bellyview bounce

I crossed the Lake Washington Floating Bridge today and went to beautiful, scenic Bellevue (sarcasm alert). Ordinarily, visiting Bellevue is not high on my list of priorities, since it's a) a suburb, b) ugly, c) like a transplanted slice of SoCal; even the name is redolent of places like Glendale, Newport Beach, and Vista Mierda; d) traffic is bad, and e) I usually get lost there, and become terrified that I'll spend the rest of my life driving around Bellevue, trying to find my way back to the bridge and having to pee.

But I really needed to go there today, because I felt it was mandatory for me to visit my dear sister, lying in a hospital in Bellevue recovering from yesterday's knee replacement surgery. But I dreaded going so much that I was nearly decided not to. I had been warned that traffic would be unusually bad, that the hospital itself was one of those huge, hopelessly spread out medical-industrial complex campuses, with an inscrutable archipelago of parking satellites, and so forth.

But in the end I was shamed into making the trip, by reflecting unfavorably on my own selfishness and by the firm conviction that it wouldn't be as bad as the time we went to see Rachel dance at the Gypsy Den in Santa Ana and spent five hours crawling through LA in stop-and-go traffic on a Friday evening, unable to get out of the car, taking turns crawling into the back seat and peeing in a bottle.

I wasn't about to take the bus, though, I can tell you that. Or I should say the three buses it takes to get there. I figured it would be hard enough even if I made it as easy as possible, and I hate challenges.

In the end the whole thing turned out to be as easy as a walk in the park. After consulting internet maps, I knew right where I was going; traffic was light, parking at the site was no problem, and finding my sister's room was a piece of cake. My sister seemed happy and is recovering comfortably from yesterday's surgery. We had a great visit, and I even enjoyed some of the scenery in Bellevue, although I must add that inevitably the only scenery worth looking at over there is bipedal.

It really helps to be a pessimist in these situations. When things are as bad as you expected, you're mentally prepared, and if instead all goes well you can allow yourself to be pleasantly surprised.