Things I Will Find Myself Missing About Anacortes

I am someone who becomes attached to things very quickly. For example: In summer school biology class (that I took to get ahead), we had to create a bug collection (properly labeling the species and type) for our final class project. My friend Elisa had caught a caterpillar and dropped it into a jar for temporary storage before it was transferred to the the kitty litter-plaster of paris-acetone gas chamber. While it was in it's little holding cell, the caterpillar just made circles over and over again to the point where we named it Speedy. And once you name something, knowing that it will be dead mere hours later and pinned to a foam board, the act of killing it becomes heart wrenching. I assume little Speedy was eventually killed, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Just trying to remember it brings a tear to my eye.

That being said, knowing that I will be moving away from the Northwest, Seattle, and Anacortes is heartbreaking. For the short time that I have lived in Anacortes, I have grown strangely attached to this little town. Perhaps it is due to all the Gilmore Girls I watch and my secret wanting this town to be my Stars Hollow.

Things I will miss: This view.

These are the things I will find myself missing about Anacortes when we move away:

-The Senior Center. In this period of unemployment, I have volunteered at the Anacortes Senior Center as a way to keep myself from going crazy and also to just hone whatever skills I still have. But I like the place and the people that frequent the Senior Center. They are just characters. Most of them are what I imagine my friends and I will be like when we get into our twilight years.

-Stan, Yeong, and Mark the Skagit Transit Bus Drivers. They are awesome--when I get on they greet me by name, they know when I get off so if I happen to zone out they won't pass my bus stop, if the bus is running late and I need a transfer they know to call the bus driver ahead to wait for me. Yeong even brought me homemade kimchi one day when she found out I liked kimchi. They were the first people I ever talked to, on a regular basis, in Anacortes.

-The Seafood guy at The Market. I swear he's stoned most of the time, but I've never met anyone who's more excited about seafood than that guy. Plus, he remembered that I was from Seattle and what I did last weekend, thus making for casual conversation while he's weighing out salmon for me.

-The deer in the backyard who live under our porch. Sometimes I pretend they are like pets, but sometimes they are just a touch annoying what with the eating of the foliage and peeing on our lawn.

-Victoria radio, mostly like CJZN The Zone on Vancouver Island. It's a cute little radio station and they play great music and they're just so adorable in their little Canadian ways. Although I have yet to get used to their weather reports, as they measure the temperature in Celsius.

-Old Salts. It's a gas station mini-mart. But it's owned by a nice Korean couple, who make kimchi on the reg and sell it. Homemade kimchi, at a gas station mini-mart in Anacortes: Weird, I know, but so delicious.

Foul Bachelorette Frog

3 months? Maybe 2? I managed to stick to my weekly blogging goal for nearly three months (eh, it's probably closer to two months) before the laziness slipped in and I had better, more pressing matters to attend to...like sitting around watching the TLC's marathon on the anniversary of the Royal Wedding.

To my credit, I did do a lot of things in between all the lazy TV watching, which I shall summarize for you below:

To the Emerald City!
I went down to Seattle one weekend to hang out with friends and see some old co-workers. And it was the perfect weekend to be in town; it was like a TV show (or someone's very pretentious Pinterest account): Single gal in the city, crashing with two friends and their adorable Shiba in their loft in the heart of town, lunch at a delicious hole in the wall establishment, a bustling happy hour with hand cut french fries and $2 New Belgium beer,  brunch at a place that serves water in mason jars, dinner at a place where their water carafes are old whiskey jars, people watching at Cal Anderson, and Stumptown coffee!

On another time, I went down during the middle of the week (because I'm unemployed and I can) to meet up with friends for some quality girls time and Korean BBQ (and also some Musashi's with the last bit of cash I had left). Before I headed back up to Anacortes the next day, I managed to sneak in a trip to Cafe Besalu. I had a spinach quiche there and ordered a croissant and ham and swiss danish for the road.

Making a mess.

Girls Night All The Time.
While Jack was out of town, I took the opportunity to devolve into a college version of myself (poor nutrition choices bound by laziness) and forget any social manners I may have ever learned. Messy countertops? I'll clean that shizz tomorrow....maybe. Dinner of Hot Cheetos and maybe a salad? Don't mind if I do. Not shaving my legs for a week (or more). It's not sunny tomorrow, is it? Then I'm not shaving my legs!

I also gave myself a few more liberties, such as using both bathrooms in the most inefficient way possible. I like to use the toilet in the hallway bathroom, but I'm going to shower in the other one, because it has a nice shower-head (the kind that make it feel like rainfall). I also untucked the blankets and threw on a pink bedsheet. Then there was the watching of terrible television without fear of being judged (My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding? Uh, yes please!).

We usually only deal with this kind of wildlife. Not rabbits. That's something new.

Jack's Back! Time for all the work around the house.
One of the things I was actively avoiding while Jack was gone (but knowing full well that it needed to be done) was mowing the grass. Mostly because I'm not quite sure how this mowing business works (I've never done it myself) and also because lazy. So when Jack gets back, we get to doing stuff around the house--I'm weeding while Jack mows.

Twenty minutes in, Jack discovers that the lawn mower has gone over a little rabbit nest. The mom is toast, but we find three little rabbit babies. We scoop them into a box and Jack goes back to mowing the lawn, while I let my guilt seep in. I end up going through the phone book looking for advice on what to do. By the way: If you are using the MacGregor Yellow Book for Skagit Valley and look up Wildlife Removal, don't call that number because it calls a NURSING HOME. Boy, that was an awkward telephone conversation.

In the end we decide to drop off the babies at a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center up near Bellingham. So we take the box and throw in some grass and get going. Luckily the babies are in good shape when we get there, a bit cold since we were supposed to keep them covered with a blanket instead of in a box with grass thrown on top, but the lady at the center thinks they will be okay. Another successful, if slightly frightening, interaction with wildlife!

Jack's Belated Birthday Surprises
Jack's birthday came and went while he was down in El Centro, and outside of a text I sent him on that day, he didn't have much time to celebrate. And that's where all my pent up energy from not working comes in! I decorated his room in colorful (read: hot pink and yellow) streamers, wrapped his presents all nice and tacky like, and even baked him a cake. If you're feeling a little intimidated by my Martha Stewart-esque-ness, don't be--that cake was from a box with artificial canned frosting! Yum!

The birthday boy declined to be photographed with his cake.