later it was too tedious to keep- but she maintained it fastidiously form 1942-1949. Rather than pitch it, she mailed it to me, and I've had the great joy of leafing through it.

Of course I am shocked by the price of things- in 1944, they spent $4.75 every month for moorage- that is RENT people! And Tuition, at the UW, cost $44/ semester. But I am also impressed by how carefully Nana kept this ledger. There are notes in it for $0.25, mouthwash, $0.30, shoeshine. I probably can't claim to be a newlywed myself anymore- but I don't have nearly this handle on the cash flow of our household.

There are some mysteries too. In 1944, there is an entry for Puppy, and then later dog food- but only a few month. What puppy? And for a while, there were entries for cigarettes, and then abruptly not. Why did Papa quit?

There is also the paper trail of real life too. In 1946, there is a huge sum to a Frieght company, and then the household expenses include paying A L&P (Alask Light and Power- same as in Juneau today). The 'College Expenses' Chapter is relegated to the back to make way for a 'Baby' Chapter. There are some chapters that Papa maintained in his neat handwriting, like Household Maintenance. And the chapter on recreation denotes all the shows, ballets and ball games, and even the ferry trips and vacations of most of a decade.

After some more investigation- I'll share anything else cool I find. In the meantime, I'll take care of this in case anyone else wants to see it someday.

Papa stories: The proposal

I am visiting this weekend in Spokane, I did escape the weather on the east coast, and Tsunami on the West. Since I didn't have my voice recorder out at dinner, I wanted to commit this story while it is still fresh.

I was asking Papa about the UW campus when he was a student there, and we transitioned easily to this, one of our favorite stories. When Nana and Papa had been seeing each other for a while in 1941, he brought up marriage. He said to Nana, " We seem to be getting along pretty well. Do you think you might like to get married?" To which she said, oh no. She was very focused on finishing her degree and it seemed like a bad time. But they continued dating. On December 7, they were headed to have dinner with their friend Mignonette and her husband somewhere they were house sitting. They were supposed to pick up a friend, who ran out of the house saying, "The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor! It's all over the radio!" It was pretty apparent that this would force the US would engage in war, and a draft seemed inevitable.

After dinner, Mignonette suggested they walk up to UW to see the Christmas program. On this walk, Nana said quietly to Papa, "I think I've changed my mind. I think I'd like to get married." The rest is history.

***

Another bit that I heard about for the first time tonight was that Nana and Papa used to live in GI housing Kirkland. When I asked when, Papa said plainly that when Bart was born, he only trusted him not to crawl off into Lake Washington until he was about 6 months old. After he was about 6 months old, it seemed they should sell the house boat and move to the affordable housing for veterans in Kirkland. Any one know where this was in Kirkland?

I also found that the summer Papa work in herring processing, he was based out of Little Port Walter on Baranoff Island.

In Seattle, Breifly

Hey,

I'm posting this from the terminal in Seattle. Jess and I are here (early) and ready to get on a plane up to Juneau for our vacation. We spent the night here and ate at a roasters restaurant last night, which had some really good food. Jess had a delicious "salad "and I had some roasted meat(s) in gravy. Thanks to dad for the Hotel Recommendation, the place was really nice and just about as close the the airport as it is legally possible to be.

We'll see our Juneau family pretty soon. Much love!

-N

literary laughter

I went to a book & author festival sponsored by the Seattle U School of Theology & Ministry Saturday where the highlight was the final keynote by Sherman Alexie.

I'm sure you heard of his novels, stories and screen plays, but I don't think I knew before that he's written several books of poetry. He was in rare form. You have to think for a moment about the crowd that would show up for such a thing.

Does the phrase "Seattle Liberal" bring anything specifc to mind? Well it did for Sherman and he started off with that . . describing his joy at watching the Inauguration on TV seeing a pair of such types, wearing No-animals-were-harmed-in-the-making-of-this Gore-Tex parkas, with oatmeal colored hats and oatmeal colored sweaters.

"Arm in arm with a big, African American churchwomen, with a fur coat . . (pause while the audience recoils in horror) . . one of those fur coats with the fox's head still on . . they were swaying back and forth and every time they swayed, the fox head banged one of the oatmeal hat . . none of them cared . . . they were too happy."

Later he said he never understood why white liberals were so interested in Native American spirituality . . . "we love guns . . we kill animals . . we eat meat .. our sacred clothing is from dead aminals and endangered bird species . . . how does that even work for you?"

Towards the end, he started to read a poem (from an upcoming book?) something like "To a Polar Bear Death" . . . when he told us the title, there was an audible "Ohhhhhhh . . " throughout the hall. He had to stop and laugh: "Seattle audience . . in Alaska, they'd be cheering at that!"

If the presentation ever gets posted on the Internet tubes, I'll offer up a link.