Seattle

I just suddenly wanted to pop you guys a note 'cos i've been thinking and missing you guys a lot.

No kidding.


It all started with this picture crap thing I've been trying to pull off on this page.

I just thought I'd taken quite some pictures with my rather big, fat and underused cameras but I never quite put them to good use. So I started rummaging through the library, and more often than not, I get this whole nostalgic shit hitting me over like a bull.

And in recent weeks, there are these few particular folders that I'd revisit every other day, if not every - just to relive the memories again.

There's the trip with the chicks to the Kong this time last year where we'd walk an hour, pop into a pub for two, stop by food stalls for undefined meals, pop into another bar for a few more and then get irritated to hear local commentary over the World Cup channels everywhere we went. And then, we'd snuggle up in a queen bed with half-drunk beer bottles and half-eaten "curry fish eggs" lying around us, and wake up the next morning complaining about the kicking and the blanket-war (it would be pretty much obvious who commited which crime).

Then there was my self-inspiring trip to Frisco where I'd done nothing else, on my own, but walk walk walk walk walk everywhere. I'd dragged my luggage from the Met station to the dingy little budget backpacker's hostel tucked in one sleazy corner between Little Italy and Chinatown. It was daunting - I'd seen all these infamously amazing Frisco slopes on TV but I'd never thought one day I might have to drag a hugeass luggage, and a huge tired ass, up these very slopes after waking up at 3 in the morning just to catch the first flight out from Portland. From that moment, I knew Frisco was going to be nothing less than an adventure. That I'd managed to come home alive, I thank my guts and my strong legs.

And then, there was Seattle. The city that is sleepless, thanks to all the quaint little cafes that pop up in your face every few steps you take. The city where I had the best ever crab cakes thus far. The city where I first dreamt of setting up my own doggie bakery. The city where I attended my first wedding celebration in a foreign land - by the beach, too. The city where I first thought of owning my own pad. The city where I had family - cousins whom I'd never met in the first twenty-odd years of my life but who I've come to love a lot.

And so, just sometime last week, I opened up the email and sent out a note to the ones I love but have not seen for two years.



Then came the flurry of replies.

Jalita, the half-Indian half-Tahitian Canadian girlfriend of cousin Mark, says, "It is so nice hearing from you. Do you plan on visiting us here anytime soon? Well once you've sorted things out with work, you should come over :) You know you can email anytime you want, and we can chat about anything. Don't be a stranger."

Well, she single-handedly put Tahiti in my travel-to list. And she's so chatty, I've never really felt more girly yet smarty at the same time with anyone else really. She's the one who taught me too to purchase sale items online because they are tax-free.

Then cousin Mark, the cool dude who's really warmer than he looks and who convinces me the love of speed must've run in the family somehow, says, "Any interest in Redmond?"

OF COURSE, DUDE. Get me a job in Seattle. Pleeeeeease.

Finally, baby cousin Charles, the sweet one who isn't exactly a baby at only a year older than I but who is now a father ahead of us, says, "Let us know if you will be coming out to Seattle any time soon. It would be nice to see you again and for you to meet Asha."

Baby Asha. The last time I was in Seattle - that was in May of '05, I attended her parents' beach wedding. And today, baby Asha's nine months old.




I hope to see you in Seattle soon - cos i really miss that awesome place.

:)
mei