Musings on an Assortment of Subjects

Thanks to all of you, my dear friends and family, who sent me greetings on Sunday, my 22nd birthday. I am blessed with extraordinary people to share this life with.

I had a lovely weekend, the highlight of which must certainly be on Saturday when I made my way to the book sale put on by the Friends of the Seattle Public Library. This biannual event is truly a sight to behold: an entire exhibition hall filled with row upon row of tables laden with folios waiting to be examined. And PACKED with people! You would have been hard-pressed to find a few feet of table not occupied, and the line waiting to pay stretched along the long side of the hall.

I walked home with the following:

• something on Antarctica from National Geographic press (already passed along to my fellow Antarctica conspirator)
• The Bantam New College French-English Dictionary (just $0.75 and some time and a new language can be yours…what fun!)
• Bored of the Rings by the Harvard Lampoon (featuring Frito Bugger and his efforts, with the assistance of Goodgulf, to destroy the Great Ring)
• Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick (a favorite from my parents shelves)
• Linux Device Drivers by Alessandro Rubini (just in case anyone tries to challenge my geekhood)
• “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”: Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard P. Feynman
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (better catch up on that classic literature now that I actually have time to read)

And all this for only $5.75!

My actual birthday on Sunday was also quite nice. Following the service at Seattle Mennonite Church which included a commissioning of us VSers, I took off with friend Katie to the final Mariners game of the season, where we ate very garlicky garlic fries, were amused by multitudes of mascots present for Kid’s Appreciation Day, and tried to stay warm; and where the team, happily, won. Then back to the VS house for a little celebration with cake and ice cream (thanks guys; you rock!) and an outing to St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral for the Compline service before bed.

And how do I feel about starting my 23rd year? My Grandpa Hank wrote and reminisced about the months following his 22nd birthday, in which he “graduated from college, began graduate school, met the girl of my dreams, found my own housing and in general enjoyed life” (!) I guess we shall see if I can live up to that excitement. One thing I have been realizing is that, having just made it out of the clutches of my parents ventured into a new part of the country and started VS, it is already time to start thinking of some new long-term goals, so that I have a place to direct my energy. If you happen to be in possession of supernatural guidance regarding my future well-being, do let me know. In the meantime, however, with few exceptions, life is good.

Since arriving in Seattle my main modes of transportation have been walking and riding the bus. The latter is a fairly impersonal experience, although I am starting to recognize a few regulars who share my routes of choice. And occasionally the driver will make his or her personality known. Such as the one today, who lazily announced–if I heard him correctly–”15th and John…Group Health…and a bunch of other stuff.”

This gave me the idea for an exciting new online service; namely, Google Indirection. Supplied with information about your starting point and intended destination, this innovative tool will display a detailed step-by-step route and then cheerfully proclaim, “Whatever you do, don’t go THAT way!”

For those of you reading this who don’t work for ONE/Northwest, I’d like to introduce you to Andrew, my new colleague and office-mate and one of the two people I work with most closely on Plone-based projects. Sorry, Jon B., but Andrew gets all the attention here because, as we quickly discovered, we are basically the same person.

Cases in point:

• Andrew and I both grew up in Goshen, IN and attended the same middle school and high school.
• We both got our undergrad degrees at Goshen College, where we each participated in the chamber choir and the environmental club.
• We both were raised in the Mennonite Church, and attended Assembly Mennonite Church in Goshen for at least a brief period.
• We both entered the Mennonite Voluntary Service just after graduating from college and took placements in Seattle at ONE/Northwest…
• …and now we share an office and (largely) a job description.

Pretty crazy, huh? Of course there are distinguishing factors between us. (For instance, Andrew is married. I was disappointed to learn that his wife Sarah does not have a younger sister, which would have helped keep the trend on track.) But it was pretty freaky to learn that apparently we also both enjoy baking the same bread recipe (oatmeal bread from More With Less). Speaking of which, I just took two loaves of that out of the oven, and had better go see if it has cooled down.

This weekend was spent at Camp Camrec, the Mennonite camp to the east across Stevens Pass. It was a chance to get to know the Seattle MVS support committee, interact more with housemates, and see some of rural Washington state.

housemates

Deception Falls

Treebeard?

new life

Life is good. At work, I feel like I am starting to get a leg up on the learning curve, and I’ve already written a bit of code that is running on a live site. At home, we drafted a house covenant and have just figured out the room situation — my real room (commonly known as “the womb”) has just been emptied out and I can move in tomorrow. Tonight I just cooked my first house meal (groundnut stew), which was a success. It really is amazing how quickly one can settle down in a new place and start to feel the rhythms of a routine…I guess that is something we can’t live without, even as we need new and exciting things alongside.

Oh yes, I almost forgot to brag about the view from my 10th-story downtown office window:

Whew, the past few days have been a whirlwind. I got here around 9 p.m. Saturday evening, was picked up and brought to the MVS house on Capitol Hill, where I met lots of people and moved into my temporary abode in the TV room (until the end of this week when some of the old VSers move to their new residence). On Sunday I spent the morning unpacking, then wandered around the neighborhood for a bit before getting picked up for the Grand Tour of Seattle.

Jill, the local MVS coordinator, ended up taking us on a 5-hour tour of many parts of Seattle. We started by heading a ways south down Rainier Ave. to visit a couple peoples’ assignments (including a quick detour to see Lake Washington),

then swung past the stadiums,

stopped at the Uwajimaya market,

headed on through downtown,

past the Space Needle,

and up to Queen Anne hill which offers a gorgeous panoramic view.

Then on up across the canals, past the Fremont troll,

to the Ten Thousand Villages in Roosevelt. And then west to Ballard and the Chittenden locks

before swinging back past the University and home again.

On Sunday evening I walked to Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral for its well-known Compline service, where I met a friend from Goshen who I brought back to see the MVS house. And then today was my first day at ONE/Northwest–a day of meeting neat people who are passionate about technology and about helping environmental agencies engage their constituents, of setting up a new computer and learning about how this organization does things, and of actually diving into a bit of programming alongside my illustrious colleague Andrew. Oh, and I can’t forget this evening…one of my housemates managed to get some free tickets to the Mariners game from her work, so we headed down to Soldier field to see the game. Sadly, the results were not as desired (Oakland had two grand slams…TWO!), but it was still a fun end to some exciting first days in the Emerald City.