The Return
Seattle Pt. 1/3
How many times have I seen this stupid contraption?
This bad-looking mousetrap has strangely been an anchor in visiting one of my most favorite places I’ve known, Seattle, WA.
Sasquatch 2009
I came through the SEA-TAC airport on the way to a music festival. It was a 3-day jam, and it was awesome. A group of us arrived in Seattle, stayed the night, and took a bus to The Gorge on the other side of the state, the venue of the festival, and a truly beautiful natural landmark.
I saw Nine Inch Nails there, Mos Def, Santigold (actually, this was the exact set where a clip from this festival would later go virtual for being an example of “how to start a movement” in a TED Talk).
Seattle 2012
This was the first visit I made to visit a very dear friend, Paul. I have mentioned him across these 100 words project. In this year, we were especially young and vigorous about our dedication to literature and writing. This trip was my first significant experience outside of home, my first voyage as a young adult.
Seattle 2014
This visit was after my first trip to Italy and France, a trip I had broadly considered a “failure” because I did not overcome my shyness (yes, it’s true you wouldn’t suspect that of me now). In this trip to Seattle, I was dominated by grief for my first serious intimate relationship. Paul then worked at a cafe, and he would make me a special drink I found in Turin, Italy, a bicerin.
I was reading through an anthology on Existentialism, pursuing advice in how to craft a life as I approached the end of my undergraduate and starting graduate school.
Seattle 2022
I am returned, here visiting to celebrate my dear friend and his fiancée / wife in a ritual that highlights one of the most important parts of our humanity: our ability to attach.
After arriving, I walked Pike’s Place and went to Left Bank Books. I grabbed Communion by bell hooks and A Moonless, Starless Sky by Alexis Okeowo. I misread the day-of-plan, and I had a lot more time on my hands than I thought, so I ended up going to the Seattle Art Museum to see probably the best single-artist exhibit I’ve seen on Alberto Giacometti.
The salt air is wonderfully refreshing. I had forgotten this.
More soon,
Trevor