Oh, the drama.
Well, I’m back in Vancouver again… It feels like I just had a weekend, but it’s only friday tommorow. It was so nice being able to hold Katie in my arms again, to have the warmth of human contact to ground us both. Damn it’s been a long time. Even something like having your back stroked as you fall sleep is something that really does sooth the soul. Just that was more than worth the effort to drive down. I find that I don’t mind it a whole lot, but rather it’s the idea of driving so far, and using all that gas that upsets me more…
I did feel the effects of being away from each other for so long though… There is definitely a sense of synchronicity that wasn’t quite matched up, or that we were unused to. Even when I went up to her hotel room, imagining how I would greet her, she was there, walking down the hall, not to find me, but rather to fight off starvation by getting a snack in the lobby. Or even just the cadence of our thoughts are a bit assymetrical, because as much as two people can talk on the phone, there are those subtle nuances when the whole range of non-verbal communication is factored in. That said, I’m sure the stress and excitement of moving to a new place, where you know almost nobody, job uncertain, housing uncertain, packing up your life in a car, and driving across america would make a mess of the minds of many people.
And I’ve decided that what I need isn’t the most sophisicated alarm clock on the planet, but just Katie to fall asleep to, to regulate my impaired sleeping habits. When all you have is a body pillow and some stuffed animals, there’s just no incentive for me to get to bed. Give me a warm body to snuggle up to anyday. It’s like I’m feeding off of her circadian rhythms.
There were a few moments of ridiculousness on this trip. It was Wednesday night, and we were trying to grab some food in downtown Seattle, and for the life of us, we couldn’t find any good restaurants that were open. Apparently Downtown Seattle is a hotbed of french dinner cuisine. Escargot, veal, duck and cheese plates galore, but it just wasn’t that kind of night. There was this one restaurant with appetizers going for almost $10, and entrees going for $25-35 cdn. Ugh. We did end finding a gem of an african restaurant, and we got this delicious sample plate of different african curry dishes. The other incident, which is possibly one of the more ridiculous things to happen to me, is that as we were putting our luggage into the trunk of my car (which is actually my mom’s), I guess I had put the keys in the cardboard box in the trunk as I was rearranging everything. As the trunk was swinging shut, I had this pang of panic as I heard the solid thunk of the trunk closing, and the flashing brake lights signalling the trunk was locked, to prevent thieves from getting into it.
Sure enough, I was NOT in possession of these keys. Instead, the cardboard box inside the largely impenetrable trunk was now holding the keys hostage. Katie had just run off to get directions to this apartment she was going to look at, and I felt my heart sink. Fuckfuckfuck.
I had overheard stories with my dad’s friends about the keys for these new mercedes. She had thought she had lost the keys to her car one time, and had to reissue a specially programmed key and remote, costing hundreds of dollars. And here I was in downtown Seattle, about 300 kilometres from Vancouver, and the spare keys (at home), and a girlfriend who had gone to find directions to an apartment I was driving to see with her, in half a hour. Just peachy. We called Lang Towing, the operator of the parking lot, and they arrived in about 20 minutes and were kind of helpful. At least they were pleasant. Katie said she had this one dude arrive and he just sat and laughed at her plight. They opened the door to the car alright, but in doing so set off the alarm, which disabled the power locks. So we were sitting here, siren just going nuts, with no way to get into the trunk. The dude basically shrugs, and tells me to phone my dealership, and then try to get them to use my vehicle ID number to get a new key/remote cut/programmed for me at a seattle dealership. Hmm, good idea! Either that, or hire a locksmith to get a new key, which would cost a pretty penny and then some. He wishes us good luck, and tells us to be on our way. Somewhat relieved to at least be in the car, I’m sitting in the passenger seat and put down my bags,, when I realize that i should get a hold of the dealership. I get out of the car, and close the door.
I hear Katie’s voice right beside me, “Don’t close the —” *THUNK*
greattt… yay for my incompotence. Now her purse is stuck in there, with her ID and wallet. She’s supposed to leave today to go back home at 7:50. It’s currently lunchtime.
So we go to the hotel’s business centre to find the number to my mom’s dealership. They tell me that if I have Teleaid, they can send someone over and just a code to pop the trunk. But of course, our family didn’t count on my incompetence to leave the keys in the trunk. So they say they can send someone from Downtown road assistance to fix it.
“They can open the trunk to get my keys?”
“Yeah, they can fix the problem for you. They’ll be there in 45 minutes, or less”
Relieved, we sneak a copy of the USA Today, while we wait outside for the downtown road assistance to arrive. We get a call on Katie’s phone 40 minutes later asking where we were, and if we needed to replace a flat tire. Things are NOT looking good, and we’re both skeptical of this person’s ability to help us in any way whatsoever. Sure enough, they arrive, and have even more trouble than the first person, just getting our door open, while we futilely try to explain to him that the keys are in the trunk, and that we CANNOT open the trunk. He asks us if we’ve pressed the trunk release, which we have done already, but is non-functional from the disabling of the power locks, and even after we tell him we have, he is insistent on pressing the trunk release himself. After attempting this, he tells me exactly what the last person told me, that he can’t help me, and that I should look into getting spare keys UPSed from Vancouver, or get the car towed to the local seattle dealership, and get them to open it somehow, if i don’t want to pay a locksmith hundreds to get me a new key.
So I phone the vancouver dealership to basically tell them that they didn’t help me at all. I was transferred all over, to this man with a british accent to told me that I was most likely SOL. The one chance I had was to bring it to the seattle dealership. The car. Tow it to the dealership, and MAYBE they might be able to help me, and maybe see if I have TeleAid But most likely, I wouldn’t be able to open it, because you DEFINITELY can’t just program remotes to open specific cars. Argh. I get the seattle dealership’s number from him, and tell my sob story to this other guy who says that they probably can’t do anything for me, but that he would look into a few things and then call me back. At this point, I’m envisioning my mom having to drive down to seattle to bring the spare keys down, and katie having to take a cab to the airport, and not be able to see ANY apartments at all. Aggravated, I start pushing buttons on the dashboard, and I hit the button for the hazard lights. which is one button away from the power unlock button. And lo and fucking behold, all the locks are released with the resounding click. My mouth drops, and I dash outside and sure enough, the trunk is unlocked.
In-fucking-compotence.
All of those mercedes dudes, the roadside assistance people, and especially me. After all that, i could have opened it if I had missed the power unlock button by an inch. As we’re driving, the guy from the seattle dealership phones and tells me he has bad news for me. I tell him I have good news for him, that I’m currently driving down the street.
Katie and I go see this cute little apartment with a view of the Space needle, a little studio with a walk-in closet. It’s cute, but a bit pricey at $675 + utilities… Otherwise, it’s a pretty sweet deal, even if the kitchen is small. There’s another place a few floors up with a great view of the water for an extra $75. There’s another place we tried to look at elsewhere, but it turned out to be some random house with no one around, so we gave up on that.
Next stop was the Pacific Science Center, where she had to drop off a completed application form. I had some drama for me at the Subway instead. I really needed to make use of their restroom facilities, after not going all morning, so I amble in and do my business. As I come out, a dude tells me that I now have to go buy something. I go line up, but it’s so damn long, and I’ve paid for 10 minutes of parking, so while he’s cleaning a table, so when I turn the corner, and boot out of there. I faintly heard his insistent voice trailing behind me, but I lose him as the sounds of traffic rush past me.
We go to Pike place market next, driving past the original star bucks store. There’s this amazing group of acapella soul-singers. They were just amazing. Had sandwiches for lunch. BBQ salmon sandwich. Yum. and walk around. It’s a pretty neat place. Lots of delicious looking food, and neat little shops. Somehow, I needed to go the bathroom again, and I just wanted to check out this crazy auto-cleaning bathroom they have at the market. It has little sliding elevator doors to the room, and this crazy cleaning function. I felt like I was on the set of star trek. But as I was doing my business, I kept hearing whirring and clicking noises, and I peed in constant fear of getting myself sprayed and sanitized. Luckily I survived. Next thing we knew, it was time to for Katie to leave Seattle. She’s arriving back in Erie, and then going straight to Tobermory for some camping with her family. Should be a fun time! And then in just another week, I’ll be with her again, setting out to drive across America, to move out here! ahhhhhh!! craziness!
And now, I’m pooped.