2004-08-03 - 2:20 a.m.

my parents drove me to seattle yesterday. i genuinely enjoyed their company, much more than i ever have in the past, but i was a little tired of listening to christian praise music and having to pray over all the food. my parents graciously helped me with the seattle human scale chess game and beat a discreet retreat to the suburban comforts of sequim.

that said, i went on several adventures with my parents, the best of which was at the olympic game farm. the game farm is a place where retired circus and disney animals are set to pasture. we drove out there in mom's SUV on saturday morning. we paid our fare at the gate and got two maps and two loaves of stale bread. we drove around to all the animal areas and fed stale bread from our car windows to llamas, zebras, bears, bison, and reindeer (to name just a few). the most aggressive were the llamas, who ringed the car like ruminant highwaymen. the most exciting were the bison, one of whom licked my father with a surprisingly long, rough tongue.

i've spent the last 24 hrs in seattle, much of it unescorted. i spend much of my normal life alone so having my parents crawling up my ass for five days required lots of deep breathing. i've been staying with my friend rob, but he was gracious enough to let me have his bed while he sleeps over at his girlfriend's house. i've toured the seattle public library, perused the pike place market, and sunbathed(!) at the water's edge. i bought a sassy new outfit for $40. this evening i was tipped off to a chess club that meets at a pub on capitol hill. i managed to win only the very last game i played. rob picked me up and took me for a view of the full moon at gasworks park.

tomorrow i am bound for san francisco...