Scribbles from Seattle

So, I'm sitting on my brother Bryce's bed here in Seattle about as close to brain dead as I'll get while I'm awake, having sat in on a day of philosophy presentations and now that it's almost 11PM (and my body is telling me it's almost 3AM). Tomorrow, I present around 3:45 and will then be on my way home on Tuesday. What a way to spend a Labor Day weekend. Oh well, this morning, Bryce drove me around town to see the sights. There are a lot of really cool neighborhoods (we stopped at one area to go to a farmer's market and eat breakfast at a vegetarian place - was really good!). The 'needle' isn't really that tall. There's a place where you can see the salmon come in from the ocean into Puget Sound, which is a waterway that becomes freshwater. And I can't say much else about the city.

Tonight, after I was tired of sitting in on philosopher paper presentations (many of which I didn't understand, I'll be honest), I wound out going out to get a drink with four people all from completely different walks of life. One guy was from Lisbon, Portugal and has two kids ages 10 and 5. There was a guy whose father was from Germany and mother from Mexico who met in England. He's spent a good portion of his life living back and forth between Germany and Mexico (imagine a man who looks German but speaks English with a Spanish accent!). There was a woman from D.C. with five kids (one of which was nearly my age!) who has worked on and off on her dissertation between children and whose parents and grandparents fled Germany in the 1940s to avoid being placed in concentration camps. And there was a woman who was born in Chicago, moved to Miami, moved again to Wabash, Indiana, and is now getting her PhD at Purdue and knows one of my old friends who was in my wedding! Amazing how people of such different backgrounds could come together in one different place, appreciate each other, and encourage one another in their life and scholarly pursuits. God is good.