anacronyms

We left the Science Fiction Museum about 5:00 PM. We’d had a late lunch, so we were in no rush to find food. We wandered through Seattle Center, goggling like tourists, which we of course were.

It being March, there wasn’t much happening, but it was clear and bright. We headed up past the Pacific Science Center and wound up at the fountain where Chris had her picture taken something like 20 years previously.

Quick, what’s a good title for this photo?

“The Fountainhead”, of course. Yuk.

As the sun got low, it got cold (it being March, and still winter and all), so we decided to head for the hotel. We went back to the parking lot to find Lola just where we’d left her, although she looked a little lonely.

Chris posed against the metal exterior of the Experience Music Project. Very pomo. Inside, warmth, light and expensive souveniers. Outside, cold blue steel, and a woman in a blue jacket gazes impassively. This expresses the angst and gloom of class warfare in western society.

We found the hotel without significant trouble, again through the talents of the Navigatrix (which are many) and checked in. The Marqueen is a pretty funky hotel in the Queen Anne district. It used to be an apartment block, so the rooms are spacious, with loads of character. Outside, the neighborhood teemed with night-life. We checked in, had a little rest, and then went wandering, looking for a place to eat.

We found the Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant. I had never tried fondue. We went in, and spent a leisurely 90 minutes eating a meal of cheese fondue and salad followed by a fondue of six kinds of meat, the sort of meal that it is utterly impossible to eat when you have small children.

Once done, we wandered out in the Queen Anne district and found a used CD place, where I picked up Suzanne Vega, the Rolling Stones, an old Harry Connick, and some Wallflowers. The sxKitten found a couple of Sarah McLachlan CDs, a Loreena McKennit, and something by the Eurythmics.

The owner was a chatty sort, so we provided him invaluable market information while he totted up the damage, which was less extensive than I’d feared.

Being old and boring, we went back to the hotel and went to sleep. The bed was rather firmer than I’m used to, that hotel style of a layer of padding over springs liberated from a boxcar. I presume this makes the matress last a long time. I woke several times during the night and woke up with a headache, an incipient migraine, which I get from tension.

Why was I tense? Partly because the bed was so hard that my back and shoulder hurt, and partly because I was worrying about the car being towed away because we’d read the meter sign in the dark of night and thought it was in effect from 6 AM to 6 PM, and so I didn’t want to oversleep and have the car towed away. When I woke and went down, I found that the meter was actually in effect from 8 AM, so I needn’t have worried. Of such little misunderstandings are incipient migraines made.

I went in to the hotel coffee shop, which, contrary to the advertising didn’t offer complimentary WiFi, but instead required a small mortgage payment. I shrugged my shoulders and had apple pie and cappuccino.

I worked on the new project. At some point, I turned my head to look out the window to my right, and noticed a free newspaper kiosk, bright yellow. I wondered if it was trying to tell me something.

Hell, this morning, I still wonder if there’s a message there.

Sometime after seven o’clock I went up to see if the sxKitten was awake. She was, barely.

I’m out of time for this morning. I’ll have to the rest of the story this evening, assuming that I’m able to stay awake. Due to Ferry Misunderstandings, we didn’t get to bed till midnight last night.