Trip Down Memory Highway

Yesterday afternoon Jesse and I drove up to Seattle because my friend Monica is getting married tomorrow and the rehearsal was last night. This is my first trip back home since the wedding, so we got up early today to have breakfast with my dad and his wife. Then I headed over to Queen Anne (a neighborhood in Seattle) for some pre-wedding nail salon time with Monica and the other girls.

As an aside, it has been just beautiful recently with all the spectacularly colored leaves and a nice mix of crisp, cool sunny days and classic northwest rainy gray days. It was fun driving up yesterday and seeing all of the scenery, and today confirmed that Seattle is just as pretty as Portland. I really love fall - I like the trees changing, the fresh start of a new school year, and cozy things like candles and soup. It's a very nostalgic season.

Driving through the eastside and across Lake Washington reminded me, as always, why I love this city so much and brought back memories of last year and how nice (and difficult) it was to be home again after Croatia, and of the years in school at UW before that. When I got downtown my route took me right past the catering place I worked at before moving to Portland, and thoughts of all the drama and life transition that took place there came to mind. Afterward when I was driving home the Red Hot Chili Peppers came on the radio, instantly taking me back to life in Rijeka. For some reason that band, along with U2, is (or was) incredibly popular there.

Other than the wedding, the big focus of this weekend has been clearing my stuff out of my mom's basement - something I've been putting off and failing to complete since I returned to the states over a year ago. So today I dove in. Boxes and bags and suitcases of notes from college classes, souvenirs, random clothing, stuffed animals, craft supplies, cds, outdated electronics, stacks of photographs from all eras of my life, ziplocs full of cards and letters, etc. It was overwhelming, both to try to decide what to keep/what to toss/how to categorize and to process all the thoughts and emotions and memories that the objects brought to the surface so haphazardly.

Now it's time for bed. With all of that behind me for now, I hope to wake up with a clear head, ready to enjoy Monica's wedding before driving home to start a new week.

Comments

Anonymous said…
what exactly do you mean by "life transitions" taking place at ol' 522 Wall St.?

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