Dayjamas

Here comes the sun

The spring bloom has begun.  Thank god.

Eating out with kids in Seattle

Here are my top 5 favorite kid-friendly restaurants in Seattle:

1. Blue C Sushi - Fremont & U-Village
I love this place.  Fresh sushi and tasty Japanese dishes rotate around comfy booths and counter seats on a conveyer belt.  This means INSTANT FOOD at your table the moment you sit down.  As in, no ordering and no waiting.  The food is NOW.  This is huge, because Kiku can never stay in her seat and as a result it's almost impossible to enjoy a meal out at a regular restaurant.  We like this place so much that it's become an almost-weekly tradition.  Kiku is really into the Spicy Sesame Noodles, Inari sushi, edamame, miso soup, and cucumber salad in ponzu sauce.  I especially like the seared tuna and JJ is partial to the spicy tofu dish.  The staff is incredibly friendly and helpful, and the kids get their own special "learner chopsticks."  The only drawback is that it's immensely popular and the wait is long on the weekends - and they don't take reservations.  Our solution: go early. 

2. Madrona Alehouse & Eatery - 1138 34th Ave.   
Even though we live across town from Madrona, we still make the trek at least once a month to enjoy a relaxed dinner accompanied by a good beer.  What makes it possible to "relax" is the small but ingenious play area.  It's nestled on one side of the restaurant around a gas fireplace and has ample books and toys, a comfy couch, and is visible from every table.  The standard pub fare is pretty good, but we haven't tried any of the more "refined" dishes (e.g. fish, pork chops, pasta, etc.). 

3. Vios - 903 19th Ave E.
This is a very unique place.  In a nutshell, Vios is a Greek restaurant that happens to have a large enclosed play space for kids that's amply stocked with toys and books.  And the food is great!  Good kids menu, too.  But it tends to be a little pricey for a casual night out so that's why it only made #3 on my list. 

4. Zeek's Pizza - *Several around Seattle
There are no toys or books.  But the pizza is decent, they make a good chopped salad, and the staff (and customers) don't seem to mind small children running around and terrorizing the candy machine.  Enough said.

5. Bagel Oasis -  2112 NE 65th St.     
This is a good breakfast spot for kids.  They have a small play area and this alone is why we eat here.   Ok, that's not entirely true, because the bagels are pretty darn good.  Only thing is, they seem to have problems getting the orders right (too stoned?)

Runner Up: Tutta Bella pizzaria on Stone Way in Wallingford.  This place is big, loud, (did I say loud?), and the pizza is good.  There are always lots of kids here, probably because it's so very loud. 

*I've only eaten at two locations: Phinney Ridge & Greenlake

Fickle not pickle

This morning Kiku couldn’t decide what to have for breakfast, changing her mind three times.  I told her she was being fickle.

    “Oh, yeah, I wanna pickle!”

    “No, not pickle, fickle.”

    “I want a pickle, mama!”

    “Fickle.  It means that you’re always changing your mind.  You can’t decide what you like or dislike.”

    “Pickle!”

Kiku wasn’t the only one feeling fickle today.  Last night the three of us returned from a five-day trip to the bay area, and I woke up this morning feeling somewhat unsure about whether I really wanted to move back.  This is after making the BIG DECISION to move a few months ago...in the dead of winter.  (My advice to anyone considering moving away from Seattle: never decide in the winter.) The trip itself went smoothly and it was great to spend time with good friends and family, but I was a little overwhelmed by the whole place. 

I’ve definitely crossed over. 

I’m not sure when it happened, but I know I didn’t feel this way when we visited last summer.  Sometime between then and now I became a Seattlelite and stopped being a bay area girl.  When I stepped off the plane last week, it didn't feel like home.  I felt like a visitor.  I didn't "get it" anymore.  People seemed to be racing everywhere, whether by car or foot.  It felt edgier, grimier, more stressed out, more me-first.  I even found myself disliking the intensity of the sun.  It seemed too bright, and I practically had to glue my sunglasses to my face.   A few mentally unstable types approached Kiku and I (this never happens in Seattle) while we were out and about.  There was the odd guy who offered Kiku a dot-shaped sticker, and then followed us into the grocery store to offer her more stickers.  Harmless enough (probably), but my mind couldn’t get around the possibility of the dots being laced with LSD. Then there was the time when we were walking down the street in a somewhat upscale neighborhood and a tattered woman covered in sores asked me if I knew where the Laundromat was.  I told her that I didn’t live there and she proceeded to violently scream, “no one does laundry around here!” to me and everyone else around.

These kinds of interactions never used to faze me.  It was just part of my everyday environment and it felt normal.  Seeing someone pace back and forth while talking to themselves used to be normal.  Having a homeless person bark at me or call me Yoko was normal.  Now it feels threatening.  I’m sure it’s partially due to my maternal instinct to protect my daughter.  But even so, I’ve gotten soft. 

Seattle is nice, calm, slow paced, easy, clean, and, well, normal.  People (including the bus drivers) smile and say hello, drivers aren’t aggressive, rushing isn’t de rigueur, and there are fewer people flying their freak flags (or at least they’re quieter about it.)

I feel calmer and safer in Seattle.  My mind is clearer.  It’s easier to live here and there are fewer things to worry about.  So why move?  If this is such paradise, why do we want to go back to the land of over stimulation?  Up until recently, there have been three main reasons. 

1.    The weather
2.    Missing loved ones
3.    The blandness factor

But now I'm getting more used to the weather, and the only months that really get to me are Dec-Feb.  It might be more bearable if we can get away to a sunny spot every winter.  I certainly miss my friends and family, and I don't want these people to be strangers to Kiku, but what if we committed to visiting three or four times a year?  Maybe that woud be ok.  Then there's the blandness factor.  Over the past four years I've found myself craving more interesting, stimulating interactions with people who were less reserved.  But now I'm wondering if it matters so much anymore.  Large urban areas are interesting but they come with a price. 

I can't believe I'm actually feeling this way.  I've bitched about Seattle for four years.  It's been hard to adjust to the culture and I haven't felt like I've wanted to stay for the long run.  And now this is happening.  I'm starting to, umm, like it (maybe even love it?) here.  Although it could be that I just need to get used to bay area living all over again.  You know, grow back a thicker skin and adjust my "normal" meter.  The question is, do I want to? 

I'm just too damn fickle.

Things I never thought I'd do before living in Seattle

Walk or jog around a lake in the rain...and enjoy it.
Yes, I really do enjoy it.  In fact, I barely notice the rain until my pants start sticking to my legs.  Since it pisses so much around here, you can either stay inside and feel gloomy or get out and tell the weather to go fuck itself.

Wait patiently at a 4-way intersection.
It's the way of Seattle.  There are several 4- and even 5-way intersections around town without traffic lights that just work.  Cars just wait their turn!  I've encountered very few "stop and go" contests because most people just wait.  And, some cars will wait for you to go before them even when they've arrived at the stop sign first!!!  I still can't get over this one. 

Plan weekly schedules and meals (and stick to them).
Ask anyone who knows me and they'll tell you that I don't like routines or schedules.  But, add a toddler to the mix and voila!  Now I'm a (semi)organized, routine-oriented woman. Actually, I've always been good at planning and organizing in, say, work situations.  I just haven't been so good at organizing my own life.  I have to say that the meal planning has been the best thing that's ever happened to our household.  The 4:00 pm "do you have any ideas for dinner?" phone calls with JJ were too exhausting.

Declare that the quality of life here is better.
Yes, I'm afraid it's true.  There are lots of self-absorbed blankety blankers back in my good ol' liberal-hometown who believe that their city rocks above all others.  Umm...reality check.  I can't tell you how glad I am that we moved up here, even though we're planning to move back at some point to be closer to family.  The livin' is easy, plain and simple.  You can get any kind of food here (there are five Thai and two sushi restaurants less than 5 minutes from my house).  The air is fresh, the trees are green, there's no road rage, and the traffic ain't so bad.  People in general treat each other better, and the politics are good (Seattle is like one long NPR broadcast).  Skiing is 45 minutes away.  And, you can buy a decent-sized house for under $1 million.  Sure, you'll find a healthy population of rednecks right outside the city limits, but it's no big deal.  Just stay clear of the pick-ups with wheels the size of Lake Washington and you'll be fine.  Back home there are a lot of aggravated types with me-first attitudes who can start a chain reaction of bad vibes just by flipping up one finger from the comfort of their car.  It slowly chips away at your soul one day at a time.

Wear so much fleece.
The quality of life might be good, but this town has very little fashion sense.  This is both a good and a bad thing.  It's great in that you don't have to put much effort into dressing in the morning if you don't feel like it, but on the down side everyone ends up looking the same and it's kind of boring (there are only so many ways you can wear Patagonia and Keen's, people).  I will say that I love how little everyone seems to care about what you wear.  You can put on jeans, a fleece vest and sneakers or a sexy little thing paired with Manolo's and parade through a nice restaurant feeling equally as comfortable and accepted.  Back in the bay area, your clothing style often defines which "group" you fit into.  Yuppie?  Hipster?  Gay?  Artist?  Hippy?  It always felt so judgmental and limiting.   

Miss being around other Asians (and feel like a minority!)
I grew up in an ethnically diverse town and have always had a diverse group of friends, including several Asians.  Most of my family is Asian.  There are lots of Asians in the Bay Area.  In other words, I've always been surrounded by lots of other people who looked like me and rarely did I feel like I was being viewed as "different" or as an "outsider."  I always felt like me...a person who just happens to be Asian.  I took it for granted.  Before moving to Seattle, I kept hearing about how many Asians there were up here and how they were the dominant minority.  Uh, no.  On a good day, maybe I'll see two, and that usually includes the little girl at the playground who was adopted from China by a white family.  There are Asians a-plenty in the International District, and I do go there sometimes to see some color and feel like I'm blending in, but the problem is that they're not really my people.  We might look similar, but I'm a 5th generation American and the I-District is full of immigrants.  Culturally, it's completely different.  I have about a million more things in common culturally with my Jewish-American husband from NY.  I've heard that there are lots of Asians in the suburbs north of Seattle and also on the Eastside (suburbia).  One Asian Seattlelite told me that most of the Asians here live where the "good" schools are, hence the suburbs. I have noticed this somewhat, but again...they're not really my people.   I hate the freakin' suburbs with a passion and would never live in one.  So, after four years of often being one of the only, if not the only, person of colour in my environment besides my daughter (be it a cafe, restaurant, playground, or gymboree class), I'm slowly adjusting.  Seattlelites (who in my experience are generally white) don't seem to find my "otherness" (or Kiku's) as an issue.  I think a lot of people move here from other urban areas and actually find it refreshing to see someone who isn't white, as if it helps them to believe there's a little diversity in their community.

Buy salmon off a fishing boat on any given summer day, grill it up, eat it, and smile.
A few years ago I learned that you could go down to the locks and buy incredibly fresh salmon right off the fishing boats.  Awesome!

 

It must be SAD

I think I have Seasonal Affective Disorder.  For the past few months, everything has just felt really hard.  I haven’t been feeling good about myself or my life - past, present or future.  I’m not interested in food (very odd) or socializing (even stranger).  I feel sluggish and tired most of the time.  Thing is, I’m not a naturally depressive person.  Sure, I feel down at times and can complain like the best of them.  But I’ve always been a glass half-full, everything will be ok, down right optimistic person.  I’m a survivor.  At least I used to be.

This isn’t the first time I’ve felt this way since moving to the Northwest.  We had relatively mild winters the first two years we lived here, but last year I remember feeing just as blue between the months of January and March.  Maybe even April.  That’s a fair chunk of the year to feel like crap just because the weather sucks.

So what to do about it?  Exercise is helpful, but it’s hard to motivate when you feel like you’re being weighed down by a concrete slab. I’ve been popping vitamins and trying to drink lots of water.  Emergen-c packets have become my morning staple.  I’ve read a little about light therapy, which sounds potentially helpful.  And then there’s coffee.  Seattle hasn’t become an espresso mecca by accident.  I quit drinking coffee when I got pregnant and never went back.  I’m a single-tall-decaf-latte person now, but maybe it’s time to start sippin’ the strong stuff again.  Hello Peet’s, I’ve missed you. 

I’m starting to worry about how my mood is affecting Kiku.  She seems as energetic and upbeat as ever, but I still worry about it.  I’m not an especially emoting person, but lately I’ve been sobbing a fair amount and she’s taken notice.  Last night after dinner I couldn't keep back the tears when I was overcome by a wave of sadness.  Kiku handed me her stuffed bear and said, “mama, are you sad?”  Then she gave me a big hug and I felt a little better.  It was heartwarming and heartbreaking all at the same time.  Part of me wonders if showing more emotion is actually good for her.  JJ keeps reminding me that kids are extremely resilient.  He’s right…but I still worry. 

What I need is a week in a warm, sunny location.  Hawaii comes to mind.  So does Mexico.  What I wouldn’t give for a tropical breeze, a walk on the beach, and a Pina Colada by the pool. 

Breaking up is hard to do

Why is it that sometimes it's easier to appreciate something (in this case, someplace) once you've decided to leave it?

Ever since we decided to leave Seattle, I've been loving every little thing about this town.  Even the rain. And that's saying a lot. 

Yesterday I walked around Greenlake and was captured by the stillness of the waterfowl floating on the calm waters. I noticed the bird nests in the trees, and every pooch that passed by made me smile.  I've been appreciating the unaggressive attitude, the friendliness, and the mountain views from almost any point in the city.  Whenever I spot an espresso bar (which is often) I think about how ridiculously easy it is to get a good cup of coffee.  This afternoon I took Boo to Magnuson, one of his favorite dog parks, and saw a rainbow as I gazed out across beautiful Lake Washington. 

I'm going to miss this place.

The feeling reminds me of the process you sometimes go through when ending a relationship that isn't working out, or when leaving a bad job.  Once you make the decision to call it quits, you start to think about all of the good things you're leaving, and it's easy to convince yourself that the things that are making you unhappy really aren't all that bad.  If you're lucky, you remember why you wanted to leave in the first place and get out of there.  In some cases, you stay...and repeat.

As the reality of moving starts to sink in, I find myself wondering if I'll be ready to leave by Spring.  There are too many things I have yet to experience here, and I know I'll feel regret if I don't make the effort to do them.  We had Kiku soon after moving here and since then it's been difficult to find the time (or energy, or courage...) to really explore Seattle and the greater area.  It's time to live in the moment. 

Before we leave, I want to see the San Juan's, hike on the Olympic Peninsula, kayak on any body of water, take the ferry to Victoria, frolic on Bainbridge Island, have dinner at The Herb Farm or Canlis, visit the Asian Art Museum, and experience the Fremont Solstice Parade one last time. 

But the Solstice Parade takes place in the summer, so I guess that means we can't move 'til Fall. 

Goodbye, Seattle!

Last week we decided that it's about time we moved back to the SF Bay Area.  We should be gone by the end of Spring. 

*Big Sigh*

We've been living in Seattle for almost four years now and despite all of the amazing things this city has to offer, it just hasn't been a good fit for several reasons, like:

- Six-month long winters dominated by gray skies (Dec. to June or July, seriously)
- The Seattle Freeze
- Lack of diversity
- Little or no sarcasm to be found

But I will miss many things about this town, like the awesome Children's Museum, the Woodland Park Zoo, the wading pools in the summer, the wonderful libraries, the clean air, the view of the Cascades and Olympics, the laid back attitude, the coffee, Greenlake, the Spring bloom, easy access to hiking, skiing, and kayaking, the friendliness, Paseo, my neighborhood, the slower pace, the mellow drivers, and all of the restaurants we never had time to try.  I have to admit, despite all the things that bother me about this town, Seattle trumps the bay area on quality of life.  If only we had family here, we might just have stayed a little longer.

We're headin' south to where our people are.  To the land of traffic jams, outrageous housing costs, and long waiting lists for preschools.  But it's home.  It's our community. It's where the majority of our family lives (my family, anyway), and it's where most of our friends are.   

I'm sad to say goodbye to the good friends we've made since moving here, some who've become almost like family to us.  And it breaks my heart to uproot Kiku from everything she's ever known.  But happier parents make for happier kids, right?

Well, it seems like a good time to start a new blog, because we'll soon be starting a new life. 

Goodbye, Seattle.  Hello California!