Vigil

The neighborhood I live in, Ballard, is the historic home of Scandinavian fishermen - and to this day it is home for most of the Norwegian ex-pats and descendants of Norwegian immigrants in the city. Tonight the Norwegian consulate and the Nordic Heritage Museum held a vigil in remembrance of the tragic events in Norway … Continue reading Vigil

Beginning of Days?

Whether you took the rumours of impending rapture and end of days seriously or not, the (apparent) fact that the world exists on May 22 pretty much the same as it did on May 21 could be a chance to take a fresh look at life. I mean, what if we all decided today to … Continue reading Beginning of Days?

Fearless hearts and great pumpkins

"To get through this life with any kind of self-respect at all, you need two things: an inquisitive mind, and a fearless heart." -Steve Earle. Like Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin - Linus has a fearless heart, one that's been broken many times before, and he just comes back for more. You could call … Continue reading Fearless hearts and great pumpkins

Faith, hope, and charity

This was the kind of bar she never went into, never looked at twice. A dive bar, and not a cool dive bar for yuppies who wanted to trick themselves into believing they were slumming by drinking their microbrews in a place with walls covered in graffiti and waitresses covered with multiple piercings. No, this was a real dive bar – graffiti and piercings, sure, but not a microbrew within hailing distance. Cheap beer, cheap whiskey, and the chance to buy bad cocaine if you had the cash and the courage. Loud music, mostly country. Big guys wearing faded t-shirts with ripped off sleeves under denim vests covered in Harley patches, tattoos twitching on their beefy arms. Women in spike-heeled black boots whose curves overflowed their tight jeans and whose hair showed the effects of too many bad perms.