  Oh, I love this too much. “ I’ve been to Spokane, I don’t know, maybe 95 times. Mainly because it’s halfway between Bozeman and Seattle. I’m sure it’s like this in Spokane: Seattle was like our capitol city.” -Sarah Vowell Not only is my role model- my idol! my inspiration!- comparing my home to her former home, but she is saying something so real and honest that it tugs at my heart. Yes, Seattle is our capitol city. It stands there, in the Mt. Rainer backdrop, almost taunting us. The culture. The Seattle Center. The appropriately melancholy rain. The coffee that just tastes better because you’re sitting in the very first (the very first!
) Starbucks. Spokane is not a true suburb, and I write very scathing and misleading things about the Spokane/Seattle relationship. But I’ve never been one for concepts of physicality or geography, but rather the atmosphere, the vibe, that a place gives off. Spokane’s vibe, particularly on the South Hill, is stale and putrid. Oh, we boast about our “urban”-status coupled with small-town values, but let’s look at the facts. We’ve got no culture! No racial diversity! We’ve elected Republican leaders for the last thirty years! The good is too hard to find. But it’s my home. That’s right; the place I may hate most in the world is also that place I call home. Irony never felt so strange. Affectionately… Anna 
