Emerald City Search!

From Emerald City Search

This was a fairly eventful week: I finished "The Seven-Day Miracle Detox" (I'll blog about that another time), "Wii Music" came out, Auntie Nancy and I helped feed some homeless people, and I even did some computer programming. But the highlight was something called the "Emerald City Search."

The Emerald City Search is a treasure hunt amongst the parks and other public places of Seattle. A medallion is hidden somewhere in the city, and each day a clue is given in the newspaper. Because a good clue can be interpreted in many ways, people end up looking all over Seattle. Some people spend almost every waking hour of an entire week searching!

Fortunately for me, I don't hear about the Emerald City Search until Wednesday. I go to sleep ~8:30 am, and my cell rings at ~11 am. It is my Uncle Gordon. He tells me about the search and that he thinks he knows where the medallion is hidden: Discovery Park! However, Uncle Gordon can't check it out until after work. So that gives me time to check out the clues (8 of 10 have been posted by then).

I spend a few hours reading the clues, reading what other obsessed searchers are thinking, researching frogs (this year's theme), and learning about the many different parks and sights in Seattle. (It was a very good way to get me excited about exploring the city! Did you know that 5% of Seattle's land is reserved for parks and other green areas?)

In the evening, Uncle Gordon and I drive to Discovery Park, armed with flashlights and walkie-talkies. It becomes dark very quickly, but we make it to a scenic ridge where I take the attached photo. Discovery Park is huge, and we explore the park for awhile, but we don't see anything that clicks. We also disagree on where in the park the clues are pointing.

We take a break for dinner at Wendy's, then we explore some other nooks and crannies near Discovery Park. It is good exercise for me, and it is totally fun trying to figure out the clues with Uncle Gordon. I also see some parts of the city that I'm sure I wouldn't see otherwise.

We go back home a little discouraged, but we are also excited to wait until midnight for the 9th clue, which is bound to be helpful. Will we go out at midnight, or wait until dawn? Or might someone have already found the medallion that night?

It turns out that someone does find the medallion shortly before midnight. (There was a minor but moot scandal about how that happened.) And Uncle Gordon and I are totally wrong on the medallion's location: it was miles away in some other park!

Overall, I had a great time: learning about the city, exploring, exercise, free food, humility, and bonding with Uncle Gordon. And, I had an honest chance at finding the medallion, but it cost me only a day rather than a whole week. (Poor Uncle Gordon! But I know it was fun for him. :-)

I know Minneapolis has a similar annual search, and I imagine other cities do as well. For those in SF, there's always the Chinese New Year Treasure Hunt!

Voting, roots

I just finished filling out my absentee ballot for the upcoming elections . . . as a Washington resident! Even though I don't know how long I will be in Seattle, I didn't want to be here with the mindset of a wanderer. The basis is a sermon I heard, during grad school, based on Jeremiah 29:4-7:

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."

At that time I recall doing the opposite of the above verses: I was mostly ignoring the people I would encounter every day, the vast majority of whom were students like I was. I was just there to do research, get my degree, and yes have idle fun, but really it was a stepping stone. Not a cornerstone. I definitely was not trying to put down roots, either physically or relationally. The reality was that school was a temporary place for me and most of the others. Every year, most students seemed to leave and new students replaced them.

Long story short, I found my attitude and perspective changing. And I was much happier. Not only was I getting to know a lot more people--some better than others, some still friends and some I've lost touch with--but I was less of an overanalyzing, selfish person. I hated how my mind would think, "It would be better for you to get to know this person instead of that person, because of such-and-such." Or how I would go places for a week and put up these walls because I didn't think it would be worth really getting to know people there.

This attitude check transformed my actions at Caltech, in Minnesota, in SF, and now in Seattle. And I am very grateful, even though I have continued to move around frequently. So, even though I might leave Seattle in any given month, I have updated all my personal info to here, including my car and voter registration. And I want to get to know my neighbors better.

FYI, if you want to know whom I voted for, anyone should feel free to e-mail me.

Mary and Mom visit!

From Mary and Mom visiting!

My sister, Mary, came all the way from England to visit for an extended weekend! (I think she had frequent flyer miles that needed to be used.) Mom flew in from Seattle, so it was the first time in several years that the relatives here got to see all three of us at once.

In a couple of months, Mary will get her Ph.D. from Cambridge University. (The emphasis is on the Old Testament, I think.) I haven't yet heard what Mary will do afterward or where she will go. Stay tuned!

Car hopping

So I am renting a room in my cousin Jason's condo. It seems like a good setup so far, and we both are learning more about each other. Jason is in the Army Reserve, and he left today for a month of training and vacation.

The condo complex has 17 units but only 6 assigned parking spaces. However, there is ample street parking. What is really funny is that Jason's condo has 2 assigned spaces! Jason has only one car, but I think he doesn't want to deal with the hassle/liability of renting out his other space. Anyway, every day Jason parks so as to occupy both of his spaces:

From Jason's car

Can you imagine parking that way at work or in SF? :-) One might get a ticket and many dirty looks. Of course, the work and SF spaces don't belong to us. And Jason would want me to point out that he can back out of the parking garage more quickly this way.

Jason did offer to rent me his second parking space (I guess 'cause we're cousins :-), but I declined because I need to watch my budget.

Also, on the freeway this week, Jason and I witnessed a strange accident:

From Accident on freeway

Yes, the red Corvette has somehow slipped underneath the Mercedes! A bunch of cars had stopped suddenly, but the red Corvette was a little late. We saw its hood fly off; it is on the ground on the right side. I can only imagine how scary the accident was for both the guys in the Corvette, and for the woman in the Mercedes! Thankfully, it looked like no one was seriously hurt.