May 29, 2000

Happy Memorial Day

Today started as a bit of a lazy day. I did eventually get out of bed and took a shower. Surfed the web for a while, and watched part of the baseball game. Today it was Greg Maddux against his former team, the Cubs. It was about halfway through the game and it was still scoreless. I wouldn't be seeing the remainder of the game since I had plans with Pam. She was feeling much better… thank goodness.

Our first plans were to see a movie. The movie we had talked about seeing is Where the Heart Is. It is the movie with Natalie Portman and Ashley Judd. I had mentioned wanting to see it some time ago, but somehow it had eluded us. Pam didn't seem as interested in seeing it as I was, but she acquiesced. The movie was playing on the Eastside, so the plan was for me to pick her up.

The drive to her place was uneventful. Parking at her building has become a bit more tense lately. The management office had recently converted a number of the visitors stalls into reserved and parking has been downright unmanageable. Parking in Seattle is always a bit of a struggle, if not a downright bloody nightmare.

My friend Trudy once asked me if my favorite food were indeed chicken wings, why had I not gone to the Wingdome when it was open in Downtown Seattle; at the time, near the Kingdome. The answer… Parking. It is not that I avoid the city entirely because of the parking, I avoid the city mostly because of the parking. Getting chicken wings in a fairly straightforward thing. Think of it as getting a burger or getting coffee. It is not an occasion that warrants paying five dollars for parking for a seven dollar meal. To me, that makes little sense, no matter how much I happen to like chicken wings.

If you are willing to pay five dollars in parking to get coffee, I can't help you.

Picking Pam up was fairly uneventful. It was a sunny day and not too cool, even for Seattle. I drove with the windows down, which is certainly the exception rather than the rule here. We made it to the movie with plenty of time and even had time to get snacks. We shared a large popcorn and a large drink. Two straws. The theater was pretty full, we managed to find a couple of seats in the back row where we would sit down and enjoy the movie.

As for the movie itself, I loved it. Natalie Portman character has teeth, and her acting supported it. To tell you the truth, I wasn't that impressed with her in Phantom Menace, but I've seen her in this movie and in Anywhere But Here, and I continue to be impressed by her. I liked the fact that it didn't portray her character as larger than life, but instead as a teenager who is coping and learning as best as she can. She was victimized once by her boyfriend first and later her mother, but not to be taken advantage from again. She develops a group of friends who are kind to her and she loves, though she may not say so in words, her actions speak volumes on how she feels. Maybe it is the entire abandonment issue that appeals to me; the idea that we can't really count on anyone and that in many ways we walk through life alone, with only our wits and our gut instincts as a defense from the entire world who would devour us as prey.

It is an endearing movie. Go see it.

Pam was in the mood for an omelet, a ham and cheese omelet, in particular. I had plenty of left over ham from the Thansgiving dinner and the rest of the stuff would be easy to pick up. We stopped by a Tully's coffee and sat down by the fireplace enjoying its warm while we watched the late afternoon sky glow in a strange swirl of blues, pinks, and oranges. I played some music out of my Windows CE machine, Marc Anthony's When I Dream At Night… as I held the palm-sized PC by her ear.

Oh, and the coffee? It was pretty good.

We stopped by the market to pick up the ingredients for the omelets. I make an exceptional omelet. Really Len has said that my omelet is the best one he has had. It is a recipe out of one of my cookbooks. That in and of itself probably doesn't surprise most of you, what probably will surprise you is that this recipe is a microwave recipe. I urged her to try it. We picked up a number of things, including cheese, green bell peppers, more eggs, and the like.

My place was still disorganized from Thanksgiving dinner, and I had very little counter space. I had to dice the vegetables and separate the eggs (and yes, I have an egg separator). I forgot that you should not try to mix eggs in a standard soup bowl and thus it created quite the mess. Still the omelets otherwise went without a hitch. She liked the omelet and seemed genuinely surprised that it was prepared in the microwave. Actually, I know a number of microwave recipes, they include lasagna, meatloaf, pot roast, scalloped potatoes, and this omelet… yes, all from scratch.

We decided to drive around shortly after our dinner. She had been toying with the idea of moving to my side of town, so I suggested we drive by Kirkland. They had a number of apartment buildings by the water that would appeal to her. It was still moderately warm and we drove partially with the windows down. She liked the neighborhoods, quite a bit and is looking forward to taking a closer look. I dropped her off at her place shortly after our drive. She had things to attend to before tomorrow, so I didn't stay for too long. Still it was a very nice way to spend Memorial Day with my girlfriend.

Thanks!

May 29, 2000