Bionic Teutonic

I finally went to a Seattle Sounders game this past week with a couple of friends. I’ve been a big soccer fan most of my life. I played all up until college and I still obsessively watch highlights and games from the European leagues, but I will admit I’ve sort of turned up my nose at the MLS until now. The few games I’ve seen on TV looked pretty pitiful. The level of play wasn’t all that great and the crowds were pretty weak. In Europe (actually most of the rest of the world – though Europe is where I’ve been to games), people dance, sing and chant the whole time and the party atmosphere is a huge part of the appeal. In the U.S. most people are accustomed to baseball and football, where spectator participation is pretty meager and usually that translates to soccer as well.

Not in Seattle though! The Sounders game was awesome. Seattle consistently gets something like twice the average attendance to their games (35,000 this week) and the crowd was great. There was a supporters section on the far end of the field that really never stopped singing or chanting and the whole stadium was pretty engaged. I was (’sniff’) just so proud of my city. We turn out a kick-ass crowd.

The game itself was decent. There were some good periods of play and even though it was a 0-0 tie, it was a good hard fought game. It was nice having my friends Kate and Steve there who actually knew a little bit about the players. I might have to actually start following the team now.

Ariel and I went to a PEPS orientation last night. For those of you unfamiliar, PEPS is a parenting group where you get together with other new parents (and their children) to talk about the process and challenges, share advice, and talk over what is happening in the first few months of your baby’s life. Even just the orientation felt reassuring. There were a couple people already with babies there (who were all remarkably quiet) and it was nice to have other people to talk to where that was the only reason to be there. I don’t want to be one of those parents who can only talk about their kids. I know how irritating that is from the other side. At the same time though, it’s the biggest thing happening in your life and you need to talk about it. My friends Ben and Joriel did PEPS last year and found it really useful. Sounds like sometimes people create longer term support networks out of it, and other times they only need it for the first few months. I think I’ll be happy to have it either way.

I’ve also signed up for a child safety and newborn care class at Swedish. It’s a little odd signing up for parenting classes. Sometimes I catch a look at myself in the proverbial mirror and am a little shocked. I’m taking parenting classes? Weird. Life just never stops evolving in new and strange ways.

I’ve been having one of those days where I’ve been feeling vaguely nostalgic for absolutely nothing in particular. It’s just sort of a floating nostalgia. Which is strange, right? One would think that nostalgia would be FOR a specific place or time. It reminds me of synaesthesia, where the senses get all confused and you smell colors, or taste music. The feeling is there, but it doesn’t have a logic to it. It’s funny how sometimes I’m totally aware of how certain emotions get triggered, while other times there is just no rhyme or reason to it. I’m wondering if my nostagia is for something I’m just not aware of, something subconscious, or if it’s a chemical mindset that my brain is simply interpreting as nostalgia. And I’ve sort of been looking around, thinking that at some point I will find just the thing that will make it make sense. The correct item, memory, smell, or taste that is at the root of this floating nostalgia. More likely it will simply fade away without anything more specific ever making itself known, but it’s fun to try and connect the pieces.

I’ve become a little obsessed with Rick Steves lately. For those of you who don’t know him, he is a locally based travel writer and hosts a TV show that you can find online on Hulu.com. When I got the flu a couple of weeks back, I started watching his show just because it seemed like a good way to sit around and do nothing but not be totally brain dead at the same time. I love to travel but haven’t actually done a ton of it in the last couple of years (I got laid off two weeks before our last planned trip to Buenos Aires and we never went), and with the baby on the way I don’t imagine I’ll be doing a ton of international traveling next year either.

When I was growing up, both my dad and my mom took me to Europe a lot and I spent some time going to school in Germany. Those times have had an disproportionately large impact on shaping who I am (or at least who I think I am). I get the itch to travel and can feel a little depressed when it’s been too long. Watching his TV show has been like scratching the itch. It’s mostly making me feel like I get to experience some international flavor without having to leave Seattle. The other tiny part makes me want to travel even more, but for the most part, I feel better.

Last weekend, I went up to Edmonds, where he is based, to hear a talk he was giving. It was basically just a slide show of his summer trip to Europe, but he was really funny and had a lot of good insight and thoughts. And then this weekend, my friend Jeff and I are going to hear his Travel as a Political Act talk. I’m pretty much a Rick Steves nerd at this point, but I’m OK with that. Bonus – the guy is really active in Drug Policy reform. He gave a plug at the end of his talk for his drug policy work, and when you look at his schedule, it is liberally sprinkled with NORML conventions. Funny.