By Hugh Rose

As it often does, the weather here in Seattle this year seemed to turn overnight. From 80 and sunny one day to downpours the next, fall has officially begun in the Northwest.  And just like they always do, Seattlites have donned their rain coats and hats without complaint-- almost as if by instinct -- and switched from iced to hot coffee drinks while opting for sneakers rather than sandals for the morning commute on bicycle, slowly making the transition into the colder months. In the same way many Arctic birds, having bred and raised their young in the constant daylight summer of the north, are gearing up to fly south for the winter.

    The first time I saw Psycho, I thought, hey, this Norman Bates looks like a nice guy. But after that famous scene where Tippi Hedron face-plants onto the bathroom floor and Bates carries her off in the shower curtain, I realized you never really know what goes on at a hotel behind closed doors.

Ah, the family road trip: getting car-sick trying to entertain myself with a book, smashed up against the window because the younger brother is taking up a little more than his fair share of space and Mom has been in charge of the radio for the last hour, transfixed on old Hall and Oates and Jimmy Buffet albums. The air conditioner doesn’t work on one side and the batteries in the Walkman are dead. Are we there yet?
   

Paid internships are hard to come by. Luckily, as an intern at Audubon, I am paid for my toils. To pay the rent for my closet of a room in Queens, I took up a second job as a cashier at a little kitchen shop in Greenwich Village.