I am working here at the Northwest Film Forum and Children’s Film Festival Seattle for the next 3 months and had my first day of work yesterday. It was good, everyone is exceptionally nice and very polite. I like the nice part but the polite part is going to have to change a bit, I am ready to shake the formalities and be drinking buddies with all my coworkers. Let’s rage. Other than that this is a cool place in a cool neighborhood (Capitol Hill) and I am excited to be involved in the Forum’s endeavors. Right now I am involved in creating the reels that make showing successive films for screenings much easier, it is time consuming, but not hard. So…Job=good. Let’s get on to the neighborhood.
I walked around in the University District of Seattle last night for quite some time, just to get my bearings in this excited new place. There were food shops: Tacos, Seafood,4,899,876 Coffee shops, Smoke Shops, QFC’s, Vegan, Falafel, Burgers, Fish’n’Chips, Sushi, and all that Jazz which I am very excited to sample. I started out my walk lonely, being a new person in an established city. I would walk around and see a variety of types of people. People I am used to, heavy metal dude’s (I actually overheard quoting the lead singer or Slayer), Bro’s at Irish Pubs, and a hell of a lot of scenester/hippie/indie/hipster kids. I usually hate this type, but their females are just so GD cute. Possibly I will have an Avatar style romance in which I infiltrate their masses and win their favor by winning the heart of their indie-princess. We’ll see.
But as I was saying, I started off being lonely, watching all of these people going to bars, or outside smoking, or rolling up to parties, or stumbling drunk home with their friends and I wanted to be a part of it. “OOH OOH, I’m in!” I want to just chime in and join as if it were that easy. I started to get sad. Why the hell can’t I be included in this jovial life you are all leading? I thought to myself, as I passed many houses with the lights on featuring young adults socializing to TV, “wouldn’t it be nice if I could just knock on the door, introduce myself as Bryce, say that I would like to make friends and have them welcome me” Wouldn’t it be nice if people were that trusting and a random lonely stranger showing up at the door wouldn’t be greeted with a call to the police, but rather a, “Hey man, welcome to Seattle, can I show you around? Wanna come party with us? Here’s a beer.” Damn this world where every stranger is perceived as a rapist or drug addict (for the record I am neither)
Then I realized I’m new. I’m the new kid and I don’t have the teacher to introduce me to the class. Maybe I can have the mayor publicly introduce me? I remember I always kind of hated new kids, especially the ones that had frequently been new kids due to moving around a lot. They were always obnoxious and showy, overly energized and somewhat flirtatious. The girls always liked them. I suppose they had to develop a sort of boldness to meet people. They’ve done this new thing before. Well it’s my first time, and this class is pretty GD big. I will do my best to take bold actions to begin my conquering while still attempting to maintain a low obnoxiosity. Also, I hope the girls like me, do Seattle chicks think Iowa dudes are cool; possibly if I let them perceive me as the innocent country boy frightened by pigeons and cocktails?
What I am basically coming to terms with, and feeling like I should have before I left for Seattle, weeks before, is that this is one of those times in my life when I am really going to have to work to actively live to the best of my ability, which honestly isn’t something I have been doing in a while. No lie, I’ve been slacking. I am going to have to leave my room, stop watching downloaded Showtime shows, and walk the streets, eat at new places, approach strange and new people, finally ask one of my housemates to go get a beer with me at that German bar up the street (it’s like an awkward flirting living with people you’ve never met). I am hoping I am up for this because I want adventures. Adventures damnit.
The only way I know to think about life like this is in relation to a movie where similar things happen, which I know is a terrible way to do things. YET, preconceptions are kind of my thing, can’t go into anything without one, and I preconceive my ideal Seattle adventure as that one where the young guy starts hanging out with some people through an odd occurrence where he meets a cute scenester-princess in the grocery store checkout line (she comments on a Twilight magazine and I rip her for it, but it turns out to be a misconception) then this girl and I hang out together, I start to like her, then she introduces me to her friends who vary from hardcore metal-heads smoking dope in creepy basements to ravesters taking E and trying to find secret intense raves. I get caught up in all of this, mostly because I like the girl, (there’s also this really cool guy who takes me under his wing but turns out to be a POS who has a history with my indie-princess and hates me secretly for being the new guy) then realize halfway through that THIS JUST ISN’T ME, but I can’t just leave the scene now, I love these people. I must leave the scene and bring them out with me SAVE THEM. BUT OH NO it’s useless, they are stuck in their ways, and it’s not until I risk my life, nearly dying, to save my indie-princess’s life, that she see’s that she must leave the scene with me, but it’s too late. I must return to my Podunk Iowa town. (apparently Podunk is a proper noun). Also during this time my indie-princess and I get in on like phenoms daily nightly, ever so rightly.
Once again, I’m up for this, I’ve conquered a new city before (that’s right Iowa City, you’re my bitch) Just this time I don’t have an IN, making friends isn’t hard, getting yourself into a social situation where it’s possible to make friends is. Goal number one is to make that happen. Goal number 2 is to find a GD gym in this freaking town that just has weights and treadmills. That’s all I need, no classes, no aromatherapy, no new modern equipment. I need heavy shit, and stuff to run on.
I will be writing frequently to keep my LOYAL FANs updated on how my progress goes.
I tend to think in little metaphors and cheesy phrases that I think I’ve made up, but probably haven’t. Here’s a few from my walk. ( This will become the DEEP THOUGHTS section of my Seattle Blogs)
-“Life is only sad when you’re not a part of it”
-“For Cigarette smokers, realizing your addicted and trying to quit happen in amazingly close proximity to one another.”
FUNNY THINGS I SAW/OVERHEARD
-Hobo talking to himself nearly shouting “are you testing me? ARE YOU TESTING ME” then as soon as I pass saying something like “See, seee I can do it”
-A cat
-overheard “I drink water like it’s going out of style, like water is my thing”
-A dirt path in a park in Seattle, WHY would you have a dirt path, it’s going to be mud 99% of the time, it’s fucking seattle COME ON
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