June started off the way the last few Junes here have, feeling oh-so-very Juneuary. We were all whining and crying for most of the month, the sun wouldn't hold, the air kept a decided chill, and most of the people I know had started to wonder if this would be another year that the summer decided to skip over the Pacific Northwest altogether. Parse that through with a couple of freakishly humid days (relative to our tolerance for humidity, of course, not like, East-coast humid) and it was a recipe for afternoon naps and sullen stares at the grey skies.
And then, just after Raf came for a five-day visit, everything turned around. Cue cloudless skies and brilliant sunshine, and at the time of this typing, an unending stretch of those flawless mid-to-high-70s-with-a-breeze kinds of days that we have all come to adore in our tenures as residents who bear the lengthy winters. Light until close to 10pm, even warm enough in the pre-dinner sun to have the top down for the ride home from work. I'd say June was what turned around, but to be accurate, we didn't actually see a change until July.
So: in all of that June-ing around, there were a few spots of note that sliced away the pesky greyness -- specifically, a triple-header weekend where night one found Liz and I hopping from the Showbox {to see John Roderick open up for Jonathan Coulton} over to the Croc for a set by Rhett Miller; and night two with Laura to see John Darnielle do a solo show at Columbia City Theater -- who was, of course, crazy and perfect in all of the best ways.
Toward the end of the month, I did a ton of tourist stuff in the name of Raf's five-day whirlwind visit from the East coast, including trips to the Great Wheel (which wasn't open yet, unfortunately), the market, Kerry Park, Whidbey Island (pouring!), Deception Pass (gorgeous!), and a Mariners (Red Sox!) game. We took a few lazy drives around West Seattle, I showed him all of my old apartments and spots that I love and just -- you know, the Things You Do When Someone Comes To Visit, like sitting in the kitchen catching up about love lives and mutual friends until well past your respective bedtimes. That + some of the best breakfast spots I could think of in town = success.
And of course, no trip to Seattle would be complete without a good show, so we spent the first night of two sold-out album release parties at Columbia City Theater with our pals in Lemolo, who proceeded to both hold us gently in the moonlight and shred our faces off (and bring it all back around again) over the course of their set.
Up next: a blog post dedicated entirely to Ana's kitten, because this is my corner of the internet and I can do whatever I want with it.