Life on the Outside

I officially made it out of jail. Not particuarly easily (I got lost getting out and after a series of locked hallways and elevators ended up in booking), but nonetheless. I mainly sat in a windowless, concrete room that used to house inmates but now houses the social work department. SW usually ends up in windowless, dark rooms that used to house something completely unrelated. In my SW path I went to school in an old apartment complex complete with a swimming pool filled in with dirt and a tree, I worked from an old broom closet at a hospital, had a desk in an old bedroom in a nonprofit in an old house, and now my work home is in a building that used to be a TB sanitorium. And a jail. Although given community probation diversion takes up the first floor of this building, jail and TB are still sort of in the mix.

Today I rode in to work on my bicycle. This is nothing short that a small miracle, or catastrophe, depending on whether you were one of the unlucky ones watching me wobble down the road and/or trying to avoid hitting me as I made some poor decisions negotiating the weird bike path under the West Seattle Bridge. I figured today was as good as any to try - it's not raining, the sun is actually out, I don't have any meetings so I can look as discheveled as I want. So, here I am.

It's not a particularly pretty ride. The first 10 minutes are nice - some of it is actually gorgeous, but then you get to the bridge, and basically it's a mix of concrete and winding (confusing) paths and huge mac trucks leaving the port with their load. It's gritty, grimy, dirty, dark, concrete, and well, sorta ugly. Then after that you turn onto one of the main streets to downtown - either gritty, dirty, grimy marginal or traffic laden streets. I suppose eventually I'll find a good option. But really, I can't complain. It took 10 minutes more than driving does, I got in some good exercise, the showers are new and right across the street, and I feel all smug and high and mighty and stuff for reducing my carbon footprint.

Now we'll see if I can keep it up.