Skirts Are for Girls, Pants Are for Boys (and Other Lessons)

My friend Julia, whom I met in my study abroad program in Australia, came to visit this past week. She's getting her Masters this summer at the University of Oregon in Eugene and was hanging out with me until she could move in to her house. As I usually do with my longer post topics, I will give you the highlights, more or less in chronological order. (Side note: The title of this post has nothing to do with anything you will read below. It comes from an episode of 19 Kids and Counting that we watched one evening). Okay. Here we go:

1. Julia arrived on Sunday afternoon. On Monday, which was miraculously beautiful, we packed a picnic lunch and headed to Gas Works Park on the northern tip of Lake Union. It was abuzz with activity: a man in full army garb; a ripped, spray painted couch at the base of the hill; a topless dummy chilling in the boatyard. 

2. After Gas Works, we paid a quick visit to the Fremont Troll and got ice cream at Molly Moon's in Wallingford. Then it was over to Pike Place to see the Gum Wall and three impossibly gorgeous men dressed in suits, standing in front of the fish market singing Beatles songs. We walked to the sculpture park and then over to the Moore where my dad gave us a tour, including a climb up onto the fly rail and into the dome. We also toured the Paramount. It was a very theater-centered afternoon. Oh, and I almost forgot the man we saw at Westlake Center, holding up a sign that read, "Ron Paul for President 2008." You're a little late for that, pal.

3. We took two separate trips to the skate park near my house to spray paint on the graffiti wall. Here are our masterpieces from the first visit:

Renegade Julia was responsible for the boat windows on the left and the heart and camera on the right.

 

 

 

You can tell I have no artistic talent because I just regurgitated lyrics from "Live Here" by The Lonely Forest.

The next day, we drove past the wall and noticed that my lyrics were still up, as were Julia's heart and camera, but someone had painted over her ship windows. As in, only over her ship windows. And it wasn't like they'd painted anything cool. It was white. They covered her art with a coat of white paint. We got our revenge the next afternoon by painting this over the white:

 We also extended our artistic prowess onto the other side of the wall (after replenishing our dwindling supply of spray paint). This was the result:

Finished product.

Julia in action.

The green light is supposed to be a globe. Again, I'm not very skilled.

When our fingers were sufficiently paralyzed from spraying, we scaled the climbing wall.

4. It was entirely necessary for us to reward our rebellious behavior at the graffiti wall with a trip to Theno's Dairy for ice cream. I then took us on a very circuitous route to the Redmond Trader Joe's where we needed some groceries, including a watermelon. Julia grabbed a basket and was toting the melon around the store. I kept joking that she "carried a watermelon" like Baby from Dirty Dancing. Julia didn't think it was very funny.

5. The next day we woke up early and headed to Orcas Island to drop off pottery for my mom. The weather held out while we were there, and after delivering the pots, visiting with a couple family friends, getting drinks and snacks at Teezer's Coffee House, bread at Rose's Bakery, and chocolate at Kathryn Taylor Chocolates (what more could you need?), we drove up to the top of Mt. Constitution. On our way down, a mother and baby deer crossed the road in front of us. Neither of us had ever seen a baby deer before--it was so tiny and adorable, prancing around like a rabbit!

I know I'm omitting a ton, but I think this pretty much covers the highlights. It was great to have Julia here for a while. I'll have to nag her to send me the photos she took. Actually, she's probably going to read this before I get a chance to ask her. So Julia, will you send me your photos?