Month: March 2019

Give Till It Hurts

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Sometimes

I don’t want to talk to anyone on my train ride to work.

I haven’t resorted to pulling out my phone and mindlessly scrolling through the screens or pretending like I don’t see you. Oh no. I’m more creative then that.

I just stand there and think about artwork by Hieronymous Bosch and like magic not only do people not talk to me, in some cases they actually walk away.

So I was tempted to go to my happy place (cough, cough) when I notice the person standing in front of me.

She is actually nice- most of the time she talks about her job and how it’s all about numbers and processes and forms. So you might think that’s sort of dry, but I am totally fascinated by anyone who can walk into that sort of hell everyday and not go start raving mad.

Anyway, I was all ready to tune out when I sort of pick up on the fact that she’s not feeling well. Like she’s leaning forward a little and her eyes look sort of runny and she’s a little pale too.

I don’t know what to say, like do I just jump in and say, ” Wow, your look a little rough around the edges there ” or do I say, ” Is today the day? Is today the day you take all of those pieces of paper and pile them on your desk and set them on fire and roast marshmallows? Is today THAT day?”

So I ask if her morning jog went okay.

I could have kicked myself. It was pretty obvious she was not thrilled to be standing there in the cold waiting for a train, let alone go out in the dark and the cold and jog.

Then she tells me about this 24 hour bug she caught really hit her hard and how her husband picked her up from the station and what a rough ride that was. Then she told me how he took care of her when she got home and when she said she wanted to go to work, he drove her to the station and said call if she wants to leave work early and he will come get her.

” That’s really nice, he sounds wonderful. ”

She smiled and her watery eyes sort of sparkled and she said ” He really is.”

When we got on the train she didn’t look as tired or worn out as she did a few minutes before.

But I am who I am and when I got on after her, I was back to thinking about Bosh and for some reason, I felt tired and a little worn out.

A Very Bunny Story

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Photo A.M. Moscoso

I use to snap the ears off of my Sister’s chocolate Easter bunnies because I was her big sister and sort of a jerk at times.

Funny thing is, I hated chocolate. I never ate it, the little ears ended up floating in the toilet.

When my Sister grew up she got a real rabbit and named it Chloe.

One day I was at my Sister’s house and I was petting Chloe and my sister showed up in the doorway and said,

” Keep you hands away from her ears. ”

Yeah.

It probably needed to be said.

amm

 

Presto

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Photo A.M. Moscoso

Do you think someone modeled for this?

Do you think he knows he is Zoltar now?

 

 

The Last Wild Days of Ma Bell

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One of my favorite things to do around Seattle is the Seattle Underground Tour- I love the stories and learning about the history because I work in downtown Seattle and I like to soak in the spirits and shades of Old Seattle as opposed to the sights and smells of pee, exhaust and body order trails that the bicycle riders leave in their wake.

But in a very much in the moment experience as opposed  to  ancient history happened just around the corner from where I work. Against a brick wall are the remains of something that me and my friends used to call ” The Terrorist Phone ”

Back in February of 2002 somebody called a bomb threat in on an Hawaiian Airlines flight that was en route to Seattle.

It turns out that the call was made around the corner from where I work  at a  pay phone- which did indeed exist in Pioneer Square in 2002.  Apparently when the Police showed up, they weren’t exactly subtle when they, what’s the term- secured the area.

The call was a hoax but to me my friends didn’t use the street number as a reference point anymore. We’d say things like, ” I’m going to get lunch by that place across the street from the Terrorist Phone ” or ” I’ll meet you at the Terrorist Phone after work”

You get it.

Sad to say and it should come as no surprise that the Terrorist Phone- like all the other payphones that were on almost every corner ( sort if like Starbucks are now ) are no more.

But  the sad remains of the Terrorist Phone are still clinging to the wall of that empty building.

There are a lot of new people where I work and they don’t know about the terrorist phone. They just know it as this metal frame on the side of an abandoned  building that sometimes gets turned into art and sometimes you can’t see it because there is a tent in front of it.

This is why I’m writing about the phone today.

I’ve been reading a lot of ghost stories lately and the question comes up over and over again- where do ghosts come from and why do they haunt us?

The Terrorist phone, gone for at least 15 years now haunts me.

Sometimes what it represents scares me, sometimes I’m sorry to see it’s sad remains hanging on the wall and sometimes I wonder what it was like for an unassuming payphone the day someone walked up to it, dropped as few coins into it and turned it into  Terrorist Phone.

Photo A.M Moscoso

Police say the bomb threat call has been traced to a pay phone in the Pioneer Square area of Seattle.

Police went to the location, but did not find the caller.

( new story HERE )

RDP Wednesday – ABANDON