remember

views

from the balcony of our kirkland home, we looked out over lake washington at the seattle skyline and space needle. i miss the gorgeous sunsets.

[written 6 october; posted 7 october]

self study

my friends ethan, matthew and i decided we needed to know more about the world, so we started our own geography classes. we met once a week for ten weeks at the bellevue public library, and held our own course. the first week we designed the course, picking the countries we wanted to study and structuring the class. each week after that, we each spent half the time researching the country we were assigned, answering a set of questions we had selected to answer. then we got back together and presented what we had learned.

lost on the east side

on one of my mom's visits to seattle, we went on a walk with my friend anoo starting at my house in kirkland. we got lost and didn't figure out where we were until we had walked all the way to downtown bellevue.

[written 5 september; posted 6 september]

encores only

once we were supposed to go to a concert at chateau ste. michelle where mary chapin carpenter was opening for shawn colvin but we got the time wrong and arrived for the encores and a glass of wine.

jellies and jams

in seattle, we had fruit trees in our back yard: green gage plum, several varieties of apple, damson plum, and rainier cherry. in the year 2000, i planted a pear tree as well that started to bear fruit the year we moved.

we harvested the fruit each year and made dozens of jars of jelly and jam, which we gave away to all of our friends. one year, i had the bright idea that we would also make flavoured oils and spiced almonds and fill gift baskets for christmas. richard designed the labels, and we bought some cellophane from michael's craft store to put over the finished product. you had to use a hair dryer on the cellophane to shrink it to fit, and after doing three of them, we gave up.

we ended up with lots of extra jars, baskets and nuts. a few random friends got baskets and the rest got presents selected with care from the store.

[written 22 may; posted 23 may]

september 10

on the evening of september 10, 2001, i took richard to sea-tac airport, where he left on the ba non-stop flight to london. i was supposed to join him two days later, as sarah, his sister, was getting married on the weekend.

i went out with friends for dinner that night, and when i got home to kirkland, late on the evening of the 10th, i had two voicemail messages on my home answering machine. one was a friend. the other was a prank caller. it was a male, american accented voice, calling from a public place the police later confirmed was likely a bus or train station. i could hear the crackle of voices in the background, and the voice said "in the names of all of the officers of your company." he then laughed, and hung up.

i don't like prank calls and didn't get them often. this one was odd but not threatening, but i still saved it, called my friend to let her know i was home, and i mentioned it to her. "strange." she said. i agreed. the next morning it seemed even stranger.

on september 11, i woke early and phoned my sister's house to chat with my sister and mom before leaving for the gym. they told me the news. richard had already called in the middle of the night to let me know he had arrived safely in england, several hours prior to the attacks.

i didn't make it to the gym or to sarah's wedding in the end. and the call may have been just a very odd coincidence, but i haven't forgotten it.

basement practice

when we lived in kirkland, richard learned to rollerblade in our basement.

walking sixty miles

in 2001, samantha came to seattle and we walked together in the avon breast cancer 3 day, an organized walk of sixty miles over three long days, covering the beautiful countryside between enumclaw and seattle. the walk happened to be scheduled during one of the hottest weeks of the summer, and many people dropped out due to heat exhaustion and blisters. samantha and i made it through, thanks to richard and friends who came to cheer us on along the route. we finished the walk in seattle center, along with our 3000 fellow walkers, with t-shirts and heat rash to prove it.