so now i'm driving a lovely red chevy metro...with no power steering. i didn't know that rental car places even rent cars with no power steering.
saw the ABT's Giselle last night at the Paramount with Phoebe...very dramatic and kind of sad.

Exciting: saw Ethan Stiefel dance the part of Count Albrecht who played the part of Cooper in the movie, Center Stage.

Willie comes to visit me tonight from San Francisco--yay!

got a phone call early this morning from the police....in federal way. they found my car: all of the seats are gone and the ignition was ripped out. the policeman found the car on the road, still running...and since the ignition was stripped, he couldn't turn the car off. i headed down to auburn after work (with my new chaffeur, jon) where they transferred my car to a collision repair center...and saw the poor thing. it's actually not too terribly bad. i don't think there are really any exterior damages...there's just not much inside. it's strange to see my car with no seats. they took that, the lid of my center console storage thing, my stickshift knob, my inline skates and the game of Cranium that eugene had gotten me for my birthday. surprisingly, they didn't take *any* cd's or tapes...they didn't even rip apart the stereo system. good thing i didn't leave too many valuables in there. i'll get an estimate tomorrow and hear from insurance how they're going to proceed...it's most likely that they're going to just repair my car instead of totalling it and writing me a check for blue book value. [sigh] must make trip to enterprise-rent-a-car soon.

i'm sorry. i haven't written in awhile. two weeks after the tragic events on 9/11, i don't know if i can even use words to express the emotional thoughts that have been running through my mind. so i'll just keep my thoughts simple here. i woke up quite early that morning - 7:15am - by a phone call from my father yelling frantically in the phone about war, planes, and the world trade center...and telling me to get up and turn the tv on. i stumbled over to my living room, turned the tv on and suddenly woke up with disbelief. "this can't be happening" i thought. at the time, one tower had already collapsed and the other remained burning. fifteen minutes after waking up, the second tower finally collapsed and the silhouette in the nyc skyline was no longer. i spent the next hour or so waking up friends in seattle whom i knew might have some connections in nyc and dc....i then tried frantically to reach my close smith friends. i immediately thought of debbie who used to work in the wtc but i didn't know if she did any longer. i was too distraught to go to work and just stayed at home, online and glued to the tv. my friend alex came over and we watched some tv together...and finally forced ourselves to take a walk along broadway to get something to eat and get our minds off everything. that evening, jon took me out to dinner for my birthday at salty's, a really nice restaurant in west seattle. it was a little unsettling knowing that i was enjoying a nice seafood dinner with a gorgeous view of the seattle skyline and puget sound while not knowing if someone i knew may have perished earlier that day.

the next few days, i started hearing more from close friends..and fortunately, they are all safe and sound. a smith bulletin was put up by some alums to account for other smithies...really reassuring to see many familiar names there. the patriotism here is like none other that i have ever seen in my lifetime. flags everywhere, patriotic songs playing all the time. i went to the symphony the following saturday and they began the whole program with everyone standing up and singing America the Beautiful. And last week, i went to the first opening show for the Pacific Northwest Ballet, and the finale consisted of a number choreographed to Stars and Stripes....and the donations to the red cross and all sorts of other funds have been incredible. i just hope we are careful and make the right decisions.

this last weekend, went up to bellingham for juli and todd's wedding (cancelled plans to go to L.A.)...absolutely beautiful...my first evening wedding. it was so enchanting with all sorts of candles lighting up the air of love and friendship. i've never been to bellingham except to stop to grab something to eat coming down from whistler. the next day, jon and i ate at a great cafe for brunch and then wandered around some shops, listening to some music. i really liked that town.

finally saw Hansa, the new baby elephant, on Sunday at the zoo with Phoebe and some other Smithies---it was so adorable and way too cute, playing with its bouncing balls. i think we were lucky in that we didn't have to deal with all the horrible lines that i had heard about.

so, bad news from the past 2 days: a) my cell phone's earpiece finally died and is pretty much useless..and b)my car was stolen last night. yup. i'm bummed and was pretty pissed off this morning. i last used my car last night to go over to fred's place for dinner..and came home around 11pm. when i walked out this morning to go to work, it was gone. i immediately called the police and insurance company. supposedly, most stolen vehicles are found within 2 weeks. i guess i shouldn't be too surprised considering my car is one of most stolen vehicles in america...and that seattle is one of the top 10 cities for car theft. ugh. so now i have to wait to see if it's gone and lost forever...or if they find it with who knows how much damage. as for my cellphone, ran out and bought a new one immediately so the police could contact me in case they found my car.

week's starting out lovely, isn't it? on a brighter side, saw the most twisted bizarre movie tonight--David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. I have to think about that one for a bit.

i'm so bummed. recently got the wedding invitation to juli and todd's wedding...but i've already booked a super cheap flight down to L.A. to visit my grandparents leaving that evening. just tried to change it but the cost to change it is greater than the cost of my initial flight. argh. oh well.

So happy that I made the last minute spontaneous decision to go to San Francisco for the weekend. Left work early on Friday and was down in the Bay Area in 2 hours. Funny, I saw my friend, Russell, the night before and told him about the great deal I found..and he bought a ticket too. I got there around 7pm and greeted Willie with a big 'ol hug...so nice to see him. It's been about a year since we last saw each other, back in Boston. We ate at this yummy place called House for dinner and just chatted the rest of the night. I couldn't believe how foggy that city gets at night...one can just get drenched with fog.

Saturday, headed down to Pier 39 and saw a gazillion sea lions and harbor seals hanging out on several wood planks. Back in '89, after the earthquake, about 15 of these huge adorable creatures came over to the pier for refuge...that 15 soon turned into a few hundred...which is what it is today. Later that afternoon, I went over to my friend Andrew's place--he moved there from Seattle just a few months ago. Turns out he lives only 5 minutes away from Willie..in a great house with a nice view. Bar-B-Q and karaoke. So happy to have seen him and be able to catch up. That night, saw a great great scary movie: The Others..it had a nice twist in the end. I don't want to give it away: go see it.

Sunday, did the whole Alcatraz tour which was really interesting. There was a guest author at the prison who happened to be the youngest guard to ever work there...fascinating to talk to him about his experience...then walked all over the place, finally eating a yummy Burmese dinner with Willie and his roomie, Cindy.

My little brother, Aaron, turned 22 on Saturday..eeks, I can't believe he's that grown up.

Saw "The Amazing Race" last night, the latest reality TV show: this one involves 12 pairs of people who race around the world from place to place. The last to arrive at each place gets eliminated. What I found most interesting was the relationship in each pairing: mother/daughter, grandparents, engaged couple, married couple, separated parents, working mothers, frat brothers, lawyers at the same firm, etc. It was fascinating watching the dynamics within each relationship...gotta wonder how this series will make or break some of these people. Who would I pair up with if I did this? It's hard to say. The first person that comes to mind is my college roommate, Anna...but part of me wonders if I could get through something like this with my brother.