1 week down, countless to go....

I made it through my first week in a new city, a new job, a new everything! Despite a few bumps in the road, I must say it was a great week overall that ended well. I'm finally getting in and out of my parking spaces here at the apartment in less than 27 point turns, finally remembering to bring up everything from the car when I get home (thus avoiding the trip down to the dungeon parking deck after I've changed into my bummy clothes), and making a few less wrong turns downtown when trying to get back to my place...

A few lessons learned in my first week:

1.) Seattllites really like to recycle: turns out they don't have massive rubber garbage bins on wheels and their recycling bins are actually bigger and mroe in number than their "rubbish" bins. Crazy! Good thing I have a trash chute...

2.) HOV lanes are on the right side of the interstate and they LITERALLY have bus stpos on the interstate! Or I guess I should say Freeway like the locals....

3.) Starbucks are the Waffle Houses of the Northwest - 1 or 2 at every corner. (legend has it that there is an intersection downtown where you can actually get wifi from 4 different starbucks at once. My disdain for playing in traffic has kept me from trying it out myself)

4.) At work people don't "touch base", "e-mail", or "instant message"; they "sync", "thread", and "ping".

5.) ...they also ALWAYS bring their laptops to meetings - be forewarned not to be the only one to show up with nothing other than the archaic pen and notepad!

6.) Car keys must be hidden and stashed away as items of selfish shameful greed while the bus pass is your card to cooldom.... (I would fear that they would peg me with rotten tomatoes but luckily those have all been composted...)

7.) No matter how rainy or overcast, or how little sun, seattle seems to always be lit somehow...I swear it glows. People also bike no matter what the weather is like.

8.) As bad as the locals say the traffic is here, it is nothing compared to atlanta and the scenery makes the drive even shorter.

I'm sure there is plenty more that I'm not remembering now but I'll add them later....