As y’all probably know, one of the big reasons I like to work downtown is that I get a really nice walk through Pike Place Market and along Elliott Avenue on my way to my workplace, and back again in the afternoon. Gives me a nice view of the water, and the sidewalks are wide and relatively uncrowded. Bit of a bitch during the fall and winter when it’s windy and rainy–but on gorgeous days, you can’t beat the view.
I particularly like cutting through Pike Place since the fruit vendors are friendly, and I’ve started buying fruit and veg from them, often enough that they’ve started introducing themselves to me and cutting me discounts. (That one of them is also quite cute is bonus. 😉 )
Last night in particular the older gentleman who runs the table I like to stop at gave me a really nice discount, five bucks for a (huge!) Asian pear, three cute little Clementine oranges, and late season raspberries. The aforementioned cute guy was also there, and while he was talking to other customers, I happened to jump in and assure the lady from Portland that why yes, their Asian pears were awesome and I bought them all the time.
The customer lady was amused and said to Cute Guy, “And she’s not even paid! Or your girl, either!”
I can’t swear to this 100 percent, but I’m pretty sure Cute Guy said, “Not yet.” To wit, lulz. And also *^_^*;;
That was the Good Exciting part of the walk.
The Bad Exciting part of the walk was that apparently, about an hour or so before I got to the market, somebody got shot. 🙁 I heard somebody going by me saying something about a shooting, and then after I stopped at my marketboys’ table and went around the corner to head to the bus stop, I saw the area was still taped off. There was a uniformed guy on duty and I asked him what had happened; he said he didn’t know.
So I cut through the alley between 1st and 2nd to get over to Union so that I could reach my bus stop. A woman stopped me to ask for change or cigarettes (which I couldn’t give her, although I did offer her one of my oranges), and she said as well that “some guy got shot in the head”. To wit, um, yikes.
So yeah, that was unnerving. Second and Pike is right by the market and is right along my usual walking route, and I am very, very relieved that I and 
llachglin