I've recently moved to Seattle, and while the trip itself is something I should take the time to write about, since then I've had a really excellent time of getting to know a new place, finding and settling in a house, and meeting new people. Aside from all that, I love the city, but have had trouble explaining why. Today I had an experience which I think conveys the beauty of Urban life.
I've rented a place in a neighborhood called Capitol Hill, an interesting area across the freeway from downtown proper. I've all my things, save any furniture, which didn't make it into the car for the roadtrip up here. Anyhow, no furniture means no bed. It didn't take long to learn that the tile floor would be inhospitable, so after a brief stint sleeping on a mat of some of my clothes, and a longer one on a cot borrowed from a co-worker, as of today, I returned home to find the bed I had ordered over the weekend. Seeing as how I'd never owned a bed larger than a twin, I didn't have the sheets for the new one, so I set off, at 8:20, to get some sheets downtown from a certain store, knowing full well they were closing at 9:00.
Simply enough, I walk to the bus stop, hoping my timing will be right, but when I check, the schedule says that a bus had just past 5 minutes ago and another wouldn't come by for 30 more, too late to make it. Undeterred, I walked down the street towards another stop, where I know I can catch other routes downtown. Two blocks later, at an intersection, my bus zooms by, late. The light changes before I have time to cross and, flustered, I cross the other way, thinking the bus would be gone before I made it over to the bus stop.
I'm wrong, so when the light changes again, I'm on the wrong side of the street from where the bus still sits. In a moment, I'm running down the street, hoping to cross and catch it at the next intersection. Then, tradgedy strikes; As I'm running, I suddenly realize my phone is no longer in my pocket! How could this be?!? I'm forced to turn around the find it, as it's quite dear to me. I use it to take my pictures.
It turns out that my shorts, which I'd had for a while but were fine, except for having holey pockets, had gone from bad to worse and my phone could now fall out! Luckily it was an inexpensive lesson, as I found my phone, relatively unharmed a few feet away.
Knowing I'm pressed for time, I run to the next bus stop, where I'm glad to see that I have just a few minutes before the next bus arrives. So I sit and wait, and pretty soon four soccer players walk past. Then, there's a guy posting flyers on utility poles and trying to chat up women. The first one doesn't respond and he lurks behind her angrily for a short while, saying "You could at least smile, I'm never gonna see you again," but a few minutes later he's talking to another girl about cell phones and how mothers are sometimes wrong.
Late again, the bus eventually arrives, but now I'm pressed as ever for time. Less than 10 minutes later, I'm at my intersection, so I exit the bus and run through a crowd of sedentry folks waiting for the bus, over to the store which is due to close in 5 minutes. I make it, and after spending a few minutes comparing the merits of egyptian cotton to regular cotton, and 200 thread count to 350, I pick a few things and head to the counter, where the checkers are surprised to see a customer (and not just any customer, mind you ;-)) is in the store. One of them unlocks the door, and after regaining my bearings, I'm off to catch the bus back to Capitol Hill, carrying a rather large bag of bedding.
Pretty soon I see my bus down the street and, once again, this time with loot in hand, run toward it. I'm too late to catch it, and once again something falls out of my pocket. Luckily I've learned my lesson so it's just 2 dimes. While I pause to collect them, I realize that the bus I've just missed has another stop a block away, where a whole crowd of people are waiting for it.
I line up behind one of the people and notice that I'm not the only one carrying a big bag. Most everyone there had a large bag or suitcase or something. So, with nothing better to do in line, I ask one someone with a bag, "What's with all the suitcases and stuff?," to which she replies, "We're homeless, and we're heading down to a Church." Huh. Homeless people in Seattle seem much more "normal" than homeless people in Austin, which mostly are kooky or lazy (Seriously, ask another Austinite). Anyway, I finally get in the bus thinking that I blend in pretty well with these normal-looking, bag-carrying homeless folks, and I'm wondering if anyone thinks I'm homeless. I have time to reflect on that because one of the homeless ladies, who has a cast on her foot, is using the lift to get in, while another homeless lady yells at her (hollers, really), saying "What're you doing?! You don't need that, why I oughta woop your ass! You're holding up the bus!".
After other sights and sounds on the way back, I finally make it back home, and am glad to have sat by some rather polite people, who may or may not have thought me homeless.
So there you have it. It may not sound glorious, but I promise, it was.
PS. I don't want it to be thought that I'm disrespecting the homeless folks. Personally I think it's rather sad that so many people cloak their disdain by "feeling sorry". I give them the respect of treating them just as I treat everyone else.