a warm place

Amtrak Observations

As I type this I am on a train traveling from St. Louis, MO to Kansas City, MO. This trip has been my first experience traveling by train as an adult, and by and large it has been a good one. Some observations using this mode of transportation:

- More laid-back than flying and more relaxed than driving. This is, however, at the expense of time, amongst other things.

- No security... no baggage checks, no metal detectors, no groping. Hell, they even let me take a fingernail clipper on board.

- Very scenic. You're at ground level with all the creeks, trees, rivers, small towns, etc. Missouri is a beautiful state, especially in the country.

- Trains have horns. Amtrak isn't shy when using them, either. And as a passenger, I can hear the horn loud and clear every single time it is used as we cross the entire state of Missouri.

- Lots of free time to read, to write, to rest, to sleep, to take in the scenery, etc. In our rapid-fire world, having a long contiguous block of 'me-time' is a good thing.

Dream: Roundabout

I find myself in a hotel. The hotel consists of one large structure shaped like a ring and numerous small buildings running along side it that contain five hotel rooms each. Between the clusters of hotel rooms and the ring is a thirty foot long garden with a small, curvy foot path linking the two.

Curious about the ring, I go inside it and explore. There is nothing exciting about it. There is one large reception hall followed by another. In one room a band is setting up while people are putting up decorations, in another room people are mingling around tables of food, and in another room things weren't much different than the latter.

I manage to annoy one or two people while cutting through these rooms, so I decide to explore outside. It is a mild summer night. I hear people in a nearby pool but I can't see them; the pool is surrounded by trees, bushes, and a fence made of brick and wrought iron.

Then, I awake from this dream. Well, kinda.

I awake into sleep paralysis. I can open my blurry eyes enough to see my yellow painting ladder in the corner of my bedroom, but I cannot move. This happens every few months and lasts about thirty seconds; it's of no concern to me. One or two minutes pass... mild annoyance turns to mind concern.

I go back inside the hotel. While exploring I recall seeing some switches at the exit that leads to my hotel room. I walk around the ring and find the exit. Sure enough, there are switches and one of them is labeled 'slow time in room'. I turn it off and go to my hotel room.

Then, again, I awake from this dream. This time I can get out of bed.

Seattle, WA. (Part 2)

My trip to Seattle wound up lasting a full week. In an earlier post I mentioned that I saw the Space Needle and Microsoft's campus. I was also able to see the Seattle Art Museum, Pike Place Market, Fremont, and a couple other places that I'm forgetting.

What really made the trip, however, was the University Of Washington. On Wednesday, shortly after I flew into Seattle and tracked down my hotel, I walked over to the University of Washington and pretended I was a student. While exploring the campus I stumbled across their school of art, so I walked in and checked out the student galleries.

One of the pieces in the gallery was made by a female student who suffered the loss of her boyfriend. Atop letters that were exchanged during their relationship and newspaper clippings of the drowning were photos that she had taken of places they spent time together and things that were apart of the daily life they had shared. It was awfully personal and chilling.

Neighboring the University Of Washington is a street called University Way that is home to a long strip of shops and restaurants. Along this strip (and nearby) were a number of all-vegetarian and all-vegan eating establishments. The vegan restaurants were incredible... Araya's Vegetarian Place, Pizza Pi, and Mighty-O Donuts (I brought a dozen back to KC!).

There was even a (mostly) raw food restaurant, Chaco Canyon Café. I was excited to try a raw food dish prepared by someone who knows what they're doing, so I asked what items were popular and chose one on the 'best of' list. It was the Spicy Thai Grinder. What I received, however, was not spicy, sure wasn't Thai, and sure as heck wasn't a grinder. It was a mound of nutty paste. Eck! The raw food carrot cake was ok, though.

Nutty grinders aside (no pun intended), Seattle was a great experience.

Seattle, WA. (Part 1)

On Wednesday of this week I was sent out to Seattle, WA for business. I've been lucky that this trip has afforded me quite a bit of time to sight see. With this being my first time in Seattle, there's *lots* to see.

Today I drove around Microsoft's World Headquarters in Redmond, WA. This wouldn't have happened if it weren't for a female college student standing near the onramps for highway 5 and highway 520 with her hand digging around in the front side of her sweatpants. Originally, I planned on taking highway 5 to downtown Seattle to visit the Space Needle, but when such a sight is found in one's peripheral vision it begs a double-take. Before I knew it, I was on highway 520 headed to Redmond.

I can't say much about Microsoft's campus, unfortunately. I only gave it a quick drive-through. I wish I had parked the car somewhere and taken a walk... Next time I'm up here I'll have to tour the facilities. The campus looked nice - the buildings were mixed in with Washington's natural beauty.

Later in the day I did make my way to the Space Needle without distraction.