16 years & here I am reflecting on the bubbles-the places that made my heart race & the friendships. Seattle has changed, it’s morphed into something I no longer want. The bubbles are all the places I will come back to; the rest I am more than happy to leave behind.

Maybe it’s the amholes that have taken over SLU or that Google is building bubbles for people they will hire from CA that will find Seattle *cold* in the winter time… or maybe it’s the national politics. Racism, bigotry & the rise of the new anti-immigration sentiment. How often I have to explain that I have been in this country since Reagan.

I miss OLD Ballard, where the old people would drive down the street with their blinkers on & hatties was the only place you could get liquor on a 2nd Saturday. Microsoft & amazon was the only gig in town for the robots & the hackers. I miss the neighborhoods before they became gentrified & full of angry trophy wives all dolled up with their strollers.

I am grateful for my friends who I will miss dearly & coffee places where no one has broken my heart. The constant planes over our house/walks to the train/discovery Park in the rain. The open mikes I loved where I’d wear my heart on the sleeve. The drives to the snow, to the PCT & a pint of Mannys with my pizza.

BUT I won’t miss the constant explaining of why I still BELONG to rude strangers, or amhole bots from the other part of the globe. Or the yuppies that drive to my *sketchy* neighborhood for pizza & jaywalk back to their cars. I won’t miss new Seattle; I will miss the OLD.