this_is_my_city gabbie and don't you forget it 130427 ... e_o_i and I can communicate incoherently in both languages. Bonjour hi. 130428 ... raze people say nasty things about this place, and they leave, promising never to return, saying they'll go on to bigger and better things. but they do come back. and they act as if they never left, having found the grass on the other side yellow and overrun with weeds. i have no great desire to leave. i've always felt more or less comfortable here. my city is no worse than any other. except for the parking situation downtown. i think we may have the worst downtown parking in the world. 130501 ... unhinged probably not; downtown parking sucks everywhere for one reason or another. not enough of it, too expensive, parking checkers everywhere like so many cockroaches. sometimes i am more than glad i take the bus. not being hassled with parking is definitely a good thing. i know the north side of seattle pretty well now after almost two years (!) but it's not really my city. not yet. cleveland, youngstown, even milwaukee are still my cities. i could go back to any of those places and find the same tired worn paths, the same broken down buildings, the same tired people. but at least i wouldn't have a shortage of hugs in those places... 130501 ... Pilgrim ...where We hide in the solitude of Our Secret Garden and Pretend that the surrounding buildings are Hills and Forest and the Traffic is some Distant Rushing Stream. 130502 ... past I understand how it works better than you. Being a jerk won't change that. 130503 ... past and by 'works' i mean that people generally aren't jerks here nor take well to them. a rant for another day. 130503 what's it to you? who go blather from