Inauguration post: Three weeks so far!

I arrived in Seattle about three weeks ago, and I am charging forth with a blog to document the adventures to come.  I mostly aim to push myself to write regularly, and focus on what I'm writing.  I love my journals, my notebooks and my smooth inky pens, but I am ready to write cohesively... at least, if I say this to myself enough, it will be true, won't it? 

I couldn't decide, however, if I would focus on the art of writing, and the Seattle writing community I aim to discover, or if I would focus on flamenco, and the flamenco community I aim to discover here, or on Spanish language, and the bilingual families I aim to meet and the playgroups I aim to join.  So in the end, I have one blog for all my life's passions.  No one is so narrow in their interests, I'm sure, as to not understand this.  Well, I'm sure there are some truly obsessive, genius artists out there that don't understand my wacky brain reaching out in all directions.  But I'm normal.  Not genius.  I have a wacky, rather unfocused, brain.

Some introductions are in order:


Ben is my husband, also a Seattle native and happily returning after traipsing around the country and the world with me, and Hudson is our son.  He is fifteen months old but is just shy of twelve months in this photo.  Hudson loves to spin wheels, read books, eat animal crackers, and practice his walking up and down these new crazy things called sidewalks.  (We have spent the last several years in New Hope, PA.)   He's also fond of playing his daddy's guitar.  Ben loves to invent words, read graphic novels, play music, and play with Hudson, and I think he may be determined to try every microbrew in the state by the time we sign an apartment lease here.  He is my north star and my laugh machine and  the other half of my orange (do you speak Spanish?)

A word on apartments in Seattle - they are expensive!!!  We are looking at the University District because it's going to be the most affordable and easy for my commute to Kirkland (where I refuse to live, even if my sister does live over there - I have experienced the East Side and will never go back).  But even for $1100 we are struggling to find adequate options.  Some tiny, dirty options, but places we are excited about are few and far between.  To be more specific, there is one, just one.  We'd like a two-bedroom please, a park within walking distance, a grocery store would be nice (this is partly why we moved to the city to begin with) and a not crazy-busy street full of UW students.  Something will turn up by August 1, right?  I love my in-laws dearly, but I don't want to be crowded into their house past August.  On Capitol Hill, we could live in a decrepit litttle house on John St, or a shiny granite-countered one-bedroom and trip over baby toys all day, and in Greenwood or Lake City we could live in a huge apartment but have nothing within walking distance and my commute would take forever.  We are watching craigslist like hawks, and emailing apartment managers almost daily, and checking their websites.  I might be getting a bit obsessive over the whole process, but I do have a pretty thorough understanding of the Seattle rental scene by now.

I'll be sure to share what we end up with.  And we'll be throwing a party, wherever it is. 

 At the moment, my brain is starting to fade and I may have to get ready for bed.  I am, ironically, writing from Washington, DC, where I am attending the annual AATSP conference, which I will be sure to comment on in my next post.  But here I am, welcome to my blog!  My goal is to write from personal experience, to give commentary on the arts, to post poems, to discuss parenting  (especially in two languages) and other online content relating to all of the above.  Sound good?  Okay then.  Till the next one.