Seattle, Washington. Sigh. When people think of this city, they tend to think of rain or grunge. For me, I think of my life’s biggest sliding door moment.
With all the advanced technology available to us now, I am hopeful that I live long enough to be around for the actual sliding door app that will take you back in time to allow you to see what your life would be like if you had made just one different decision. With the way my life works though, the announcement of this new marvel will appear on the headlines of every news outlet the day after my death.
Back in 1992 I had an opportunity to move to Seattle. Someone I knew was going and was willing to pay my expenses, to have companionship during his life changing move. At the time, I was 20 years old and collecting unemployment during an off season from my job, while spending my time drunk and going to hardcore/punk shows in NYC. There were a grand total of zero things in my life that tied me to where I was.
The only things I knew about Seattle were grunge, and that it was very far away. I would not have been able to find it on a map. I am not even sure I would have known where to find a map. I had never had any use for one.
So here is my big chance. Seattle. Someone funding my trip. While collecting unemployment. I could go and always come back when the off season ended and I had to go back to work. I had a few months of freedom. Why not go?
I did not go.
Have you ever had a fantasy that starts out small and grows and grows over the years to the point you never stop adding to it no matter how many years have passed? It grows so big that years later you find yourself still adding to it? That is what Seattle is to me.
It did not even start right away. It wasn’t until a few years later that I began to dwell on it. I don’t even remember how it was we were supposed to get to Seattle when he first brought it up. Were we going to fly? Take a bus? I have no recollection at all. But it doesn’t matter. Because all that I know about that trip I did not take, is what I have turned it into in my mind after the fact.
Continue reading →
