Dear Diary,
Today I got off work early, and although the weather tempted me to go hiking for you, I resisted, because I don't know when I'll next get a chance to go to the University of Washington's libraries. I had three purposes there - one for you, which I accomplished (I'm now fairly confident that Roanoke Park really hasn't ever had restrooms); one for my writing about Korean dramas, which I accomplished (reading two standard references on Taoism in Korea); and one for my interest in science fiction, which I didn't accomplish (copying a book, my inability to read which is holding up yet another writing project). C'est la vie.
Anyway, on the way there, I went to see the current status of the land where the beautiful old University Temple, formerly home to many good causes, including the Roots young adult shelter, which has moved, and the Urban Rest Stop's U-District location, piggybacking off of Roots's showers - anyway, the current status of the land where all that had stood.
On my way out of the libraries, it occurred to me that that photo might not be clear enough, so I decided to see if I could figure out where the water fountain used to be, and take a photo from there. Actually, not only the structure that housed the water fountain, but some of its pipes, are still there (look in the bottom foreground). I choose to take that as a physical sign that the new building will make room for good causes as well. Anyway, the photo:
And, of course, dear Diary, you know me well enough to know what I did when I went home.
The Urban Rest Stop now admits that it no longer has a location there. This change came sometime between May and September of this year:
Unfortunately, the map offered by the City of Seattle's Department of Human Services Homelessness Strategy and Investments Division, ostensibly of restrooms available to homeless and other people during the epidemic, the map I spent much of last winter hiking to check, has somehow not yet figured out that demolished restrooms aren't open:
Today, I seriously have no idea whether my current job will end tomorrow (one very possible consequence of the reason I left early today) or will become permanent. Any people still working in that division are in somewhat similar situations, and I don't envy them, but I wish they had the grace to leave their current jobs without lying the way they did while those jobs were stable.
After taking the second photo up top, I looked at the University Bookstore for the novel I hadn't been able to copy at Suzzallo. Being nearly ten years old, it wasn't there, of course, but as I browsed the remainders tables something flew out at me. It's a translation of a novel from Swedish, and its title is what caught my attention: How to Fall in Love with a Man Who Lives in a Bush. (It's available, obviously, among the University Bookstore's remainders, but also in three formats from the Seattle Public Library.) No, dear Diary, there isn't some strange twisted meaning to that title, it's actually a romance whose male lead is homeless:
Wikipedia on the author makes this even stranger: Turns out she wrote what she knew, because she, an actress of all people, actually did marry a man who was homeless when they met.
I have no idea how long I'll be writing you, dear Diary, nor with how much intensity, but this gives me at least a little hope that someday I might not be hiking alone for you. But that's how I intend to spend much of this weekend (if not, um, sooner), hiking alone, trying to finish visiting the downtown parks by day and then telling you about it. Until then, good night and good days.
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