Skulking Around Queen Anne

November 16

Moving to Seattle has thus far been a bumpier experience than expected. First, our housing arrangements fell through, leaving us homeless hotel-bound vagabonds for several days while we walked (literally, walked) the length and breadth of the city looking for “For Rent” signs. Fortunately that bump had a silver lining: the place we ended up is much nicer than the place we originally intended to move. Queen Anne is a pretty neighborhood--blessedly quiet--and reminds me a little of a cleaned-up, less rowdy Allston, where I spent a lot of time during college.

The second bump was getting the news that my husband’s father passed away. Since then, we’ve both felt like we’re on the wrong continent--like we should have been there. Muslim funerals take place as soon as possible after death, so even if we got on a plane immediately after hearing the news, we would have missed the burial. Instead we’ve been on the phone more or less constantly with relatives and friends. Grief makes you reclusive. Neither of us wants to venture far, so we’ve been combing over Queen Anne, getting to know our immediate neighborhood. I’ve found used bookstores and piano bars and tiny movie theatres--a lot of the public bric-a-brac I missed in Egypt. The sun even came out today, a small mercy in a grey city.

Still, I’m pretty tired. When I get untired you may see more of the political world on this blog--originally I intended to keep the place pretty basic, but there have been things going on lately that I’d like to talk about.

Make sure to catch Talk of the Nation on NPR this Tuesday--I’ll try to make it worth your while.