I work really long days Tues, Wed and Thurs, and I'm too tired to do anything other than sleep afterwards. But yesterday I got to visit Jonathan aka "JT" over at the fire station where he works and it was pretty awesome. He showed me the living quarters for the firemen, and had me sit in the driver's seat on the fire truck!!!! We used the radio headsets, blew the horns and flashed all the crazy lights. Then we checked out the ambulance too. Sat in the back and everything. It was a nice short break from my delivery job, but it ended up being more out of the way than I thought, and after my last stop I missed the early ferry back to the warehouse, so my boss was a little peeved with me, I think. It's hard to resist hanging out in a fire truck though...
Last night Fluffz and I drank some really great wine: Abbot's Table by Owen Roe. SO GOOD. And we walked over to this little mexican restaurant by my house. Some crazy halfway house molester lookin' dude was checking us out and following us around. Man he had some crazy eyes. So we're the only ones in the restaurant and Crazy Eyes Ex Con dude sits at the bar and stares at us, has one drink and leaves. With no weapon to protect ourselves on the walk home, I decided to shake a bunch of pepper in my hand, exclaiming that I would blind mr Crazy Eyes should he try to attack us. Fluffz told me that was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard and no way would it work. Once safely near my house he insisted that I throw the pepper in his face in order to prove me wrong. Well, he had glasses on, and I think the wind was in his favor. However the wind was not in MY favor, and I got a piece of pepper in my eye, and yeah, it stung a little. I don't think he totally proved me wrong.
This weekend I think my friend N. and I are going to visit a biodynamic farm and see how that all works... and on Monday I'm meeting up with a girl I used to party with when I was 19! I haven't seen her in 15 years and now she has a little girl, a husband, and a house on Queen Anne. Should be fun and interesting.
Time for bed.
bad touch!
had breakfast today jen & ben, in town on a west coast road trip and getting ready to head back to traverse city. met ben's old kalamazoo friend Ursula, who is a singer for a band here in seattle. she was really cool. we rec'd bad service at smarty pants in georgetown but had fun anyway. when ben saw my camera he automatically turned around and tried to spread his butt cheeks.
below is a pic of my boss judd attempting to "bad touch" nick under the table at stellar pizza, last friday afternoon. nick looks shocked but also pleased.
starting, or stopping?
GUESS WHO is going to work as a volunteer captain of a 60 foot schooner one or two days each week, here in Seattle? Right up there on the stbd side of your monitor - ME!!! Today I got to take her through a few bridge raisings AND DOCK HER!! Yay and big thanks to JT for hooking me up with the info. Big thanks also to the awesome friends who responded to my forlorn "I need discipline" post. There were only a few of you, but your advice was and support was so very valuable and appreciated. Usually I'll erase those downer posts within a day of posting them, because it seems so ridiculously self absorbed and self pitying, but luckily I don't post like that too too often so when I do, some wonderful people feel motivated enough to offer a few words of guidance.
I think one of the best pieces of advice, coming from more than one person, was to go to school. So I'm considering a few things: the publishing arts program at seattle central, the marine carpentry program also at sccc, and then the welding class at south seattle comm. college. It crossed my mind to look into culinary and wine related courses, but that's really not my passion.
Other great advice was for me to focus on just doing things, not thinking about doing things or trying to decide what to do or be. Just DO. trying to avoid the nike reference there. and not to sound too fruity but for 2 weeks my horoscope has asked me to try harder at living in the moment (see link to the right for reliably yet eerily accurate horoscopes published by caeriel crestin). On top of that I watched the movie "Peaceful Warrior" at nanettes in the middle of the night last night. I haven't read "way of the peaceful warrior," which was highly recommended by yuri years ago, but i gleaned some of it's points from the movie. at one point i cringed, identifying what yuri always criticized me for, which was me declaring that in life i MAKE things happen rather than LET them happen to me. i hardly think that i, being such a minimalist and self sacrificing person at times, could be so easily compared to the main character... i mean shit i wholeheartedly agree that service to others brings meaning to life, and i've always felt that. but i definitely need to stop being with men with whom i feel compelled to mother. and honestly, yuri HARDLY lives his life in service to others, so if i'd watched/read this earlier maybe i could have provided a better defense.
here are some of my favorite quotes:
Dan Millman: Life has just three rules?
Socrates: And you already know them...
Dan Millman: Paradox, humour, and change.
Socrates: Paradox...
Dan Millman: Life is a mystery. Don't waste time trying to figure it out.
Socrates: Humour...
Dan Millman: Keep a sense of humour, especially about yourself. It is a strength beyond all measure.
Socrates: Change...
Dan Millman: Know that nothing stays the same.
(i believe i have the latter 2 down. i'm going to work at the first one)
(and my favorite quote...)
There is no starting or stopping - only doing.
I think one of the best pieces of advice, coming from more than one person, was to go to school. So I'm considering a few things: the publishing arts program at seattle central, the marine carpentry program also at sccc, and then the welding class at south seattle comm. college. It crossed my mind to look into culinary and wine related courses, but that's really not my passion.
Other great advice was for me to focus on just doing things, not thinking about doing things or trying to decide what to do or be. Just DO. trying to avoid the nike reference there. and not to sound too fruity but for 2 weeks my horoscope has asked me to try harder at living in the moment (see link to the right for reliably yet eerily accurate horoscopes published by caeriel crestin). On top of that I watched the movie "Peaceful Warrior" at nanettes in the middle of the night last night. I haven't read "way of the peaceful warrior," which was highly recommended by yuri years ago, but i gleaned some of it's points from the movie. at one point i cringed, identifying what yuri always criticized me for, which was me declaring that in life i MAKE things happen rather than LET them happen to me. i hardly think that i, being such a minimalist and self sacrificing person at times, could be so easily compared to the main character... i mean shit i wholeheartedly agree that service to others brings meaning to life, and i've always felt that. but i definitely need to stop being with men with whom i feel compelled to mother. and honestly, yuri HARDLY lives his life in service to others, so if i'd watched/read this earlier maybe i could have provided a better defense.
here are some of my favorite quotes:
Dan Millman: Life has just three rules?
Socrates: And you already know them...
Dan Millman: Paradox, humour, and change.
Socrates: Paradox...
Dan Millman: Life is a mystery. Don't waste time trying to figure it out.
Socrates: Humour...
Dan Millman: Keep a sense of humour, especially about yourself. It is a strength beyond all measure.
Socrates: Change...
Dan Millman: Know that nothing stays the same.
(i believe i have the latter 2 down. i'm going to work at the first one)
(and my favorite quote...)
There is no starting or stopping - only doing.
kinda wow
AH the weekend is here. I worked until 4, went drinking with my awesome coworkers - drank waaaay too much whiskey and beer in a very short amount of time. I know for sure I brought up dolphin related zoophilia. Always smart to get wasted with the boss! Then I had a LUCKY bike ride home, considering I didn't DIE by driving into oncoming traffic. Natural selection is either bunk or I'm a survivor like tina turner in beyond the thunderdome. and then i fell asleep after chatting up jarad, who's enjoying acl fest this weekend. my friend FluffZ called from this club in san fran. i tried to get ryan "otis" downs to go to the show but i doubt he went.
my hair is super classy these days. long bangs and sometimes i get these feathery looking wings on the side. i think it's the same cut i had when i was nine.
oh and since work sometimes takes me out of KEXP range, i've been listening to cd's that i made years ago or that loved ones have made for me. yesterday i had coffee in fairhaven and listened to jeff buckley while cruising chuckanut drive and the lovely fog laden fields in the skagit valley. it's also slightly satisfying to drive through the quaint town of laconner blasting frank zappa's "catholic girls" and "titties and beer."
my hair is super classy these days. long bangs and sometimes i get these feathery looking wings on the side. i think it's the same cut i had when i was nine.
oh and since work sometimes takes me out of KEXP range, i've been listening to cd's that i made years ago or that loved ones have made for me. yesterday i had coffee in fairhaven and listened to jeff buckley while cruising chuckanut drive and the lovely fog laden fields in the skagit valley. it's also slightly satisfying to drive through the quaint town of laconner blasting frank zappa's "catholic girls" and "titties and beer."
wbf weekend
On saturday i got a ride with the clampitts to the wooden boat fest. we met up with ta and signe, stopped by the lady wa to say hi to JB and the crew, and wandered over to the big tent. i found ozzie coming in on s/v Crusoe and he showed me the little raft that he and nate k. built on friday. later i made my way to the chanty sing and joined a few lady crew there for a while. it was funny because the pro singers sang the volunteer waltz for the lady crew... this lady crew hadn't even heard the song!! but they loved it of course. back outside the tent i was very happy to run into ozzie again, as well as eric and cass,
the beard, cass, justin and oz
and we all drank beers out in front of the tent while the clampitts went on in to meet ta. elf was there, oh and i had fun talking to mark's wife brooks. although i felt pretty dumb for being confused about who she was at first. my memory is ridiculously bad and/or confused sometimes. today i found pictures of MYSELF on my friend's computer and i can't even remember the situations in which they were taken. maybe i was drunk? i doubt it. anyway lo and behold one of my favorite sailors, nate k walks up and gives me a big hug.
the beard, nate in yellow crocs!
we chatted a bit and nate offered sleeping space to several of us, so i decided to forego a 2nd year of turning in early to ta's in port hadlock and joined cass, the beard, and their friend justin for a walk over to the cwb tug for more beer. on the way back i ran into abbie schneidler!!! i doubt anyone reading this knows who she is, but she's morgan schneidler's little sis, and adrian lipp's ex roomie, and a former coworker at vic clipper. morgan and i were the first naturalists/orca whale watch tour guides working for the clipper back in 1998. turns out morgan's been doing more boat stuff in AK and with noaa, and abbie is getting her doctorate in naturopathy at bastyr, and is engaged (upon telling me this she pointed to a dude in carhaarts playing guitar for some adventuress crew). i got abbie's address and made my way over to the tent again to find nate and we all ended up at a lovely home where nate is renting a little cottage in the back while attending the boat school in pt.
nate's sweet cottage
nate and i stayed up late talking about all kinds of stuff, and when we all got up in the morning he made us hash browns, coffee, eggs and toast. it was an awesome sunday morning. we walked back down the hill and over to adventuress, and eventually i ended up sitting alone near the entrance to the point hudson marina, watching all the boats come and go. near the end i took some video of oz sailing out on his raft.
oz sailing the raft on sunday
on the way home a woman named laurel hitched a ride with us - she's old lady and rose crew, and was telling us how happy daniel macke is with his new gf wendy. i hadn't seen daniel at the fest, which is a bummer, because i hear he played and is a good musician. i was talking on the phone with a.mckee today and he said he's crewed with laurel, and she has a lot of experience on different kinds of boats. i should have asked her for more stories but i was pretty tired from a long weekend.
today i pulled a muscle in my neck so all my plans were trashed. i took an aleve and drank some wine to help kill the pain. i've been messing around on the internet and downloading pics onto my friend's computer (my usb ports don't work), so now i can at least add a few pics to a blog.
the beard, cass, justin and oz
and we all drank beers out in front of the tent while the clampitts went on in to meet ta. elf was there, oh and i had fun talking to mark's wife brooks. although i felt pretty dumb for being confused about who she was at first. my memory is ridiculously bad and/or confused sometimes. today i found pictures of MYSELF on my friend's computer and i can't even remember the situations in which they were taken. maybe i was drunk? i doubt it. anyway lo and behold one of my favorite sailors, nate k walks up and gives me a big hug.
the beard, nate in yellow crocs!
we chatted a bit and nate offered sleeping space to several of us, so i decided to forego a 2nd year of turning in early to ta's in port hadlock and joined cass, the beard, and their friend justin for a walk over to the cwb tug for more beer. on the way back i ran into abbie schneidler!!! i doubt anyone reading this knows who she is, but she's morgan schneidler's little sis, and adrian lipp's ex roomie, and a former coworker at vic clipper. morgan and i were the first naturalists/orca whale watch tour guides working for the clipper back in 1998. turns out morgan's been doing more boat stuff in AK and with noaa, and abbie is getting her doctorate in naturopathy at bastyr, and is engaged (upon telling me this she pointed to a dude in carhaarts playing guitar for some adventuress crew). i got abbie's address and made my way over to the tent again to find nate and we all ended up at a lovely home where nate is renting a little cottage in the back while attending the boat school in pt.
nate's sweet cottage
nate and i stayed up late talking about all kinds of stuff, and when we all got up in the morning he made us hash browns, coffee, eggs and toast. it was an awesome sunday morning. we walked back down the hill and over to adventuress, and eventually i ended up sitting alone near the entrance to the point hudson marina, watching all the boats come and go. near the end i took some video of oz sailing out on his raft.
oz sailing the raft on sunday
on the way home a woman named laurel hitched a ride with us - she's old lady and rose crew, and was telling us how happy daniel macke is with his new gf wendy. i hadn't seen daniel at the fest, which is a bummer, because i hear he played and is a good musician. i was talking on the phone with a.mckee today and he said he's crewed with laurel, and she has a lot of experience on different kinds of boats. i should have asked her for more stories but i was pretty tired from a long weekend.
today i pulled a muscle in my neck so all my plans were trashed. i took an aleve and drank some wine to help kill the pain. i've been messing around on the internet and downloading pics onto my friend's computer (my usb ports don't work), so now i can at least add a few pics to a blog.
i need discipline
for those of you who didn't know already, if i have never mentioned it, i am a textbook existentialist.
ironically, i feel it's not something i chose to be. it's fucking depressing. i'm pretty tired of being so non-committal. i've got those cds in my delivery van on the 7 qualities of successful people or whatever. haven't listened to them yet. i feel like a real loser these days. i'm not accomplishing much. i'd like to find happiness in just sitting around and not having to BE or BECOME anything, but that doesn't seem to come naturally. i don't know if i should work on THAT, or really trying to BECOME something. all i really want is to be a bum on my own little boat.
i probably should have had a baby or done something that would force me to not think about how this is such a pointless universe.
i'm also a bit of a hyphochondriac and have always felt pretty sure that i'm either going to die within a few years of either cancer or a bad accident. i think my little sister is pretty tired of hearing me say "katie if something happens to me..." blah blah blah. i'll be amazed if i ever turn 60.
my friend ryan was talking about going on a road trip with my friend jimmy. i said we should all hitchhike across the country. i'm 34 and i want to hitchhike across the country, sleep in ditches and hang out with bums, with 2 25 year olds. pretty juvenile i guess.
anyone got some ideas on how i can stop procrastinating and bring some meaning and motivation to my life? for real? i don't mean bullshit like "just think about how wonderful it is to be alive! to have friends! just think about all the things you can still do! follow your dreams!" blah barf barf. i'm talking real advice, like methods, practices... cos the only solution i keep thinking about is how i wish i was an alcoholic/escapist type who was a lot more fun and crazy.
totally unrelated but very cool:
ironically, i feel it's not something i chose to be. it's fucking depressing. i'm pretty tired of being so non-committal. i've got those cds in my delivery van on the 7 qualities of successful people or whatever. haven't listened to them yet. i feel like a real loser these days. i'm not accomplishing much. i'd like to find happiness in just sitting around and not having to BE or BECOME anything, but that doesn't seem to come naturally. i don't know if i should work on THAT, or really trying to BECOME something. all i really want is to be a bum on my own little boat.
i probably should have had a baby or done something that would force me to not think about how this is such a pointless universe.
i'm also a bit of a hyphochondriac and have always felt pretty sure that i'm either going to die within a few years of either cancer or a bad accident. i think my little sister is pretty tired of hearing me say "katie if something happens to me..." blah blah blah. i'll be amazed if i ever turn 60.
my friend ryan was talking about going on a road trip with my friend jimmy. i said we should all hitchhike across the country. i'm 34 and i want to hitchhike across the country, sleep in ditches and hang out with bums, with 2 25 year olds. pretty juvenile i guess.
anyone got some ideas on how i can stop procrastinating and bring some meaning and motivation to my life? for real? i don't mean bullshit like "just think about how wonderful it is to be alive! to have friends! just think about all the things you can still do! follow your dreams!" blah barf barf. i'm talking real advice, like methods, practices... cos the only solution i keep thinking about is how i wish i was an alcoholic/escapist type who was a lot more fun and crazy.
totally unrelated but very cool:
oh flipper!
I was watching an interview with Will Oldham on VBS.TV and he was joking about people having sex with dolphins, which sounds REALLY MESSED UP. But then I found this hilarious and bizarre blogpost.
Labor Day rolls around again.
my friends bought some property in the mountains without looking at it first. yesterday we drove out to look around and found that it's on a pretty steep hill, but might be buildable. i suggested being really open-minded about housing options, because it looks like she might be building atop a very large fir and cedar root system. it was fun to get out into the mountains for a day. last night i checked out some fun bands at Chop Suey on Capitol Hill. Stereo Total was very entertaining.
The Globe
I had coffee and a doughnut at a place on Cap. Hill called The Globe, that serves almost all organic & vegan dishes. I must have been extremely hormonal or moody because I almost started crying when I sat down. My friend goes there often, as do all his friends. But I walked in and the place screamed coolfuckinhipsterhangouthippieswithtatsandpiercings etc etc. I liked Seattle better when the punks and skaters were actually dirty and ugly, and not having to TRY to look dirty and ugly. And of course nobody wants to look too ugly so these people have their hair messed up, and their clothes looking just dumb enough to still be cool. I don't have the energy to put these outfits together, or tend to that many piercings. Capitol Hill is so much a "scene" now. They could do a movie like LA Story here - same movie, just different subculture. I don't know - maybe I'm only annoyed by it because I'm not an artist like my friend. Years ago I brought up the notion and it seemed as though he genuinely didn't think this stuff was noticeable enough to be worth mentioning. It kinda reminds me of when I was living in Seattle during the bush/Kerry election. I was surrounded by Kerry supporters and was sure that he was going to win because everyone in my immediate world felt the same as I. The nice thing is that neither my friend nor his immediate friends do stupid things like wear cute hats or put stuff in their hair just to make it look messy. They all dress pretty functional. So I'm thinking about this stuff and wishing a dozen of my sailor friends would walk in at any moment, like Jesse or Krunch, dirty sailors who don't give a shit about what anyone else thinks because ultimately they know that love and friendship and really getting out there and living are what really matter in this world. While I'm wistful and uncomfortable and waaaay overanalyzing my situation, my friend says "yeah...the hippies have taken over a little, but i just really like the food here." and yeah, the coffee was excellent. as were the tofu scrambled eggs.
The Littlest Carver Leaves the Ever-Broken Nest
I just had dinner with my little sister. She's going off to college in 3 days. It's so nuts to watch a child become an adult. To have known her from birth, and all that great stuff. I feel pretty lucky to be close to her, even though I've lived far away for so much of her childhood. I don't know why I can't help but cry at things like her graduation, and today, seeing her before she moves away from Seattle for the first time. I guess there's just very few people whom I have felt so bonded with for as many years. Thank goodness that about 8 years ago I began making friends that I will probably be close with for the rest of my life.
Flush Twice!
Put this on your list of movies to watch: King of Kong - A Fistful of Quarters.
If you read a review and think the content might not really interest you (in other words, you might not be into video games), disregard that and watch it anyway. It's great. I watched it last night at the Varsity in the UDistrict, where the director, Seth Gordon, introduced it and answered questions at the end. Really great footage, editing, story.. and very very low budget. Great characters.
I'm living in Georgetown now - a neighborhood just south of Seattle. I guess you can call it a neighborhood. It's kind of a cool little secret; largely uninhabited, in a wasteland/industrial zone within a major metropolitan city. I found a bumper sticker that really captured the theme of the place. It was made when the city was trying to put a new town dump here. There's all the symbols that make up the soul of Georgetown: an airplane, a semi truck, the mudflap girl, and related stuff. It says "Flush Twice! It's a long way to Georgetown." All i know is that the one tiny grocery store here is all japanese stuff and they sell MOCHI ICE CREAM!!!!
If you read a review and think the content might not really interest you (in other words, you might not be into video games), disregard that and watch it anyway. It's great. I watched it last night at the Varsity in the UDistrict, where the director, Seth Gordon, introduced it and answered questions at the end. Really great footage, editing, story.. and very very low budget. Great characters.
I'm living in Georgetown now - a neighborhood just south of Seattle. I guess you can call it a neighborhood. It's kind of a cool little secret; largely uninhabited, in a wasteland/industrial zone within a major metropolitan city. I found a bumper sticker that really captured the theme of the place. It was made when the city was trying to put a new town dump here. There's all the symbols that make up the soul of Georgetown: an airplane, a semi truck, the mudflap girl, and related stuff. It says "Flush Twice! It's a long way to Georgetown." All i know is that the one tiny grocery store here is all japanese stuff and they sell MOCHI ICE CREAM!!!!
Vikings in the Caribbean!!!
There's a few things I haven't done since returning, that I really want to do, like hang out over at Adrian's, and have some beers with Eric and Cass... but I'm thinking I'll have plenty of time for that over the next 2 weeks. I'm working for the big Seattle music festival, Bumbershoot, this weekend and Labor Day Weekend, and then after that I really need regular work. Money's running out.
It doesn't help that I poured over $70 into Nanette's gas tank this past weekend. And like the terrible granddaughter I am, I didn't even use her car to go see Gram. Instead I drove all over town, helping the Lady Washington provision at Whole Foods, and even going out to Snoqualmie Falls to hike down to the bottom and take a nap there. It was wonderful to get out of town, into REAL mountains, though. I have missed mountains lately. Um let's see I also went out for dinner at Cedar's, where the chai is bottomless and 2nd only in taste to the chai that Alan Kerstetter made from scratch on a camp stove underneath a dock in oldtown Sacramento. I went for a sail aboard Hawaiian Chieftain on friday night, hanging out with the wonderful and talented Rob, Rosie, Preston, Nick and the rest of the crew, including Crystal G., whom before friday I'd only known via the internet. In fact between both boats I met several crew whom I'd only seen online. Most importantly I finally met the man who donates the most to Jack Tar - Mr. Joe Bartlett. Last night I visted the Lady in Shilshole before she took off across the sound so I could meet Joe. He's such a great guy; he even set up a wifi antenna so that the boats could access internet via Clearwire. Half those kids have laptops. Then I heard that Jonathan T. was motoring over to brief the captains on the Brownsville event, so I stuck around in order to give JT a big hug. I haven't even talked with JT on the phone in ages. JT convinced me to sail across today with Lady.
I've only hung out with these crews a handful of hours over the last week, but I already love them. Today was a longer than necessary transit, but ending with JB docking the brig under sail with confidence and ease. I think what makes a typical Lady crew so endearing to me is that everyone is so ragtag and goofy most of the time, then when sail is being called and work is being done they jump to with enthusiasm. They all straggled into breakfast and lazed around until Elf told them what needed to be done, at which point everyone jumped up to work. And it's not like Elf has this commanding tone or even motivating way of communicating. He just said uh ok this is what needs to happen now... and they were on it. By the end of the day I'd sung a few chanties with the crew, helped drive the boat, had a few heart-to-hearts with crew I had instantly bonded with - listening to some of their personal troubles or how they ended up there, and some funny moments, like anything involving the hilarious new purser, Josh (or is it Andy?), from PT. At breakfast he proposed that if mice ever became a problem on board, they should get mongoose to eat the mice, then to get rid of the mongoose, they'd have to bring in cobras, at which point we could pitch a new movie involving mutherfucking snakes on a mutherfucking tall boat. Later on we were discussing pirates and Josh proposed telling children that actually we were vikings, not pirates, which led to another movie idea - Vikings in the Caribbean. Imagine Leif and Thor wondering why it's so freakin hot, and where the hell are they, and might Michael Bay want to produce this? Ok maybe you had to be there, but Josh is definitely one of the funniest guys on board right now. I met Liz, a 16 year old farmgirl from Westport who was finally allowed to go to sea because she fried the engine on the family tractor. This girl takes care of her brothers and sisters upon waking up and then after sitting on the tractor for 15 hours a day she puts them to bed! The Lady is definitely a vacation for her. Molly is a great steward, Matt Gempler is excellent at calling sail, and I learned that the entire Gempler clan is pulling up their roots in Boise, selling everything, and moving to PT to build a brig! This year, no less. My other favorite crewmembers were Boy Genius, Patricia, Cassie, Tiny, and Esther's little rockstar sailor sister. It was a lot of fun to spend time with all of them.
In Brownsville the Suquamish gave us all beads, I got to see JT's family and new boat, and his mother in law "Honey" gave me a ride to the ferry, where they were picking up Hal Day. At my prompting Honey told me the story of how she and her boyfriend Wayne (also in the car - they're both in their early 60's I think) met and fell in love. They're getting married this fall. Then there was a long peaceful sunset ferry ride back to Seattle. To top it off, a barista gave me an extra piece of cake AND I got to listen to young east Indian girls singing softly during the bus ride from the ferry to home. So yeah, it was a pretty great day.
It doesn't help that I poured over $70 into Nanette's gas tank this past weekend. And like the terrible granddaughter I am, I didn't even use her car to go see Gram. Instead I drove all over town, helping the Lady Washington provision at Whole Foods, and even going out to Snoqualmie Falls to hike down to the bottom and take a nap there. It was wonderful to get out of town, into REAL mountains, though. I have missed mountains lately. Um let's see I also went out for dinner at Cedar's, where the chai is bottomless and 2nd only in taste to the chai that Alan Kerstetter made from scratch on a camp stove underneath a dock in oldtown Sacramento. I went for a sail aboard Hawaiian Chieftain on friday night, hanging out with the wonderful and talented Rob, Rosie, Preston, Nick and the rest of the crew, including Crystal G., whom before friday I'd only known via the internet. In fact between both boats I met several crew whom I'd only seen online. Most importantly I finally met the man who donates the most to Jack Tar - Mr. Joe Bartlett. Last night I visted the Lady in Shilshole before she took off across the sound so I could meet Joe. He's such a great guy; he even set up a wifi antenna so that the boats could access internet via Clearwire. Half those kids have laptops. Then I heard that Jonathan T. was motoring over to brief the captains on the Brownsville event, so I stuck around in order to give JT a big hug. I haven't even talked with JT on the phone in ages. JT convinced me to sail across today with Lady.
I've only hung out with these crews a handful of hours over the last week, but I already love them. Today was a longer than necessary transit, but ending with JB docking the brig under sail with confidence and ease. I think what makes a typical Lady crew so endearing to me is that everyone is so ragtag and goofy most of the time, then when sail is being called and work is being done they jump to with enthusiasm. They all straggled into breakfast and lazed around until Elf told them what needed to be done, at which point everyone jumped up to work. And it's not like Elf has this commanding tone or even motivating way of communicating. He just said uh ok this is what needs to happen now... and they were on it. By the end of the day I'd sung a few chanties with the crew, helped drive the boat, had a few heart-to-hearts with crew I had instantly bonded with - listening to some of their personal troubles or how they ended up there, and some funny moments, like anything involving the hilarious new purser, Josh (or is it Andy?), from PT. At breakfast he proposed that if mice ever became a problem on board, they should get mongoose to eat the mice, then to get rid of the mongoose, they'd have to bring in cobras, at which point we could pitch a new movie involving mutherfucking snakes on a mutherfucking tall boat. Later on we were discussing pirates and Josh proposed telling children that actually we were vikings, not pirates, which led to another movie idea - Vikings in the Caribbean. Imagine Leif and Thor wondering why it's so freakin hot, and where the hell are they, and might Michael Bay want to produce this? Ok maybe you had to be there, but Josh is definitely one of the funniest guys on board right now. I met Liz, a 16 year old farmgirl from Westport who was finally allowed to go to sea because she fried the engine on the family tractor. This girl takes care of her brothers and sisters upon waking up and then after sitting on the tractor for 15 hours a day she puts them to bed! The Lady is definitely a vacation for her. Molly is a great steward, Matt Gempler is excellent at calling sail, and I learned that the entire Gempler clan is pulling up their roots in Boise, selling everything, and moving to PT to build a brig! This year, no less. My other favorite crewmembers were Boy Genius, Patricia, Cassie, Tiny, and Esther's little rockstar sailor sister. It was a lot of fun to spend time with all of them.
In Brownsville the Suquamish gave us all beads, I got to see JT's family and new boat, and his mother in law "Honey" gave me a ride to the ferry, where they were picking up Hal Day. At my prompting Honey told me the story of how she and her boyfriend Wayne (also in the car - they're both in their early 60's I think) met and fell in love. They're getting married this fall. Then there was a long peaceful sunset ferry ride back to Seattle. To top it off, a barista gave me an extra piece of cake AND I got to listen to young east Indian girls singing softly during the bus ride from the ferry to home. So yeah, it was a pretty great day.
Say Goodbye to Michigan
Goodbye Detroit! Goodbye Grand Rapids! Goodbye Lake Michigan! Goodbye Traverse City! Goodbye Chicago! ok that's not part of michigan but it's damn close geographically.
the seattle summer already feels 50% less humid than the midwest. i wore pants and shoes! with socks! today and felt fine. detroit was ho-hum, but my time with polly was great. she was disappointed that i wasn't having more fun. she always wants the best for me. i think what we do best is talk about stuff, and watch movies. we kill time together well. last friday night in detroit included AMAZING food at a restaurant in greektown (downtown detroit) called Pegasus. amazing, amazing greek food. i could have died from overeating if i'd had more money, time and appetite. it was that good. and the waiter kept looking down my shirt which for once i actually thought was flattering (?). after Pegasus we wanted to go into a hip hop club where everyone was looking like they were having a blast, but we would have been the only white people in the entire place, and the guys standing outside looked pretty hardcore in their scene. so we settled for the shittiest of all irish pubs i've been to so far (about 2 dozen i'd guess), called Shilleghlaghs where the band was OK but the drinks were way overpriced and the crowd was beyond irritating. polly kept asking me to taste her vodka tonic to see if i could taste any alcohol. frat daddies and their girls sang along to what seemed to be their favorite song: drunken sailor. with every "hey hey and up she rises" they would all slowly rise from their seats and raise their hands in the air. i asked the band to play wild rover but the guy next to me gave them a wad of cash to play his request, so my request was quickly forgotten. It seems that the favorite tradition in this bar is to bang things on the table. Here's a review I found:
"So the band plays another song, and you find it's time to buy another pitcher. People around you begin to chant with the band, and they start to stomp their feet. And they start to bang their hands on the table...and you watch your beer slosh dangerously. And they start to bang the ash trays on the table. And they start to bang their empty beer bottles on the table (not you, you're drinking a from a pitcher, remember). Not wanting to commit the ultimate sin of alcohol abuse in an Irish bar, you pick up your drink so it won't spill and wave it around in the air. By now, your second pitcher is obviously empty...so you bang THAT on the table. The next thing you know, you find yourself being coerced by those same dang Irishmen singing a song that goes something like this:
Dos, a beer, a Mexican beer
Ray, a guy who buys me beer
Me, the guy, Ray buys beer for
Far, a long way to the bar
So, I need another beer
La, la la la lots of beer
Tea, hell no I want a beer
and that will bring us back to Dos!"
That song was fun to watch, but then came an intermission. The crowd provides it's own entertainment during the band's break. Each long table has a number, and with the help of one especially drunk ringleader at each table, they scream out a little rhyme about how Table Number 4 is the Best, or some shit like that. Then the table next to us, slamming empty pitchers and pint glasses, yells out "TABLE 4 SUCKS! TABLE 4 SUCKS!" followed by some crap like "TABLE 2 IS BETTER THAN YOU" over and over and over again, back and forth between the tables. The band had a 25 minute break. 15 minutes into it we took off. I think i was one of 3 people in the bar over the age of 29.
I didn't see the post-apocalyptic landscape that I'd heard existed in Detroit, but I did see a higher percentage of perfectly restored classic cars. 68 mustangs in cherry condition with those special rims that keep turning, pearlescent paint jobs on 67 chevys, restored cadillacs... i don't think it was one of those drivers that pulled a hit and run on polly's parked subaru, but someone did, and that kinda sucked.
The next night there was a big bbq at the home of a couple whom Polly and her boyfriend Pat went to Michigan State with. there must have been at least 25 people there. some of them i met and they were very nice, but i was tired and missing my TC friends and simply not wanting to talk anymore about my travels and what i do. when you tell someone you work on tall ships, they ask you a million questions. i've been answering the same line of questioning an average of 10 times per day for months. Sonja, being in maritime and dealing with the same reactions, wanted to come up with answers that would in no way invite further questioning. we got a slightly different reaction when we tried it out on a drunk guy in bar in TC last week. Sonja's sister Kirsten was with us, along with Jen. the guy asks what we do. I say "she cuts hair at jcpenney, she sells shoes at sears... she doesn't work, and i'm a night shift supervisor at mcdonalds." but our facial expressions betrayed us. What do you really do? he asks. "ok ok. Sonja's a diesel engineer, Kirsten's a cop in south chicago, i'm a sailor, and jen is an anticapitalist."
he didn't believe that either.
anyway... besides one last sail in TC and a visit to the awesomely famous (and expensive) deli in Ann Arbor, MI, known as Zingermans, and trying on a million shoes at the mall without buying any (polly bought 3 pairs!), that was my last week in michigan. yesterday i took the train to chicago and lugged 3 bags across town to the blue line, which took me all the way to o'hare. i spent 4 hours on a flight between an alcholic with tremors (i thought he had parkinsons until he ordered a few double bourbons) and a lady who lovingly savored 10 chicken mcnuggets in bbq sauce over the span of the first hour. i think she licked her fingers clean after every 2 mcnuggets. waste not! upon arriving in seattle i hopped a bus to my new place but managed to disembark 2 miles short of my destination. yay me! i may have lost a pound yesterday but i felt sure i was 2 inches shorter.
the couple i'm living with are very sweet, cool artistic types and i have a big room. today i took the bus to lake union to hang out with JB, elf, rob, nick, rosemary, matt gempler, and a bunch of more unfamiliar faces, before meeting up with my sister for a meal at lockspot and cupcakes at cupcake royale while looking at her europe pictures.
i dropped off some mags at Captain's, and rec'd an overwhelming response of support from one of their employees. she gave me a lot of advice regarding getting my zine out there, offered to give me some space at pacific marine expo, and showed me a thick zine being published out of portland, free for women in commercial fishing, called Xtra Tuf but a few bucks for everyone else. Microcosm Publishing. Maybe i should contact them...
the seattle summer already feels 50% less humid than the midwest. i wore pants and shoes! with socks! today and felt fine. detroit was ho-hum, but my time with polly was great. she was disappointed that i wasn't having more fun. she always wants the best for me. i think what we do best is talk about stuff, and watch movies. we kill time together well. last friday night in detroit included AMAZING food at a restaurant in greektown (downtown detroit) called Pegasus. amazing, amazing greek food. i could have died from overeating if i'd had more money, time and appetite. it was that good. and the waiter kept looking down my shirt which for once i actually thought was flattering (?). after Pegasus we wanted to go into a hip hop club where everyone was looking like they were having a blast, but we would have been the only white people in the entire place, and the guys standing outside looked pretty hardcore in their scene. so we settled for the shittiest of all irish pubs i've been to so far (about 2 dozen i'd guess), called Shilleghlaghs where the band was OK but the drinks were way overpriced and the crowd was beyond irritating. polly kept asking me to taste her vodka tonic to see if i could taste any alcohol. frat daddies and their girls sang along to what seemed to be their favorite song: drunken sailor. with every "hey hey and up she rises" they would all slowly rise from their seats and raise their hands in the air. i asked the band to play wild rover but the guy next to me gave them a wad of cash to play his request, so my request was quickly forgotten. It seems that the favorite tradition in this bar is to bang things on the table. Here's a review I found:
"So the band plays another song, and you find it's time to buy another pitcher. People around you begin to chant with the band, and they start to stomp their feet. And they start to bang their hands on the table...and you watch your beer slosh dangerously. And they start to bang the ash trays on the table. And they start to bang their empty beer bottles on the table (not you, you're drinking a from a pitcher, remember). Not wanting to commit the ultimate sin of alcohol abuse in an Irish bar, you pick up your drink so it won't spill and wave it around in the air. By now, your second pitcher is obviously empty...so you bang THAT on the table. The next thing you know, you find yourself being coerced by those same dang Irishmen singing a song that goes something like this:
Dos, a beer, a Mexican beer
Ray, a guy who buys me beer
Me, the guy, Ray buys beer for
Far, a long way to the bar
So, I need another beer
La, la la la lots of beer
Tea, hell no I want a beer
and that will bring us back to Dos!"
That song was fun to watch, but then came an intermission. The crowd provides it's own entertainment during the band's break. Each long table has a number, and with the help of one especially drunk ringleader at each table, they scream out a little rhyme about how Table Number 4 is the Best, or some shit like that. Then the table next to us, slamming empty pitchers and pint glasses, yells out "TABLE 4 SUCKS! TABLE 4 SUCKS!" followed by some crap like "TABLE 2 IS BETTER THAN YOU" over and over and over again, back and forth between the tables. The band had a 25 minute break. 15 minutes into it we took off. I think i was one of 3 people in the bar over the age of 29.
I didn't see the post-apocalyptic landscape that I'd heard existed in Detroit, but I did see a higher percentage of perfectly restored classic cars. 68 mustangs in cherry condition with those special rims that keep turning, pearlescent paint jobs on 67 chevys, restored cadillacs... i don't think it was one of those drivers that pulled a hit and run on polly's parked subaru, but someone did, and that kinda sucked.
The next night there was a big bbq at the home of a couple whom Polly and her boyfriend Pat went to Michigan State with. there must have been at least 25 people there. some of them i met and they were very nice, but i was tired and missing my TC friends and simply not wanting to talk anymore about my travels and what i do. when you tell someone you work on tall ships, they ask you a million questions. i've been answering the same line of questioning an average of 10 times per day for months. Sonja, being in maritime and dealing with the same reactions, wanted to come up with answers that would in no way invite further questioning. we got a slightly different reaction when we tried it out on a drunk guy in bar in TC last week. Sonja's sister Kirsten was with us, along with Jen. the guy asks what we do. I say "she cuts hair at jcpenney, she sells shoes at sears... she doesn't work, and i'm a night shift supervisor at mcdonalds." but our facial expressions betrayed us. What do you really do? he asks. "ok ok. Sonja's a diesel engineer, Kirsten's a cop in south chicago, i'm a sailor, and jen is an anticapitalist."
he didn't believe that either.
anyway... besides one last sail in TC and a visit to the awesomely famous (and expensive) deli in Ann Arbor, MI, known as Zingermans, and trying on a million shoes at the mall without buying any (polly bought 3 pairs!), that was my last week in michigan. yesterday i took the train to chicago and lugged 3 bags across town to the blue line, which took me all the way to o'hare. i spent 4 hours on a flight between an alcholic with tremors (i thought he had parkinsons until he ordered a few double bourbons) and a lady who lovingly savored 10 chicken mcnuggets in bbq sauce over the span of the first hour. i think she licked her fingers clean after every 2 mcnuggets. waste not! upon arriving in seattle i hopped a bus to my new place but managed to disembark 2 miles short of my destination. yay me! i may have lost a pound yesterday but i felt sure i was 2 inches shorter.
the couple i'm living with are very sweet, cool artistic types and i have a big room. today i took the bus to lake union to hang out with JB, elf, rob, nick, rosemary, matt gempler, and a bunch of more unfamiliar faces, before meeting up with my sister for a meal at lockspot and cupcakes at cupcake royale while looking at her europe pictures.
i dropped off some mags at Captain's, and rec'd an overwhelming response of support from one of their employees. she gave me a lot of advice regarding getting my zine out there, offered to give me some space at pacific marine expo, and showed me a thick zine being published out of portland, free for women in commercial fishing, called Xtra Tuf but a few bucks for everyone else. Microcosm Publishing. Maybe i should contact them...
My Last Weekend in TC
My time in michigan is almost up and i'm making the most of what little is left. Last weekend was a lot of fun. Friday morning I had breakfast with Sonja's aunt Mavis and uncle Ron, 
before heading over to the Opera House to meet Polly for a panel discussion on documentaries. 
The picture shows, from left to right, Dan Gould and Judith Halvern (Blue Vinyl), Chris Henegis and DA Pennebaker (Don't Look Back, Gimme Shelter and many many more), Brett-something (The Kid Stays in the Picture), Jack Lawrence (An American Soldier), and of course Michael Moore. My friends from S/V INLAND SEAS saved us some spots and we listened to the panelists talk about how they got into documentaries and how to better get them accepted into film festivals.
Shortly after that we headed over to the State Theater; the only theater downtown and is hasn't been used to show movies for a long time, because it's old fashioned and not up to code. Firemen were hired to stand by during the film fest, but Michael Moore is remodeling and reopening the State in November to bring indie flicks to the people of Traverse City. He introduced the movie Slaughterhouse Five, explaining how much Vonnegut changed his life and inspired him, and that he was able to spend several days at his house during the last year of his life. The movie, from the 70's I think, is awesome. It gets a little loopy in the end, but all in all it's great. All I can say is Billy Pilgrim reminds me SO MUCH of the Manitou's current first mate!!!! Holy cow.
After the movie, Justin called and said that he and Rob wanted to go sailing, but it'd be a lot more fun if there were some girls on the boat, so I convinced Polly to take a ride on Salome. We sailed around Power Island and got pretty trashed - by the end of the sail Polly was dancing a little on the stern, holding onto the backstay. We eventually ended up at Justin's and Pat met us there. I passed out before the burgers were done.
Pat and Polly went to "DuneGrass" festival the next day and I went sailing again with Rob, Justin and Sonja. This time we anchored off of Power Island and went for a swim. Plenty more happened that night but it was all a bit on the "R" rated side as far as public nudity goes... let's just say that a dinghy ride through the center of town, climbing trees in our underwear and falling into the Boardman river... yeah...we're lucky we didn't get arrested.
The next day I woke up and met up with Justin and Sonja for breakfast at Mabel's... and we didn't have energy for much else. For days now I've been wondering why I feel so bloated and fat, then I realized that I probably haven't drank beer on a regular basis like this since I lived in Germany back in '91. I gained 20 pounds that summer. I think I'm going to lay off for a while. I feel gross.
There's going to be a huge party Wednesday night because Justin and Sonja are finally done with chemistry class, and it's my last night here. Next weekend I'm going to Detroit with Polly, and I'm really looking forward to that.
ps check the last post too cos i added pics!
before heading over to the Opera House to meet Polly for a panel discussion on documentaries. The picture shows, from left to right, Dan Gould and Judith Halvern (Blue Vinyl), Chris Henegis and DA Pennebaker (Don't Look Back, Gimme Shelter and many many more), Brett-something (The Kid Stays in the Picture), Jack Lawrence (An American Soldier), and of course Michael Moore. My friends from S/V INLAND SEAS saved us some spots and we listened to the panelists talk about how they got into documentaries and how to better get them accepted into film festivals. Shortly after that we headed over to the State Theater; the only theater downtown and is hasn't been used to show movies for a long time, because it's old fashioned and not up to code. Firemen were hired to stand by during the film fest, but Michael Moore is remodeling and reopening the State in November to bring indie flicks to the people of Traverse City. He introduced the movie Slaughterhouse Five, explaining how much Vonnegut changed his life and inspired him, and that he was able to spend several days at his house during the last year of his life. The movie, from the 70's I think, is awesome. It gets a little loopy in the end, but all in all it's great. All I can say is Billy Pilgrim reminds me SO MUCH of the Manitou's current first mate!!!! Holy cow.
After the movie, Justin called and said that he and Rob wanted to go sailing, but it'd be a lot more fun if there were some girls on the boat, so I convinced Polly to take a ride on Salome. We sailed around Power Island and got pretty trashed - by the end of the sail Polly was dancing a little on the stern, holding onto the backstay. We eventually ended up at Justin's and Pat met us there. I passed out before the burgers were done.
Pat and Polly went to "DuneGrass" festival the next day and I went sailing again with Rob, Justin and Sonja. This time we anchored off of Power Island and went for a swim. Plenty more happened that night but it was all a bit on the "R" rated side as far as public nudity goes... let's just say that a dinghy ride through the center of town, climbing trees in our underwear and falling into the Boardman river... yeah...we're lucky we didn't get arrested.
The next day I woke up and met up with Justin and Sonja for breakfast at Mabel's... and we didn't have energy for much else. For days now I've been wondering why I feel so bloated and fat, then I realized that I probably haven't drank beer on a regular basis like this since I lived in Germany back in '91. I gained 20 pounds that summer. I think I'm going to lay off for a while. I feel gross.
There's going to be a huge party Wednesday night because Justin and Sonja are finally done with chemistry class, and it's my last night here. Next weekend I'm going to Detroit with Polly, and I'm really looking forward to that.
ps check the last post too cos i added pics!
my kind of town (updated with pictures!)
this weekend i took a trip with a friend to chicago.
my friend sonja goes to the maritime academy in traverse city. she's from chicago, and used to work for Mercury Tours there, as the youngest captain on the river. she drove tour boats for 6 years in chicago, and in fact one of her trips made national headlines when she went under a bridge grating and got shat on when dave matthews' tour bus emptied their blackwater unexpectedly. more importantly, she knows all the maritime folks down in chi town, and tonight i ended up meeting about half of them too.
so we're spending a weekend at sonja's sister's house in the south side of chicago.![IMG_1124[1]](http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1401/1034176215_4ae9feaf0b.jpg)
her sister works as a graveyard shift cop on the streets in this neighborhood. she's a really cool, pretty 29 year old woman. not at all what i'd imagined when it comes to a typical cop on the south side of chicago. but yeah, she's tough too. their whole family is made up of cops and boat folks, although her parents are pretty white collar. they don't act like it though. they let me walk into their house from the pool without drying off. hard to find folks like that these days.
we took the train to downtown chicago tonight
and met up with sonja's twin brothers eric and nels (think drew little times two). 
nels drives tour boats downtown now. we went to bacino's for the finest chicago-style deep dish pizza, then we walked along the river to navy pier. navy pier is kinda like santa monica pier (am i remembering correctly? i think it was santa monica) or kinda like baltimore's inner harbor. lots of tour boats line the pier, and several crew came up to greet sonja when they saw her. we walked down to check out the big "traditional" schooner Windy and barquentine Windy II. 
Windy was just pulling in - not the prettiest boat around, and the roller furling jib and staysl's weren't too impressive. I watched the crew get the tourists off and start wrapping up the deckwork and noticed that just one of them had a salty looking rig hanging off his belt, so I approached him and asked him if he'd worked on other boats. His name was Saul Lipton - a really nice guy. He'd crewed aboard Exy, Lady Washington, and hoped to crew aboard Lynx next year. I then pulled out a few copies of my mag for him and his crew, and he said "You put out that magazine?! I read it on Exy!" which made me very happy to hear. I gave him some copies of the new issue, and he told me his favorite piece in the first issue was by the I Don't Sail, I Yacht yachtsmen. I think he added a slight crotch thrust with that exclamation... he's not the only one who loves that piece...
So Saul gave me the quick tour of Windy. Her focsl is very much like Lady's, but the main belowdecks area is full of staterooms with a hallway similar to any cruise ship. And the galley looks like a plain kitchen you might find in a medium sized apartment. Nothing too romantic about Windy. Mostly a working tourboat. It was great meeting Saul, though.
Windy II was pretty much the same, so we headed on down the pier, and the captain aboard one of the tour boats recognized Sonja and invited us out for a 1/2 hour cruise. It was a foggy night and I took pictures of the Chicago skyline from out on the harbor.
after the sail we watched a rockin live salsa band and dance party happening on the pier, then walked back along the river to one of her brother's cars. eric drove us to where nels works nights aboard a tender, shuttling people to and from an immense mooring field right next to downtown. eleven hundred mooring balls! one of the other tenders pulled in, and the driver claudia hopped out, giving sonja a hug and nels a kiss on the cheek before running into the harbor tender office and grabbing us a few cans of beer. we all hopped in the tender and took a drunk couple having a marital dispute out to their beneteau. after that we sidled up next to a tug and barge next to the far jetty, where sonja and nels' uncle bob was crewing and maintaining a watch over the barge full of fireworks (something called venetian festival happens this weekend). bob left his other crew aboard and hopped aboard our tender and we went out to claudia's new ranger tug for some margaritas. along the way we spotted a beautiful little classic schooner named allegro. on the way back we picked up some rich kids off a yacht and made them give us ice for our margaritas. back at the dock we waited out our time before the last train out of town was to arrive, with claudia and uncle bobby. then we took the 12:45 train ride back to the south side.
sonja decided to give the loopy gargoyle-like hairless cats CATNIP and rubberbands to play with at 2 am, before we were to go to bed.
i made her lock the cats in the bedroom with her.
on our last day down there we went attended PIEROGI FEST in whiting, indiana:
![IMG_1127[1]](http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1428/1034176247_6a8dfdbf56.jpg)
![IMG_1129[1]](http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1193/1034176189_67d16ddcb3.jpg)
my friend sonja goes to the maritime academy in traverse city. she's from chicago, and used to work for Mercury Tours there, as the youngest captain on the river. she drove tour boats for 6 years in chicago, and in fact one of her trips made national headlines when she went under a bridge grating and got shat on when dave matthews' tour bus emptied their blackwater unexpectedly. more importantly, she knows all the maritime folks down in chi town, and tonight i ended up meeting about half of them too.
so we're spending a weekend at sonja's sister's house in the south side of chicago.
her sister works as a graveyard shift cop on the streets in this neighborhood. she's a really cool, pretty 29 year old woman. not at all what i'd imagined when it comes to a typical cop on the south side of chicago. but yeah, she's tough too. their whole family is made up of cops and boat folks, although her parents are pretty white collar. they don't act like it though. they let me walk into their house from the pool without drying off. hard to find folks like that these days.we took the train to downtown chicago tonight
and met up with sonja's twin brothers eric and nels (think drew little times two). nels drives tour boats downtown now. we went to bacino's for the finest chicago-style deep dish pizza, then we walked along the river to navy pier. navy pier is kinda like santa monica pier (am i remembering correctly? i think it was santa monica) or kinda like baltimore's inner harbor. lots of tour boats line the pier, and several crew came up to greet sonja when they saw her. we walked down to check out the big "traditional" schooner Windy and barquentine Windy II. Windy was just pulling in - not the prettiest boat around, and the roller furling jib and staysl's weren't too impressive. I watched the crew get the tourists off and start wrapping up the deckwork and noticed that just one of them had a salty looking rig hanging off his belt, so I approached him and asked him if he'd worked on other boats. His name was Saul Lipton - a really nice guy. He'd crewed aboard Exy, Lady Washington, and hoped to crew aboard Lynx next year. I then pulled out a few copies of my mag for him and his crew, and he said "You put out that magazine?! I read it on Exy!" which made me very happy to hear. I gave him some copies of the new issue, and he told me his favorite piece in the first issue was by the I Don't Sail, I Yacht yachtsmen. I think he added a slight crotch thrust with that exclamation... he's not the only one who loves that piece...So Saul gave me the quick tour of Windy. Her focsl is very much like Lady's, but the main belowdecks area is full of staterooms with a hallway similar to any cruise ship. And the galley looks like a plain kitchen you might find in a medium sized apartment. Nothing too romantic about Windy. Mostly a working tourboat. It was great meeting Saul, though.
Windy II was pretty much the same, so we headed on down the pier, and the captain aboard one of the tour boats recognized Sonja and invited us out for a 1/2 hour cruise. It was a foggy night and I took pictures of the Chicago skyline from out on the harbor.
after the sail we watched a rockin live salsa band and dance party happening on the pier, then walked back along the river to one of her brother's cars. eric drove us to where nels works nights aboard a tender, shuttling people to and from an immense mooring field right next to downtown. eleven hundred mooring balls! one of the other tenders pulled in, and the driver claudia hopped out, giving sonja a hug and nels a kiss on the cheek before running into the harbor tender office and grabbing us a few cans of beer. we all hopped in the tender and took a drunk couple having a marital dispute out to their beneteau. after that we sidled up next to a tug and barge next to the far jetty, where sonja and nels' uncle bob was crewing and maintaining a watch over the barge full of fireworks (something called venetian festival happens this weekend). bob left his other crew aboard and hopped aboard our tender and we went out to claudia's new ranger tug for some margaritas. along the way we spotted a beautiful little classic schooner named allegro. on the way back we picked up some rich kids off a yacht and made them give us ice for our margaritas. back at the dock we waited out our time before the last train out of town was to arrive, with claudia and uncle bobby. then we took the 12:45 train ride back to the south side.
sonja decided to give the loopy gargoyle-like hairless cats CATNIP and rubberbands to play with at 2 am, before we were to go to bed.
i made her lock the cats in the bedroom with her.
on our last day down there we went attended PIEROGI FEST in whiting, indiana:
time for a break
Had some great days of sailing over the last week. On Sunday a bunch of lobbyists/legislators chartered Manitou and had some pretty badass catering from a place here called "The House." "The House" sent a dude with a mohawk and a sweet longhair punk boy with a Decemberists shirt over to set up, then they ended up leaving us an insane amount of appetizers: steak on bruschetta, seared tuna and mango on rice crackers, tons of different cheeses and crackers, and literally a boatload of ganache covered strawberries which I gorged myself on.
I've been supporting my hometown by drinking about 3 frappucinos per day, and now they don't even give me a boost. My tolerance to caffeine this week is scary. Maybe it'll just jack up my blood pressure instead?
Today a professional yacht racer who is also a lawyer for a boat manufacturer sailed with us today. Wes, Glen and I were all fascinated by him and his wife and really chatted them up. He's sailed in the Fastnet and Volvo's. Been around the world a few times. Wes said the dude was his new idol - a law degree from Duke and a hot wife who works as a "pit boss" with the spinnakers in the forepeak, even while pregnant. Wes has hooked up with a passenger who lives near Detroit, and they're already planning their holidays together. I know he'd like to convert her into a sailor.
I've been supporting my hometown by drinking about 3 frappucinos per day, and now they don't even give me a boost. My tolerance to caffeine this week is scary. Maybe it'll just jack up my blood pressure instead?
Today a professional yacht racer who is also a lawyer for a boat manufacturer sailed with us today. Wes, Glen and I were all fascinated by him and his wife and really chatted them up. He's sailed in the Fastnet and Volvo's. Been around the world a few times. Wes said the dude was his new idol - a law degree from Duke and a hot wife who works as a "pit boss" with the spinnakers in the forepeak, even while pregnant. Wes has hooked up with a passenger who lives near Detroit, and they're already planning their holidays together. I know he'd like to convert her into a sailor.
boat pron
sailing with sonja and justin
just started volunteering here on thursdays. 1750's era british armed sloop replica
traverse city as seen looking aft from main mast spreaders
things are looking up...
S.Dilley just showed up out of the blue and got me outta bed this morning. I guess there'll be some drinking tonight...
just started volunteering here on thursdays. 1750's era british armed sloop replica
traverse city as seen looking aft from main mast spreaders
things are looking up...
S.Dilley just showed up out of the blue and got me outta bed this morning. I guess there'll be some drinking tonight...
Welcome
Last night I checked out a Beatles tribute band at the Cherry Festival. It was early Beatles. A promise of late Beatles' music was made but never happened because a storm kicked up and the show ended. All the Fudgies ran for the beer tent, which meant lots of room to drink beer in the rain on the fairgrounds. After our beers we left to ride bikes to Bubbas, and I found that the ship's bike had been stolen. Considering our tips were stolen last weekend, I'm thinking Cherry Festival is not the time to be leaving things unattended. Bubbas was closed and we were all soaked as we pedaled to 7-11 for miller high lifes and I rode the back of Justin's Worksman bicycle. I crashed with Sonja and Joanne at the place they're staying. Always nice to sleep in a bed. Sonja happened to be selling her bike so I just bought that one to replace the ship's bike.
I spent this morning aboard the replica of the armed sloop Welcome here in Traverse City. The plan was to sail, but Captain Joe of Welcome, who is also our weekend Captain on Manitou, nixed the sailing because of the slightly high winds and the general green-ness of the rig and crew. Probably a good idea seeing as how the morning was spent rigging lifts and halyards (how had they planned to sail without THOSE?). I taught a few people how to properly belay a line to a pin. It's weird going to a boat where everyone is basically self-taught in the arts of a 1750's sailor. I suspected the last thing this group of mostly 60-something men would want would be a young woman in a skirt and leopard print sunglasses coming out and telling them how to do things on their boat, so I tried to keep quiet. Ah who am I kidding I got into an argument aloft with a cute Scot named Rory when he tried to tell me that technically no square riggers have halyards - that there's only jeers and lifts. Jeers are pretty much the same as halyards, but i'd never call these lifts halyards because they run at such a sharp chafing angle over the fighting top that at most they should be tended until the yard is all the way up. Anyway Rory and I ended up getting along well and talked about working on merchant ships and stuff like that...
Anyway the magazine has arrived! 300 copies and time for me to start addressing them!
I spent this morning aboard the replica of the armed sloop Welcome here in Traverse City. The plan was to sail, but Captain Joe of Welcome, who is also our weekend Captain on Manitou, nixed the sailing because of the slightly high winds and the general green-ness of the rig and crew. Probably a good idea seeing as how the morning was spent rigging lifts and halyards (how had they planned to sail without THOSE?). I taught a few people how to properly belay a line to a pin. It's weird going to a boat where everyone is basically self-taught in the arts of a 1750's sailor. I suspected the last thing this group of mostly 60-something men would want would be a young woman in a skirt and leopard print sunglasses coming out and telling them how to do things on their boat, so I tried to keep quiet. Ah who am I kidding I got into an argument aloft with a cute Scot named Rory when he tried to tell me that technically no square riggers have halyards - that there's only jeers and lifts. Jeers are pretty much the same as halyards, but i'd never call these lifts halyards because they run at such a sharp chafing angle over the fighting top that at most they should be tended until the yard is all the way up. Anyway Rory and I ended up getting along well and talked about working on merchant ships and stuff like that...
Anyway the magazine has arrived! 300 copies and time for me to start addressing them!
FREEEDOMMMM
when i think of freedom in america today, i think of the important security measures being taken when i try to board a plane. i think of the armed coasties forcing the entire crew towards the bow while the vessel is searched after a 20 mile voyage across the straits of juan de fuca from vancouver island. for all this i say thank you, america, and happy birthday. lots of your people voted for dubya and many of those folks were out on grand traverse bay waiting for a fireworks show tonight... listening to pop country and playing with fireworks on the bows of their motor yachts. motor yachts like "happy daze" and cigarette boats like "Donzi," with bikini clad midwesterners yelping and blowing air horns.
but before all that my fourth of july first found me in a luxurious king size bed at the apartment where my friend sonja is staying. we woke up to an eddie murphy tbs marathon and made rice-a-roni and microwave perogies for breakfast (she's apartment-sitting for a boat-trash bachelor who's at sea currently). we then joined justin for coffee and later on met up at the yacht club for a sail on his boat, Salome. we put in some good sailing hours, listening to music and drinking the champagne of beers along with some dark and stormies. at the end of our sail justin sailed Salome within 3 boat lengths of the buoyed off swim area near the beach, amongst all the Donzi's, chachis and Happy Dazed motorboats anchored there and we pulled off a sweet tack in front of a few thousand folks on shore. he then sailed onto his mooring, whereupon we set off in his dingy "Bubbas" with a bottle of chardonnay, a bottle of pineapple flavored rum, and a bag of chips ahoy cookies. OH OH OH but before we left Salome, which is moored about 1/4 mile offshore of the yacht club, a sweet little amphicar drove up and chatted with us!
we actually followed the amphibious 1967 restored classic car to the downtown beach. we watched fireworks while floating just off the beach, loudly singing Lee Greenwoods all time favorite "Proud to be an American" and the classic theme song to "Team America." After all this we motored back to Salome and watched a bright orange moon rise in the east.
i'm too tired so tilt your head
jen took me to northbar, and i pieced together a pic of it
we had a wedding onboard last saturday
we had a wedding onboard last saturday
