Shifting views

Some months ago, I wrote about our impending move from our fabulous 11th floor perch to an unknown location. I've been meaning to post an update on said move, but I won't go into detail at this time. Suffice it to say, we moved from the 11th floor down to the 10th. Same fabulous building, even more fabulous apartment. I've moved many times in my adult life, and this move was by far the easiest. I didn't even need to use the elevator for most of it! Plus, we'd been renting furnished homes since 2008, meaning we haven't had any furniture, dishes, towels, sheets, ANYTHING of our own really, which made for even easier moving! Granted, we did have to purchase all of those items, which required a visit from my mother to keep me from losing my mind (I am not fond of shopping, not even a little bit), but that meant that all of the big items were delivered and installed and put together for us. Best move ever, into the best apartment ever!!

I won't do a full tour of the apartment now, but I do want to update you on our view. If you'll recall, one of the absolute best things about our 11th floor perch was the view. Our floor-to-ceiling windows faced south, and there were no high-rises for many blocks, giving us a stunning skyline view. Here's what we were looking at:

We're now one floor below, and we still have a southern view. Here's what we're looking at today:

Goodbye skyline, hello Honey Bucket. (Honey Bucket has to be the most awesomely inappropriate name for a port-a-potty ever, and it's currently hanging out on the corner of the 12th floor of what will eventually be a 17-story apartment building.) Yes, our awesome skyline is no more. Instead, I get to learn a bit about how concrete-and-steel buildings are constructed (which has helped me understand a little better how the concrete ceiling above me can so effectively fight off gravity). And I get to listen to buzz saws and drills and hammers from 7am till 5pm, 6 glorious days a week. Sigh.

But here's the thing that makes it all okay: our wonderful 10th floor perch is a corner unit, which means that we not only have a southern view, we also have windows facing the east. I wish it was a clear, sunny day today, so I could show off the Cascade Mountains beyond Lake Union, but I'm sure you can still appreciate what we've been enjoying out of our windows, even under the cloud cover:

The Space Needle is just a few blocks northeast of us, and we get to see it every day, from every room! We also look out at Lake Union, which is dotted with sailboats on sunny afternoons. And the view continues to the southeast:

Yes, there's that construction project blocking out our skyline, but there's still plenty of skyline to be seen. (Added bonus: check out the dueling construction/deconstruction projects--to the left of the view-blocking building is a building sheathed in black mesh, which is slowly being taken apart, bit by salvageable bit, after discovering just over a year ago that the 9-year-old apartment complex was a veritable death trap. Funnily enough, the construction is happening much faster than the deconstruction, at the pace of 1 floor per week. The deconstruction, well, it's much slower than an implosion.) And we also get a bit of western view from our balcony and my southern reading chair:

That's Puget Sound, and I like to sit in my chair and watch the ferries go back and forth to Bainbridge and Bremerton islands. It's awesome.

So, this is where I'm hanging my hat these days. It's the first real home Alex and I have had in a while. Well, I shouldn't say that, we've lived in great places, and our wonderful house in Jersey City (which we inhabitants named Maui East) was the perfect place to call home after our hellish year in Vegas. But this apartment feels different. Maybe it's the 2-year lease (which is long enough for our families to write down our address in actual ink), maybe it's the fact that all of the stuff in it is our stuff, nothing borrowed, nothing to be left behind when--or maybe IF, fingers crossed for dreams to come true--we move to the next place, maybe it's the fact that we both feel so at home here, in this city, in this togetherness we've created. Whatever it is, not a day has gone by that we haven't said, "I love it here." Even with the buzz saws and the hammers and the disappearance of our skyline. We love it here, and that makes it home.

Pride

It's a stunning day in Seattle. The sky is bright blue with wisps of clouds hanging above the mountain tops, and the Space Needle is flying a rainbow flag.

It's Pride Weekend here in Seattle and all over the country, and there is so much to be proud about! The parade route runs just a block from my building, and for the past 2 hours I've heard non-stop cheering and shouting and music. It's a party in this town, and it's a party in this country. Not only is this a day to celebrate and love the person you are, but this weekend is made extra-special by the late-night vote passed by the NY State Senate on Friday giving homosexuals the right to marry. I know that for some of you reading this post, this is not something to celebrate. But for me, for many people I love, this is bigger than big. No, I'm not gay, I'm not even married (not in a legal sense, but Alex is my husband in every sense that matters to the two of us). But I recognize what an important step marriage is for many, heck, for MOST people. And to have one more state in the United States of America recognize that this is a matter of civil rights, that is something worth celebrating. I've heard all the talk about defending the institution of marriage and that marriage has forever been defined as a union between a man and a woman, but I can't support such ideas, not in this country, not in this century. In this country, two drunk 18 year olds can get married on a whim in Las Vegas and then get a drive-through divorce the next day, as long as they're not of the same sex. I know people who have been married and divorced multiple times in a decade, and this is somehow more defensible than a legal marriage between two men who have been in love and committed to one another for twice as long. In this century, we marry for love, but the idea of marrying for love is relatively new in regards to the institution of marriage. Love never entered into it until just a few centuries ago. Marriage was always a business arrangement, and I think most people today would scoff at such an idea. Marriage today is about two people who love each other and want to commit themselves to one another for life, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, you know how it goes. Marriage is not something to be taken lightly, and the idea that allowing gays to marry somehow reduces the significance of marriage is laughable. The idea that allowing gays to marry is allowing them to "flaunt" it, well, that's true. They would be flaunting it, by gathering together their friends and family and saying to all of them, "I love this person so much that I want to shout it out for everyone to know", yes, that's flaunting it. Which is what weddings are about! Every wedding I've gone to, I'm there to celebrate and honor the love of two people. Every wedding is flaunting it! And it's beautiful, it's the most beautiful thing a couple can share with the people they care about. I don't care who you are, if you've been married and have had a wedding, you were flaunting it. And good for you!! I applaud your decision to do so! But if you then say that it's wrong for other adults to do the same things because you don't respect or understand or accept their kind of love, I say that's terribly unkind. Make any argument you want against gay marriage, but you're not going to convince me that it's wrong. In fact, you will only make me that much angrier that this is even an argument. This is the civil rights movement of my generation, and I am proud to be living in a time and place where thousands of people, gay and straight, will gather together to shout out loud THIS IS WHO I AM, THIS IS WHO I WAS BORN TO BE, AND THERE IS NOTHING SHAMEFUL ABOUT IT! To come out of the closet, to remove the cloak of secrecy, that is a terrifically brave thing to do. And to have a day where that courage is honored so openly, so vibrantly, so LOUDLY, that is a beautiful thing.
Like I said, this parade has been happening for 2 hours now, and it's only just begun. Here's hoping that next year's parade will be celebrating even more states who recognize that marriage is a choice, but homosexuality isn't.