Yesterday, when I was driving home from work, I felt certain that someone must have slipped some funny mushrooms in my lunch. Because everything was so beautiful. The lake was so dark blue and deep, I wanted to jump off the bridge and go swimming. I didn’t, because I would have had to stop the car, which would have blocked one of only two lanes of eastbound traffic. Also, you should know, this is a floating bridge, so it’s not like I was high up I would have killed myself. However, the current was coming towards the bridge on my side and it could have slammed me up against some concrete, splitting my head like a coconut. So, not worth it. The greens were more saturated, the sky was clear and I could see every single mountain range, clear as day. Including Mount Rainier. It was so clear, I felt I could touch it. I’m fairly certain I saw deer. Of course, they looked like the ants that an ant would have at his picnic. If they had picnics.
So, what do you think? Funny mushrooms in my lunch? or was I just looking at things through a Photoshop filter.
Tomorrow’s 50 word fiction theme is: hearts.
That Dr. Pepper FINALLY kicked in!!!
No, couldn’t possibly be funny mushrooms. I believe you had a moment of clarity.
holy christmas! a moment of clarity? really? i know it’s not mushrooms because today i forgot to eat lunch and it STILL looked gorgeous on my drive home.
i’m so excited about my moment of clarity. I’m going to have to go figure some crap out. while it’s clear. to me.
jack, unfortunately, the dr. pepper kicked in and left me a long time ago. sigh.
I can tell you that if YOU got funny mushrooms at lunch, I got funny mushrooms at lunch. While I don’t drive the floating bridge, I’m certain that Mt. Rainier was touchable, I just didn’t have the time to stop and do it.
As much as I detest the Northwest winters, what with the grey and the rain and whatnot, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Northwest summers because they are like walking through a dreamscape.
Whatever it was, I want some!
well, marie, you just gotta get yourself a little seattle, baby.
I jumped off the 520 bridge once.
Three friends and I are driving home from the Seafair Hydro races. It’s record-breaking hot–like 100 degrees. We’re stuffed into an old Volkswagen bug with no air conditioning. Stop and go traffic because everyone else is also trying to get home from Seafair at the same time. We’ve been lurching along forever, and we’re finally about halfway across when traffic stops completely.
They are raising the bridge in the middle to let all the hundreds of boats that swarm along the race route go through at once.
As they realize what’s happening, all down the bridge people are bailing out of their cars, and a bunch of us end up leaning over the bridge railing staring at Lake Washington with the kind of longing that can only come from being stuck on a Seattle freeway in 100-degree heat. But it’s at least a 10 foot drop down to the water, and the sides of the bridge are flat, bare concrete.
This one guy says “That water sure looks refreshing.”
Then this other guy says “Hey, is that a ladder?”
About 20 yards away, there’s a little metal access ladder running down the side of the bridge, and even as I’m thinking, “I dunno…that looks old and rusty,” my friend Becky hops up on top of the railing and dives headfirst into the lake.
Her head pokes out of the water and she yells “come on you guys, jump in,” and all down the whole length of the bridge people start jumping into Lake Washington.
It was pretty cool.