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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_R9fId_Rqo
After 2 long days of driving, Tim and I arrived in Seattle, my new home city.
Day 1: Looking up apartments on Craigslist and making appointments.
Day 2: Seeing those apartments, driving all over town, moving into my temporary corporate condo.
Day 3: Looking at more apartments, finding the perfect place.
Notes:
The city of Seattle itself is really big, there are two major highways that run through it, and each neighborhood has its own completely distinct flavor.
The corporate condo is in a downtown high-rise, right next to Seattle Art Museum and Pike Place Market. It's full of amenities like 2 pools, 2 saunas, 3 hot tubs, and a gym in every single one of its 4 buildings. My attraction to this place was that it advertised a climbing wall; well, there's no climbing wall anymore, I'm really bummed. There are several restaurants and a Tully's Coffee onsite to boot. Downtown living is pretty fun, but walking around at night gets a little sketchy after 6pm when all the businesses close and tourists go away. Right next to the plush high rise are also two adult entertainment venues. Shopping in Pike Place Market has its perks, there are so many little shops if you need anything food related, and it's pretty much like having a farmer's market everyday, there are gorgeous cheap flowers. There's also really good shopping and dining near by, and it's all pretty expensive.
My new pad is in Capitol Hill, which is probably equivalent to Hillcrest/Northpark in terms of the liveliness and the amount of dining and drinking options offered. It is full of tattooed pierced hipsters, but it is also full of coffee shops and restaurants, plus it is less than a mile away from work. The apartment itself, well, you'll just have to come and visit. It is twice the size of my old apartment, but it is still cozy and full of charm. Plus there's a Stumptown Roaster's around the corner, that's where they make pretty pictures in the foam of your latte.
And holy shit, the coffee in Seattle is so good.
I start work on Monday.
Picture:
Interior of the corporate condo. It is on the 21st floor and really swanky, full furnished, there's a huge walk-in closet, a patio, a bunch of amenities onsite (hello hot tub and sauna), and..
Washer & Dryer. Woo hoo!
Here's the view down:
Seattle Art Museum
Here's the view straight ahead:
Concrete Jungle
Something they sell at Pike Place Market:
Monkfish. Ugly yet delicious
While I was going through a massive purging of my stuff to prepare for the move, I came across a "breakup letter" 3-page post-it note that an ex had left when he broke up with me. It was a crack-up, I think it started with: "I hate to do this when you're out, but I took my _____, _____, _____ and left ______ because that was my gift to you." Somewhere in the middle it said, "I think I still love you but this will never work." It ends with something like, "your my best friend." Pure drama, that whole relationship and the lingering "let's be friends" phase where he consciously and deliberately manipulated my emotions every chance he got. I don't talk to that guy at all anymore, nothing good ever came out of it other than Comic-Con passes.
I threw out the note.
What do you do EVERY day to take care of the earth's environment? What could you do more of?
1.I keep my freezer and fridge pretty full. Refrigerators and freezers work much more efficiently when there's more stuff in it.
2. I drive a hybrid car.
3. I go grocery shopping with reusable cotton bags when I can.
4. I try to recycle; there's no recycling where I live, so I have to take my recyclables to a recycling center. Do you have any idea how hard it is to recycle in San Diego when you live in an apartment complex that doesn't support recycling? The parks dept says that there are blue recycling dumpsters everywhere, I drove to 4 different locations and there were none. Another reason why San Diego sucks.
5. I carry water in a Nalgene type bottle. No more bottled water for me if I can help it.
6. All but one of my lightbulbs is a CFL. The one with the dimmer is a conventional bulb. CFL bulbs do this awful flickering thing when combined with a dimmer.
7. I reuse as much as I can, including ziplock bags, plastic take out containers, and utensils.
Things I'm looking forward to in Seattle:
1. Spending time with Tim
2. Trees
3. Food
4. Fishing/hiking/camping in the woods
5. Lower cost of living
6. A really nice and really cool new boss, coworkers
7. Moisture/variation in weather
8. People who give a shit about their community
9. Variety
10. Coffee
11. Furnishing my new apartment
12. No state income tax
13. Proximity to Portland and Vancouver.
Things I'll miss about San Diego:
1. My friends/my awesome coworkers who make the 8 hours every day bearable
2. Knowing my way around
3. Warm sunny weather
4. In-n-Out burgers/El Pollo Loco
Things I won't miss about San Diego:
1. The food
2. Apathy/mediocrity
3. Cost of living paired with low wages
4. My stupid bitch ass landlady
5. My old company with the status quo and shitty salary
6. Racism thinly guised as border issues
7. Inconsiderate/inattentive drivers
8. Suburban sprawl
If you're getting one, how are you planning on spending your tax refund?
I saved it in case I have to pay for my move to Seattle. What ended up happening is that I ended up spending it on my cat's last day. That VCA in Mission Valley is extremely expensive.
What's holding you back from your dream job?
Submitted by Question of the Day.
This was my dream job for a long time, then they moved me to a new group under a sucky supervisor. I had no idea how much my previous supervisors allowed me to cultivated my skills while staying sheltered under their wings, I was shielded from the inefficiency and bureaucracy that runs rampant in big corporations and lack of professionalism in a small company. I started eating lunch with a bunch of coworkers who have been at the company for a long time, and they've observed some disturbing trends: Screw up big time, get promoted; work hard and smart, passed over for promotion. 8 people have left in the last month, and there will be plenty more. I can't wait to get out of here.
I heart this so much: