Last night, I returned my rental car. Normally, this would be an unremarkable event. But as a new resident of Seattle, it proved to be quite a challenge. Why? Because I needed to fill up the tank up with gas. The map below is centered on the car return location in downtown Seattle (Belltown). The little squares represent gas stations. The entire area is two square miles.
I drove around for close to an hour in the middle of heavy rush-hour traffic. Fun, fun!
I wrote a check for an apartment yesterday. It’s not ideal: the lease is only for six months because the owners of the building are trying to sell. Worst-case scenario, I have to move again in six months.
But on the bright side, it’s an almost new building a mere 50 feet from the bus stop to Microsoft, and it’s in the heart of Capitol Hill. In fact, except for hardwood floors and another hundred square feet, it’s exactly what I want in the location I want. I just don’t want to have to move in six months.
I rationalize the miserably short lease term as follows:
So, assuming the background check clears, I have a new home come early September.
This weekend was my first trip to Portland. Mom had flown in from New Jersey to visit the girls and the kids, so I figured I might as well drive down so we could all spend a little bit of time together.
Ellie’s birthday is two weeks from now, and Grandma simply couldn’t wait to let Ellie open her gifts. Uncle Mike was in complete agreement. 
Ellie got two dresses. As a clothes hound of long standing (half her life, in fact), she was ecstatic.
Just a few days before, Trish had told Ellie that there are dresses that one wears when one sleeps called nightgowns. This just made her eyes light up. A dress for the night, and one for the day!
Ellie was so excited about the two dresses from Grandma, that Trish told her one of them could be worn as a nightgown so she could wear it that very night.
Sunday morning, I awoke to Finn padding quietly around the house. He was trying to find Grandma or Trisd or Chanel. All three were missing in action, and the only other adult was asleep on the couch. Finn wasn’t particularly worried yet (there was an easily wakeable adult nearby), but he did have an interesting mixture of anxiety and curiosity.
Upon waking, I, of course, immediately took advantage of the situation and calmly informed Finn that I was going to eat him for breakfast, preferably as part of a Finn pie. He was pretty sure that I was joking, but not entirely… so, to put him at ease, I suggested that I could make Ellie souffle instead. They were not amused and it took me quite a while to realize it.
Yesterday was Day One at Microsoft. All day orientation. An interesting experience.
Part of the day included an incredibly detailed description of Microsoft’s health plan. Two hours. My new boss summarized the plan as "Microsoft pays for everything." After a point, hearing how this is covered and that is covered got a little dull: I started doing the crossword puzzle.
There was also a long discussion of Microsoft’s culture and perception in the marketplace. You know, tell us what your friends said when you announced you were off to Microsoft. "The Evil Empire. Now you’ll know what it’s like to live inside the Death Star. Who are you off to crush?" Then it went on to how the company wants to change that perception.
Showing up at the office today was a huge revelation as well. First off, everyone’s office is decorated. Posters, personal stuff, furniture. At Oracle, you aim to have only as much stuff as you can fit in one box: you just never know when the marketing "housecleaning" will take place. But you know it happens every couple of years.
The personal interaction was also completely different. There were only a few people at Oracle that I had a close enough relationship with that we would slide into the gutter, make off-color jokes, etc. And finding those people took months (well, except for Brian, but that’s because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut about… well, let’s just say I’d had a few drinks). I think it took five minutes for someone to crack the first wickedly off-color joke. This is such a more collegial, friendly company.
I think I’m going to like it.
I took a swing past several maritime sites in Seattle yesterday. I needed a break from stressing out about finding an apartment–which I had been handling by sitting in my temp housing watching TV for hours on end. Yeah, I shouldn’t be getting sucked in by TV, but I felt paralyzed–finding an apartment should be my number one priority, so I shouldn’t waste time on photography. Anyway, I forced myself out of it, and took some interesting, if uninspired pictures (gallery).
First stop was the Center for Wooden Boats, which is a tiny little point on Lake Union where hobbyists restore and maintain classic old wooden boats. There were some nice, brightly painted boats that made interesting photo subjects (although I didn’t quite get the repeating bow patterns I had hoped for).
Second stop was Fisherman’s Terminal, where Seattle’s commercial fishing fleet docks. Or, at least, where the smaller boats dock. Most had for-sale signs on them. I don’t think the industry is in that good shape. But the nets and ropes and anchors made for interesting patterns.
Last stop was the Hiram Chittenden Locks between Lake Union/Washington and Puget Sound. The interesting bit here was the fish ladder. One part of the ladder is equipped with windows, so you can see these 25-35 pound salmon swimming in circles, trying to get the strength up to leap the next step of the 20-plus step ladder to Lake Union on the way to their spawning grounds.
You can’t find everything on Craigslist. In San Francisco, you can find everything in life on Craigslist–furniture, apartment, job, lover, moving supplies, etc. There’s no need to go elsewhere. For me, that’s the place for apartments. I don’t think more than a handful of San Francisco apartments aren’t listed on Craigslist. I bought my scooter, found my apartment, sold my guitars and extra bike, found my roommate… all via Craigslist.
Here, I found six apartments in Capitol Hill on Craigslist within seven blocks of Bellevue and Olive, where the express bus to MSFT stops. Walking within just two blocks from said intersection, I found six buildings with "for rent" signs posted.
Of course, most of those buildings, it turned out, won’t know if they have anything to rent until 10-AUG-06, because tenants, apparently, only need to give twenty days’ notice. Even better, all these buildings expect to show their apartments during normal business hours, and not on weekends and evenings like in San Francsico.
So many little differences in the way things work…
Internet access is insanely expensive. FedEx Kinko’s charges $0.20 per minute. A coffee shop on Denny charges $0.14 per, but the first 30 minutes is free with a drink. This other copy place in Capitol Hill charges $0.10 per, which is the best I’ve found. I think I spent $24 yesterday for computer rental and internet access. True, I had more tasks than normal–from changing my address to getting my credit report to uploading pictures of Heather’s twenty-eight-clawed, polydactyl, skittle-picking-up, opposable-thumbed cat Darwin (only managed one, the connection at FedEx was SOOO slow).
At these prices, if you can’t afford the upfront cost of a computer, you simply can’t afford to access the internet. I’ve read about the "Digital Divide," but I never quite undestood the economics until computer-less and homeless in Seattle.
I tired out the 545 ST Express Bus from Capitol Hill to Microsoft this morning. Traffic-wise, the problem–at least at 9:15am–is getting out of Seattle, onto the 520, and then onto the bridge. After that, there was little, if any, traffic until the Microsoft exit (just like the persistent "Oracle Mile" traffic jam on the 101). Traffic into Seattle was stop-and-go all the way in, even on the bus ride back at 10:30am. The HOV lane was better, though. Maybe it’s different before 9am.
I experienced the lovely reality of bus travel on my first trip: the Bus Paradox and Bus Bunching. That is, that a) you are more likely to choose a long bus inter-arrival time than a short one, and b) that buses bunch together in twos or threes. Basically, if buses leave the depot every thirty minutes and you arrive at a later stop at a random time point, you’re likely to wait, on average, more than fifteen minutes for a bus to arrive. This morning, the first bus was fifteen minutes late, and was followed by a nearly empty bus just 30 seconds later. The first bus was SRO, the second nearly empty.
Final thoughts:
I ditched the Crown Vic!
First thing on my agenda this morning was to track down a smaller car from Avis. Quite challenging. The phone number for the Avis desk at SEA-TAC doesn’t connect to the desk there. It transfers to a variety of national 800 numbers. Hit zero, you get directions to the airport, then it hangs up. Hold on the line, you get directions to the airport, then it hangs up. Dial one of the "unassigned" menu options–seven or eight or nine or pound or star–you get directions to the airport, then it hangs up.
The Bellevue office asked for my number so they could call me back. Never did.
Downtown Seattle only had SUVs.
So I chose the Lost & Found number back at SEA-TAC, and they transferred me to the desk. Nothing but SUVs and land boats, and they were totally sold out for the next two days. But I could come in and wait, and maybe they could get me a small land boat. I brought a book and prepared to camp out.
First, I was pointed to a "small" SUV. No way. On the walk back, I noted the parking spaces of all the Toyota Corollas and Ford Focuses and other small cars on the lot. Supposedly, those were "reserved." I didn’t point out I had an intermediate "reserved" for yesterday and got a land boat instead. I just smiled back sadly & hopefully, and said I could wait. A minute later, she found "the last" compact car hidden on the lot.
Victory!!!!
That’s all it took to make me realize how much I will miss San Francisco and my small circle of friends there.
The Crown Victoria was the only car available from Avis. It’s the kind of car used by taxi drivers and the police. It is a boat. It is longer than a standard SUV. It is so wide I can’t keep it in one lane. It is a land boat. I can’t drive it. I’m terrified I’ll swipe a parked car. I hate it. Sorta pathetic, actually.
Queen Anne is a neighborhood. I was supposed to be in Belltown, Denny Regrade specifically. That’s just north of downtown Seattle. Instead, when I got my keys, I’d been switched to Queen Anne. For my San Francisco readers, this would be equivalent to thinking you’d be in South Beach a couple blocks from the ball park, and ending up in Pacific Heights. The edge of Pacific Heights, way away from its little commercial district.
When I arrived at my sterile, bland corporate housing [photo right] last night after trying not to crash the Crown Vic into parked cars, I started to cry.
Pathetic.
Welcome to Seattle, MAO!
[Below is the view from my porch. Not bad, actually]
