Seattle Shenannigans

So once again Thanksgiving has come and gone. We’ve all stuffed ourselves with turkey and pie, cranberry sauce and taters.

taters, precious?

Thanksgiving is a pretty bizarre holiday, isn’t it? I mean, I suppose the original Thanksgiving made sense. Those Pilgrims sure should have been excited that any one of them survived a year in America. Without the Native Americans around, they all would have died horrible deaths. Starvation- it’s a terrible way to go.

Though I rather doubt that said original Thanksgiving was as race-inclusive and happy-go-lucky as elementary school plays lead us to believe. I mean, for starters, the Pilgrims weren’t a very celebratory bunch. Puritans aren’t known for the wicked awesome parties they threw. Plus, when they had to come up with something to be thankful for, you know some of them were like “… and thank sweet baby Jesus I haven’t died of dysentery yet. Or influenza. Or consumption. You know, like Bill. Boy, he sure didn’t look so good. But he said I could have his plow, so- I’m thankful for Bill!”

trust me, this was a lot better than a picture of dysentary

But anymore, it’s pretty much all about food. And commercialism/consumerism. Yay, America! We’re real good at eating. And spending money on useless shit.

And then of course there’s Black Friday. Yikes, now there’s a scary thing. I haven’t heard if anyone got trampled in the rush to get in to Macy’s at 4am. Hopefully that didn’t happen this year. I definitely avoided the shopping centers on Friday, though I have to admit I was pretty tempted by some of the different sales. Especially the one at Target. I love Target. But I don’t have a car, so I sat in my aunt and uncle’s living room and watched infomercials until like 2am. God those are addictive. Speaking of things I don’t need… (here I thought about putting the picture of the Shamwow guy again, but figured I'd save you the indignity)

We went to Pike Place Market on Friday, which is always an awesome stop. It’s just chock full of interesting people, food, animals, and curios. Also, free samples. I’m pretty sure I ate my weight in tiny free morsels of food that the various vendors were giving out. My cousin Lucy and I hovered around the bread-and-fancy-olive oil place until they gave us the stinkeye for consuming an entire loaf of bread in under 3 minutes. We also learned the handy trick of going up to a food vendor and pretending interest in whatever they’re selling so they, the optimistic suckers, give you a sample so you can try it. Then you eat it, nod thoughtfully, and ask to try a different variety. Repeat the second step until the vendor catches on to the fact you are a charlatan with no intention of buying anything, and chases you away with sharp and/or heavy objects.

NO MORE SPICY PICKLES FOR YOU!

The Seattle Aquarium was another stop on our list for the day. I absolutely adore aquariums. Brightly colored fish darting through interesting exhibits, furry circling seals, poison-colored anemones waving sticky arms, and oddly-shaped branches of fantastical coral. Aquariums are great. However, there are two common marine animals which I dislike: barnacles and jellyfish. Barnacles because they are all gross and mushy inside, and jellyfish because they waft around their tanks, missing all sorts of important things like a brain, and a heart, and lungs, and eyes… and they sting. And they’re gross. And, and, and… they’re squishy. Did I mention they’re gross?

gah. even this picture makes me shudder

Also, I have great trouble saying the word “anemone”.  I always mix up the Ns and Ms. Despite all this, I still greatly enjoyed the trip, and took lots of blurry cell phone pictures. Lordy, I need to get a camera.

ameno- anmeno- amemo- shit. never mind.

All in all, I consider it a very successful day. We even went to a lovely restaurant on Capitol Hill called The Grill (are you supposed to italicize restaurant names? never mind, it looks classy anyways), and I had some most delicious butternut squash ravioli. I also adore ravioli. And it was all pretty great.

Holidays are pretty great.