I’m All Lost In, #108: Katie in Seattle; Saby in Riyadh; Vegan burrito on Olive Way.
I’m All Lost In…
the 3 things I’m obsessing about THIS week
#108
1) Carmelo’s Tacos on Olive Way
O-P-E-N. Monday night, 11/3/25. I’m order #31.
After getting a Carmelo’s vegan burrito at their street window spot on Olive Way Monday evening, I posted up on the sidewalk so I could properly dunk every bite into the cup of red salsa. Not because this XL burrito, a current Seattle classic, needs more fiery flavor. The uniquely spicy guajillo chile-garlic concoction, meaty, slow-cooked mushrooms, and savory refried beans, all wrapped in a billowy tortilla are delicious in their own right. But adding the red sauce was a way to provide ritual and rhythm to the sidewalk dining experience. Thusly I could savor this tasty, burrito-window masterpiece.
Right by the bus stop at the bend in the #8 route where Olive Way meets Summit Ave. E, the Carmelo’s window location (the small family business has two dine-in spots as well) is two blocks east from another excellent Olive Way street food window, Yalla [“I’m All Lost In, #67,” 1/25/25]. This pairing of fresh middle eastern gyros (Yalla) and Mexican comfort food (Carmelo’s) constitutes a contemporary street-food heyday on The Drag Beyond The Drag, the satellite stretch of Capitol Hill’s nightlife district.
There’s constantly a long line at Carmelo’s—which should have compelled me to join the party long ago.
2) Seattle’s Mayoral Election
Sure. Three cheers for Mamdani and New York City. And for Virginia and New Jersey and California. But the election night glee didn’t spread to Seattle.
Our progressive mayoral hopeful, transit riders union organizer, policy dork, and occasional deep-dive journalist Katie Wilson, was down 7 points on Tuesday night. It was certainly a surmountable deficit; historically, votes skew left as the count goes on. But Wilson’s Tuesday night showing, behind 53%-46%, lacked any hint of momentum you’d want to see from a supposed populist insurgent; it was especially disappointing given that Wilson had actually bested incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell on the first batch back in last August’s primary 46.2% to 44.8% and went on to beat him by about 10 points [I’m All Lost In, #95, 8/9/95.]
Wednesday’s and Thursday’s follow-up vote counts this week also lacked the upset-in-the-making foreshadowing we in the masses were craving; Harrell actually increased his percentage point lead on Wednesday and while Wilson did win Thursday’s batch, her 51% of that day’s modest 21,000 vote count still had folks looking around the corner for any hint of a surge. Moreover, how deeply depressing that after four years, Seattle voters still showed solid support for our unctuous and chesty mayor.
Then came Friday. Wilson scored 54.8% of the 56,000 vote count. Her hefty take of such a big batch downgraded Harrell’s overall advantage to a precarious 50.74% to 48.86% difference. Finally some indication that Seattle might not be the disappointing enclave of pinched, NPR liberalism plus originalist NIMBY populism (the threads of Harrell’s dour coalition) that the last four years have made our city out to be.
Despite the dramatic swing to Wilson on Friday, ECB explains the need for caution (namely that Harrell’s $1.8 million business-backed IE attack ads seem to have blunted Wilson’s primary win momentum, and that late late counts are irregular and don’t tack strictly left.)
There are reportedly about 44,000 more votes left to count. Wilson needs to duplicate her big Friday performance if she’s going to eke it out. Actually, she needs slightly less. 54.6% this time. That’s good. Because she’s been underperforming. That’s not a slight against Wilson. It’s simply hard to shake the nagging feeling that Harrell’s toxic campaign has successfully scolded Seattle out of its jaw-dropping primary election flight of fancy. Now, the mayor may be corralling status quo voters back in line. My city can be disappointing that way.
3) Aryna Sabalenka vs Elena Rybakina in the Last Match of the Year
It was hard to be an Aryna Sabalenka fan in 2025. She lost the Australian Open final. She lost the Roland Garros final. She lost in the Wimbledon semifinals. And this week in Riyadh, after going unambiguously undefeated in the year-end WTA Finals round-robin and totally winning the semifinal, she lost the final. In straight sets.
To be fair, Sabalenka made the finals at all these gold standard tournaments in the first place. She also won the season’s other and sexiest grand slam, the U.S. Open. [I’m All Lost In, #99, 9/8/25.] This means, as opposed to her top tier rivals Iga Swiatek (World No. 2) Coco Gauff (No. 3), and Amanda Anisimova (No. 4), World No. 1 Daffy Saby as we call her at my house made it to an unparalleled three of the four 2025 grand slam finals and/or went deep in the bracket in all the tournaments she played this year.
As the WTA site noted in its write up of Sabalenka’s finals loss this week: “Sabalenka closes 2025 with four titles and 63 match-wins, including the US Open and two WTA 1000 trophies, and will end as the year-end No. 1 for a second straight season.” And in an accompanying article they added: “Indeed, Sabalenka finishes the year with most match-wins [and] the most ranking points…”
Saby’s string of finals losses highlight the burden of being consistent. The tennis season is all about form, with different players finding their highest gear at different times throughout the year. To actually win a grand slam, your form must be Athena-level. With Saby consistently showing up big and making it to the final stages of tournaments all year, she invariably runs into whichever player happens to be in Goddess mode at that particular moment. This explains why a player like World No. 7 Madison Keys can beat Saby at the Australian Open [I’m All Lost In, #67, 1/25/25] and then have a relatively quiet season otherwise.
This week, World No. 6 Elena Rybakina— the last player to qualify for this year’s WTA Final—beat Sabalenka in the Finals final. As Saby faced off against Rybakina, yet another suddenly and seemingly touched WTA player, the World No. 6 was the media’s protagonist going into the match. Rybakina is one of my favorites actually and she’s a tortured soul at that [I’m All Lost In, #65, 1/12/25]. So, I feel good that she finished her trying year on a high note.
For me though, as always, the week’s protagonist was Sabalenka. And the highlight of the week was her ferocious form when she beat World No. 4, Amanda Anisimova, in Friday’s semifinal.
Daffy Saby beats World No. 4 Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the year-end WTA Finals semifinal, 11/7/25.
End note: I’ve actully grown to like Animisova who I first considered a flash in the pan when she caught form at Wimbledon [I’m All Lost In, #90, 7/5/25] and beat Saby in the semis. Ultimately though, I was persuaded. Anisimova was second only to Saby when it came to making grand slam finals (two). And when I saw her live in her U.S. Open semis match against World No. 16 Naomi Osaka (who had also caught form), I was mesmerized by their back-and-forth ball striking [I’m All Lost In, #99, 9/8/25]. Filing from the WTA finals in Riyahd this week, the NYT had every right to use the tournament as an opportunity to profile ascendant Animisova.
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This week’s Recommended Reading: Tech journalist Stephen Witt’s article in the 11/3/25 New Yorker, “Inside the Data Centers that Train A.I. and Drain the Electrical Grid.” I’ll read anything by detail-oriented writer Witt [“I’m All Lost In, #10, 12/22/23] and unsurprisingly, his routine tour of thirsty A.I. processing centers (thirsty for both data and cooling water) ended with a stunning existential dispatch about “the next frontier [of] ‘world model’ data.” Now, the A.I. data hunt is going beyond text, Witt reports. “Streams of video and spatial data will be fed into the data centers, which will be used to develop autonomous robots.”
Speaking of water as a precious resource … This week’s Recommended Viewing: Chinatown, Roman Polanski’s flawless 1974 film with its equally perfect Raymond Chandler and Oscar-winning script by Robert Towne. Despite the fact that I’m a 1970s data center myself, I’d never seen this Bonnie & Clyde/All the President’s Men median. Water Wars, 1970s film history, and literary context about Chinatown all here.
This week’s Recommended Route: I happened to watch Chinatown at Sara and Dan’s on Friday night, after which I caught the #12 home at about 12:15 am (the #12’s penultimate nighttime run, I learned). This gives me an excuse to report a long overdue note about the #12 bus, which has always stopped right in front of my apartment. Now that it has been re-routed down Pine, I have reliable, door-to-door service to my beloved Drag.