Sir Aaron

Open 24 hours for great dinner grub including Chicken and waffles. The bakery esection makes THE best desserts that I have taken to dinner parties and impressed the pants off of people.

Right by the Parkway Speakeasy theatre so its perfect for before or after movie socializing. Since the cops eat there all the time and have two reserved spots in the parking lot its got to be one of the safest spots in town.

And whoever is in charge of the decorating commitee was probably beat Martha Stewart in that prison decorating contest because come 4th of July, Christmas, Valentines Day, whatever . . . the place is decorated like a thousand dollar whore.

Okay, I am not much of a coffee person . . . however my dad, who lived in Italy for 8 years dragged me here to try the place saying it was the best coffee he has ever had in the United States (i.e.- outside of Italy).

So I had a Latte and whoa . . . fabuloso! So smooth. Not bitter at all. It was like a goblet of liquid heaven.

Heck, if coffee always tasted like this maybe I would become a coffee person.

Apparently the coffee beans are flown in from Portland, Oregon as well. Another gold star in this Oregon boy’s book.

This taco truck is so incredibly popular that their is almost always somebody waiting for a burrito or taco from opening till it closes at 2am or later.

Students from Berkeley show up here with munchy glazed eyes, ambulance drivers stop off after a shift, and everyone in town knows and loves this taco stand.

I was once telling a friend of mine from my home town where I was now living and all of a sudden his eyes lit up and he said, “Oh, you live accross from that awesome taco truck!”

Legendary Taco Truck! A must for locals and visitors. Great and cheap/authentic mexican food with the best of ingredients that put the wanna-be “gourmet” Mexican places in town to shame.

I did quite like Austin. I was only their for a day and a half but Good people, good downtown scene.

Liked the place enough to put Univ of Texas on my list of grad school possibilities.

And from what I hear the area has quite a thriving filmmaker community. Tre Bien!

It was not quite as amazing as I was expecting. Of course it was not during the festival and so I shall have to return when I am actually apart of the festival. (No giggling, it could happen).

Also, the femmes I were with were being rather tempermental and made it rather difficult to relax and enjoy the day.

February is the month when one of the much-awaited Venetian events is held. The Venice Carnival revives the colourful masquerade balls and costume parties that took place in 18th century. Processions, masked balls, and other age-old Venetian traditions are held, and this celebration has been known to date back to the 13th century. Most of the city’s landmarks, such as St. Mark’s Square, the campi, the city’s various theatres, explode in colour and music, complete with theatrical performances, dances and acrobatic shows.

As a Library Zealot I had to visit the new library. Couldn’t they have built this 5 years earlier just to make me happier. I’m telling you, it really bothers me when cities do not plan everything around me! Sorry, I was sucked into a vortex of self-importance there.

Which is kind of like entering this library. It is a visit to a different world. It feels like a library on Superman’s home planet. Vast, awesome, grandiose, inspires you to think in whole new futuristic ways.

Wish I’d had more time, but I had to head uptown for a important surprise meeting with the Robots.

I had a few hours to kill in Seattle and so headed off to find the Robot Co-Op. In my usual “i’ll just wander around the general area randomly until I find the place” style, I headed up Capital Hill from downtown.

Found the place where they get the mail and it was some mail center and the guy working there looked at me like I was a communist relic when i asked for a Robot Co-Op. The gal at the cofee shop next door was heavily tatooed and pierced (strange sight in Seattle) and once I asked about Robots, co-ops, and 43things she cluelessly looking at me as if I was quite possibly the dorkiest person she had ever encountered.

Wandered around some more. Discovered that the hip Barca lounge was nearby. If you have never been to Barca, go. Very hip without all the attitude. Lots of beautiful people having lots of involved conversations (had many there myself) and on occasion real live vampires !!!!!!!

Realized I was in the area where I had been in a Seattle FRinge Festival production (my first full frontal nudity scene) and found a thrift store that had an old school Opus shirt. Still could not find them damn Robots and there hive but was about to give up consoling myself with the coolest shirt find in years.

Then I saw it. Like a beacon of luminosity. On the second floor of a building was an office with windows like in photos I had seen. Went into the building foyer and sure nuff the irectory said Robot Co-Op 2nd floor.

Went up to the room number listed and some very important gentleman walked out of the door on a cell phone. I’m pretty sure he was brokering large deals involving international intelectual rights. He was far to involved in his conversation to answer if I was in the right place. The door was somewhat open and so I entered expecting the cute Robot receptionist I had always hoped would be there.

There in the middle of the large sunshiny room was a huge table with about a dozen robots in silent meditation with their heads bowed in mystic mind-thrust. I was sure they were in an important meeting judging by the sacred huddle formed. But then I realized they were not talking. Were they communicating by telekenisis? Was it an inter-office email meeting?

I got my hutzpah up and asked “Are you guys in a meeting?”

They then stirred, like statues awaking from a lifelong slumber and they glance at me with bewilderment. I said something about “So this is it” and somebody asked me if I was Ian.

I am not sure who this Ian was or why they were awaiting his arival. In retrospect, the cautious way they asked if I was Ian makes me thin that this Ian character is some dreared telephone salesman that the Robots feared would eventually show up.

Without hesitation I corrected them saying, “Aaron, Sir Aaron.”

Their eyes lit up and smiles appeared. First Danial and then Erik mentioned having talked to me before and they arose from their sacred work table to shake hands.

They asked if it wasn’t me who had sent a postcard from Las Vegas and I agreed and they showed me the Holy Wall of postcards. And they told me that those that sent postcards were allowed the honour of seeing the secret behind OZ (or 43things in this case) and they pulled away the curtain and I was in awe. I am not allowed to reveal the secret behind the curtain but I do suggest that anybody out there reading should send a postcard to the Robots in the hope that they too may someday see behind the curtain.

We talked about my trip to the San Juans, about the beauty of Port Townsend, of sailing off Bainbridge island, about the old days of working at Amazon during Christmas, of unhappy children awaiting their tickle-me-elmo, and about abandoned tractor parts in the midwest. You could say we talked about life, the universe and everything.

We took photos of the occasion. And I was off to the airport with a triumphant high of accomplishment. And I had been introduced as “Sir Aaron, Famous 43 things user” to one Robot who had not heard of my legend.

Still stuck in my mind is the scene of the Robots hard at work as I looked on feeling that I had just walked into a hidden part of the forest amidst a circle of druids bent in prayer to their magic wands.

Went to a day game of my team, the one and only Oakland A’s versus the horridly fashion distressed Boston Red Sox.

Kicked some Red clad Ass 5-1. Frank Thomas put the hurt on the bosox boys with two gigantic home runs in two innings.

The weather was perfect and since I had not been here in years it was nice to see the remodeling that had been done. Kind of missed the lawn and flowers that were in the outfield before, but the plaza reserved outfield seats we had were great.

I really enjoyed Nice. Beautiful Ocean. Beautiful people. Beautiful life.

I could return easily. Took my heart away.