Always a surprise

A few weeks ago, I stayed up for the entire night. Getting a case of cabin fever and temporarily disobeying doctor's orders (hey, sanity trumps the achilles), I took a stroll with The Beast about 5am. It wasn't exactly cold, but it had been raining for days and was a bit chilly. Gazza always gets excited for these forays into the night, so she was hopping and prancing the entire way at my side (she sometimes gives little kisses so I even got a few of those!). There are only a few people out walking in the midnight/early morning hours this time of year, and that's mostly the reason we don't go as often (rather than the weather). Gazza is somewhat surprisingly a pretty awesome guard dog, but I'm trying to be a bit more proactive (Hi Mom! Hi Dad!).

Anyway, while these city ambles are different than the night walks we'd do at our cabins or at home, they are generally peaceful. I never felt safe going alone in Chicago, so it's another thing I appreciate about Seattle. And while I usually prefer to share the quiet time and idle observations with somebody, perhaps it's for the best that Gazza and I get to spend it together.

Observing a sleeping city is cool because it's indirectly people watching. You get to peruse details without questioning looks or the rest of the world swirling around you. In a non-creepy way, my eyes are always drawn to windows (whose shades are open). People watch tv at odd hours and weekend nights often have lights shining out and silence punctuated by laughter. It makes me smile. I especially love Christmastime because of the lights and Christmas trees. So warm and inviting!

The more mundane sights are fascinating too. For example, on our walk back a few weeks, I noticed one particular house with rotating decorations looked different. In addition to holiday and seasonal yard ornaments, wreathes, address placards, and porch decorations, they always have five fish windsocks hanging from the eaves of the front stoop. As best as I can figure, the two big ones are mama and daddy, flanked by juniors one, two, and three. Cliche... but kinda cute!

Once I got to the major Wallingford through street, I did some window shopping. The wedding store had some very pretty, elegant dresses in the windows silhouetted by some soft lights in the back. The raindrops on the windows twinkled as they slid down and lights flickered. It looked like little diamonds were raining down on the dresses. I stood and watched for a while.

Walking into the Starbucks for a breakfast sandwich, we were greeted by loud music, bright lights, and one rather obnoxious customer. The baristas seemed to like him well enough, a regular I suppose, but I thought he was loud and arrogant. As I was waiting for my sandwich and scratching Gazza's ears, I heard him talk about how he and his wife had moved here from Boston and bought the most expensive house in Wallingford. Rolling my eyes to myself, hep happily continued to boast about the process and money involved. We couldn't get out of there quickly enough.

Nearing home on a particularly quiet street, I noticed something new. There was a brown van, not unlike this one that was backed up to a partial basement garage. The house looked a little sketch, but then again the same could be said for the market, so I don't know if that says much... I'm sure (or at least mostly sure) that it's simply a work van for the family living there, but don't tell me you wouldn't wonder for just a moment...