autumn in seattle

the leaves are spectacular! theses days i'm gasping in awe everywhere i turn. i've never seen colors like this! my camera just can't do the scenery justice, so i'll let you imagine the beauty. :) UPDATE: click here to see another blog's pictures of the leaves. along with the changing colors has come the rain. it's been raining a little or a lot just about every day since my last post. over the weekend we had two instances of torrential downpour. the half an inch in 15 minutes twice in once day left our lawn totally flooded! however, we still braved the rain for brunch! we finally made it over to tilth to sample some of their organic fare. i decided to give sarsaparilla a shot, and although it wasn't terrible, i probably won't order it again (this of course is not because of restaurant preparation, but rather the ingredients themselves). they did have excellent cheeses. i'd really like to go back for their dinner tasting menu to get a wider selection of what they have to offer. this restaurant has gotten rave reviews from seattle foodies and it gets a thumbs up from me too!

something i've been wanting to post about for awhile- henry. all around town there are colorful murals on buildings, retention walls, cars, and garages- all with the unique signature of henry. i've found some articles about the seattlite, but none actually list all of his masterpieces. so, i've decided to take it upon myself to track down as many of his murals that i can find. i've seen at least a dozen, but i'm still working on having a camera handy at all times. here's one i snapped at lowell elementary in capitol hill.

mail-in ballots have arrived across washington state and all hands are on deck for getting the word about about candidates, propositions, referendums, and initiatives. i'm still working with lwvwa on i-1033 and will be volunteering with planned parenthood again next week to endorse a candidate. i'm really looking forward to getting out and lobbying with the action league. STILL in the hunt for a job! let me know if you have any ideas or connections! :)

stayed tuned for our halloween adventures!

hodge podge

i realize i have been terrible about posting, but i've been so busy with the League of Women Voters of Washington that I haven't had much time to do anything worth mentioning! for those very few of you that i still have not harassed about our i-1033 video, i will make my plea here as well. in the very short time i have been working with the league, we have produced a short animated film about washington's initiative 1033. this initiative mirrors colorado's tabor, and would be at least as damaging here in washington. it has been pretty exciting to be a part of this process, as it is all new to me. working with an animator and voice actor has been pretty interesting! earlier this week i got the incredible opportunity to go to bad animals studio to watch our voice actress record the narration for our video. this studio is apparently legendary and has hosted some historic greats, including johnny cash and b.b. king. one of the current owners shared some of his experiences in the the studio, including watching kurt cobain fight with courtney love. today, they are still big in the music industry, but they also do a lot of audio for animations and video games. the guy who worked on our video is the very same guy that does the voice for mario in the super mario bros. games! anyways, they let me into the sound booth and were incredibly welcoming and glad to talk with us. and did i mention they provided their studio and services to us for FREE?! thanks bad animals!

and now back to the video... i got to play a big role in this, and i would appreciate it if you could watch it (although i realize that all of my readers do not live or vote in washington). just do it because you love me or at least like me a little! click here to watch. NOW!

bowling: before i got totally engrossed with lwvwa, we were able to go bowling for a friend's birthday. we headed to garage billiards for all sorts of fun! they have 10 lanes for bowling by time (rather than charging per game), a few bars and a back room dedicated just to pool. they also have a pretty full menu, although i didn't get to try anything. this would be a great place to spend a late evening with visitors, and hopefully we'll get to go back! i had planned on taking pictures, but when the back of my holga came off and exposed 23 out of 24 shot frames of my film, i had a bit of a fit and refused to have any further dealings with cameras for the rest of the night. the destroyed film still sits atop my table, mocking me.

and for those of you that still need convincing about moving to seattle, i found this article in the wall street journal. what are you waiting for?!

it's starting to get cold up here, although not nearly as cold as back in colorado! the trees are just stunning, and i'm trying to enjoy the last rays of sunshine as much as i can. they occasionally play the broncos games on seattle tv, but unfortunately i've had to rely on espn updates for most of the games. i've got a 3rd-round interview with a community agency this upcoming week, so hopefully i will have a job by the end of the month. in a couple days i've got volunteer orientation for the planned parenthood action league. i will be a public affairs volunteer, working to train citizens to become lobbyists, participating in lobby day in olympia, contacting legislators and lobbyists, and participating in all sorts of outreach events. i'm going to be very busy before the end of the year, but i'm really looking forward to being involved with so many great agencies!

stayed tuned for whatever it is i'm able to get out and do next! :)