Bright moon, blue sky

I didn't see a lot of sky today, but when I did, it was mostly pretty. Unfortunately, the camera in my phone didn't do the full moon this morning any justice... it can't handle low light. And I just had Mandy take the camera off the boat and up to Hadlock because I was tired of trying to make do with just the phone there. Sigh.

It was supposed to rain today but it didn't. I am in town for jury duty, which necessitates a lot of walking and busing (they reimburse you $10 a day, which doesn't begin to cover parking downtown; it's barely enough for lunch), neither pleasant with much rain. I could have made my commute much easier today if I had thought to get my bike down and tuned up yesterday when I got here. I had to leave before the first bus runs out to the marina this morning, hoofing it up to the locks where I can catch the 44 into Ballard. It would have been a lot faster on two wheels, rain or no rain. And here at the end of the day, knowing it was no rain, I regret it all the more, since it would have been the first bike ride of the spring, on a lovely spring day.

In between not getting much sleep last night, waking up uber-early, and having to walk all over town getting to and from things, I am a little tired. But I wasn't the only one nodding off in the jury holding room today... absolutely nothing happened. They let 3/4 of the pool go, in fact, so little was happening. Unfortunately I was in the 1/4 that remained. But you could tell they felt sorry for us, because they gave us an extra hour for lunch.

I appreciated that, because it gave me a chance to go hang out for the last hour ever in Elliot Bay Books in Pioneer Square, the venerable Seattle landmark that is closing its doors today, forced to move to a new location on Capitol Hill by various economic pressures. The Pioneer Square store has been a refuge for me ever since I moved to Seattle. It's not Powell's, but it's as close as we had, and the creaky wooden floors, eclectic selection (always the first place in town to have a new Terry Pratchett book in stock), and random layout are the prototype for the literary mecca an English major such as myself prays toward. When I was working in Pioneer Square, it was a place I could find refuge from the stress during lunch, or decompress after work listening to a reading. Even when I worked at the Market, it was always on the way home, and many were the days I hopped off the bus there instead of continuing to West Seattle, to look wistfully at all the things I would like to buy but couldn't.

That's pretty much the same thing I did today, although now it is as much a lack of storage space as finances that keeps me from adding to the till.

Nostalgia reminded me on the way back that I should have grabbed lunch at Dome Burger instead of the trendy upscale lunch joint on 3rd that I actually went to; fortunately, I have to go back tomorrow, so I am looking forward to a heaping pile of teriyaki.

Despite being tired, and a little bored, this all seems a bit like a vacation. I have to sit around and read all day... oh, the hardship! And I get to go to my favorite places downtown that I have been missing all winter. Really, what's not to like? If I economize, I might even be able to turn a profit on that $10 a day. I wonder... can you volunteer for jury duty? This might be my next career!