From Portland, I drove up to Seattle on the 30th and stayed with Katy Thomas, now Miller, a really close friend from high school I probably had not seen in about eighteen years. Here is her adorable son, who is quite the charmer. He kept saying my name and showing me his John Deere truck.
Katy's laughing good naturedly in the background, typically graceful of her, since Zach is in pre-bedtime mode here, charm vying with toddler wilfullness (trumped by maternal wit).
I was slated to speak at the venerable Elliot Bay Book Company the next day, Halloween.
At some point, I had tried to cancel and reschedule because Halloween seemed like a bad day for people to attend a reading. But then it was never struck from the calendar, so I decided to embrace the date and dress up, as Museum Legs.
I wanted to make a costume only with what I had in the car. Then I stopped at a Burger King for a Coke on the way up, and they had just gotten a new delivery of Burger King crowns -- both the ornate "classic" crowns and some Sponge Bob Square Pants ones that were more modernist in shape. From Katy, I borrowed construction paper and aluminum foil, and made a wearable museum.
It was really more of a "museum mullet" costume: business in the front,
party in the back,
that is, the neoclassical facade of the "classic" crowns and "Cezanne" banners, etc., in front, and the aluminum foil covered ode to Gehry in the back. I topped it off with a beret, because all ironic art costumes seemed to require one. The hemline was meant to be shorter, more "Legs", but I hadn't considered the length of the crowns.
As a result it was a lot like wearing a barrel, and an obvious boon to my speakerly authority.
Before the reading, I hung out downtown at the beautiful Zeitgeist coffee
And spent time with my Elliot Bay host, Hannah.
There was that delicate moment when I cautiously asked if that was her real hair or a Halloween costume. She laughed and said she was Finnish, and very blond. (Phew.)
I honestly wasn't expecting anyone to turn up for the reading and so was vastly, pleasantly surprised when a number of people did. Casey, whom I had met in London through Greg and Julie and who had done some work with my boss, brought his entire family. (These photos are dark but this is Casey and his wife)
Mike and Allison brough Ezra, a strong showing as Ezra is eight weeks old. As Mike said, "We will be making an abrupt departure at some point during your reading and apologize in advance."
In the middle of the reading (probably shortly after Mike, Allison and Ezra left), in walked Jeff Cooper, one of my brother's across the hall freshman year roommates, and his lovely wife. Sometimes, when I was growing up, we would show up unannounced in my grandmother's church in Harrisburg and once Clyde Ford, in the middle of the announcements from the pulpit, would say hi. I pulled a Clyde Ford mid-reading with a "Oh, hey, Jeff Cooper."
The three of us went for a drink afterwards,
and then I drove up to Bellingham to meet Darby's mom and prepare for my reading the next day.
The costume lived in the car the rest of the tour, strewn across the back seat. When you have a lot of stuff in your car, too much to keep out of sight, the only theft avoidance avenue open to you is to look like a crazy bag lady carting around a lot of worthless junk. Thus Museum Legs, the costume, took on a second life as a camera cover.
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