Wednesday, September 28, 2005

But There Is Not Room For All Y'all So Forget It

My teeth hurt. The temporary crowns they put in last week are not really shielding those nerves from the cold water, sugar and god knows what else I subject my teeth to on a daily basis. It is a dull ache that makes my whiney ass feel even worse. Add my sore throat and just serious fucking fatigue has wiped the floor with me today. I was doing great until 2:00 and then BAM. Wall. Meet my face. Can I nap now?

I have lived in the Seattle area for 18 years now. Much longer than I lived in Iowa, though for some bizarre reason I still identify as having grown up in Iowa. Driving around in our new neighborhood I am struck again by how much it reminds me of the towns in Iowa. The houses so obviously built during the wars, the tiny neighborhood churches, the old men who walk every afternoon with their brothers. But there is that Washington flavor too. How the colors here are soft--the sky, the sound, nothing is a harsh line. Even in fall the colors aren't crisp. How it smells salty and when the tide turns sometimes it is UGLY. How beach doesn't mean white sand to me--it means rocks and mossy logs and icy cold water.

Funny how places become home without you realizing what that even means. How I don't really remember the smell of fall leaves and then we get a couple and there it is. How after only a month I am used to the clanging of railroad cars being dropped all over the place.

This house has a weird effect on me. No one in my family has lived in one like it that I know of, and yet it feels like we have always been here. I feel sorry for everyone who doesn't get to live here.

2 comments:

Linda said...

Those are really interesting points about living in Seattle, how nothing here is really harsh.

Hope you are feeling a bit better.

Anonymous said...

My air conditioner broke last night and inside the house it was 86 degrees.
What is this fall thing you speak of?