The Smell of Seattle

Today I took a little trip into downtown Seattle for the first time in almost ten years. The thing that struck me first was the pleasant smell. When I live in downtown Seattle I never realized it even had a distinct smell. But now, after having been gone for so long, the smell was so distinct and identifable to me that as soon as I smelled it I knew I would have known where I was even with my eyes closed.

I was in chains on a Federal Marshal's Service bus, of course, but I sat next to a large window on the bus that afforded a good view of the city as we drove in from the south and then through downtown to the new Federal courthouse. There were several other prisoners on the bus, being transported from FDC (in Seatac) to the courthouse for their court hearings. I was kept separate in the front caged off portion of the bus along with one overweight but pretty female prisoner. We didn't talk though, since we were told to sit in opposite corners of the cage and I was preoccupied with looking out the window at what I have long considered the most beautiful city in the US of America.

The distinct smell was like coffee and donuts, but subtle, and mixed with the aroma of evergreens and the slightly musky smell of decomposing pine needles. Imagine a coffee shop in the forest, but in the distance so you know it's there but aren't overwhelmed by the odor. That's what Seattle smells like.

I was being transported there not for a court hearing (my hearings are currently all in Boise, Idaho), but for a court ordered four hour long video taped psych-evaluation. The evaluation was being performed by a Canadian college professor who was hired by the prosecutor as an expert on legal competency (he'd apparently written two books on the subject). In other words, yet another "hired gun", as the lawyers say. My own "defense" attorney was watching, along with the prosecutor from Boise, via the video feed from an adjacent room. Afterwards my attorney told me that he thought the interview, "went well", which I think means that I sounded crazy. Oh well.

Besides the smell of downtown Seattle, the other thing that struck me was the number of images (buildings, stretches of woods next to the road, unique over passes, etc...) that seemed to come straight out of dreams I have had recently. T don't think there is really anything "synchronicitous" (as Jung might say) about this, as much as just my own brain recalling long forgotten details from when I lived in Seattle many years ago. It's still a very interesting phenomenon though.

And now I'm back in the SHU (single cell) in Seatac, reflecting on a rather enjoyable day; and relishing the memory of the smell of Seattle.