You Know Who's Low-Key Hella Cool?
Not me. Whenever my kids describe someone this way, I’m reminded that I am decidedly not.
To illustrate: above is a pic of me on the Bainbridge Island ferry this morning, trying to smile and wave as directed by a producer from Good Morning America. (My levels of self-consciousness were such that I’m pretty sure I heard her shout into the wind: “You in the pink coat: can you try it as if you were a normal person?”)
In the run-up to the country’s 250th birthday, Good Morning America is doing a series called “50 States in 50 Weeks,” and Washington’s moment in the spotlight came today. The 90-second segment included live shots from the 4:45 a.m. ferry to Seattle and the 5:30 a.m. boat back to the island. (Note: it’s “ferry” or “boat,” not “ferryboat” as Grey’s Anatomy—for all its long-running glory—consistently gets wrong.)
As most of you know, I am not a morning person. Left to my own devices, I would stay up late and sleep in. But I joined these pre-dawn hijinks because my friend Lindsay, who heads up the Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce, asked me to.
The ongoing tech layoffs (more than 85,000 so far this year) have rattled the Seattle economy, and many local businesses are feeling it. If a weirdly long stretch of frenetic waving is what it takes to drive more visitors to our fair island, and to keep more small businesses afloat, I am 100% in. I even recruited my brother, who is standing on my right. I cannot explain the genetics of this, but unlike me, he excels at smiling, waving, and mornings.
