tongue.

Bloomsday 2013 - After my textiles class in Seattle, I hung around the city. I made it a priority to check all the value villages I could find, and surprisingly only came away with a Mother's Day gift & a beautiful black mini dress. I sat in a parking lot off University eating a slice of bagel with cheese & coffee. Went to Eastlake, waiting on M, at a coffee shop where the barista looked like Macklemore. Had a delicious half off Cappucino with the most lovely of foam tops, which I enjoyed over "Women" by Bukowski. If you ever want to feel an unapologetic disgust for an unapologetically distasteful sex addict, it's a good book. It was the only point in the day that I felt at true peace with myself, interestingly enough, to enjoy a book over coffee on the water, waiting for an old friend. M got home & we chatted for too long, pushing our dinner date to 10pm. We ordered takeout Pho, as I stood mesmerized by the giant koi in the tank & the depthless art on the walls. We brought it back to her apartment, ate the Pho over red wine. I convinced her to make the trip to Bloomsday with me & B, though she had just got back the day before from Hawaii, where she had spent a week on a couple's retreat full of sliced open toes on lava rock, grandiose mai tai's, romantic resorts & sunning. Then I'm all like, Let's prolong the vacation of your life! And she agreed, because she's my kind of beautiful live-in-the-moment person.

The next morning, waiting for B & M to get off from their Seattle jobs, I slept in, ate some cheerios & sliced banana & then set off for the longest run I've done lately, on accident. I toured through Eastlake, Westlake, Lake Union, all along the water, through Ballard?, through Steamworks where the hills lulled like a painting & couples were having picnics, the view of downtown was spectacular, people were flying kites. I was like, this is amazing, but why aren't these assholes at work? I literally think, that the state of washington took note of the elementary school's closure due to "good weather," and everyone was enjoying their lives while they could. I ran & ran, saw houseboats & all the cafes on the dock full of people enjoying wine. Note: It felt like living. Finally I found my way home, 10 miles later, and I made a bagel sandwich, walked down to the coffee shop for a to-go drip, and enjoyed myself over Bukowski on the lake-facing balcony of M's apartment, sunning my legs until she got home. We connected with M & then we all took off towards Spokane for Blooms 2013.

Much driving, taco bell gorditos & apple empanadas in our bellies & we arrived! To the Lampi residence, where the Lampi's had us all set up in guest rooms, waiting with a glass of delicious summer cold red wine with bitters & orange slices. We talked into the night, and then M & I tucked into bed together. The next morning, we had coffee, then K took us on a drive of the course. We stopped at the edge of a state park & ran to an eddy & back, then to Huckleberry's for a local's breakfast of wheat pancakes, grapefruit, coffee & fresh-juiced beet, apple & kale. Went to the expo, ate some donuts, mingled & headed home to plant beans, kale & lettuce in the garden. After gardening we made some cracker, cheese & dill snacks with tomatoes doused in vinegar, glasses of my favorite white: New Age, and then we went on a romantic stroll through Manito Park, where we were given a history lesson by D. It was prom & all the ladies&gents were dressed to the nines, so we gawked for a while. There were also several engagement sessions taking place. It's that kind of park & it was that beautiful out...Headed back home, where I napped & K made us girls dinner: pasta with marinara & squash sauce, salad with garden fixings, homemade garlic bread & red wine. For dessert M, D & I used the rhubarb from their garden to make a homemade crisp. We got ourselves some froyo to accompany the tasty dish & rented This is 40. Over the crisp with New Age, we watched the movie & fell asleep, excited for the next morning.

Bloomsday!!
Woke early, got our racing garb on, drove to the start & then we got ushered through several security officials to get into the Elite warm up area. A room full of Africans. D, M & I warmed up. We would race first, in an effort to give us our own space, and so that we wouldn't have to be affected by the top males. No one at the race, participants or spectators was allowed to bring a backpack.
Gun went off at 8:45 & it was breaching 70 degrees. The course was tough as is known, but what I loved about it is that it gives rewards. Given it gives rewards too quickly at times for you to really switch gears, it still gives them. There's the doomsday hill, there's a steep decline, there's a 2k straight to the finish & there was D & I finishing one right after the other for a 31-32 place Elite woman finish. Not as good as we'd like, 6:18 mile pace, but it was tied with being the hottest race day in history, and all of us in the group didn't run what we expected. K, in his outofthisworld shorts told me, "Hey! You still got it!" It was a really cool thing to be a part of & it felt really rad to be in the elite group with all those amazing though hungry looking men&women.

After the race, as part of the Elite category, we got free Michelob Ultra (ha), chinese food, pizza, ice cream & monster energy drinks (whoa). We munched, laid in the sun with the Slaughter clan, and then all met up, my sombrero on, at a Mexican restaurant for margaritas to celebrate Cinco. M, D & I walked around in the 80-degree sunshinehappiness & then drank coronas with lime on the porch. We all went to Manito to play croquet.

In the early evening we began the long drive back to Seattle & because I was most sober? I drove us home. Apparently, to the impressed B, I made it back in record time, 3hr50min even with a pullover in the middle by a nice cop who did not give me a ticket, even though I have a CO license, live in WA, and was driving someone else's car from Spokane to Seattle...Still, B was impressed & that made me feel cool. From Seattle I made the trek to Bellingham, where I passed out eating apples & cheese & appreciating that I had friends that treat me to a good time & wear me out enough so that I can actually sleep soundly for once.
I'm so doing Bloomsday next year. It's too good of a time with too good of people not to.