sleepless seattle

Night 1

I visited the big city for the first time. Well, I came to Seattle for a soccer game when I was 9, but my head was probably stuck in my twilight books the whole trip because I remember almost nothing. I'm 17, from a small-ish town in Idaho, so most of my life has been spent on calm town roads, deserted mountain trails, and Walmart parking lots. My dad travels for work a lot, letting him collect a lot of points at hotels. Me, my mom, my girlfriend, and my best friend came to Seattle for a Melanie Martinez concert, and stayed at a very nice hotel in downtown Seattle with my dad's points. This hotel was fancy fancy, there was a gym, a restaurant, like 20 floors, and a parking garage. The elevator even had a stinky man in a suit that presses the buttons for everyone. They pay a man a whole 30k a year to press buttons for wealthy people. Who decided that people couldn't press their own elevator buttons. This was also my first time in a building with more than 20 floors, and the elevator was much more aggressive that the short building elevators. I think I got whiplash from going to the top floor. Our hotel room had one of the most perfect windows I've ever seen. A large, clean, shiny, window with a perfect bench to sit and watch over the city. The view was of busy downtown Seattle. I can't help but get stuck in a cycle of my own thoughts, imagining each individual car on the highway with its own set of family members, or lone passengers. Taxis with people headed to the airport, or dinner, or work. Each car had at least 1 life, with its own memories and personalities. Its hard to wrap my brain around these kinds of things.

I've been talking in past tense, though I sit here writing this, on the window bench at 1:16 am, listening to "You're here that's the thing" by Beabadoobee. Above is the picture I took 5 minutes ago, of my most perfect view, at the most perfect window. My girlfriend and best friend lay in the most perfect king bed, which intends to sleep us all for the next two nights, my mom sleeping on the pull-out couch in the other room. My 2 most favorite people, in the most perfect bed, in the most perfect hotel room, with the perfect window and perfect view. I never want this night to end. I will stare at the passing cars, and appreciate the amount of lives passing past my eyes.

I've never posted my writing before, but tonight I want the rest of the world to experience the most perfect night with me. 1:25 am and the night starts to slow. Not nearly as slow as what I'm used to, still at least 20 cars in my vision at once, but nothing near the full streets of rush hour.

Where I live, everything closes by 9 pm, and all the cars are off the road by 10. The only chance at a late night snack is the Denny's off 4th street, which is the only place in town open past midnight. When everyone is the same in a town, doing the same thing , it's hard to remember that each person you see has their own life and personality. It's almost like playing a video game every day, seeing the same NPC's at the same stores in the same town. The weirdest difference between the city and my town is the lack of parking lots. Where I live there are so many empty parking lots, so much empty, still space. We have few underground parking garages, and lots and lots of parking spots. It was rare to struggle to find parking. Another big difference is the lack of drive throughs. Everything in my town has a drive through, all the coffee places are these coffee stands on the side of the road that u drive up next to. We even have drive through stores, making it easy to not even get out of your car.

I think I'm going to end this absolute bullshit jumble of words that splashed out of my brain. 1:37 am and I'm still sitting at my perfect window. Hopefully I never wake up from this perfect night.