I would say that there are things on average about Baltimore that remind me somewhat of Seattle.  Not that I think about it all the time but after leafing through some of my dentists travel magazines, I started to wonder.  I had to make a list the other day of all the things that I liked about Baltimore because I'm gonna be here for two my years finishing up my masters.

Sometimes I stare at tall buildings smelling somewhere near a space needles and or a seaport bringing in fresh fish and then I think about the wooden houses on the Pacific and how close Japan is.  To keep myself occupied here, I pretend that the west isn't really that far away and that the harbor is really Puget Sound.

There's other times when I wish it would rain for a week just so I could see for how long I could take it and for what my reaction would be.  When I first moved here in the winter months I got along fine without the sun, and just the grey skies.  And I was actually glad when my parents invited me down to their beach place in Florida because I was ready to feel warm again.

Sometimes I watch White Fang or read "To Build a Fire" or watch Alaska documentaries about how to get through 45 days of night-time and without seeing the sun.  Other times I'm just glad that I live in a basement apartment because here, like Seattle, my plants do not get any sun so I just have to get fake ones.  Plus I don't get that much light anyway and at night I just light candles, but during the day I have to turn on everything stuff its brighter.

I thought about getting a Seattle pen-pal too and asking him questions or making him or her keep a daily log for me.  Like, what's your mornings like?  When you open up the fridge and look out the window at a grey day, how do you jump-start yourself to get moving?  Or, is it true that the subway system is always crowded with really literate readers who subscribe to different music zines? Or how many independent movie theaters are there, and, is it okay to wear vibrant sneakers into a fancy restaurant?

Sometimes I have dreams about Seattle and then I wake up at 11 and I don't feel guilty because I felt like I got a free trip without having to pay for a plane ticket.  I tried to call up my ex-boyfriend once to see if I could stay with him, but then I found out that he's living with his mom three streets down from me.  So I tried calling up my mom and asking if I should use my savings to fly up to Seattle for a trip.  But then she just said, "Why would you want to go to Seattle when you could come down here to sunny Florida?"