Post-Vacation Thoughts

Change is good. A change of scenery was very good for me. Two weeks in Seattle was fun, and I even got to drive my sister's Hummer, which was even more of a change of scenery--I felt like the king up there above all the other cars. And like the man says, "It's good to be the king!" Okay, it's not really a Hummer, it's a Chevy Tahoe, but it's so BIG! My mom needs the running board to climb up into it, and really, she's not that short.

Vegetarian food was so easy to find there, I felt spoiled. The Sunlight Cafe on Roosevelt was fantastic. I had polenta cakes with black beans and cheese, and J. and W. had to help me finish cuz I couldn't eat it all. And they were like little vultures, they cleaned my plate good. W. had the sesame crunch waffle and that looked really yummy as well. Want to go there? Here's a map.

Another favorite was Crave, in the Capitol Hill area. I tried the grilled-cheese sandwich with honey-Dijon mustard and apple slices and it was mouth-watering good! I never would have thought to put apples in my grilled-cheese sandwich.

My favorite toy store was Plastic Passion. And when I say toys, I don't mean for little tykes. I mean weird alternative art toys for adults. And when I say adults, I don't mean porn. It's just, well, action figures that you don't play with exactly, and stuffed creatures that are so freaky they're lovable. It's hard to explain...but how can you not love the Bleeding Heart Gimp Bunny of Doom? I mean, come on. I guess what I like a lot are the Minis, and I bought a few of those. Now I have a whole little shelf of girl minis, some dark like Scarygirl, and some cute like a little Mary Engelbreit figure. I guess I like these because they inspire me to make art, and they give me alternative visions of myself as a female that counteract the Cosmo shit I am constantly bombarded with in mainstream media. Okay, plus I just like toys still. I have some old Fisher Price girl figures (and a mom) above my doorframe that guard the entrance a la St. Michael. These are the ones from back in the day when they didn't have appendages, they were just rounded dowels. "In my day, we had toys without arms and legs! And we LIKED it!"