lauren's

something told me it's all happenin at the zoo -- i do believe it, i do believe it's true
someday i'll finish the tales of my scottish exploits. but! for now i shall talk instead about: seattle, and events leading up to seattle.
although . . . i guess events leading up to seattle were pretty much like this: sit around. read a book. drive around with chris. drink some beer with olly. sit around some more. work on a new web page that will be up someday. sit around some more. start DA training and then start work.
but on sunday (the 22nd?) chris and i went to seattle! yay. we got there at about 9 sunday night, which was pretty good time, considering CHRIS was late leaving, though he thought i would be the not-ready-to-go-at-one-o'clock one! ahem. we stayed at a lovely hotel in downtown seattle, which i remembered from the infamous arlie-erin-robin-lauren-tequila trip. anyway, it was in a great location, because it was only about three blocks from pike place market and about six blocks from the hotel that shan was staying in. (and yes, she finally has a web page, small though it may be!) so on sunday night we found shan, and we went down to another place i remembered from before, kells. they got drunk and i got less drunk than they were and then we walked home. it was a good night, even though shan wouldn't let me leave her email address for the cuteish bartender.
the next morning chris and i kind of succeeded in getting up early to go to the experience music project, the big cool high-tech museum about jimi hendrix and other various forms of mostly-american music. it was way neat and i had a really good time, even though it was super expensive ($20). then that night we went out to a place called the cheesecake factory (chris and i were VERY hard to convince about the appropriateness of this restaurant, haha) with shelby and JOSH! the (in)famous josh! who is exactly the same as he used to be, except with shorter hair, down to the very last raised eybrow. i had forgotten about the cute eyebrow thing. anyway, it was weird to see him again after 4+ years, but really good. i had an mmmmm eggplant sammich and then cheesecake, of course. afterwards we went on a new apartment tour, to shelby's gigantic and super cute place, and then to shan's little studio which is actually bigger than mine, though less purple.
and tuesday was for walking around downtown and for the zoo! at the zoo we saw: froggies! and then some other things in the dark. it was a spiffy day & night exhibit, so there were frogs and lizards and snakes and crocodiles in the day one, and then in the night one there was an ARMADILLO! and also a loris, and some other fuzzy things with big big eyes. and then, the very best part -- there were some huge fruit bats! like probably at least a foot long. one was hanginaround right by the window, opening up its wings and showing off. it did a couple pullups for us, and then another one came over to bug it. it moved like a monkey across the vines and the wire roof. i didn't know they moved like that. anyway the two had a kind of little dominance fight involving beating wings and thrashing around. then the usurper monkeyed away and the first one went back to where it had been and swung around some more. we watched for a long time. it was really cool. they are neat critters. after the bats we found the lions, but they were just sitting showing off and being all regal. then we looked for the monkeys, and found some gorilla groups. it was great! the first group had a couple teenagers who chased each other, did acrobatics, drummed on logs and danced, and jumped off things and rolled around. and there was a big fat mama lying on the ground with a tiny baby, just born august 30! baby was sleeping and mama was patting her with big fingers. the second group of gorillas was around the corner in a different enclosure, i guess. when we got there, that one had just a punk teenager and a mama and toddler. the teenager and the toddler played for a while, and mama sat and stared with her tongue hanging out, looking kind of unwell. the teenager banged on her head until she got mad and got up and left, with the little one sticking really close to her side. then he bugged them some more until he startled the little one and it screamed. about ten seconds later, a big papa gorilla and another mama and toddler came around the corner. the punk kid went off and hid in the bushes, clearly scared of big papa gorilla. it was so funny. then there were screaming children so we left there and went back to see the tiny baby again for a few minutes before we had to leave.
after much parking hassle, we made it to the baseball game, finally. the mariners were playing the As, which were, of course, the reason we were there. the mariners won, which was good for seattle but bad for chris. right after the game we took shan and her jojo-dad home to their hotel and then we left town. on the way home we stopped at a casino that was soooo lame that i don't even remember what it was called. it was silly. we spent $10 on nothingness. not even roulette. just pushing buttons on a stupid machine. you don't even get to stick the quarters in it anymore. you just get a card with money on it, and you stick the card in the machine and push the buttons. it was really boring. i don't see the point.
so today is sunday now and i have been working all week since we got back. it is good to be working; it means i will get a nice big fat paycheck at the end of october. i'm also working for disabilities services, reading textbooks for books on tape, which is kind of fun, though i'm very scared of doing wrong and making some poor kid flunk. such a high pressure job, that sitting in a room reading to oneself . . .
then this weekend shan and shelby came to visit. i didn't get to see shelby so much 'cos she was trying to resolve some things, but i did get to see shan, which was really fun! we went to saturday market with olly and ate yummy food, and we . . . sat around, i guess. that's about it. oh, we saw our old pal kent, which was good. and we ate a lot. and we slept. very exciting weekend. i am at the area desk right now and i don't have to be, so i think i'll go home and make a grilled cheese sammich. and school starts tomorrow!!

you're everybody's satellite -- i wish that you were mine
ancient history aside, here's a little update anyway. i am currently at the HC working on my thesis. the author of the book i'm translating is going to be doing a reading in english and she wants to use my translations instead of having to do it herself. yay! also, eek! so i'm finishing one story and cleaning up another to get to her by the 24th. yikes!
i went camping this weekend with shelby, her pal travis, karen&emily, chris brunner and megs, dylan and his pal mary, matt and his girlfriend, and jen and bill. it was fun but WAAAAY too cold!! but i had a good time. i haven't been camping in a long time. but next time it'll really be summer . . .