SAD notes - Belle Arts Tarps update

After much begging and making a nuisance of myself, the Bellevue Belle Arts plastic tarps finally came down.

My relief knew no bounds. I had been losing my mind. I kept trying to follow up on WHEN the damned things were to be removed. No one knew. It became obvious that few people take Seasonal Affective Disorder seriously. The work on the windows was finished weeks prior and it was not just an inconvenience to have them left up. The thick white tarps were turning into a health problem for me: they were adding a deeper level into my SAD depression that I had not anticipated or planned for. I moved up here from sunny CA and AZ, after all.

I am surprised that in Seattle, of all places, SAD isn't given due respect. I figure, it's got to be worse here, and more understood here, than in, say, San Diego.

Although it's possible that anyone with SAD just doesn't stick around Seattle, either. Perhaps I am being foolishly optimistic about living here. I do have a plan to make this work, though. And summer is coming, the best time to be in the Pacific Northwest.

So when the tarps came down, I was deliriously happy. I drank in the view - although it's a north-facing courtyard view, I was so plainly happy to see actual sky.

It was even sunny for three or four days in a row, just for me.

I could have cried. Instead I handed Starbucks Double-Shot Lattes to all the construction workers hanging on the scaffolding. I felt like throwing money out the window, if I'd had any. I spent the next few days drunk on sunshine. Ridiculously, absurdly happy.

It's overcast this weekend, drizzling, and I am off my high. But at least I can see out the window.