Observations of a people watcher

I am currently away watching people in their various movements and interactions during the weekend. Oh how I love to be a fly on the wall. If you see a guy with a camera and curly hair, run for your life in the opposite direction.

Observation #1: light pastel colored men's dress shirts are all the rage in clothing stores. Not sure I am ready for the pastels yet.
Observation #2: due to the unusally dry mild weather here in Seattle many of our flowers are already starting to bloom. This is a good 3-6 weeks earlier than normal.
Observation #3: crows will stop at nothing to raid garbage cans for a tiny piece of lettuce.
Observation #4: when I make a crow-like noise, crows don't react...yet people do.

More to come....

Return of the Manzier

Like a nincompoop, yesterday I declared this week People Appreciate Week. This is on the heals of Ladies Appreciate Week. I think I made it clear what to do during Ladies week. Here are some wonderful ways to celebrate People Appreciation Week and feel free to submit your own ideas.

* Go to the nearest mall or public area and take close-up pictures of interesting people. When you are done, show them the picture and smirk. Don't say anything and then run for your life.
* If you happen to see a movie in a theatre, make sure to arrive a few minutes after the movie starts and climb over as many people as possible. Also forgot to turn off the ringer since it's sure to bring a smile to everyone's face when it goes off.
* Eavesdrop on someone's cell phone conversation and look that person in the eyes and start nodding your head left and right emphatically. Take their picture and then run for your life.
* Attend an after work gathering for a co-worker at a place known for hanging bras from their rafters. If you are a man... remove a bra you put on just before entering classy establishment et voilà, instant party. (I'm doing this one myself) If you are a woman... approach some guy you think is cute or hot and ask him for his digits. Avoid guys in baseball caps!
* Buy People,the magazine, and actually read the articles.

Updates: before I forget... no one did guess my lock combo, but that doesn't mean the lovely purple iPod sock doesn't go to anyone. The new lock combo is 27-32-7. Figuring out a new way to give away the sock.

This means I need to give you some personal data about me. Well my first car was a 1986 tan Honda Accord that I purchased in 1994, holy shit...that's eleven years ago. It had 150,000 miles on it when I bought it and sold in 1999 with 249,000 for $500. The license plate was an old school Washington state plate, sans Mt. Rainier, LYY - 883. The car officially got the nickname "zee coffee car" since my acquaintance from France thought it smelled like coffee. At that time I was a barrista and cake slicer extrordinaire! After it was stolen once I drove around for about a week using the screwdriver as my "key". I love people!

Love thy neighbors network connection

The computer, my iBook, has been spared for tonight. Just spent three hours trying to gain access to the internet. Finally decided to pirate my neighbor's lightning fast cable connection. WEP key neighbor.. WEP key man!

(rant) I love my Apple products including my iPod and my iBook, but things could turn ugly soon. Recently an update to OS X 10.3 was released. There's some annoying bug that creates heaps of system log files that eats up the precious hard drive disk space. Basically that renders this computer useless because I can't download or save anything. I can't download the patch to the problem because the iBook keeps freezing up. I know this is going to cost me some money because some freaking idiots in Apple's QA department were lazy. Argh! Guess where I will be hanging out after work tomorrow? Yes, you guessed it.... in jail because of my death threats to AppleCare or the nearest Apple store. (/rant)

On a happier note: our soccer team won last night 3-0 and my (broken) right foot scored a goal and had an assist. Took my foot out for a drink aftewards to celebrate the victory. I didn't even trash talk during the game because I love people. Thus beginning People Appreciation Week.

The desert in the Northwest

Friends, what comes to mind when you think of Seattle? Sure there's the grunge rock scene, the Space Needle, a highly caffeinated group of people, our inablility to cross against a "Don't Walk" sign, or perhaps the beautiful scenery. I think for most folks they associate Seattle with rain. However you would be wrong to assume that this year. It has been unseasonably dry. Our ski resorts are barely open due to the low amounts of snow in the mountains. Typically this time of year our ski areas have 100 plus inches of snow at the base. This year they are lucky to have 30 inches and even more fortunate to be operating at all.

How much longer is it until we see camels in Seattle? Stranger things have happened... at one point in time the Sahara Desert was a forest. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the sunny days we have been blessed with recently, however I do understand the consequences of these dry winter days. Summer's inevitable water shortages will lead to rationing which will in turn most likely result in increased water rates.

Being a Seattle native you can understand why I love the rain. My mom told me as a kid the difference between the three of us born in Seattle and my siblings born in California was our inability to recognize rainfall. We were out playing in the rain no matter what, while our other siblings would stay inside the house like wimps. One of my fondest memories is running through puddles in nothing but shorts and a t-shirt during a heavy, yet rare, Seattle downpour. And that was only 8 years ago. I guess I sort of miss the precipitation I have grown so accustomed to in The Emerald City, but I am confident it will return one of these days. Maybe it will rain in March. (crossing fingers rocking out to Nirvana, sipping my Tazo Chai tea latte, glancing at a pic of Mount Rainier, and contemplating my passive aggressive NW lifestyle.)

Jersey Girl

My mother has been an instrumental force in shaping who I am today. For those that don't know me all that well, most of you, let me provide you with a bit of background about my family.

My dearest mom has been dealt an interesting card in life. I am the second youngest of seven kids*. My mom actually had 10 births, but three of her first five children died at infancy. My mother and father got divorced in the mid 80's with three boys under 16 still in the house. A couple years after my parents divorced, my oldest brother/mentor quickly became gravely ill and died of AIDS. Sadly only a couple years later my other brother died in a tragic car accident. These untimely deaths shook our family to the core and had us afraid to pick up any ringing phones. Meanwhile my grandparents were losing grip. My mom's mother suffered from Alzheimer's for over 10 years. My grandfather was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease late in his life and wasn't able to distinguish his daughter from one of his nursing home caretakers.

As you can see the deck has been stacked against my mother for some time. Awful to say this, but she has outlived five of her children.... which is something no parent should have to witness. She was able to find peace and happiness in her own yarn store which she had owned since the mid 80's. It was her pride and joy or what I called another child. This is the place where customers became friends. It was her hobby and career rolled into one. I spent many hours in that store as a child or across the street in the video arcade mastering my Pac-Man moves. Unfortunately a yarn store doesn't tend to bring in lots of money. My mom was clever though and was able to get us financial sponsorships. My baseball team fees somehow always got covered as well as my swimming fees. I hardly ever noticed that we didn't have any money. I was happy and therefore didn't care. My mother tried her best to keep her yarn store going through the late 90's, however it just wasn't happening. She eventually had to fold up shop in January of 1999. It was a sad day for the family.

Elaine spun her wheels for the next couple years, looking for work and barely managing to keep a roof over her head. Today I am happy to report she has come full circle. Things are looking up for my mom. She works two jobs, and one of them has her teaching knitting lessons a few times a week. It appears that knitting, crocheting, and needlepoint are now trendy with the younger people. She's making progress everyday and proving to me that perserverance does pay off.

*Six of her seven children graduated from the University of Washington and all of us have kick ass names. Mine is of course the coolest of them all. Here they are once again for new readers, Everett, Egan, Ethan, Evans, Eliot, Elisa, and Emery. I think we all did pretty well staying out of trouble and developing unique identities. For the most part we all avoided any major problems. Hell, I have never even smoked pot and that's no lie. So to wrap up Ladies Appreciation Week with a post about my mom only seems fitting. Her infectious smile and positive attitude keeps things in perspective.