In the days of electonic and instantaneous communication I almost feel like physical means of long-distance communication (i.e. post/letter/mail/post office) are mysterious, unsure and unreliable... which is untrue, but that's the paranoia which has been brewing...
For example: I go to the post office, give them a package and some money, and whoosh- they take the package and money but where does it go... off. Somewhere...
I'm selling a bunch of my stuff (books mostly) on eBay, so I've been encountering this feeling many times with many trips to the post office... the tiny asian lady who works there is named Foon and although she isn't overly friendly or smiley, I think she's pretty cool. There was an elder african gentleman in fromnt of me in line askinh Foon:
"Do you have eggh stamp?"
"No, we have no EGG stamp-"
"Eggh stamp, you have no eggh stamp?"
"No, just here: American flag, Superman, kid book, President stamp, no EGG stamp"
"Oh, no-no, 1,2,3- 7,EIGH stamp-"
"Oh, Eigh stamp, you wan' eigh stamp, ok, ok- $3 dolla, 12 cent"
...very cute...

Went out to lunch with my cousin Claire yesterday, which was a really nice surprise. It is always reassuring to see Claire and Nigel, I feel that it is possible to "grow-up" but still have an intense curiousity about all things cultural, and "grow-up" on your own terms- without really, well, becoming a tool- I'd hope for that. We shall see... life, jeez... Claire and Nigel's dog Allie just narrowly escaped death from a gall bladder, which is so crazy to think- that bad things can happen so rapidly inside the body, I can't really comprehend that - and try not to think about it... at least it wasn't cancer, cancer is some scary sh*t.

The whole "leaving Seattle" things has caused pangs of nostalgia ( if it is possible to experience nostalgia before you even leave a place) but I even went to Pike's Place and wandered around just to wander around Pikes Place, thinking "hmm, will I ever do this again?" Seattle is so friggin nice, it is almost ridiculous. berlin, however, is amazing, so I have nothing to worry about- I'll just do what I can until the 4th of Ocober when I fly out, and be done with this part of my life. Odd. Seattle is blossoming so well and has so much potential that I kind of feel like I'm abandoning it in a way. I mean, I've been here 8 years (on and off) and have done my part (or so I feel) to both experience ad contribute to this place as an interesting and valuable place... like, in a way- here's a town that had to rise out of the ashed of it's own "grunge" and "dot com" stigma and find itself once again, which it is doing... but it is so wierd, I feel lik eI've been here all through that awkward re-adolescence and now we are going our separate ways... having been a great help to one another, this strange but beautiful city and I.