water, tips, bookstores, and coffee shops.

This entry is going to be rather scatter-brained, so please excuse me.

The bus ride home from work today proved to be quite lovely. My route goes right by Green Lake, a small body of water a couple miles from our house.  It is a walk I plan on making on the warmer days to come.  Every time I go by any area of the lake, I see people walking, jogging or just resting on the edge of one of the many docks that juts out toward the center. Water tends to make me feel very calm.  It gives me peace. Go Go H2O!

   Not Green Lake, but another beautiful body of water, Puget Sound

I wanted to mention something about the cultural differences between this city and my experience in the midwest regarding tips...as in the "you're so awesome!" people get to say by leaving any extra change/cash they happen to have to make your day super rad. Back home, I would be lucky to get one dollar to take home at the end of a 7 or 8 hour shift. One dollar. Which is really only 50 cents if I happened to be working with someone else and split it between us. But the other night during a closing shift I took home 24 dollars in tips (!!!). This has never happened to me before. And this was after splitting it in half, so if it had been just me in the store I would have gotten almost 50 bucks in one night. This is craziness. Craziness, I tell you! But it's such a non-issue here. So weird. Though awesome.

Had the most relaxing Thanksgiving yesterday. Just a lazy, lazy day. Being so thankful for my best friend and our mutual love for being a couple of couch-potatoes. Got to see some family via Skype which was a nice plus to a grateful day.

Today I received a small peace sign charm from this wonderful older gentleman named Ed who I met my first day at work. He's one of our regulars. He happens to have the same John Lennon tattoo as me, and because of this we are now best friends.  He works at the university's NPR office and told me about this new PBS documentary about John and Yoko's time in NYC.  He claims it's the best one yet, so I'm really excited to watch it. If you're a fan, go to pbs.org and it should be on their homepage.

I'm lucky enough to have a used bookstore (Twice Sold Tales) and coffee shop (Sure Shot) just a couple doors down from the Pit where I can spend lunch breaks and time before/after work. I am already completely in love with the coffee shop. It has made me want to paint the walls in our apartment dark red and only ever listen to Iron and Wine while I'm home. Plus they have local made chai and it is absolutely delicious. Probably the best ever. And I'm sorry but anytime there are cats in a bookstore I guarantee I will spend more time there than in a cat-less bookstore. Twice Sold Tales has two cats. Orange and grey. I am in love with them. Though this isn't very fair because the more time I spend somewhere the more likely I am to buy books. But I'll be getting my library card in the next couple days so that will be a helpful money saving tool.

Some random things I've learned so far...
People are weird no matter where you go, with the most unusual of all emerging at night. I find this comforting for some reason.
It's hard work to deliver food on a bicycle, especially up and down really steep hills. But I can do it!
Seattlites don't know how to handle snowy weather. It is endearing and humorous to watch.
You better not forget your bags for the grocery store because they will be disappointed in you.
It's difficult for me to write a short blog, even when I feel like I don't have a lot to say.

Anyway, I love you and I'm glad you're reading this.